A Right-Wing Judge In Texas Just Moved Up The Timetable For Medicare-For-All

When John Conyers introduced the 2017 version of the Medicare for All bill in the House, H.R. 676, there were 51 original cosponsors. Last week, the bill got it's 124th co-sponsor, Brenda Jones from Detroit, Conyers' old seat, which she will hold until the expiration of his seat at the end of the month. Although the co-sponsors were all progressives in the beginning, by last spring, died-in-the wool conservatives-- 17 New Dems and even Blue Dogs from the Republican wing of the Democratic Party-- were signing on (still no Beto, though):

• Anthony Brown (New Dem-MD)
• Andre Carson (New Dem-IN)
• Luis Correa (Blue Dog-CA)
• Ed Perlmutter (New Dem-CO)
• Vicente Gonzalez (Blue Dog-TX)
• Adam Smith (New Dem-WA)
• Brendan Boyle (New Dem-PA)
• Al Lawson (New Dem-FL)
• Jim Cooper (Blue Dog-TN)
• Mike Thompson (Blue Dog-CA)
• Darren Soto (New Dem-FL)
• Marc Veasey (New Dem-TX)
• Adam Schiff (New Dem-CA)
• Sanford Bishop (Blue Dog-GA)
• Filemon Vela (Blue Dog-TX)
• Don Beyer (New Dem-VA)
• Don Norcross (New Dem-NJ)

Friday evening, a right-wing nut, Federal District Judge Reed O'Connor, put on the bench by George W. Bush, ruled in favor of a coalition of 20 Republican Attorneys General led by Ken Paxton (R-TX) that the Affordable Care Act is unconstitutional. The AGs claimed that "when Congress last year repealed the tax penalty for the so-called individual mandate, it eliminated the U.S. Supreme Court’s rationale for finding the ACA constitutional in 2012."

So the insurance industry-- which has been paying immense bribes to corrupt conservatives to get rid of protections for people with preexisting conditions-- is one step closer to being able to rip off the whole country. By the way, these are the dozen current members (not including the ones who won't be returning in January) of the House who took the biggest bribes from the insurance industry 2017-18:

• Kevin Brady (R-TX), chair, House Ways and Means Committee- $374,800
• Blaine Luetkemeyer (R-MO), member, Financial Services subcommittee on Insurance + chair of subcommittee on Consumer Credit- $373,400
• Richard Neal (D-MA), ranking member, House Ways and Means- $364,900
• Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), House Majority Leader- $351,450
• Paul Ryan (R-WI, Speaker- $321,318
• Steve Stivers (R-OH), member, Financial Services subcommittee on Insurance- $313,374
• Sean Duffy (R-WI), chair, Financial Services subcommittee on Insurance- $301,950
• Ron Kind (New Dem-WI), member, House Ways and Means- $267,025
• John Larson (New Dem-CT), member, House Ways and Means- $263,274
• Ann Wagner (R-MO), chair, Financial Services Subcommittee on Oversite and Investigations- $256,200
• Andy Barr (R-KY), member, Financial Services Subcommittee on Consumer Credit- $247,681
• Bill Huizenga (R-MI), chair, Financial Services Subcommittee on Capital Markets, Securities and Investment- $242,883

So Richard Neal now takes over as the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, the committee Alexandria would like to get onto so she can stop the practices he's taking a leading role in. This should be interesting.

Back to the Judge O'Connor. His finding will be put on hold until the case works its way through the judicial system, presumably, eventually, to the U.S. Supreme Court. Trump's reflexive reaction to the prospect of millions of Americans losing their health coverage is worth thinking about, especially for Trump voters in West Virginia, Kentucky, Pennsylvania... and in the states were voters just used the initiative process to expand Medicaid:

As for O'Connor being a highly respected judge, he isn't, not even close. "Highly respected" in Trump-Speak means simple someone that agrees with him on whatever he's talking about at the moment. O'Connor is a doctrinaire wing nut who Harry Reid allowed to be conformed with a voice vote so that there isn't even a record for accountability of senators who were complicit in this ruling.

One good thing that may come out of it, of course, is that when the Democratic House begins to fix the healthcare system, it will be a much more robust fix than Obamacare, with negotiated pharmaceutical prices and single payer. Medicare-for-All, hear we come. When you add the freshmen who recently campaigned on single payer to the 124 co-sponsors of H.R. 676-- even minus the ones who are not returning in January-- you're either there or almost there for passage already. And, presumably, some of the non-signers, aren't opposed. The American people will need to do three things to pass Medicare-for-All bill now:

• defeat Trump and replace him with a Democrat willing-- or preferrably eager-- to sign Medicare-For-All
• flip the Senate blue in 2020 (hard-- means defeating McConnell in Kentucky) or 2022 (easy)
• defeat reactionary anti-healthcare Blue Dogs in the 2020 primaries, particularly ones in blue districts, like Dan Lipinksi (IL), Jim Costa (CA), Henry Cuellar (TX), Stephanie Murphy (FL), Kurt Schrader (OR) and David Scott (GA).