If She Votes for Trumpcare, Her Home State Gets Mauled

[babylonsister]

http://www.thedailybeast.com/if-she-votes-for-trumpcare-her-home-state-gets-mauled


If She Votes for Trumpcare, Her Home State Gets Mauled
No senator who has yet to come out for or against the health care bill faces a more open-and-shut case than Shelley Moore Capito.
Michael Tomasky
06.26.17 1:00 AM ET


Attention will turn this week to a handful of Republican senators who are reported to be wavering on Mitch McConnell’s health care bill. There’s the hard-right quartet of Rand Paul, Ted Cruz, Mike Lee, and Ron Johnson, who think the Senate bill is Obamacare-lite. On the other side are four or maybe five senators who are undoubtedly facing heavy pressure from McConnell and the White House but who surely ought to be facing pressure from within their states on the grounds that a vote for this bill would be totally unjustifiable from the perspective of the citizens they were elected to represent and serve.

And on that short list, none faces a more open-and-shut case than Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia. The case is plausibly built around five questions:


1. Has the Affordable Care Act had a positive impact on the state?

2. What would repeal mean for residents’ health?

3. What would repeal mean for the economy?

4. What would the bill’s massive Medicaid cuts mean for the state?

5. Given who benefits from the bill, are there large constituencies within the state about whom it could at least be said that Trumpcare would be good for them?


On each of these questions, the West Virginia evidence seems clear. Capito would be disserving her state and her constituents horribly if she voted yes on the bill.

snip//

So yes—with Rand Paul voting no on one side and Nevada’s Dean Heller doing the same on the other, it might come down to Capito. Of all of them, she represents the state that would most clearly just get mauled by this GOP bill. If you live there, let her know it.

[bucolic_frolic]

1. She'll never figure it out

It's a moral crusade in her mind

[BumRushDaShow]

2. Also Portman from OH

because his fellow GOP Governor Kasich, is against it, having expanded Medicaid in OH (and of course we know Sherrod Brown is against it).

Forget the show-boating RW clown quartet. If you can get Portman, Capito, and Murkowski to say "no", then it helps. That may stall it enough to water it down, which might prompt the quartet to really reject it (but then opens up the danger of a Manchin and Heitcamp supporting it).

[SusanaMontana41]

15. I'm guessing Murkowski is a strong NO

given her opposition to the House bill. But I'm calling her again anyway.

[BumRushDaShow]

17. Hopefully, although she equivocated a decision until after she reviewed the thing.

She previously complained of not being permitted to see it (or participate in its creation) before it was released.

[SusanaMontana41]

18. The CBO score should be enough

for her to oppose it.

SHOULD be. Guess I'm hedging, too.

[BumRushDaShow]

19. She still publicly hedged on it even with the score

claiming that if the GOP thinks the numbers are wrong they should look more carefully at them.

"I don't think it's asking too much to say give us the time to fairly and critically analyze these numbers," Murkowski told Bash. "And if you say, well, CBO numbers don't matter, let's look at the numbers that you don't think matter. But it really does make a difference. And these numbers that we're talking about, these are men and women, these are our families that are being impacted. So let's please get it right."

http://www.cnn.com/2017/06/26/politics/murkowski-senate-health-care-cbo/index.html

Meanwhile, Susan Collins did come out with a definitive "no".

[SusanaMontana41]

20. Hmm. I read that a little differently.

It's not so much of a hedge as it is a "put up or shut up."

[BumRushDaShow]

21. Yet Susan Collins publicly said "no"

Link to tweet

Link to tweet

TEXT
Sen. Susan Collins
✔
@SenatorCollins

I want to work w/ my GOP & Dem colleagues to fix the flaws in ACA. CBO analysis shows Senate bill won't do it. I will vote no on mtp. 1/3
6:50 PM - 26 Jun 2017

Sen. Susan Collins
✔
@SenatorCollins

CBO says 22 million people lose insurance; Medicaid cuts hurt most vulnerable Americans; access to healthcare in rural areas threatened. 2/3

Follow
Sen. Susan Collins
✔
@SenatorCollins

Senate bill doesn't fix ACA problems for rural Maine. Our hospitals are already struggling. 1 in 5 Mainers are on Medicaid. 3/3
6:51 PM - 26 Jun 2017

Until she does like the above, similar to Heller's "no", then she is still swinging out there like Portman.

[SusanaMontana41]

22. I don't need to be hit over the head

with a bunch of tweets I've already read, thanks.

You don't like her. I get it. She's not exactly my cup of tea, either

[BumRushDaShow]

23. Actually you misinterpreted what I wrote

and I apologize if it came off as something snarky.

I have posted in different threads that she came out and expressed concern about the Senate's BCRA and she was on my potential "no" column. Now that it is here and it is crunch time, she, along with people like Capito, both of whom were women who have been noncommittal yet were kept out of the development process and represent states that are in desperate need, need to step up as Susan Collins has done.

I am hoping they do.

[SusanaMontana41]

26. Ah. No worries!

It was late; I was tired. Yours wasn't the first post I've misinterpreted. Sorry about that!

I just contacted Sens. Murkowski and Sullivan. Will do so again tomorrow.

[BumRushDaShow]

30. That's cool and since Turtle has now delayed the vote

that's more time to work these senators!

[obamanut2012]

28. I read Murkowski's reply the exact same way

[DFW]

3. Capito was not elected to serve the residents of West Virginia

She was elected to serve those who financed her campaign.

She only has to pay the telephone receptionist who takes the angry phone calls, and then disregards them, and even the receptionist is paid out of our taxes, not hers.

