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Democrats see opposition to GOP health bill as winning issue

ATLANTA (AP) It's "Trumpcare" now, and Republicans have to answer for it.

After dozens of symbolic votes, House Republicans finally pushed through a bill to gut Barack Obama's Affordable Care Act, with President Donald Trump hailing the replacement as "a great plan" that has "really brought the Republican Party together."

Democrats are giddy about what could be severe political consequences for the GOP.

Even though the Senate still has to act, Republicans now largely own a measure that would curtail, and in some cases take away completely, benefits Americans have embraced after seven years. Chief among them: a guarantee of paying the same amount for coverage regardless of health history. Budget analysts estimate 24 million people would lose insurance over a decade, 14 million in the first year, and older Americans would face higher costs.

The Senate, meanwhile, will write its own health care bill, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said in Louisville while attending the Kentucky Derby. No timetable will be announced, McConnell said, and he added: "We don't anticipate any Democratic help at all, so it will be a simple majority vote situation."

In the House, 217 Republicans voted yes.

"Progressives are going to hang this around the necks of every one of those Republicans," said Angel Padilla, co-founder of the liberal group Indivisible. "These Republicans voted to take away peoples' health care. This is going to come back to bite them."

Democrats are convinced the GOP repeal bill jeopardizes the Republican monopoly in Washington, starting with majority control of the House, and the party's advantages in statehouses from Nevada to New Hampshire.

The potential fallout crystallized almost immediately.

Fundraising surged nationwide as new recruits stepped up to challenge vulnerable Republicans who backed the plan. Among the vulnerable: two-term Rep. Tom MacArthur, R-N.J., who helped revive the bill by authoring a key amendment on pre-existing conditions.

"We have an opportunity to take down the person who was the author of Trumpcare 2.0," said Democrat Andrew Kim, an Obama White House national security adviser, who said he's now more likely to challenge MacArthur next year. Kim raised more than $43,000 online over the last week for a possible run.

"He owns every part of this," Kim said of MacArthur.

Democrats need to flip 24 seats between now and the 2018 elections to take control of the House. Of the 217 Republicans who backed the bill, 14 come from districts carried by Democrat Hillary Clinton last fall, and 24 serve in districts where Trump did not win more than 50 percent of the vote.

Republican Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, who is not seeking re-election next year, warned that the bill "has the potential to severely harm the health and lives of people in south Florida." Her open seat in Miami is considered a prime pick-up opportunity for Democrats.

Next month, Democrats and Republicans face a showdown over a House seat in the Atlanta suburbs. Georgia Democrat Jon Ossoff, who is trying to score a special election upset in a traditionally conservative House district, said he strongly opposes "discrimination" over pre-existing conditions in response to the vote.

Outside groups prepared to launch an advertising campaign in the coming days to punish vulnerable Republicans in key states. The television and online blitz is expected to seize on the more unpopular provisions in the GOP plan, which was opposed by the AARP, the American Medical Association, which represents doctors, and the American Hospital Association.

The AARP warned that the GOP plan institutes an "age tax" and jeopardizes coverage for 25 million older Americans with pre-existing conditions. The bill would also roll back subsidies for individual insurance premiums, end federal payments for states to expand Medicaid for the poor and disabled, and cut more than $700 billion in taxes over 10 years.

Act Blue, a clearinghouse political action committee that raises money for Democratic campaigns, has already helped raise more than $2 million to fuel challenges against House Republicans who backed the GOP plan.

Democrats also targeted Republican governors in Democratic-leaning states, including Maryland's Larry Hogan, who did not take a public position before the House vote.

"Where is their promise that no one is going to lose their insurance?" asked Connecticut Gov. Dan Malloy, chairman of the Democratic Governors Association.

"They have no intention to honor what they ran on," he declared. "It's the sort of things that cowards do, and the Republicans in Congress and in the statehouses are cowards. ... It is remarkable, and we will be reminding people of it."

In Ohio, Democrats targeted Rep. Jim Renacci, who voted for the bill, as he runs for governor in a contested Republican primary campaign. Outgoing Gov. John Kasich, a Republican, condemned the Republican measure as "woefully short."

Outside Washington, the Trump resistance mobilized quickly. The first of the grassroots protests were held in House Speaker Paul Ryan's Wisconsin district hours after Thursday's vote. Democratic activists were planning many more demonstrations for next week's congressional recess.

"There's already a lot more energy and engagement among Democratic voters, and this is going to put the enthusiasm gap on steroids for Democrats," said Democratic pollster Geoff Garin, who advises Priorities USA, a top liberal political organization.

Some Republicans maintain that the GOP had no choice.

"The House Republican majority was in far greater jeopardy had we not repealed Obamacare," said Republican strategist Mark Shields. If Republicans didn't deliver after years of promises to their conservative base, he said, they'd "get crushed" in 2018.

