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Trump Trashes 'Big, Fat, Rich Insurance Companies.' Progressives: 'Wait Until We Tell You About Medicare for All'
"If we had Medicare for All everyone would have healthcare with no premiums, deductibles or co-payments and we’d save $650 billion and 68,000 lives a year."
Nov 19, 2025
President Donald Trump on Tuesday proclaimed he would not sign any fix to the nation's healthcare crisis that would send money to what he termed, in all capital letters, as the "BIG, FAT, RICH INSURANCE COMPANIES, WHO HAVE MADE $TRILLIONS, AND RIPPED OFF AMERICA LONG ENOUGH"—and progressives did not hesitate to point out that by taking for-profit, private insurers out of the healthcare equation, one would quickly—if they cared about covering more people with less money—be left with something more akin to the kind of universal, publicly-supported healthcare systems that most nations in the developed world already enjoy.
"Just wait until we tell you about Medicare for All," said Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, a Democrat running for the US Senate in Michigan, in response to Trump's Truth Social post.
The president has been openly railing against the insurance companies who benefit from federal subsidies that are central to the healthcare plans made available on exchanges created by the Affordable Care Act (ACA), but his solution—a nebulous call for direct payments to individuals who could then somehow purchase "THEIR OWN, MUCH BETTER INSURANCE" with those same federal dollars.
With major cuts to Medicaid—the largest in the program's history—and an end to ACA subsidies that could see premiums double or more for over 20 million people in the coming year, Democrats are warning of a healthcare crisis in 2026 like nothing the nation has ever seen.
But the solution being offered by Trump and his GOP allies in Congress, according to progressive critics, would only further entrench the crisis.
"Trump’s 'healthcare' plan will bankrupt and kill millions of Americans," warned Melanie D'Arrigo, executive director of the Campaign for New York Health, a single-payer advocacy group. "We can eliminate the private insurance industry, and save $650 billion per year with Medicare for All—which would cover everyone, save families money, and include dental, vision, prescriptions, and longterm care."
"We can eliminate the private insurance industry, and save $650 billion per year with Medicare for All."
On Sunday, Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), went on "Face the Nation" in order to put some "meat on the bone" regarding direct payments and said his office was working closely with Trump's White House on the proposal.
WATCH: @SenBillCassidy tells @margbrennan about his health care proposal, saying he wants to "...take the $26 billion that would be going to insurance companies" if the enhanced subsidies under the Affordable Care Act are extended, and instead "give it directly to the American… pic.twitter.com/xPLScs7YU8
— Face The Nation (@FaceTheNation) November 14, 2025
Essentially what the Cassidy-Trump plan would do is replace fedeal subsidies for inadequate health plans with high deductibles from private insurance giants to federal cash payments that people could only use to purchase—wait for it—inadequate health plans with high deductibles from private insurance giants.
After Administrator for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Dr. Mehmet Oz, also on Sunday, played a similar card on behalf of the Trump administration by saying, "If you had a check in the mail, you could buy the insurance you thought was best for you," immediate pushback followed.
Warren Gunnels, longtime policy advisor for Sanders in the Senate, was among those who slammed Oz's efforts to deceive the American people with the Trump administration's push for direct payments.
"If we had Medicare for All everyone would have healthcare with no premiums, deductibles or co-payments and we’d save $650 billion and 68,000 lives a year," said Gunnels in response to Oz's remarks. "If we gave cancer patients, at most, a check for $6,500 for a $150,000 treatment they’d go bankrupt and die an early death."
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After 'Disgusting Display' at White House, Omar Says Congress Must Stop Trump Sale of F-35s to Saudis
"Trump is prioritizing weapons-contractor profits and his own family’s business interests," said US Rep. Ilhan Omar.
Nov 19, 2025
The deputy chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus said Tuesday that lawmakers should pull out all the stops to prevent US President Donald Trump from selling F-35s to Saudi Arabia following Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's White House visit.
Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) called the White House reception for bin Salman, who is commonly known as MBS, a "disgusting display" and a "new low in longstanding US support for the repressive monarchy," pointing to Trump's whitewashing of the crown prince's role in the horrific murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018.
Omar also condemned Trump's attack on ABC News reporter Mary Bruce, who asked about Khashoggi's murder during the crown prince's White House visit.
"It is truly disturbing that the president of the United States dismissed Khashoggi’s entrapment, murder, and dismemberment at the hands of MBS' assassins simply as, 'things happen,'" said the Minnesota Democrat.
Omar called on fellow lawmakers to join her in working to block Trump's "reckless and corrupt deals" with the Saudis, including his proposed sale of F-35 fighter jets.
"With announced sales of F-35 warplanes and billions in financial investments, Trump is prioritizing weapons-contractor profits and his own family’s business interests, including Jared Kushner’s private equity firm that took $2 billion from MBS," said Omar, who noted that the Saudis have used US arms to devastating effect in Yemen.
The details of Trump's proposed F-35 sale are not yet fully clear, but the US president indicated on Tuesday that the agreement would not include any conditions. The Saudi regime is one of the world's worst human rights abusers, wielding the death penalty and other repressive tactics to violently crush dissent.
"We’re going to have a deal. They’ve going purchase F-35s," Trump said Tuesday. "They’re buying them from Lockheed and it’s a great plane."
Once Congress is formally notified of the proposed sale, lawmakers will have a limited window to consider a resolution of disapproval that, if passed, would block the transaction.
"While the defense industry and American billionaires will profit handsomely with the gifts Trump is doling out to MBS. The American people will be left holding the bill."
