T R U M P I S M : O b a m a c a r e A n d N a t i o n a l S e c u r i t y

You, LORD, will not hold back

Your mercies from me.
Your steadfast truth
Shall always guide me.
For evils drew round me
beyond count.
My crimes overtook me
and I could not see

(Ps. 40:12-13a, trans. Robert Alter)1

You know that the best you can expect is to avoid the worst2

WHY RE P EALING OBAMACARE IS A FAI LED POLITICAL STRATEGY

DONA LD T RU MP C LA IM S H I S FIRS T A C TIO N A S P RE S I DE NT IS

TO DIS MA NT L E OBA MA CA RE . Y ET, H E A ND HI S COMRAD E S
I N TR UMP I SM P R ES E NTLY OFFER N O BE TTE R S OL UTI O N.
DOES T HIS MEA N T HAT THAT H E ES CHE W S NATI ONA L S E C U-
RI TY CONS I DERATI ON S I N G ENE RA L O R ONLY W HE N I T
CO MES T O T HE N ATI ON S HEA LTH ?

BUT, WHY SH OU LD O BAM A CA RE O R AN Y P UBL I C HE A LT H

I NI TI ATI VE B E VI E W ED A S A N ATIO N AL S EC URI TY CONCE R N?
HEA LTH S E CU RI TY IN CL UD ES MEA SU RE S A G A I NS T DI SE ASE ,
UNS AF E F O OD , MA LNU TRI TI O N A ND L AC K OF A CCE S S T O
BA S IC HEA LT H C ARE .

Is health security a national security concern? The answer is yes, due to

the growing potential of pandemics and biothreats. If a countrys population
is sick, it will be unable to defend itself. If a country is spending extraordinary
amounts of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) on health care, there is less
money available for its defense against adversaries.

1There is a counterpoint between Gods wonders, too numerous to count, and the speakers misdeeds, so numer-
ous that they literally overwhelm him, blind him, make him loose heart (Robert Alter, The Book of Psalms [New York
& London: W.W. Norton & Company, 2007], 143). Which is exactly what makes Trumpism so dangerous. There is no
moral awareness that their misdeeds overwhelms us, blinds us, and make us loose heart where us are the citi-
zens of this once great county America.
2
Italio Calvino, If on a Winters Night a Traveler (1979) in William Poundstone, Prisoners Dilemma (New York: Dou-
bleday, 1992), 53.

LYLE A. BRECHT DRAFT 1.7 - CAPITAL MARKETS RESEARCH - M a r c h 7 , 2 0 1 7 Page 1 of 3

T R U M P I S M : O b a m a c a r e A n d N a t i o n a l S e c u r i t y

For example, in 2000, the National Intelligence Council published The Global
Infectious Disease Threat and Its Implications for the United States that
summaries the national security threat of infectious diseases because as a
major hub of global travel, immigration, and commerce with wide-ranging
interests and a large civilian and military presence overseas, the United
States and its equities abroad will remain at risk from infectious diseases. In
2003, the CIA published an unclassified, The Darker Bioweapons Future
panel concluded The eects of some of these engineered biological agents
could be worse than any disease known to man. The Department of Home-
land Security has a Health Threats Resilience Division that manages pro-
grams to help the nation prepare for and respond to chemical and biological
threats, as well as other health threats and hazards. A commission of the
National Academy of Medicine in their 2016 Global Health Risk Framework
report says: future pandemics have the potential to kill millions and cause
economic losses in the trillions of dollars. That is, access to primary health
care is a neglected dimension for global security, much less national securi-
ty.

Today, pandemics and biothreats are not if, but when they will occur. In
2015 an estimated 214 million cases of malaria occurred worldwide and
438,000 people died, mostly children. An estimated 200 million people
around the world are infected with hepatitis C. The Centers for Disease Con-
trol and Prevention estimates 2.7-3.9 million people in the United States
have chronic hepatitis C. In 2015, 10 million people around the world be-
came sick with tuberculosis. That year there were 1.8 million TB-related
deaths worldwide. Cholera is an acute, diarrheal illness that causes an esti-
mated 3-5 million cases and over 100,000 deaths each year around the
world. The 1918 flu pandemic infected 500 million people killing 50-100mil-
lion. That was three percent of the worlds population who died from this
pandemic. During the Fourteenth Century, the Black Death pandemic killed
an estimated 30-60% of the population of Europe.

What do pandemics and biothreats have to do with Obamacare? Access

to primary health care and disease control tools such as drugs, vaccines and
diagnostics is a crucial determinant of population health and an essential
component of national security strategies. With a large uninsured population

LYLE A. BRECHT DRAFT 1.7 - CAPITAL MARKETS RESEARCH - M a r c h 7, 2 017 Page 2 of 3

T R U M P I S M : O b a m a c a r e A n d N a t i o n a l S e c u r i t y

without access to primary health care, the spread of infectious disease,

whether from pandemics or biothreats is inevitable. Studies repeatedly
demonstrate that the uninsured are less likely than those with insurance to
receive primary health care services. The uninsured population is often
where infectious diseases begin. Once they begin, they spread to insured
populations, no matter that these populations have access to primary health
care. Obamacare is anything from perfect, but it is presently the only health-
care program the US has that actually acknowledges and attempts to ad-
dress the health care requisites for national security. Tearing it down for ideo-
logical reasons without an immediate and more thoughtful program that ac-
complishes more to provide insurance for the uninsured and to provide cov-
erage for those with preexisting conditions is a serious national security
threat.

LYLE A. BRECHT DRAFT 1.7 - CAPITAL MARKETS RESEARCH - M a r c h 7, 2 017 Page 3 of 3