By EWIN JAMES.

Some people have begun screaming that President Donald Trump, by signing the Executive Order to begin dismantling Obamacare, is determined to destroy the legacy of Barack Obama as though doing so were some treasonous act. They propound the idea that Trump has some obligation to preserve the legacy of Obama, whatever that is; but nowhere in the Constitution or any law, does a President have any duty to preserve the legacy of his predecessors.

These people didn’t even whimper when President Obama, upon taking office, began reversing the legacy of George W. Bush, and many other Presidents by reducing the size and power of the military.

But Donald Trump, according to them, has an obligation to preserve the legacy of Obama, whether it is harmful or beneficial. For Obama is the first African- American President, and what he sought to do in eight years was leave his mark on history, and it must be preserved; for to destroy any of it would be treachery not only against the first black man to be President but against all black people.

A man, President or not, can dismantle whatever another man did provided he or others can demonstrate that it isn’t good. There are parts of Obama’s legacy that isn’t good and not worth preserving. I will give just one example: The Affordable Care Act- Obamacare – Obama’s foremost accomplishment, for which he wants to go down in history.

Obamacare was passed into law to give some 20 million Americans the opportunity to purchase health Insurance through private Insurance companies subsidized by the Federal Government. But from the start it wasn’t presented honestly, for we were told that healthcare would be cheaper and we would have as many options or more than before. This isn’t so.

President Obama, at the outset, said many times: “If you like your health care plan, you can keep it.” Either he was ignorant, mistaken or deliberately uttering falsehood; for millions of Americans have since had their health plans canceled. Consequently, many people no longer have their doctors with whom they had built vital relationships , despite President Obama assuring them, “If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor”

Costs were to be lower. But ABC News said late last year “Insurers are set to raise the premiums for plans sold through HealthCare.gov by an average of 22 percent in 2017, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said in a report. This is approximately triple the percentage increase from 2015 to 2016, when premiums increased by 7.5 percent.”

The New York times said on October 2016″Obamacare rates are going way up. The latest estimate from the federal government is that the average midlevel Obamacare plan, the most popular choice, will cost about 22 percent more in 2017 than it did in 2016. This is based on data from 39 states where people sign up through the HealthCare.gov website and some preliminary data from four other states and the District of Columbia.”

These increases have occurred because Insurance companies are finding it prohibitively expensive to cover people who can’t afford to pay for insurance; and the young and healthy who should pay for coverage to subsidize the costs for those who can’t pay are refusing to sign up. Hence higher premiums for everyone. And those who refuse to enroll are charged penalties by the IRS. One woman I know had all her tax refund withheld by the IRS as a penalty for not enrolling.

Since insurance companies have found it uneconomical to continue to offer insurance under Obamcare some are withdrawing from offering it in many states. AETNA, one of the biggest insurers, is pulling out of 11 of the 15 states where it offers Obamacare after losing over $400 million ; United Healthcare will only operate in 3 states; and Humana is withdrawing from 8 states.

This will leave the insured with only a few choices. I’m told that one county in Arizona, has no insurance provider. The plan is clearly not working. Many Democrats who passed it into law didn’t even read it; Nancy Pelosi, the first female speaker of the House, said at the time “We must pass it so we can know what ‘s in it.” But perhaps the most telling and contemptuous statement of what was behind Obamacare came from the architect of the plan, Professor Jonathan Gruber. He said in October 2013: “Lack of transparency is a huge political advantage. And basically, call it the stupidity of the American voter or whatever, but basically that was really, really critical for the thing to pass.”

There are better ways than Obamacare to offer healthcare to Americans; but according to liberals and blind votaries of Obama, Donald Trump, despite knowing this, should leave Obamacare in place, since dismantling it will destroy the legacy of the first Black President. It seems that what is important to them isn’t what is good for Americans, but preserving the legacy of Obama— the First Black President— for posterity; and for God knows whatever else

Such mindless devotion to ideology and personality makes me so angry that I’m tempted to judge peoples’ motive which I have no right and ability to do. God help us all.

Ewin James is Freelance journalist living in Longwood Florida.