it with something else. And this is where the problem lay. In Charles Koch’s eyes, Donald Trump did not seem sufficiently dedicated to the job of tearing this system out, root and branch, and replacing it with nothing. Trump seemed open to compromise.
Trump made statements along these lines that were particularly worrisome to libertarians, showing that his allegiance to free markets was questionable. After taking office, Trump made promises that were too large to fill without significant government intervention, promises more grandiose than even Barack Obama would have dared to make.
“We’re going to have insurance for everybody,” Trump told the Washington Post during an interview in January. “There was a philosophy in some circles that if you can’t pay for it, you don’t get it. That’s not going to happen with us.”
While potentially offensive to Charles Koch, Trump’s statements were firmly grounded in political reality. Millions of people depended on Obamacare. The Congressional Budget Committee estimated that even a limited repeal of the law would take health insurance away from fourteen million people the first year, and twenty-four million more people the following decade. Trump and other Republicans sought to avoid such a political calamity. They planned to seek a middle ground that would retain some benefits and subsidies for the working class and the poor.
There was another reason for Trump to compromise. It would help the Obamacare repeal effort move quickly. Trump wanted to achieve a legislative storm of greatness during his first hundred days in office that would rival FDR’s. He would repeal Obamacare, then pass tax reform, then pass an infrastructure bill, then pass an immigration law that included construction of a wall along the border with Mexico. With these accomplishments behind him, Trump would emerge as the most effective president of modern times.
Charles Koch helped ensure that this agenda was derailed. The Koch political network would attack the effort to repeal Obamacare, and in doing so it would win a second victory by proving its power and ensuring a place at the bargaining table for Charles Koch.
On March 6, the House of Representatives unveiled a plan to repeal and replace Obamacare with a bill called the American Health Care Act. The next day, Americans for Prosperity mobilized against the plan, just as it had mobilized against Obama. Large tour buses, chartered and paid for by Americans for Prosperity, arrived in Washington, DC, on March 7, unloading hundreds of passengers at an intersection near Union Station, within view of the Capitol dome. The crowd looked like tourists at Disney World. Most of them were older, congenial, and clearly enjoying the free trip to the nation’s capital. They were directed down the sidewalk by helpful employees in AFP windbreakers, who led them into the quiet, marble-tiled lobby of an upscale office building. The volunteers were ushered into elevators and sent to the building’s rooftop, where they walked into a lavish event space, covered by a party tent, with a beautiful view of the city. As they entered, the volunteers were given glossy placards with a sleek logo for the day’s event, reading “You Promised.” The message of the day was that these voters had been let down by Congress members who were balking on their years-long promise to repeal the health care law.
The attendees sat in rows of chairs, in front of a stage that was bordered by large-screen televisions. The crowd was shown video testimonials, made by AFP, from everyday people who were purported victims of the ravages of Obamacare. The victim-impact statements were somewhat incoherent, from a policy standpoint. Most of their complaints were that health care was too expensive, or only available intermittently, problems that other industrialized nations had solved by nationalizing the health care industry. But the overall tenor was consistent—Obamacare was a terrible burden, and Congress wasn’t doing enough to repeal it.
After the presentation, the crowd was led out onto a terrace in the delightful spring weather and given free boxed lunches. They milled around and talked, and were later led to Capitol Hill where they met with congressional staffers and representatives to share their demands. The popular revolt against the American Health Care Act had begun.
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Inside the US House of Representatives, resistance to Trump’s plan was led by the House Freedom Caucus, the group of lawmakers most aligned with Charles Koch’s worldview. Koch Industries was the second-largest contributor to Freedom Caucus members, according to Politico, ranking only behind the Club for Growth (which was partially funded by Koch’s political network).