Washington - Arab Today
Donald Trump vowed Tuesday to overturn President Barack Obama’s signature health insurance program after the government announced Americans will see costs jump an average of 25 percent next year.
“Obamacare has to be repealed and replaced and it has to be replaced with something much less expensive for the people, otherwise this country is in even bigger trouble than everybody thought,” the Republican presidential candidate said in at his golf course in Doral, Florida.
“We’re going to repeal and replace Obamacare.”
The Department of Health and Human Services said in a new report that the big increase in insurance costs will be seen in the 38 states with federally-managed health care exchanges.
It is the largest jump in premiums for the program, now entering its fourth year, and stoked the tense battle between Trump and Democratic rival Hillary Clinton to replace Obama in the White House.
Meanwhile on Monday, Clinton slammed Trump for saying that the week-old effort to retake the Iraqi city of Mosul from the control of Daesh was going badly.
“He’s basically declaring defeat before the battle has even started,” Clinton said at a campaign event in New Hampshire. “He’s proving to the world what it means to have an unqualified commander in chief.”
In a tweet on Sunday, Trump, the Republican nominee for the Nov. 8 election, said the “attack on Mosul is turning out to be a total disaster. We gave them months of notice. US is looking so dumb.”
Trump reiterated his position during a rally in St. Augustine, Florida, where he also urged supporters to vote early and declared his campaign was winning the election.
“So now we’re bogged down in Mosul. The enemy is much tougher than they thought. They’ve had a lot of time to get ready,” Trump said. “It’s a horrible, horrible situation that’s going on. Why did we have to tell them we’re going in?“
With just over two weeks to go until the election, Clinton, President Barack Obama’s first-term secretary of state, leads the New York businessman in national opinion polls. Both candidates have been focusing on a small set of political swing states that could decide the contest.
Trump’s campaign has launched a nightly show on Facebook Live aiming to bypass “the media filter,” as White House hopefuls sprint the final leg of a caustic race.
Broadcasting from New York’s Trump Tower via the Republican candidate’s Facebook page, the show dubbed “Trump Tower Live” is expected to air every evening through the November 8 vote.
Meanwhile, Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto said he could have done a better job handling a controversial Aug. 31 meeting with Trump.
Pena Nieto said in an interview with Mexico’s Channel 11 television station that “we could have done things in a better way, that must be recognized.”
The president came under criticism in Mexico for not demanding an apology from Trump, who has suggested many Mexican immigrants are criminals or rapists.
Pena Nieto defended the decision to invite both US presidential candidates, saying he was “looking out for Mexico’s interests.”
Source: Arab News