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| "Wait, how did you get a hold of actual facts about the Affordable Care Act?" |
Things got heated for Rep. Daniel Webster (R-FL) during a town hall question-and-answer session in Winter Haven, Florida on Thursday. His constituents called him out over his multiple votes to repeal the Affordable Care Act, as well as misleading claims that the law’s consumer protections are being dismantled by the Obama administration.
Webster was responding to several constituents’ questions about the consequences that repealing Obamacare — which House Republicans, including Webster, have voted to do on 40 separate occasions — would have for the people in his district. Attendees asked Webster if he had any plans to replace consumer protections included in Obamacare, such as guaranteed insurance coverage for Americans with pre-existing medical conditions and free preventative health screenings for seniors:
QUESTIONER: What happens to us when Obamacare is repealed? What happens to people with pre-existing conditions that can’t get health care? What happens to those of us who finally have access to health insurance for the first time in nine or ten years? What happens to us? And you want to make this local, I’ll make this local. I’m a constituent, right now I can’t get health care. I’m waiting for this [insurance marketplace] to open and I’d like to know why we keep repealing [Obamacare]?
The congressman defended his repeal votes by saying the law would drive up Americans’ health care costs by requiring insurers to cover people with pre-existing conditions. He then claimed that President Barack Obama himself thinks his signature law is unworkable. As evidence, Webster implied that the law’s protections — such as its cap on consumers’ annual out-of-pocket medical costs — were being dismantled by the Obama administration. That prompted an outcry from the audience, as people booed and countered Webster’s claims.
An event official interrupted at that point, asking the audience to be respectful and give Webster a chance to speak. One audience member replied by saying, “Well, tell him to stop lying!”
And THAT my friends, is how the tide starts to turn.
I'm trapped in my cubby on a raining Sunday, but now I will have a good day.
ReplyDeleteOur former next door neighbors, lovely people, live in Winter Haven. Let's hope that they, and the rest of the people in this guy's district get smart before the 2014 election and vote him into retirement. He's voted 40 times to end Obamacare and yet they sent him back to Washington! And I bet he'll vote to end it the next time Boehner brings the subject up. Republicans never learn. But then Webster's constituents might never learn either.
ReplyDeleteBeaglemom
I loved this, and I don't think this was the only pace this happened. People are wising up. I'd suggest that we liberals attend any of these meetings we can, and keep asking questions. They want to repeal? Fine...but how does the GOP plan to replace the law? And why can't they jsut fix what they don't like instead of dumping it and doing nothing. Keep talking, folks. Keep asking questions.
ReplyDeleteI sent an email to Dave Camp, who was planning to run for Senate here in MI after his 20 worthless years in the House. I asked him where his precious tax reform is...and how he expected to win a new job when he hasn't done anything in the old one? He announced he is NOT running for Seante, but will stay in the House. I am praying we Dems come up with a candidate, because the GOP is ripe for the pickings...and I love Nate, but I think he is wrong about 2014.
Is Camp a producer in the way Ron Paul was a producer?
Delete“Here is what you need to know about Ron Paul,” O’Reilly said. “He has spent 23 years in Congress. And only one of his proposed bills has been signed into law; 23 years, one law. And over that time period, Mr. Paul has sponsored 620 pieces of legislation. Again, only one was passed, the sale of the old U.S. customs house to the Galveston Historical Foundation. Not exactly a front page event.”
Dave Camp was our representative for many years - due to jerrymandering. Now that our former district also has a GOP representative, we got re-jerrymandered back. So we've had lots of Dave Camp experience. He is a total jerk. Nothing original or innovative about him. And he's chaired the House Ways and Means Committee since the GOP took over after the 2010 election. Not one jobs bill to the floor; and this from a guy who represents people in northern Michigan where unemployment is always high. Of course, he does care a great deal about the "unborn" and relies on nonsense like that and the great GOP standard lies to get elected over and over again. I'd love to see northern Michigan defeat both Camp and Benishek. Then we might begin to see progress.
DeleteBeaglemom
@ Beaglemom, Camp, Benishek, and my moron state senator Casperson (birther fool). Thank goodness we at least got Dianda as state representative instead of that idiot Matt Huuki again.
DeleteI have an idea: democrats, progressives, and republicans appear at Congressional 'Town Hall' meetings with signs saying, "We want to repeal all Congressional healthcare 40 times!!" Wonder if they would understand the message?
DeleteUmmmmm, that is almost Palin-esque circular logic. He hates the law because the various protections will allegedly drive up costs, but then tries to defend his actions by claiming those protections are not going to happen anyway. My head hurts.
ReplyDeleteHer gutteral understanding of economics (of which she got a D in one of her colleges) drives her instinct on privatized, market incentive business. She thinks the system we have now, with discriminatory coverage and exorbitant emergent care, is superior to Canada and Great Britain's systems.
DeleteHold these baggers feet to the fire, question and answer their misinformation - there should be consequences to their bad behavior, like losing their seats in the 2014 election cycle.
I wish the NEWS MEDIA would start calling out our politicians on their lies.
ReplyDeleteThat IS, after all, their JOB.
LOL!
DeleteThe job of the news media is to report.
Our job--and it is your job too--is to "call out," critique, mock, push back, organize and vote.
THe tide is turning and people, especially seniors, (not those TV ad seniors who need investment consulting firms to help them with their investments, ie. buy vineyards) are beginning to see the light, that their Rep. representatives are pulling the wool over their eyes. Finally, the truth bell tolls.
ReplyDeleteI would like to know exactly how much each of those symbolic votes has cost us.
ReplyDeleteI know, right? I'd love to see a class-action suit on behalf of We the People to get reimbursed by those assholes.
Delete"Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake" --Napoleon Bonaparte. If the GOP truly believed that Obamacare was going to be a train wreck, they'd be sitting back silently, licking their chops. All the screaming and yelling they're doing is b/c they know that the ACA will be a success, not that it will be a failure. Too bad the Obama administration has done such a poor sales job. People don't have enough information, and that's why the GOP can continue to lie and obfuscate.
ReplyDelete