For the past 6 1/2 years the cornerstone of the Republican Party rested on repealing the Affordable Care Act. As long as President Obama occupied the White House their words were meaningless and they didn’t have to worry about how to keep their promise.

But in four days the House of the Representatives, the Senate and the White House will all be in Republican hands and suddenly the spotlight is on them.

Yesterday I raised the alarm that “repeal and replace” would become “repeal and abandon.” At this point I assumed that they would begin to backtrack on these promises, but President Elect Trump continues to double down on promises I’m pretty certain he can’t keep.

Yesterday’s post included his promise that the ACA would keep provisions that allowed adult children to remain on their parents’ policy until age 26, and prevent insurance companies from denying coverage for pre-existing conditions.

Today we learned that he is promising “insurance for everyone.” This link is worth a read because he kept going.

He also said he could craft health care “in a much simplified form — much less expensive and much better.”

Truthfully, if he can pull this off, I’ll be the first to cheer. We Democrats want exactly that and that’s been our hope for the Affordable Care Act. Providing affordable, reasonably priced health care for all benefits us all.

The problem is this: The Republicans opposed Social Security in the 1930s. They opposed Medicare and Medicaid in the 1960s. And they opposed the Affordable Care Act in 2010. Each time they predicted doom and despair. And now they find themselves saddled with a President Elect who makes broad promises with no plan to succeed.

I’m writing this because in the weeks and months to come he’ll claim he never promised to cover everyone. I’m writing this blog as a way to keep a record.

Mr. Trump, we’re paying attention.