It’s the height of hypocrisy: Republicans call for repeal of the law but plead for its dollars on behalf of constituents. AT LEAST 20 REPUBLICAN CONGRESS PEOPLE. Article, ‘Revealed: Letters From Republicans Seeking Obamacare Money’: Letters produced by a Freedom of Information Act request reveal that many of these same anti-Obamacare Republicans have solicited grants from the very program they claim to despise. This is evidence not merely of shameless hypocrisy but of the fact that the ACA bestows tangible benefits that even Congress’s most extreme right-wing ideologues are hard-pressed to deny to their constituents. Though notably less transparent, the behavior of these GOP lawmakers parallels that of GOP governors like ARIZONA’S JAN BREWER, who blast the president’s health reform package while EMBRACING THE MILLIONS IN MEDICAID FUNDS THAT IT PROVIDES. The letter writers include GOP rank-and-file Congress members, leaders and committee chairs, all of whom have supported the repeal effort. • In one of two letters sent by Ohio Republican Rob Portman to the Department of Health and Human Services, the senator requested ACA funds to help a federal health center in Cleveland, where the money could help “an additional 8,966 uninsured individuals” to receive”essential services,” in his words. • Texas Senator John Cornyn, the Republican whip, wrote to the Centers for Disease Control to recommend a grant for Houston and Harris County. Congressman Michael McCaul, a Republican and the chair of the Homeland Security Committee, wrote a letter praising the same grant request, calling the effort a “crucial initiative to achieve a healthier Houston/Harris County.” • National Republican Senatorial Committee’s chair, Jerry Moran, has hailed programs that exist because of Obamacare. In August, he attended a ceremony announcing a $4.7 million expansion of the Community Health Center of Southeast Kansas. A picture posted on Moran’s official Facebook page shows the senator in a suit with his foot on a shovel to break ground for the health clinic. thenation/article/174669/revealed-letters-republicans-seeking-obamacare-money#ixzz2Ve0RApNT
Posted on: Sat, 08 Jun 2013 18:37:25 +0000