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Bernie Sanders told CNN’s Anderson Cooper today that it is not the job of Democrats to help Republicans repeal Obamacare, but to help Republicans improve Obamacare.

Yesterday, President Trump said, 'Nobody ever knew health care could be so complicated.' Well, some of us had an idea. pic.twitter.com/1gGZ2Ud3Zd — Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) February 28, 2017

To Trump’s claim that “Nobody knew health care could be so complicated,” Sanders responded with laughter:

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“Some of us, who were sitting on the Health Education Committee who went to meeting after meeting after meeting who heard from dozens of people, who stayed up night after night trying to figure out this thing – yeah, we got a clue.

“When you provide healthcare in a nation of 320 million people, yeah, it is very, very complicated. And maybe now, maybe the president and some of the Republicans understand you can’t go beyond the rhetoric, ‘We’re gonna repeal the Affordable Care Act, we’re gonna repeal Obamacare and everything will be wonderful.’

“It’s a little bit more complicated than that. We remain today and let’s not forget it, the only major country on earth that doesn’t guarantee healthcare to all people. We pay the highest prices by far for prescription drugs. Let’s address those issues. Let’s get beyond rhetoric.”

Unfortunately, Donald Trump and Republicans have nothing beyond rhetoric. They have never had anything beyond rhetoric, never had any actual ideas about how to replace, let alone improve, Obamacare.

Donald Trump didn’t go to meeting after meeting. He made no attempt to learn anything about healthcare in general or the Affordable Care Act in particular, just as he made no attempt to learn about anything else important in government.

Even if he had, it would have been only to lecture his audience on the size of his electoral win or to tell them how smart a guy he is. Thus, his embarrassing surprise when he discovered he was actually expected to do some work.

Trump intentionally limited himself to rhetoric, to firing up his appallingly ignorant base, convincing themselves to act against their own best interests by depriving themselves of needed access to medical care. If Republicans don’t wake up from this self-imposed nightmare, they won’t be the only ones feeling its effects.