Bernie Sanders took to the Senate floor today to challenge President-elect Trump to keep his campaign promises or admit he lied to those who voted for Trump.
After recounting all of the times Trump promised he wouldn't touch Medicare or Social Security, Sanders dropped the wedge.
I'll let the (rough) transcript speak for itself, or better yet, watch the video above.
Well, it seems to me that Mr. Trump right now has got to do one of two things.
Number one, if all that he was talking about was campaign rhetoric, then what he was obliged to do now is to tell the American people, "I was lying. Yeah, I said that I would not support cuts to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, but I was lying. It was a campaign ruse. I just said what came to my mind to get votes. I have no intention of keeping my word."
And if that's what he believes, if that's what the case was, let him come forward and say that. But if that is not what the case is, if he was sincere, then I would hope that tomorrow or maybe today he could send out a tweet and tell his Republican colleagues to stop wasting their time and all of our time.
For Mr. Trump to tell the American people that he will veto any proposal that cuts Medicare, that cuts Medicaid and that cuts Social Security.
And what we are talking about right now, let us be clear, no debate. That is exactly what this goal is. That's what this budget proposal is. It is to move toward the voucherization and privatization of Medicare, to make massive cuts in Medicaid to throw millions of people off of health insurance.
So there's a lot of responsibility on Mr. Trump's shoulders, but I would hope that he could save us a whole lot of time by telling the American people that he was sincere in what he said during the campaign, that he was not lying.
And if that is the case, we can end this discussion and get into the serious business of how we create a quality health care system guaranteeing health care to all people in a cost-effective way.
This is how to do it. Keep hammering it home. Let's see which one it was. Was Trump lying, or will he reject any effort to cut Social Security and Medicare. If he was lying (and odds suggest he was), then it's up to all of us to let his voters know that. This is NOT the kind of change they voted for.