By Rich Dunn
On May the 4th, the House of Representatives passed their version of health care reform (H.R. 1628) without a single hearing or any input from the Democratic minority. The vote was 217 to 213. All 193 Democrats voted no, as did 20 Republicans:
Andy Biggs (AZ-5)
Mike Coffman (CO-6)
Barbara Comstock (VA-10)
Ryan Costello (PA-6)
Charlie Dent (PA-15)
Dan Donovan (NY-11)
Brian Fitzpatrick (PA-8)
Jaime Herrera Beutier (WA-3)
Will Hurd (TX-23)
Walter Jones (NC-3)
David Joyce (OH-14)
John Katko (NY-24)
Leonard Lance (NJ-7)
Frank LoBiondo (NJ-2)
Thomas Massie (KY-4)
Patrick Meehan (PA-7)
Dave Reichert (WA-8)
Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (FL-27)
Christopher Smith (NJ-4)
Michael Turner (OH-10)
You’ll notice that our representative in the House, Mark Amodei (NV-2), isn’t on that list. Being in what the Cook Political Report calls a “Solid Republican” district, with a partisan rating of +7, Mr. Amodei took the risk of chairing Donald Trump’s presidential campaign in Nevada. And he obviously isn’t concerned about possible blowback from voting for a health care plan that hurts the most vulnerable Americans — the poor, seniors, the mentally ill, and those with alcohol and drug dependencies.
Making it worse, the GOP’s health care cuts are being made to use reconciliation rules to pay for yet another round of tax cuts for those who need help the least. I spoke with Rep. Amodei about this while he was home on recess, explaining how health care could easily be made both more effective and less costly. He understood exactly what I was saying, yet he still voted for this abomination. It was the triumph of politics over policy. Health care shouldn’t even be about politics, and it wouldn’t be if we began the conversation on the premise that it’s both a right and a responsibility.
Well, today’s special election in Georgia’s 6th congressional district, the most expensive race in US history, is being watched very closely by both parties, especially by Republicans like Mark Amodei who voted for H.R. 1628. Today’s vote is being seen as a referendum on both Donald Trump, whose administration is already mired in scandal, and Trumpcare, which is in the process of being bulldozed through the Senate in secret, again with no hearings and no input from Democrats. They are obviously ashamed of this bill, as they undoubtedly should be.
The polls show the GA-6 race to be essentially a dead heat, which is quite remarkable considering that GA-6 is even more solidly Republican than NV-2, with a partisan rating of +9. If Democrat Jon Ossoff even comes close to winning a district like that, the storm warnings will be out for almost a hundred GOP incumbents going into the 2018 midterms. Will Nevada’s 2nd district be in play? We’ll soon have a better feel for that.
