OPINION | Tomi Lahren: The liberal media twisted my words on ObamaCare

“Tomi Lahren bashes Obamacare while benefiting from it,” The Washington Post headline read.

Leave it to the mainstream media to ruin an otherwise pleasant morning.

The day after my Politicon sit-down with Chelsea Handler, the liberal media decided to tarnish a productive debate between two political adversaries with the usual pro-ObamaCare spin.

Yes, I have benefited from the ObamaCare provision allowing young adults to stay on their parents’ insurance plans until age 26. Yes, some provisions in the law make sense. That one certainly does. The law’s coverage of pre-existing conditions is another, and any Republican healthcare plan should include something similar.

Newsflash: Most Republicans and Trump supporters don’t believe that every single tenet of ObamaCare is bad. A 2016 Kaiser Family Foundation poll found 82 percent of Republicans support allowing young adults to stay on their parents’ insurance until age 26. More recent Kaiser poll shows nearly 60 percent of Republicans support continued coverage for pre-existing conditions.

{mosads}But facts won’t get in the way of the media’s liberal crusade. Regardless, my debate with Chelsea was an important step for free speech, which has been under assault from liberal snowflakes for years on America’s college campuses. Our sit-down proves a respectful dialogue between people with whom we disagree is still possible and should be encouraged by both sides.

And, trust me, I will continue to disagree with liberals who blindly believe in Big Government. Like Bernie Sanders before her, Chelsea claimed universal healthcare is about human decency. If only. As I told her, government-run healthcare sounds great but actually hurts the very people it intends to help.

Just look at Veterans Affairs (VA) hospitals. VA wait times can range from one to two months for the most standard care. In South Dakota — where I was born into a proud military family — the average VA clinic wait is over 38 days. In Colorado, scheduling an appointment to see a primary care doctor takes an average of 42 days. In Georgia, our most patriotic Americans can be left waiting for more than 50 days.

This is unacceptable. So why model our entire healthcare system on a failed government experiment?

Don’t expect liberals to weigh the costs of their sweet-sounding policies. Chelsea also attacked me for supporting President Trump’s transgender military ban, which would save taxpayers millions of dollars and make our military stronger. To say so isn’t anti-trans — I have nothing against transgender people, or anyone for that matter. But allowing them to serve in the military makes the world’s greatest fighting force less combat-ready. Soldiers who have “transitioned” medically require regular hormone treatments and follow-up visits after sex-reassignment surgery, so they cannot be instantly deployable when the job requires it.

And it’s not the taxpayer’s duty to pay for those procedures when the government can’t even provide adequate healthcare as is. The military is no place for the left’s latest social experiment. Fortunately, President Trump will continue to put America first by keeping our military’s best interests at heart.

Chelsea might never see it that way, but I look forward to debating her again. American democracy is greater with free speech and open dialogue.

Tomi Lahren is senior adviser for Great America Alliance. You can find her on Twitter: @TomiLahren

The views expressed by contributors are their own and not the views of The Hill.