Congressional Republicans don't know quite how to respond to reporters' and constituents' questions about the TrumpCare legislation they just voted for. Some are following Trump's hubristic, bombastic approach of just flat-out lying and claiming more people will be covered for less money and get better healthcare-- just unsubstantiated nonsense that has been widely debunked.
There are few substantive issues that I would find much agreement on with mainstream conservatives like Charlie Dent (R-PA), Chris Gibson (R-NY), Bob Dold (R-IL), Mike Fitzpatrick (R-PA), Chris Smith (R-NJ), Richard Hanna (R-NY), Elise Stefanik (R-NY), Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) or Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-NJ). My heart goes out to them, though.
The sprawling Oklahoma district south of Oklahoma City, covering half of the Red River Valley, OK-04, has been represented in Congress by Tom Cole since 2002. His lowest reelection victory was a 68% win. In 2012, the district, which has a PVI of R+19, gave Romney a 67-33% win over Obama, although, the only 4 counties in the whole state voting Democratic in the last gubernatorial race were all in the 4th-- Commanche, Cotton, Jefferson and Stephens.
Nothing left of the Tea Party Caucus but garbageThe latest battleground is over the debilitating and draconian spending cuts extremist rightists who are in the pockets of the 1 percent are demanding. These are cuts even greater than the cuts neo-liberals in the Obama administration and among the New Dems and Blue Dogs have been implementing.
Like most Americans, President Obama's reaction to the tornado devastation is Oklahoma was to ask how we could help. He pledged "all of the resources" necessary to rebuild to the state that gave him his poorest results in November, 33% and a loss of every single county. (Cleveland County, where the devastation was the most brutal, went for Romney 59,019 to 34,701 in November.) Oklahoma has 5 congressmen, all Republicans. Jim Bridenstine, Markwayne Mullin, Frank Lucas, Tom Cole and James Lankford.
