The Democratic effort to cast the new Republican healthcare bill as “Trumpcare” is working, as the name has quickly been picked up by the national media.
The president promised everyone would be covered, but #Trumpcare would cause tens of millions to LOSE coverage as uninsured rates spike: pic.twitter.com/UQTQeF8vW7
— Chuck Schumer (@SenSchumer) March 13, 2017
The Democratic National Committee and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer began branding the legislation as “Trumpcare” last week, in an apparent attempt to tie the bill’s undetermined fate to President Trump’s national low approval ratings.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer has used the term “Trumpcare” at least 14 times on Twitter and began doing so on Mar. 6. He did so again on Monday, after the Congressional Budget Office said the GOP’s healthcare bill would lead to millions of new uninsured people.
The president promised everyone would be covered, but #Trumpcare would cause tens of millions to LOSE coverage as uninsured rates spike: pic.twitter.com/UQTQeF8vW7
— Chuck Schumer (@SenSchumer) March 13, 2017
The Democratic National Committee began sending out press releases attacking the bill using the “Trumpcare” label on Mar. 7.
A Wall Street Journal article asked last Thursday if the nickname would catch on, and by this week, it appears to be sticking. In recent days, the news media also began using it.
On Monday, an on-screen graphic on MSNBC said, “Paying for Trumpcare.”
A blog post the same day at the Washington Post said, “Many states that voted for Trump would suffer under Trumpcare.”
An article published Sunday in Vanity Fair noted that Democratic leadership was pushing the “Trumpcare” label and said that it was preparing “to put the nail in the Trumpcare coffin.”
The Los Angeles Times ran an op-ed Sunday asking, “Trumpcare: Is this what populism looks like?” The Times also repeated the term Monday when writing about the CBO score.
Opinion: The CBO report shows how Trumpcare would save billions: By leaving millions uninsured https://t.co/ovH3DnFliY pic.twitter.com/YeJsKEe2Qr
— Los Angeles Times (@latimes) March 13, 2017
The Affordable Care Act, which the new legislation aims to largely replace, was famously dubbed “Obamacare” after former President Barack Obama, who came to embrace it, though it was mostly used as a derogatory term by Republicans.
The Trump White House, however, has so far declined to use “Trumpcare” for the new legislation that President Trump himself has publicly championed.
Asked last week if the White House agreed with referring to the bill as “Trumpcare,” Trump’s top spokesman Sean Spicer said, “I prefer to call it patient care” and that the administration was “less concerned with labels right now and more in terms of action and results.”
