title:  President Obama Came Out Of Retirement Today To Slam Republicans On Healthcare
text: After two months of an administration that gives literal meaning to the term  bully pulpit,  it becomes easy to forget what a real president sounds like how a real president discusses disagreements. On Thursday, though, we received a brief reminder as President Obama took a break from his retirement to talk about health care and not once did he use the words  fake news  or even  sad. Today is the seventh anniversary of the signing of the Affordable Care Act, a law, that despite Republicans  claims otherwise, took months and months to draft, debate and eventually pass. Obama, as well as anyone, knows that the law isn t perfect, but he does recognize some very basic facts, which boil down to we re much better with it than without it. Obama said it better in a statement on Thursday. So the reality is clear: America is stronger because of the Affordable Care Act,  Obama said.He s right. The uninsured rate has been cut almost in half since the law s inception and it goes down every year.Republicans want to change that and Obama didn t let that go. In his very diplomatic style that we so desperately miss, the President urged Republicans to pass a bill that would improve upon the Affordable Care Act, not make it worse. So if Republicans are serious about lowering costs while expanding coverage to those who need it, and if they re prepared to work with Democrats and objective evaluators in finding solutions that accomplish those goals   that s something we all should welcome,  he said.  But we should start from the baseline that any changes will make our health care system better, not worse for hardworking Americans. That should always be our priority.  Only, as we know, Republicans don t give a crap about making the law better, unless by better, you mean giving rich people a huge tax cut while leaving older poor people much, much poorer.Fortunately, the fate of this bill, which will go up for a vote on the anniversary of Obama s signature healthcare law, is uncertain to say the least. At this point, it s far more likely to fail than to pass.Featured image via Sean Gallup/Getty Images