Pretty sure you know this story by now. Republicans changed their already horrible healthcare bill to appease the even more “conservative” Freedom Caucus and then when the public doesn’t like it, they claim it was bipartisan, when in fact not a single Democrat voted for it.
“Rep. Jeff Denham (R-Ca.), facing angry constituents at town hall, calls GOP health care bill ‘bipartisan..both parties working together’,†associate politics editor at Huffington Post Igor Bobic reported on twitter.
Rep. Jeff Denham (R-Ca.), facing angry constituents at town hall, calls GOP health care bill “bipartisan..both parties working together"
— Igor Bobic (@igorbobic) May 9, 2017
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“More on this exchange: Woman asked if he read the bill. He said yes: ‘It was read in committee. Bipartisan. Both parties working together'”
More on this exchange: Woman asked if he read the bill. He said yes: "It was read in committee. Bipartisan. Both parties working together"
— Igor Bobic (@igorbobic) May 9, 2017
That’s funny, because the Republican amendment that is causing so much outrage hadn’t even been seen by many Republicans the night before the vote.
Mercury News pointed out that all 14 members of California’s GOP congressional delegation voted for the death panel bill which some healthcare advocates around the state called a “betrayal.” “Most egregious, the advocates say, were the votes by U.S. Reps. Jeff Denham, R-Turlock; David Valadao, R-Hanford; and Steve Knight, R-Lancaster, who just the day before had either told the public — or whose staffs had told reporters — that they were ‘undecided.'”
Wait for it…
“Unknown to most Californians, however, all three had quietly signed on earlier in the day as co-sponsors to an amendment designed to ease the bill’s passage.”
Oh.
Californians were not pleased and now 30-year-old investor Josh Harder, a Democrat, is challenging Denham in 2018 and registered nurse Dotty Nygard, another Democrat, is also gunning for Denham’s seat. Nygard told the Los Angeles Times that she was drawn to the race in part because of attempts to repeal the Affordable Care Act.
Denham won his seat in 2016 by less than 5 percentage points in a Republican leaning district.
Trumpcare is “bipartisan” like Donald Trump tells the truth. But a lie like this is on par with Denham’s desperate deflection that worrying about Trump’s hidden taxes as he operates a non-separated business empire while being president is equivalent to birther conspiracies.
“I’m not going to ask the previous president to show his birth certificate any more than I would ask this president to show his taxes,” Denham said in mid April at a town hall.
You know, because we don’t have Trump’s taxes, whereas President Obama was actually forced to reveal his birth certificate to Republicans who just couldn’t wrap their heads around his legitimacy.
Denham, the guy who told his constituents that he would break with his party over issues like immigration, helped them pass the most egregious attack on American citizens health in the modern era.
And for what? Oh, to give rich people a bigger tax cut.
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