___

Peoples reported from New York. Associated Press writer Bruce Schreiner in Louisville, Kentucky, contributed to this report.

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Democrats see opposition to GOP health bill as winning issue - SFGate

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WASHINGTON U.S. Rep. Chris Collins, R-Clarence, came under fire Friday as Democrats and health groups charted out their next moves to protect the Affordable Care Act and turn up the pressure on Republicans, who are defending their health-care overhaul legislation they barely managed to heave across the finish line in the House on Thursday.

Collins, one of the first lawmakers to back Trump, voted for the bill, which narrowly passed without a single vote from any of the Democrats in the House.

He told the Washington Post that he wasnt worried about voting for the bill before it had been rated by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.

Were still comfortable were saving billions and billions of dollars, Collins said.

Yet the GOP health-care bill, which now heads over to the Senate, is likely to be a big political hot potato in next years election, as it could disrupt health insurance for millions of Americans by dismantling big parts of the Affordable Care Act.

U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand called the Trump health care bill atrocious and said it must be defeated in the Senate.

Health care shouldnt be about politics it is about people and this bill would harm people, Gillibrand said in a statement. The only beneficiaries of this bill are big insurance companies and the wealthiest among us, with the price tag being paid by everyone else through higher premiums, less coverage, and millions of vulnerable Americans losing their insurance.

Gillibrand cited an age tax that would let insurance companies charge higher premiums to those aged 50 to 64 years old and warned that up to 24 million Americans with insurance could lose that coverage and that individuals with pre-existing conditions could lose their protections against premium discrimination granted under Obamacare.

Democratic political groups are poised and ready to attack moderate Republicans who supported it and could be vulnerable in 2018.

After Collins told CNN that he hadnt read the entire text of the legislation, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee was quick to blast the Republican from New York, saying he doesnt respect or care about his constituents.

This disturbing admission makes it clear that Collins doesnt respect or care about the people who sent him to Washington, said Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee spokesman Evan Lukaske. Instead of reading pharmaceutical stock financial statements, Collins should actually read the legislation that would take away health care from thousands of his constituents.

When the Buffalo News asked about Collins comments, his spokesman, Michael McAdams, noted that Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., also said he had not read the entire health bill.

Congressman Collins has been intimately involved in the creation of this legislation from its inception ... He understands the impact it would have on Western New Yorkers, McAdams said in the Buffalo News. To infer Congressman Collins doesnt understand the disastrous impact Obamacare has had on our region and our nation is absolutely shameful.

Gillibrand acknowledged that Obamacare isnt perfect and that health insurance remains too costly for many Americans.

Congress should fix that, Gillibrand said. There are two ways to do that. Subsidize insurance companies further with taxpayer dollars or create a not-for-profit public option that cuts insurance companies and their profits out of the equation to lower premiums, drug prices, and out-of-pocket costs for everyone. I believe we should fight for that public option but until then, I will work as hard as I can to defeat this misguided and purely political effort that will hurt New York families.

New York State officials were also critical of the healthcare bills passage.

The Republican health care bill is reckless and damaging for our nation and for New York, Comptroller Thomas D. DiNapoli said in a statement. The bill means far fewer New Yorkers would have insurance, penalizes those who suffer from pre-existing conditions and potentially punches a big hole in our state budget. Members voted for this disastrous bill without knowing its true cost and impact, leaving millions of Americans behind with no options. New Yorkers deserve better from Washington.

Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo described the bill as an unconscionable piece of legislation and said the bill would cost New York nearly $7 billion.

Sadly, some representatives in New York have sold their vote and turned their backs on the very constituents they represent, Cuomo said in a statement. This bill is a targeted assault against our values, punishing New Yorkers because we support womens reproductive rights and including the Collins/Faso amendment which would devastate the states health care industry, put millions of New Yorkers at risk, and increase the total cost of this bill on New York to $6.9 billion.

Despite the vocal opposition of the American people, radical conservative ideologues are still advancing a disastrous bill, Cuomo said. I urge all Americans to call their Senators and tell them to stand with the people they represent by voting no on this reprehensible legislation.

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Democrats blast Collins over health bill - The Livingston County News

Ad will collapse in seconds CLOSE May 5, 2017 05/05/2017 4:38 pm By Ed Kilgore Share Young voters dont like Donald Trump, his party, or his policies. But they also dont like voting in non-presidential elections. Photo: Spencer Platt/Getty Images

The darkest cloud threatening what should be a sunny Democratic Election Day in 2018 is the donkey partys recent dependence on elements of the electorate minorities and millennials who tend to be a smaller share of the electorate in non-presidential elections. Democrats midterm falloff problem is sometimes misdiagnosed as an enthusiasm issue: While enthusiasm can matter significantly on the margins, the bigger problem is simply that younger and minority voters have never participated in midterms as much as their older and whiter counterparts, and they now play a bigger role in the Democratic coalition than ever. This heavy dependence on falloff voters is pretty recent in its intensity: Last time Democrats won back the House from Republicans, in 2006, they carried the senior vote. That is almost certainly not going to happen in 2018.