[Hortensis]

13. Yep. Just looked, and in 2014 a bunch of energy and finance companies

financed her.

Notaby, though, she already has a real record as a centrist conservative. Wouldn't it be great if Shelley Capito turned out to be a principled moderate conservative in Congress? I'm hoping. She doesn't have to run again until 2020.

[rpannier]

4. Murkowski and Collins

Especially Murkowski

[SusanaMontana41]

6. I wouldn't be surprised if Murkowski

votes against it. Not taking any chances though. I'll be on the phone with her office this week, as always.

Sen. Sullivan is a POS. 100 percent hack.

[rpannier]

12. Murkowski has issues with them dismantling Planned Parenthood

Mu guess is, that will be what sinks it for her
Thad Cochrane of MS is the other one I'm watching

[SusanaMontana41]

14. That's huge, too, but looming larger

was the Medicaid rollback. Thousands of Alaskans have been helped by this.

[TexasBushwhacker]

27. I heard on NPR that Collins and Murkowski want to submit

an amendment that protects Planned Parenthood. IF that is included, some of the right wingers will vote no on that alone.

[Vinca]

5. I think Kentucky would be creamed as well. Their idiot GOP governor actually backed off

destroying Obamacare because people finally figured out what KYnect or whatever it's called is. I don't think either Turtle Man or Ayn Rand Paul are up in 2018 so maybe they don't care how many voters die in the short term.

[Honeycombe8]

7. That seems to be incorrect. It's what the constituents WANT that matters.

Not what others think is best for them.

Wikipedia says, "Donald Trump easily won West Virginia with 68.7% of the vote, giving him his largest margin of victory in the country. Hillary Clinton received 26.5% of the vote. West Virginia was also one of two states where Donald Trump won every county, the other being Oklahoma. Trump's 42.2% margin of victory is the largest of any presidential candidate from either party in the state's history, besting Abraham Lincoln's 36.4% margin of victory in 1864."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election_in_West_Virginia,_2016

So most of Capito's constituents are Trumpers. Stands to reason that they would want her to support Trump's agenda, including the repeal of Obamacare. They knew he ran on "I will repeal Obamacare on Day One!"

I don't know what his approval rating in W Virginia is now, though.

This is coal territory. This was the strongest Trump territory in the nation, unless it changed.

[Bengus81]

9. Yep...just like Kansas they'll be getting theirs except....

In Kansas there is 43.4% that didn't want any of the shit Butternut was/is shoveling. So...they/myself gets hurt too.

[Bengus81]

8. Pfffttt....never bothers the Repuke House and Senate members in Kansas....

They vote for ANYTHING that hurts the poor and working class. Health care,min wage increases,meaningful tax cuts FOR those in lower brackets.

They don't care,I can't imagine she does either.

[Hortensis]

16. Yes. For anything the Kochs want. It's their state after all.

[Tanuki]

10. Rally today at 12:30 outside her Charleston office. Any Duers

within picketing distance, let her know what you think. Many local groups participated in yesterday's event in Charleston that was headlined by Bernie Sanders:


http://www.wvgazettemail.com/news-politics/20170625/sanders-urges-capito-to-vote-against-aca-replacement


...."Sanders said the bill would do the most harm to children with special needs, the elderly, veterans, women who rely on health care services from Planned Parenthood and those suffering from opioid and heroin addictions.

“Today, Medicaid pays for about 45 percent of all addiction treatment in the state of West Virginia,” Sanders said. “If you cut Medicaid by $800 billion over a 10-year period, it will mean up to 27,000 people in West Virginia would not get the treatment they desperately need to deal with their addiction."......

[gordianot]

11. To relieve her guilt she needs to find a smiley Democrat and make a bipartisan statement.

Like all Republicans she has disdain for the Lemmings who vote for her. The nasty little creatures may nip your hand going over the cliff but are not smart enough to learn a long term lesson.

[WinkyDink]

24. Once again, Democrats (the ACA and Obama) saving Republican arse (W. Virginians), with ZERO thanks.

[Thrill]

25. You act like she gives a shit

[Solly Mack]

29. Guess people will find out what she really thinks of them.

The question is, will they get angry or make excuses for her?

Or will WV voters simply get angry with liberals? Blame everyone else but their GOP representatives and themselves for voting for them? Will they still be holding out hope for Trump?

Will they complain about their needs not being met while they continue to vote to eliminate needed programs? Programs they need. Programs that save their lives.

You know, when Obama spoke of people clinging to guns, religion, and not caring about others when they grow bitter over what's happening in their lives, he wasn't mocking them - he was pointing out their blinders. He was pointing out their go-to comfort zones. Where they can escape to instead of challenging what they believe is true. Where they don't have to look for answers and can, instead, commiserate with the like-minded who hold the same biases and prejudices.

You can't fight poverty voting for people who have said for years they want to gut needed social programs. You can't fight the opioid crisis unless you work to eliminate poverty. Drug use and poverty are not uncommon friends. You can't have the needed health/drug rehab programs without voting for those who will fund the necessary programs instead of those who would eliminate them.

You can't blame others for lying to you when you watch Fox News, believe that Obama is a Kenyan Muslim, and believe that Clinton ran a Pizza place child sex ring. You don't want the truth - because of you did, you'd look for it. It's easy to find.

You can't cling to a way of life that is gone and expect not to be bitter. Yeah, coal companies screwed you over - so stop voting for the company store and the people in Congress who benefit from it.

Stop sending people to Congress who do not give a damn about what happens to you. And that one goes out to everyone - because it's not limited to WV.

Stop voting for your own oppression.

And while I'm at it - stop blaming me and people like me. I'm not the enemy. I never was.