RUSH: Do you remember — this wasn’t that long ago, but so much has happened since, it may have slipped your mind. Do you remember that Trump signed an executive order that eliminated subsidies for Obamacare? The subsidies were to the insurance companies that permitted them to charge lower premiums that the poor and the mid-level poor could afford. Because Obamacare, in its natural state, is unaffordable.

Obamacare as designed is unaffordable. You need to be subsidized if you are, quote, unquote, middle class, average American. You can’t afford it on your own. You can’t afford the premiums. You can’t afford the deductibles. Well, those subsidies were never constitutional, because they came about by way of a presidential executive order. And the Constitution’s very clear that all appropriations or all expenditures of money must originate legislatively in the House of Representatives. And these subsidies had not. And they have been part of Obamacare from the get-go and thus they have been unconstitutional and illegal from the get-go.

Trump was always trying, in his push to repeal Obamacare, to have policy legislation deal with these subsidies, but we all know that the efforts to get a repeal bill failed to come to fruition. So Trump just decided, you know, I’m gonna just do an executive order that eliminates subsidies. And right on cue, the media and the Democrat Party and the civil rights left had a cow. “You can’t do this. You can’t take money away from the poor. This is inhumane. This is unconscionable. This is racist.” You know, the usual cliches that they offered.

And so a bunch of leftists said, “We’re gonna go to court! We’re gonna go to court, we’re gonna get those subsidies reinstituted. You can’t just write ’em out,” even though they were illegal. Well, here we have from a despondent Associated Press, “States Lose Push to Force Trump to Restart Health Subsidies — A U.S. judge on Wednesday rejected a request from 18 states and the District of Columbia to force the Trump administration to resume paying ‘Obamacare’ subsidies right away and scolded the coalition for claiming health care costs would rise without federal help.”

Paying the subsidies causes everything to rise, is what the judge — what do you mean — by eliminating the subsidies, costs increase. I distinctly remember when these states came together to form this coalition and when the civil rights left got its act in gear, I remember the media telling us that Trump was gonna lose this. That he was gonna embarrassingly lose this like he’s been losing his travel bans. That it would be a slam dunk. That there’s no judge in America that would allow money to be taken out of the hands of the poor and the thirsty and the hungry like this.

“State attorneys general, all Democrats and led by Xavier Becerra of California, argued that the monthly payments are required under former President Barack Obama’s health care law and cutting them off will harm consumers. … U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria, an Obama appointee, said the states had devised workarounds to the lost subsidies that would give millions of lower-income people even better health care options.”

You don’t need the subsidies. You guys are doing it on your own. The judge essentially said, “If you’re gonna give away money, why should the feds also give away money?” Now, note that the AP points out the judge is an Obama appointee. They never do that, especially when a judge rules in the media’s favor. This is meant to shame him by calling Judge Chhabria or Chhabria — for all I know it’s pronounced Chhabria. It’s two Hs. C-h-h-a-b-r-i-a. When I’ve never heard a name pronounced, I pronounce it according to the way I learned words are pronounced when I took English. And this would be pronounced Chhabria or Chhabria. But I don’t know what ethnicity it is.

For example, in Spanish, how do you think you pronounce the name O-l-a-z-a-b-a-l? How do you pronounce that? Give me a shot at it. O-l-a-z-a-b-a-l. Olazabal. The Z in Spanish is a “th.” Olazabal. When I first heard that in a golf tournament — he’s a professional golfer — when I heard Olazábal, did they hire somebody that can’t speak and put ’em in the booth here? What is Olathabal? And then I learned that the correct pronunciation is Spanish — and he is Spanish; he’s from Spain — it’s a t-h. So I don’t know if this is Chhabria or Chhabria or Chhabria, I don’t know. I’m not trying to embarrass anybody.

I’m just telling you, he’s an Obama appointed judge and the AP points this out. They’re shaming the guy for not voting the way the president who appointed him would want him to vote in this. And this from the AP: “Premiums Rising 34% for Most Popular Health Plan — Premiums for the most popular ‘Obamacare’ plans are going up an average of 34%, according to a study Wednesday that confirms dire predictions about the impact of political turmoil on consumers.”

The consulting firm involved here “crunched newly released government data and found that the Trump administration’s actions are contributing to the price hikes by adding instability –” These are scheduled price increases that are written into the law and all of a sudden it’s all Trump’s fault ’cause he’s brought instability to the mix. Classic.