So as Ron Brownstein explains, one part of the 2018 puzzle for Democrats is taking advantage of millennial antipathy to Donald Trump to get these most falloff-prone of voters to show up at the polls:

Polls have also found that over three-fourths of Millennials oppose both Trumps Mexico border wall and his push to repeal Obamas climate-change agenda. Eliminating funding for Planned Parenthood, cutting taxes for top earners, barring Syrian refugeeseach Trump prioritiesall face preponderant Millennial opposition in surveys.

More to the point, early congressional generic balloting shows millennials demonstrating the kind of Democratic preference the party needs, assuming they can get these voters to the polls:

Eventually, the overall growth of the millennial population will make this demographic category dominant no matter how much it does or doesnt turn out. But for 2018, something more is needed.

One answer Democrats are offering is to recruit millennial candidates:

But there is a surprisingly underwhelming estimate of millennial turnout from a high-profile election this year featuring a millennial candidate and all the money and enthusiasm in the world: the special election in the sixth district of Georgia. Nate Cohn ran the numbers the day after the first-round election on April 18:

Democrats did turn out a higher percentage of their millennial voters for Jon Ossoff than Republicans turned out for their candidates. But his strong performance owed more to a higher share of older white voters than to any triumph over the midterm falloff.

So the challenge persists heading toward 2018. In the end a vote is a vote, and Democrats can claw back a lot of congressional seats through a combination of relatively small improvements among 2016 Trump voters, 2016 congressional Republican voters, and stay-at-home-prone Democratic millennials and minorities. But figuring out what makes millennials vote in proportionate numbers would be priceless.

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Will Millennials Save Democrats in 2018? - New York Magazine

On Wednesday night, eight freshman Democrats in the Vermont House played a key role in the most dramatic act of the 2017 legislative session.

Along with eight other Democratic representatives, they broke ranks with their party leaders to support Republican Gov. Phil Scotts proposal to negotiate a statewide teachers health insurance contract.

The reason we were in the position we were in was because of the freshmen Democrats, said Rep. Heidi Scheuermann (R-Stowe).

Most wayward freshmen class of all time, said Rep. Sam Young (D-Glover), sounding somewhat exasperated.

The GOP coup was short-lived. As Republicans were about to triumph by a 74-73 margin, House Speaker Mitzi Johnson (D-South Hero) cast a rare vote,resulting in a tie that killed the proposal.Still, all anyone could talk about Thursday was the Democratic defections. Under former House speaker Shap Smith, Democrats were a disciplined unit and the outcome of votes was almost always preordained: If a bill made it to the floor, Smith had made sure it had the votes to pass.

Johnson has either lost control of her caucus or deliberately given lawmakers a longer leash, depending on whom you ask. Intentional or not, it created an awfully close call.

I probably have just a more collaborative style than people are used to here, Johnson said Thursday. I dont want to make them choose their loyalties.

I dont get pressure from them, said Rep. Linda Joy Sullivan (D-Dorset), a first-year legislator who voted for Scotts proposal because, she said, it was fiscally responsible. Rep. Jessica Brumsted (D-Shelburne), also a newcomer, said she wasnt pushed to vote with the Democrats either.

More seasoned lawmakers, including Rep. Maureen Dakin (D-Colchester) and Rep. Kathy Keenan (D-St. Albans), agreed that Democratic leaders had given them free rein. They knew what I was doing, said Keenan. Our caucus allows individuality.

EvenRep. Matt Trieber (D-Rockingham), who isclose friends with both Johnson and House Majority Leader Jill Krowinski (D-Burlington), felt comfortable voting against the majority. He said he texted Krowinski over the weekend to tell her he where he stood, and she thanked him and told him shed be in touch Monday, but they never ended up talking.

Not everyone, however, felt so liberated. In at least one case, the Democratic leaderships efforts at persuasion backfired. They didnt take no for an answer, said Rep. Jay Hooper (D-Brookfield). It pissed me off, to be frank.

He said he voted for Scotts proposal because it would address his constituents concerns about property taxes. I think that my party, the left, hasnt done enough to embrace the most important issue to all voters, even liberal Democrats: affordability, said Hooper, who, at age 23, is the second youngest lawmaker in the building. His seat mate, Ben Jickling (I-Brookfield), is the youngest, at age 22. The latter also voted with the Republicans.

