Robert Reich: Repealing Obamacare Makes the Rich Richer

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Bottles of champagne at The Weinstein Company and Netflix Golden Globe Party, at The Beverly Hilton Hotel on January 8, 2017 in Beverly Hills, California. Robert Reich writes that repealing Obamacare will put an... Randy Shropshire/Getty

This article first appeared on RobertReich.org.

Don't be fooled by Trump's and Republican promises to "repeal and replace" Obamacare. They could repeal it, but they can't and won't replace it.

They've tried for years to come up with a replacement that keeps at least as many people covered. Their "replacement" never appears.

So why do Republicans want to repeal Obamacare and leave millions without insurance? Because it would mean a huge tax windfall for the wealthy.

Repealing Obamacare will put an average of $33,000 of tax cuts in the hands of the richest 1 percent this year alone, and a whopping $197,000 of tax cuts into the hands of the top 0.1 percent.

The 400 highest-income taxpayers (with incomes averaging more than $300 million each) will each receive an average annual tax cut of about $7 million.

It would also increase the taxes of families earning between $10,000 and $75,000 – including just about all of Trump's working class voters.

So what do we end up with when Republicans repeal Obamacare?

– 32 million people losing their health insurance,

– tens of thousands of Americans dying because they don't get the medical care they need,

– Medicare in worse shape,

– And the rich becoming far richer.

This is lunacy. We must stand up to it.

Related : Robert Reich: The Dangerous Rise of Steve Bannon

Robert Reich is the chancellor's professor of public policy at the University of California, Berkeley, and a senior fellow at the Blum Center for Developing Economies. He served as secretary of labor in the Clinton administration, and Time magazine named him one of the 10 most effective Cabinet secretaries of the 20th century. He has written 14 books, including the best-sellers Aftershock , The Work of Nations and Beyond Outrage and, most recently, Saving Capitalism. He is also a founding editor of The American Prospect magazine, chairman of Common Cause, a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and co-creator of the award-winning documentary Inequality for All.

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