Discussing in 2021 why the repeal of the Affordable Care Act had never happened despite years of promises, John Kiriakou offered a scene he says stayed with him.
Repeal and replace
He reminded his interviewer of the mantra: repeal and replace, repeal and replace. Well, he said, the Republicans controlled the White House, the House and the Senate, and could not repeal and replace — and it never occurred to anybody that they should perhaps come up with an alternative they could use to replace the act once it was repealed. [1] When Donald Trump was first elected he talked a lot about Trumpcare, which was supposed to be the replacement, even though nobody really knew what Trumpcare meant and certainly nothing had been written down on paper. [1] [2]
The woman from Arkansas
Kiriakou then described watching one of the broadcast network news shows — ABC, CBS, whatever it was. There was a woman from Arkansas, and she was crying with thanks, because her son had cancer and they had no insurance, but they went to this website and got the insurance and he had his cancer treatment. Thank you, President Trump, she said. Thank you. [2]
And then somebody — Kiriakou thinks the reporter — said: well, you know that that’s Obamacare, right? And she said no. Obamacare was repealed and replaced. This is Trumpcare. And the reporter said no, it was not repealed and replaced, and there has never been a vote on anything called Trumpcare. [3]
But a lot of people, Kiriakou concluded, were confused. [3]
The point he was making
He used the story as the closing illustration of a longer argument that the visible fights in Congress are theatre and the outcomes are decided beforehand: that is a long way of saying, he told his interviewer, that your account is indeed correct — this stuff is all pre-ordained, it’s all written. [3] The mechanics of that pre-ordination are described in the Speaker’s office as gatekeeper and lobbyists writing legislation.
The same conversation produced his account of progressive taxation, in which he argues that the reason nothing large can be funded is that no part of the 2017 tax cuts may be touched. [4]