Congressional leaders are in talks to make another attempt at passing the doomed American Health Care Act next week. Will Democrats rally to fight the disastrous bill, or will the efforts from Republicans be successful this time around? Ring of Fire’s Josh Gay discusses this.
Transcript of the above video:
The Republicans next week are gonna try to pass their American Health Care act once again. They’re doing this so that they don’t have to go home to their constituents, ahead of their Easter break, empty handed. This is a stunning defeat. They couldn’t even get enough support within their own party to do the very thing that they had pledge to do for seven years. Repeal and replace the affordable care act, they couldn’t do it. But we should look at this second run by the Republicans as an opportunity for Democrats to show the nation that they have what it takes to win in 2018.
The way they do that is instead of just bashing the plan and telling everybody how terrible it is, we already know, it’s awful. Is to come out with a plan, an alternative. Right now there’s a bill in the house, HR676. It’s expanded medicare for pretty much everyone. And it’s cosponsored by all but 115 Democrats. Now, why would 115 Democrats stand in front of a perfectly good piece of legislation that’s an alternative to the American Health Care act? Well, they’re afraid. They’re afraid that putting their name on something like that will cost them in 2018.
Well, guess what? It’s gonna cost you in 2018 if the Republicans get their act together. So what you need to do Democrats, right now, is get unified. Find something to rally around. Whether it’s universal healthcare through a single-payer or whatever it is. Pick something that’s an alternative to what the Republicans are offering. After all, that’s how they took congress in this last election. They offered a plan. Now their plan wasn’t complete, their plan didn’t work, but the American people wanted something different, and that’s what the Republicans offered.
So right now, Democrats, you guys need to show that you have the strength to influence the bill that the Republicans are about to put out there. You need to show the strength of the voters to say we can stand up to this, and we can fight for your rights in congress. Or, you can just sit back as a democratic congressperson, take your money from insurance and big pharma, and watch the GOP stomp all over you in just this bill, and in 2018 and 2020. The choice is yours democrats, do you want to fight for what you believe in? Or just sit back and get a nice paycheck.