During Tuesday's meeting, Trump announced that his administration has designated Saudi Arabia as a "major non-NATO ally," a status that enhances military cooperation between the two countries. Israel is also a "major non-NATO ally" of the US.
Omar said Tuesday that "no American soldiers may be sent into harm’s way to defend Saudi Arabia" as part of the agreement "without a debate and vote of authorization from Congress."
"My Progressive Caucus colleagues and I are committed to ensuring that this remains the case," she added.
The human rights group DAWN, an organization founded by Khashoggi, also voiced concerns about the security pact, warning in a statement that Trump is working to "protect a reckless, impulsive dictator, all in the interests of personal and corporate gains."
"While the defense industry and American billionaires will profit handsomely with the gifts Trump is doling out to MBS," the group added, "the American people will be left holding the bill."
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'Students Deserve So Much Better,' Union Leader Says as Trump Tears Up Education Department
"This contemptible assault on American education must be condemned by everyone who strives towards a prosperous future for our country and our children," said one opponent of the new partnerships.
Nov 18, 2025
Teachers union leaders, Democratic lawmakers, and other critics of President Donald Trump's efforts to dismantle the US Department of Education on Tuesday forcefully denounced what the administration is calling "new agency partnerships to break up federal bureaucracy."
Although the Education Department cannot be fully shuttered without approval from Congress, Trump has signed an executive order aimed at starting the process "to the maximum extent appropriate and permitted by law" and laid off over 1,300 workers.
Shortly after journalists began reporting on the new plans Tuesday, citing unnamed sources, Secretary of Education Linda McMahon confirmed the agreements with the departments of Health and Human Services, the Interior, Labor, and State.
One federal official told Politico that the partnerships are a "proof of concept strategy to show Congress how this can be done," and said that the Education Department will work with lawmakers "on making these agreements permanent."
A succinct description of so much that this administration does: if they don’t like longstanding, duly enacted laws and Congress isn’t prepared to amend them, they’ll just hack them to bits illegally.wapo.st/4i6ZRr5
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— Heidi Kitrosser (@heidikitrosser.bsky.social) November 18, 2025 at 4:52 PM
Becky Pringle, president of the National Education Association, the nation's largest labor union representing nearly 3 million employees, noted in a statement that "Donald Trump and his administration chose American Education Week, a time when our nation is celebrating students, public schools, and educators, to announce their illegal plan to further abandon students by dismantling the Department of Education."
"Not only do they want to starve and steal from our students—they want to rob them of their futures," Pringle said. "Ensuring a brighter future for our children should be a top priority for any administration, but this administration is taking every chance it can to hack away at the very protections and services our students need."
"Just last week, they went to the Supreme Court to avoid feeding families. And they're still pushing to gut healthcare programs," she continued. "Now, they're neglecting the basic responsibility to educate our children. It's cruel. It's shameful. And our students deserve so much better."
American Federation of Teachers president Randi Weingarten, whose union represents 1.8 million people, declared that "this move is neither streamlining nor reform—it's an abdication and abandonment of America's future."
"Spreading services across multiple departments will create more confusion, more mistakes, and more barriers for people who are just trying to access the support they need."
"What's happening now isn't about slashing red tape. If that were the goal, teachers could help them do it, and we invite Donald Trump and Linda McMahon to sit down with educators and hear from the people who actually do this work every day," she emphasized. "Teachers know how to make the federal role more effective, efficient, and supportive of real learning—if only the administration would listen."
"Instead, spreading services across multiple departments will create more confusion, more mistakes, and more barriers for people who are just trying to access the support they need," she warned.
Aissa Canchola Bañez, policy director for nonprofit Protect Borrowers, similarly said that "shuffling certain functions of the US Department of Education across four different agencies is a political stunt that will only lead to more chaos and confusion for working families who just want their kids to get a quality education, to be able to pay for college, and to pay off their student loans."
Lisa Gilbert, co-president of the watchdog group Public Citizen, also slammed the announcement, saying that "in his ongoing rampage against everything that makes our country what it is, President Trump is now acting on the plan to destroy the Department of Education."
"Short of toppling the Statue of Liberty, there is perhaps nothing that could capture the agenda of this administration more than what they are in fact doing right now: Making an enemy out of education itself," she suggested. "This contemptible assault on American education must be condemned by everyone who strives towards a prosperous future for our country and our children."
Senate Appropriations Committee Vice Chair Patty Murray (D-Wash.)—a former preschool teacher and local school board member—also piled on, saying that "Donald Trump and Linda McMahon are lawlessly trying to fulfill Project 2025's goal to abolish the Department of Education and pull the rug out from students in every part of the country."
"But instead of seeking congressional approval of their reckless actions to weaken our education system—which McMahon has acknowledged is necessary—Trump and McMahon are now pretending that our laws and the constitutional separation of powers are a mere suggestion," said Murray, who used to lead and remains a member of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.
"This is an outright illegal effort to continue dismantling the Department of Education," she argued, "and it is students and families who will suffer the consequences as key programs that help students learn to read or that strengthen ties between schools and families are spun off to agencies with little to no relevant expertise and are gravely weakened—or even completely broken—in the process."
The senator stressed that she is "always ready and willing to talk about reforms to our education laws to improve educational outcomes for students," and urged her Republican colleagues to join Democrats in standing up against the administration's attacks.
The GOP controls both chambers of Congress. According to Murray, "The fact that Trump and McMahon are choosing to break the law to do this on their own—despite having unified Republican control of Washington—tells us they know just how unpopular their plans are and can't win the approval of members of their own party."
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