Democrats are here to protect our healthcare and Republicans can't do much beyond wishing they'd handled the whole issue differently.
The first floor debate of 2018 was on the rules of the House, which include rules for defending the Affordable Care Act from the vicious and frivolous lawsuits brought on as part of the Charles and David Koch Wingnut Lawyer Full Employment Act. Naturally Republicans objected.
Rep. Greg Walden (R-OR) was on the floor making the Republican argument once again about how much they care about people with pre-existing conditions just like the human bullshit machine Republicans are but Rules Committee Chairman Jim McGovern stepped on that and squashed it flat.
"I mean, I mean, I want to remind the gentleman. It was the Democrats that actually put in protections for people with pre-existing conditions," McGovern said, reminding everyone of the hell we just escaped. "We did so over the objections of the Republicans, and for almost a decade now, while while my friends were in charge, they time and time and time again tried to take away people's health care protections, including protections for people with pre-existing conditions."
"They have been in charge of the House and the Senate and the White House and they have done nothing to protect people with pre-existing conditions!"
He went on to point out that they heard loud and clear in the last election that people didn't agree. Suffice it to say, there was some back and forth before McGovern laid down the new rules for the new Sheriffs in town.
"We put these protections in place and we will make sure they stay in place," he vowed.
That's the pre-existing conditions provisions they're fighting for there. But there's more. Democrats will be holding hearings for the very first time on Medicare for All.
The new Democratic majority in the House will hold the first hearings on Medicare-for-All legislation, a longtime goal of the party’s left, after Speaker Nancy Pelosi lent her support for the process.
“It’s a huge step forward to have the speaker’s support,” said Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), who will be the House sponsor of the legislation, usually denoted as HR 676. “We have to push on the inside while continuing to build support for this on the outside.”
Some version of universal health care has been a Democratic goal for decades. The Expanded and Improved Medicare for All Act, first introduced in 2003 by then-Rep. John Conyers Jr. of Michigan, has become the vehicle for Democrats who want to bring single-payer, Canada-style health care to the United States.
Dems were sent to Congress to deal with healthcare and it seems clear that's exactly what they're going to do, Republican whining be damned.
