As the election approaches, Republicans are getting sleazier and sleazier in their attempts to fool voters. I’ve noticed that in local ads of candidates for state office, some are Democrats. Others do not identify a political party, but from the positions they advertise, they must be Democrats. But when I check out that latter group, I find that they are Republicans, whose positions are the opposite of what the ads claim. Check before you vote. Since health care is the issue that matters most to voters, Republicans are falsely claiming to be the defenders, not the destroyers they are.
Congressional Republicans spent much of 2017 trying to repeal the Affordable Care Act. After a failed drive to pass a repeal bill—the American Health Care Act—they successfully voted to end the individual mandate, a key element of the law that helps stabilize health insurance markets. The Trump administration has also tried to undermine Obamacare, loosening rules, reducing outreach, slashing payments to insurers, and throwing insurance markets into chaos. And at the state level, Republican attorneys general have filed suit in an effort to abolish the law in its entirety.
Republicans still want to repeal Obamacare, but they’re telling voters the opposite. On the campaign trail, Republican candidates are stalwart defenders of the Affordable Care Act and its most popular provision: a regulation that prohibits insurers from discriminating on the basis of pre-existing conditions. More than obfuscation or spin, this is outright lying. And as they do it, Republicans are showing contempt for voters, and further fraying our ability to doelectoral democracy.
“I support forcing insurance companies to cover all pre-existing conditions,” says Josh Hawley, running for Senate in Missouri, in a television ad defending his record from opponent Sen. Claire McCaskill. And yet, as state attorney general, Hawley joined a lawsuit that, if successful, would wipe out the Affordable Care Act, including its protections for patients with pre-existing conditions. The lawsuit, in fact, specifically argues those provisions have no constitutional basis.
In his final debate with challenger Beto O’Rourke, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz similarly pledged to protect those with pre-existing conditions. “We can protect pre-existing conditions, and you need to understand, everyone agrees we’re going to protect pre-existing conditions.” But Cruz is a front-line fighter in the war against Obamacare and has been for years. In 2013, he shut down the federal government in a drive to defund the law. During the 2016 Republican presidential primary, Cruz outlined his vision for health care with a pledge to “repeal every word of Obamacare,” offering an alternative that made no mention of patients with pre-existing conditions. This summer, when asked the lawsuit that would gut the law and those protections, Cruz defended the suit.
Sen. Dean Heller of Nevada has also cast himself as a defender of protections for patients with pre-existing conditions as he fights a tough re-election race against Rep. Jacky Rosen of the state’s 3rd District. “I’m fighting to protect pre-existing conditions and increase funding for Nevadans who need it most. Jacky, I’ll stack my record up against yours any day,” he says in a recent television ad. But Heller, like Cruz, is an opponent of Obamacare. And while Heller voted against the most far-reaching Republican repeal bill, he backed a measure that would have let states eliminate pre-existing condition protections…
Inserted from <Slate Magazine>
Those are just a few. There are many more examples.
Joy Reid covered the issue in detail on AM Joy.
Voters need to be informed that Republicans are lying about this.
Long term, we need to pass Medicare for all.
RESIST!!
VOTE BLUE!!
16 DAYS!!
13 Responses to “Republican Health Care Lies”
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They are banking on people not having paid attention. And, sadly, in mmany cases they are right. Word of mouth, or at least person-to-person communicatio, is probably the best way to correct that – except, of course, that’s why there are trolls on Facebook. There probably isn’t a single solution, but certainly, we must all do what we can. Whatever we can.
The only thing that should replace Obamacare (which is itself a compromise) is a single-payer system that doesn’t put citizens at risk of personal bankruptcy due to medical bills!
And to give some idea of how long Rethuglicans have been active in trying to “kill” Medicare (and Social Security and Medicaid and ANY & ALL safety nets for Americans) please note this ad is from 2011 …
I don’t remember seeing this before, but considering my graphic, great minds do fall in the same ditch.
We need health care in USA just like in many other civilized countries. A pox on the GOP.
Considering the rising costs of medical bills now, it’s important and necessary to keep ACA up and running. We depend on it. It’s important for all of us, and for our future generations also. That also includes (to me) Medicare, and SS.
The GOPIGGIES have long been run by the Insurance industry, and more recently, by the NRA. They depend on lies, lies, gullibility and the ever so short attention span of Americans. Of course, even at C2, there is the issue of “You won’t believe how big (such and such star’s) house is,” or “What robin Williams was worth will blow your mind!” In the U.S.A., this pop drivel is front page damned frigging news!
Some years ago, some singer lady and husband, I can’t quite recall-it was sooo important- held a PRESS CONFERENCE to announce the gender of their still in utero baby. Now people all over the place are doing the most idiotic things to outdo one another in this vein. Hey, people, it’s a baby, there are only so many gender choices at delivery…let me count! THIS is what people get crazy about!
Vote your asses off!
Not to mention that in utero ultrasound is not capable of looking into the soul to determine the REAL gender. Now, if it could do that, it might be worth the parties and press conferences.
It amazes me that other countries have great health care without their citizens having to go broke. What is wrong with our flipping country that the people work all of their life and get crap??? Something sure is wrong here. I honestly wish our so-called government, who were sworn in to serve the people, would honestly take steps way back and review the whole insurance policy issues and create a much better universal insurance plan.
After the number of years I’ve been following American politics and seeing it going down-hill so fast in the last few years, I’m no longer surprised about the deterioration in general healthcare for all in the US. In retrospect, I’m far more surprised that the ACA made it to what it was. As long as politicians and a resident are allowed to lie as much as they do, in fact are allowed to lie at all, and people rather believe the lies than question the politics behind them out of sheer laziness and disinterest, nothing will change.
Your only hope now is that rational people going to the polling booths far outnumber the non-thinking, but habitual, Republican voters and secure a blue House.
We must vote blue to keep medicare, medicaid, social security (which are all important to me) and we need universal healthcare like all other civilized nations.
Thanks and amen!
I am reminded of Diaper Don’s recent comment that Canadians are flocking to the US for medical care because they have to wait too long at home. He then said that socialised medicine does not work. Really? What he does not say is that everybody must be covered and just getting into a doctor for routine medical issues is not a problem. What he also does not say is that thousands of US seniors buy their prescription drugs from Canada because they are cheaper (health ministries negotiate prices with big pharma), although how long that will last is unknown since the new USMC agreement purportedly supports big pharma.
Republicans lie and the idea that these ads from Republicans like Scott Walker are allowed to air when they are patently false, is absolutely ridiculous. Republicans need to be held accountable for their false advertising. When Davis Cay Johnston and Bruce Bartlett (an independent who worked for many Republicans) both pan the dishonest Republicans, you know people are being scammed on health care by Republicans. According to Wikipedia, Bartlett once said:
Unrelated, the AM Joy video went on to talk about how, according to Diaper Don and the Republican dark echo cavern (I’d use ‘chamber’ but that is too pleasant sounding!), Democrats use ‘mob tactics’. Well, Diaper Don is associated with the American mob and the Russian mob through his business dealings so you’d be forgiven for thinking who better to know what mob tactics are than Diaper Don. Unfortunately he lies profusely, so much so that if his lies were blood loss, he’d be dead a long time ago. It is Diaper Don and Republicans who use mob tactics encouraging violence against Democrats. AM Joy showed video of Nancy Pelosi in Florida being harassed violent Republican protestors . . . or should I say violent Republican jackboots, reminiscent of Hitler’s brown shirted thugs! This is the attitude against elderly white Democratic females (among others). They had better not come to Vancouver where the majority (about 80%) of the newly elected city council are women.