Open enrollment began for the Affordable Care Act this week, but the president has been "sabotaging" the nation's healthcare system ever since he took office, Sen. Dick Durbin said Thursday.
"Since he came to office he issued an executive order saying every federal agency should try to stop the development of the Affordable Care Act," the Illinois senator told MSNBC's "Morning Joe" program.
"He cut the enrollment period from 90 days to 45 days. He eliminated the advertising so Americans would knew that the open enrollment period was currently under way. He's put out ads paid for by our government to discourage people from signing up. He cut the amount of navigators that would help people go through the process and pick the best insurance policy."
The result of all that is "predictable," said Durbin, and that's that fewer people will sign up.
"There will be higher premiums for those who do sign up as a result, and the president is achieving what he wanted to — sabotaging our healthcare system," said Durbin.
Durbin on Thursday also discussed President Donald Trump's complaints about Sen. Chuck Schumer's role in a diversity visa lottery program that helped New York City terror suspect Sayfullo Saipov to enter the country from Uzbekistan.
"Chuck and I were part of the Gang of Eight senators, Democrats and Republicans, who proposed the end of this program and passed our proposal in the Senate with a bipartisan vote," Durbin said. "We know what happened next, the measure went to the Republican House of Representatives. They refused to even call it for consideration or a vote."
Criticizing Schumer is "highly inappropriate," he added, as he'd also called for change.
"We're both calling for this reform," said Durbin. "We want to make sure America safe. We don't want anyone to come into the country who would be a danger to us."
The bill they presented called for the program to be phased out "in a thoughtful way," said Durbin.
"There are families and individuals who can be brought to this country who are no threat to us whatsoever, could enhance our economy and basically honor the principle that immigration is critical to America," said Durbin.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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