[Jane Long]

That EO gives federal agencies wide discretion to begin changing pieces of the ACA that they find “burdensome”....it doesn’t, nor can the President/agencies, just arbitrarily defund anything...that’s what Congress does, via legislation.

They can find areas where they’d like stop funding, but Congress ultimately holds the purse strings.

..... federal agencies cannot change provisions of the law while the ACA is still on the books. The executive branch can only operate within the limits of Congress’s legislation and the authority delegated to the agency by Congress. The executive order addresses this point and allows for agencies to act “within the maximum extent of the law.”....

https://thefortyfifth.org/2017/01/20/1-trump-signed-e-o-to-minimize-economic-burden-of-aca-pending-repeal/

So, no...Trump hasn’t ‘defunded’ most of 0Care. By law, he cannot.

[be-baw]

That’s the way it’s supposed to work, yes. And maybe it does more than i think. Regardless, Trump, through executive action, has altered the law and thus can no longer claim his hands are clean.

[itsahoot]

federal agencies cannot change provisions of the law while the ACA is still on the books.

They asked Obama for an exemption for themselves and their staff after they passed a law that put the all in ObamaCare so I guess that is a flexible law.