Far right extremist and anti-health care fanatic Bill Cassidy (R-LA) is running for Mary Landrieu's Senate seat. Yesterday his bill to allow substandard health insurance policies to be sold on the open market-- even if they are just scams that cheat consumers-- passed the Republican-controlled House 247-167.
Georgia Blue Dog John Barrow has one of the most reactionary voting records of any Democrat in Congress-- to the point where he defines the term "DINO," Democrat in Name Only. For 2013-14, ProgressivePunch has scored him a dismal 27.73, just fractionally worse from Utah Blue Dog, Jim Matheson who decided to retire rather than face certain defeat in November.
Yesterday we looked at what happened when a real Democrat, Michael Wager, was confronted with idiotic Republican assertions about health care reform. Conservative Republicans in Ohio and across the country opposed Social Security, opposed Medicare, opposed Medicaid and now oppose the Affordable Care Act, all as a matter of course. It's the nature of who and what they are.
A few days ago we took a look at the first of our progressive candidates for the Wisconsin state Senate, Assemblywoman Penny Bernard Schaber from Appleton.
House Democrats, led by Nancy Pelosi and Steve Israel came close to rending their garments after the Republicans' 52nd vote to wreck the Affordable Care Act this morning. Pelosi boldly proclaimed that Republicans "are wasting their time using that as their electoral issue" and attacked them for wasting time. "We shouldn't be wasting time on this foolishness and recklessness," she told journalists.
Yesterday, Greg Sargent at the Washington Post used North Carolina's hapless Republican Senate primary frontrunner, immensely unpopular Speaker Thom Tillis, to demonstrate the conundrum Republican candidates find themselves in when trying to deal with repealing the Affordable Care Act-- at least when they talk with non-Foxified normal voters.
Yadda, yadda, yadda… Nancy Pelosi, of course, voted against the latest attempt to take health care away from poor people. So did 121 other Democrats. But every single Republican and 67 Democrats-- many from the Republican-wing of the Democratic Party-- voted with them.
Over the weekend, Lee Rogers, a nationally known surgeon and the former spokesperson for the National Diabetes Association, sent out a notice to his Simi Valley, Santa Clarita, Antelope Valley neighbors that today (Monday) is the deadline to enroll in Covered California for insurance in 2014 under the Affordable Care Act. "As a doctor," he wrote "I have a strong interest in making sure everyone gets affordable health insurance.
OK, let's get back to where we left off at the 6AM post this morning-- the warning FDR gave us about GOP intentions. Except this time let's home in on healthcare. In fact let's home in on one very red state, Oklahoma and one congressional election in that state, the one that pits right wing extremist James Lankford against progressive Democrat Tom Guild in the Oklahoma City area. This is the most difficult race Blue America has taken on for the 2014 cycle.
