Every  Republican Congressman from Texas – with one exception – voted for the abomination that is the Affordable Healthcare Act (aka Trumpcare) – and then celebrated with a beer afterwards.  They voted for a bill that they had not read, that didn’t have a score from the CBO and that was rammed through without any support from the Democrats and then were positively giddy.  Gee, that sounds familiar.  Who has been complaining about the similar passage of the ACA (aka Obamacare) for the last 7 years?  Oh yeah, the Republicans.  Except the ACA had a CBO score so we actually had a pretty good idea of what it what cost and what its effects would be.

The current crop of Republicans somehow managed to forget all of their past criticisms of the Democrats and the passage of the ACA after nearly a year of debate and work,  and rush to push out a bill that will punish the most vulnerable, possibly cause approximately 24 million people to lose coverage, eviscerate critical protections for average folks,  and provide a huge tax break for their fatcat donors.  And despite the claims that popular provisions of Obamacare (such as coverage for pre-existing conditions) are being protected – it’s a bald-faced lie people.  Red hasn’t read the 1800 pages of the ACHA (and is guessing that none of the Reps who voted for this have either), but reports are that under the ACHA, states will be able to opt out of coverage for pre-existing conditions.  No doubt, that will be high on Our Poor Idiot Governor’s list of things to accomplish in screwing over the average Texan (apparently his only goal in life).  So in Texas, it may soon be a pre-existing condition to have been raped, assaulted, pregnant, or have had a caesarian section, cancer or a host of other diseases, illnesses and problems.  Good luck getting affordable insurance then – all you Trump voters.

So who was the lone Texan GOP holdout?  By pure coincidence, it happens to be the only GOP congressman who had a competitive race in 2016.  That would be Will Hurd of San Antonio who beat Pete Gallego by less than 4000 votes out of about 225,000 cast.  Hurd managed to stand on his principles in not casting a vote that likely would have doomed his chances for re-election next year.  According to Hurd,

“Since the implementation of Obamacare, I’ve told my constituents that the only meaningful metric when it comes to healthcare is actual access to quality, affordable care – not just health insurance. While the goal of Obamacare was to make healthcare more accessible and more affordable, it has done just the opposite. Likewise, while the goal of the American Health Care Act was to combat the skyrocketing premiums and outrageous deductibles millions of Americans face, it too, falls short.”

It warms the cockles of Red’s heart, to hear such selfless sentiment delivered by a vulnerable Congressman who is devoted to the best interests of his constituents (which primarily include re-electing said Congressman).  Would that others had such courage.