Sean Hannity put on a show of caring about helping Americans in economic need during a Donald Trump administration. But even a blind man could see that what multimillionaire Hannity really cares about is making sure people lose their health insurance under the Affordable Care Act. That and tax cuts for rich guys like himself.
Hannity’s tell came right at the beginning of his two-part interview with Speaker of the House Paul Ryan last week. Hannity began by playing a clip of Trump talking about repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare. Then Hannity introduced the interview by emphasizing his interest in repealing Obamacare. (Transcript excerpts via FoxNews.com, with some light copy editing. Emphases are all mine.):
HANNITY: All right, that was President Trump earlier today announcing the preparations to repeal and replace ObamaCare have now begun.
Earlier today, I went to our nation’s capital, where I am now, to talk with the speaker of the House, Paul Ryan, about the Republican plan to repeal and replace “Obama care” and much more. Take a look.
Despite Hannity’s talk about “repeal and replace,” he showed no interest in what the “replace” would include.
HANNITY: So what I see—this is the biggest question I’m getting from radio and form television. He’s moving at the speed of light, and people have been asking me—it’s the top story on the Drudge Report today. Where’s Congress because for eight years, you guys had a plan. You kept saying and promising you’ll repeal, replace ObamaCare. And I guess what people want to know is, when are these things going to get done?
RYAN: We are exactly on the timeline that we designed for ourselves. ObamaCare is coming next…
And so first, it’s regulatory reform because we have this window of time to cancel bad Obama regulations. Then we’re doing ObamaCare.
[…]
HANNITY: All right, here’s the big question. The president ran on an agenda. You said he touched or tapped into something that other people missed. We have 13 million more Americans on food stamps, 8 million more on poverty, lowest labor participation rate, lowest home ownership rate in 51 years.
Despite Hannity's show of concern for those less fortunate, he did not ask about job creation or how Republicans will help those millions in poverty. His biggest interest was in making sure Obamacare gets repealed and not repaired.
HANNITY: So here’s my question. Donald Trump runs and he says, I’m going to build a wall, repeal and replace “Obama care.” He says, I’m going to vet refugees. I’m going to make America energy-independent. We’re going to go from seven brackets to three, corporate tax rate 15 percent, allowed repatriation at 10 percent from multi-national corporations. He runs on education back to the states, fixing the VA, building up our military to have a stronger military.
This is the question that I think conservatives and Americans—and I would call this the forgotten man election. They want to know—and this—hopefully, you’ll answer today because I heard everything from ObamaCare will be done day one, to the spring, to the summer, to the—by the end of the year.
[…]
When I heard “repair,” my head nearly exploded.
RYAN: That’s not the plan. The plan...
(CROSSTALK)
RYAN: ... repeal and replace this law, like we said. We ran on a plan to repeal and replace it. Tom Price helped write that plan. He is now Donald Trump’s secretary of HHS.
HANNITY: So there is a consensus plan...
RYAN: Yes.
HANNITY: ... that’s now being scored by the CBO.
RYAN: Correct.
Hannity did not ask a single question about that “consensus plan,” such as will everyone still have coverage, will they still have the same level of coverage and will that plan cost more or less than their current insurance?
The New York Times did the investigating Hannity couldn’t be bothered with. And guess what the Times found? The Republican plan would “provide insurance that is far inferior, shift more medical costs onto families and cover far fewer people.”
In the second part of the interview, Hannity and Ryan discussed other issues. But it was clear that Hannity’s real interests were in repealing Obamacare, building a wall on the Mexico border and tax reform:
HANNITY: Are you telling the American people that that agenda that litany—I’ll go—vetting refugees, building the wall, repeal, replace, education back to the states, tax reform—all of this is going to be done in 200 days.
RYAN: By the way, we’ve already done a lot of energy independence. The coal regulation that we repealed from the Obama era, that is a huge energy-independence move because it’s going to bring back thousands of jobs in coal country. We can unlock Western Europe. We can—we can—we can compete with OPEC. And we couldn’t get this with Barack Obama. Now with Donald Trump, we can permit (ph) those things.
HANNITY: Back to the main list. So in 200 days, you’re fairly confident that a budget is going to be passed. I’m going to get to the specifics...
RYAN: Two budgets. Two budgets.
HANNITY: Which is never been -- (INAUDIBLE) never happened—that the wall is in the process of being constructed.
RYAN: Yes.
HANNITY: We’re going to working on fixing the VA, that Congress will support extreme vetting and that they’ll move forward with energy independence...
RYAN: Yes, and...
HANNITY: ... ObamaCare repeal and replace.
To close the interview, Hannity made another show of caring about less fortunate Americans.
HANNITY: Here’s my headline out of this interview, that you’re pretty much in full agreement with what Donald Trump ran on, and number two, in 200 days from the legislative side you are going to be implementing every aspect of that agenda that we talked about. That’s a big headline.
… I’m pretty sure that will stimulate the economy, get people back to work, and get the economy moving again, which I think we need.
By the way, those Americans that Hannity purports to care about don’t want Obamacare repealed, they think the wealthiest Americans should pay more taxes, not less, and they don’t want a wall on the Mexico border. In fact, they don’t like Trump very much, either.
So nobody should let Hannity get away with his public policy charade. The one he cares about is himself.
Watch Hannity try to dupe his viewers below, from the February 16, 2017 Hannity show.
http://www.newshounds.us/today_completes_seven_years_since_sean_hannity_promised_to_undergo_waterboarding_for_charity_042116
I can’t wait for Sean Hannity to get waterboarded — and I’ve been waiting for nearly seven years . . .
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