John Kline is a right-wing extremist from southeast Minnesota. His district, MN-02, stretches from south of St. Paul through Eagan, Burnsville, Apple Valley, and Northfield all the way down to Wabasha and the Zumbro Bottoms State Forest. Although the PVI is still classified R+2, Obama took the district in both 2008 and 2012. Kline is the chairman of the House Workforce and Education Committee, where he has been able to do a great deal of damage to working families. Although the DCCC has given him a free pass to reelection, Kline was the model for the Blue America Have You Had Enough? campaign in 2006.In the video above you can hear him pandering to brainwashed fanatics, his base: “Obamacare is a continued disaster . . .So Ted Cruz, like all the rest of us, have voted again and again to repeal, defund, delay, push back Obamacare. We had a tactic, we said, ‘Okay, we’re going to let the government shutdown.’ . . . so we let the government shut down for sixteen days. We voted again, and again, and again-- Ted Cruz and I and every Republican-- again, and again, and again to open the government only under these conditions: that you defund it or you delay it all.”But the Affordable Care Act is pretty popular in Minnesota and folks there-- unlike Kline and his paranoid base of Hate Talk Radio addicts-- do not want to see it repealed. A national poll was released by CNN yesterday, confirming what all legitimate polls show-- most Americans want to give the Affordable Care Act a chance to work. Normal voters do not support Kline's and Cruz's tactics of "repeal, defund, delay." And they are really opposed to shutting down the government to get their way, which, of course, Kline not only supported, but was a leader and an architect of the reviled tactic. Soon after Kline voted to shut down the government, the PPP asked voters in MN-02 what they thought of the tactic. The results are worth looking at.Those weren't people in California and Texas and Ohio-- or even in the Twin Cities and Duluth. They are all high-propensity voters in MN-02. And most of them disapprove of Kline and plan to vote to replace him with Mike Obermeuller. Last week, Steve Israel rushed to add a Republican-turned-idependent, Ed Jany, who doesn't even live in the district he's running in. But he;s still protecting Kline and has refused to add Obermueller to the Red-to-Blue program, even though, by every phony-baloney standard Israel pompously claims determines who gets onto the list and who doesn't, Obermueller beats Jany. And Obermueller even went to a real college and got a real degree. And he lives in his district! Obermueller will continue to stand up for working families, as he has done in the state legislature, and will work with other progressives to strengthen and improve the Affordable Care Act. Will Jany? Who knows-- more Israel "mystery meat."According to CNN, "a majority of Americans want to keep the federal health care law as is, or make some changes to improve it, according to a new national poll… According to the poll, 61% want Congress to leave the Affordable Care Act alone (12%) or make some changes to the law in an attempt to make it work better (49%). Thirty-eight percent of those questioned say the law should be repealed and replaced with a completely different system (18%) or say the measure should be repealed, with Americans going back to the system in place before the law was implemented (20%)."According to a White House paper, thanks to the Affordable Care Act, in Minnesota:
• 1,412,000 individuals on private insurance have gained coverage for at least one free preventive health care service such as a mammogram, birth control, or an immunization in 2011 and 2012. In the first eleven months of 2013 alone, an additional 272,900 people with Medicare have received at least one preventive service at no out of pocket cost.• The up to 2,319,000 individuals with pre-existing conditions such as asthma, cancer, or diabetes-- including up to 298000 children-- will no longer have to worry about being denied coverage or charged higher prices because of their health status or history.• Approximately 990,000 Minnesotans have gained expanded mental health and substance use disorder benefits and/or federal parity protections.• 423,000 uninsured Minnesotans will have new health insurance options through Medicaid or private health plans in the Marketplace.• As a result of new policies that make sure premium dollars work for the consumer, not just the insurer, in the past year insurance companies have sent rebates averaging $303 per family to approximately 9,200 consumers.• In the first ten months of 2013, 45,200 seniors and people with disabilities have saved on average $811 on prescription medications as the health care law closes Medicare’s so-called “donut hole.”• 35,000 young adults have gained health insurance because they can now stay on their parents’ health plans until age 26.• Individuals no longer have to worry about having their health benefits cut off after they reach a lifetime limit on benefits, and starting in January, 2,043,000 Minnesotans will no longer have to worry about annual limits, either.• Health centers have received $48,506,000 to provide primary care, establish new sites, and renovate existing centers to expand access to quality health care. Minnesota has approximately 80 health center sites, which served about 181,000 individuals in 2012.
Apparently Kline doesn't care about these polls and doesn't care that the White House paper ended with what he should see as a warning: "Instead of working to fix the law, Republicans in Congress have tried and failed to repeal it more than 40 times. Repealing the law completely would raise premiums, allow discrimination based on pre-existing conditions, force women to pay for preventive services like mammograms, and eliminate discounts seniors get on prescription drugs. It’s time for Republicans in Congress to stop refighting old political battles over health care, because the real cost of repeal will hit home for many hardworking families in Minnesota." If you'd like to help Mike Obermueller replace Kline, you can chip in here on the Blue America ActBlue page.Wrong message for Minnesota