As Hooper spoke, seated on a couch outside the governors statehouse office, Rep. Jim Harrison (R-Chittenden) walked by and gave the young rep a sympathetic pat on the shoulder.

Im paying for it dearly, Hooper said. I can tell that there are certain individuals of authority in this building who are really not happy with me right now, he explained. And I am slowly becoming more OK with that because I dont believe in this process being so scripted.

Scheuermannis among the many Republicans encouraged by that sentiment.Ive been here 11 years and last night gave me a fresh perspective. For the first time in a long time, I felt we were having an open debate and honest debate that was not in the back rooms, she said.

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Freshmen Revolt: Why did 16 Democrats Break With Their Party? - Seven Days

House Democrats think theyve finally found their path back to power: Republicans voting to repeal Obamacare.

Yes, the best thing to happen to House Democrats since they pushed through the sprawling health care law and lost the majority as a result could be the Republican drive to dismantle it.

Story Continued Below

I think the Republicans are playing Russian roulette with this vote, said Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.). Theres no question in competitive districts where youve got a potentially vulnerable Republican incumbent, this could make or break you.

Democrats dont actually want the law repealed. Under their dream scenario, House GOP leaders would muscle through their controversial health care bill only to watch it die a long, painful death in the Senate, where it has already received a lukewarm reception from Republicans. Obamacare would stay intact while the House Republicans who voted to gut the law have a big shiny target on their back heading into the 2018 midterms.

I think there will be a political price to pay at the ballot box in 2018, Rep. Linda Snchez of California, vice chair of the House Democratic Caucus, told reporters Tuesday.

Democrats know a thing or two about the political price of Obamacare. Republicans channeled anti-Obamacare fervor in 2010 to take back the House, costing Democrats a whopping 63 seats and the majority along the way. Republicans have found success campaigning on repeal of the law in the seven years since, dashing Democratic efforts to take back House control.

Now, with the laws support ticking up and Republicans without a popular alternative of their own, Democrats are hoping to flip the tables in their favor.

The House GOP bill in its current form would allow states to opt out of key Obamacare protections for people with pre-existing conditions and requirements that insurers offer coverage for maternity care and mental health benefits.

The attack ads write themselves, Democrats argue. And they are betting the House on it.

After seven years in the minority, rank-and-file members, many of whom were elected after House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosis tenure as speaker, are restless. There are even whispers of a push for wholesale leadership changes if Democrats dont post big wins in November 2018.

Taking back the House majority is an enormous lift, even in a midterm year when voters tend to favor the party not in the White House. But Democrats think Republican efforts to repeal Obamacare even if theyre not successful could be the galvanizing message they need to bring people to the polls.

I think theres no doubt we can take back the majority of the House in 2018 if the election were today, House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said. The challenge, he added, is maintaining that enthusiasm for the next 18 months.

There are already positive signs for Democrats.

Democratic candidates, in part buoyed by fierce resistance to President Donald Trump, ran competitive House races last month in traditional Republican strongholds in Kansas and Georgia. And there are 23 Republicans sitting in districts Hillary Clinton won last year, giving House Democrats campaign arm a good starting place to carving a path back to the majority.

Right now, there are no guarantees the House will even vote on a bill. High-profile defectors like former House Energy and Commerce Chairman Fred Upton (R-Mich.) have put the latest Obamacare repeal effort on life support.

On Tuesday, Republican leaders were still shy of the 216 votes they need to pass the bill and scheduled a members-only meeting Thursday to reassess the bills status before a weeklong recess scheduled to begin later that day.

Democrats know that if Republicans cobble together the votes still a big if theres nothing they can do as the minority party to stop the repeal from passing. And publicly, few House Democrats will say theres an upside to House Republicans voting to repeal the law.

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Our job is to not let this see the light of day or the Senate chamber, Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.), a leadership ally, said in an interview. Democrats will hold a news conference Wednesday with people with pre-existing conditions to spotlight the GOPs divide on the issue.

But privately, several Democratic lawmakers readily acknowledge a repeal vote would provide a silver lining. In fact, they plan to make sure the latest push will haunt even those GOP members who oppose the proposal.

You cant run away from this vote because its your leadership, said House Democratic Caucus Chairman Joe Crowley of New York. Even people who vote no if this bill comes to the floor.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has already hit Republicans who voted for an earlier version of the health bill in committee. And just last week, before many Republicans had even weighed in on the latest proposal, the DCCC launched digital ads in 30 districts held by vulnerable Republicans.

That drumbeat will be even more relentless if Republicans actually bring the bill to the floor.

I think we feel increasingly that public opinion has swung to our point of view. And that accountability is going to be a big factor in next years election because of this vote, Connolly said. Theres a cadre of 35 to 40 Republicans who are staring death in the face if they give their vote.

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Why Democrats secretly want an Obamacare repeal vote - POLITICO