Scott Walker Gives Away The Radical Right's Healthcare Game... Oops

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. Buffalo-area New York Trumpist Chris Collins just flat out admitted he didn't read the bill and wasn't even aware that his vote cuts a program called Essential Plan that provides low-cost health insurance to low- and middle-income people who don't qualify for Medicaid. Over 20,000 people in his own district are benefitting from it. It's one thing for Collins to oppose the program and vote against it and then tell his constituents why; it's entirely something else for him to not even bother reading the bill and understanding how it impacts the life and death struggles of his own constituents but voting for it anyway. John Shimkus told a TV reporter, on camera, that he wasn't able to read the bill before voting on it because he was busy at baseball practice. (He and his family get government health insurance that has been exempted from the life-threatening provisions of Trumpcare, so... no worries. And that district of his is soon read. Trump won it with 70.7% and the DCCC has never even thought about challenging Shimkus.)

At a townhall meeting in Lewiston, Idaho Friday morning, Republican Raul Labrador, who voted for TrumpCare just hours earlier, drew intense jeers when he claimed nobody dies due to lack of access to health care. That's an incident that every voter in the district will have in the back of her or his mind when they vote in 2018-- not that the DCCC has any intention of ever running anyone against Labrador. They had a rot-gut Blue Dog incumbent, Walt Minnick, who Labrador beat in 2010 and Minnick so destroyed the Democratic Party brand in the district that's it's been irrelevant since then.

Greg Gianforte, the Republican multimillionaire running for the open at-large Montana seat against Rob Quist, has carefully tried to hide his support for the highly toxic TrumpCare. But... oops! On Thursday he told reporters he'd need to read the full bill before voting on it. A few hours later during a private conference call with conservative K Street lobbyists, the dishonest Gianforte felt free to say what he really thinks of the horrendous bill. "The votes in the House are going to determine whether we get tax reform done, sounds like we just passed a health care thing, which I’m thankful for, sounds like we’re starting to repeal and replace." The Times pointed out that "Even in Montana-- a Republican-leaning state on the presidential level, but which still elects Democrats statewide-- it appears no longer politically safe in the heat of a campaign to offer full-throated support for repealing Obamacare." (The DCCC refuses to help in Montana but if you'd like to help Quist beat Gianforte, you can do it here.)

And then you've gotten very vulnerable crackpot Martha McSally in the Tucson area (AZ-02). Hillary beat Trump in her district last year 49.6-44.7%. Local Democrats are trying to recruit state Rep (and surgeon) Randy Friese to run against her. She didn't help herself by voting for the very unpopular TrumpCare and, as Jim Nintzel reported in the Tucson's weekly paper, The Range, "After declining to inform the public of where she stands on the Zombie Trumpcare bill, it appears that Congreswoman Martha McSally (R-AZ02) is fully behind it, according to AP reporter Erica Werner, who reports that McSally told her GOP colleagues it was time to get this 'fucking thing' done."

But most Republicans are just sticking to the focus-group tested talking points Paul Ryan's office sent out, the lies about how great the bill is. One of those lies, which was puked out last week 2 days in row on Chris Hayes' show by Republican leaders, first Tom Cole (OK) and then Mike Burgess (TX), is that "oh, no one's going to use those silly waivers that kill preexisting condition protections-- how'd that get in there anyway? Besides, the Senate will kill it. Doesn't mean a thing--zip... nothing, nada, zero... less than zero."

Hours later, Todd Richmond, reporting for the Associated Press: Scott Walker would consider seeking waiver to let health insurers raise premiums in Wisconsin. Embarrassing. But far more an expression of where Republican ideologues are on this than Paul Ryan, Kevin McCarthy, Tom Cole or Michael Burgess will ever let on.

Gov. Scott Walker said Friday that he would consider seeking a waiver to let insurers raise premiums for people with pre-existing medical conditions if the House Republicans’ health care plan becomes law... Walker, a Republican, told reporters that he would consider seeking such a waiver, saying Wisconsin has run high-risk pools well in the past.

...According to the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonprofit organization that tracks national health issues, about 852,000 non-elderly Wisconsin residents had pre-existing conditions in 2015. That’s a quarter of the state’s non-elderly population.

...Assembly Minority Leader Peter Barca, D-Kenosha, said he was disappointed that Walker is ready to sacrifice health care coverage for thousands of Wisconsin residents.

“We need to make health insurance more affordable for everyone, not penalize people who get sick or are born with a serious health concern,” Barca said.

Senate Minority Leader Jennifer Shilling, D-La Crosse, said in an email that she was “shocked” that Walker would even entertain the idea of raising premiums on families with pre-existing conditions.

Louisiana Senator Bill Cassidy, a doctor and a former Democrat, has made quite the splash lately by telling CNN that for TrumpCare to pass the Senate it must pass the Jimmy Kimmel Test.

Jimmy Kimmel's tearful monologue about his infant son's heart surgery struck a cord with at least one member of Congress.

Republican Louisiana Senator Bill Cassidy said Friday that he's basing his support on a bill to repeal and replace Obamacare on "the Jimmy Kimmel test."

"I ask, Does it pass the Jimmy Kimmel test?" Cassidy told CNN. "Would the child born with a congenital heart disease be able to get everything she or he would need in that first year of life ... That they would receive all of the services even if they go over a certain amount?"

TrumpCare doesn't even come close.