Do not let up on Roy Blunt

Roy Blunt, 2013, talking about President Obama:

“How do you get anything done if you immediately start telling the other side that has to work with you, ‘I’m not going to work with you on this.’  Now what kind of start is that to a new administration?”

Roy Blunt, last week, talking about why Republicans put together their deeply unpopular healthcare bill in secret and without any input from Democrats (or women) (or non-white old men):

“There’s no reason to spend a lot of time trying to negotiate with somebody who is not going to be for the repair that you’re doing and the replacement that you’re doing.”

Based on other recent statements, Blunt is believed to be a firm Yes on the Senate’s plan to replace Obamacare. That plan looks doomed at the moment due to the fact that, essentially, enough low-income rural white people are finding out that the Republicans’ plan will be as disastrous for them as it will be for low-income urban black people. For example, the deep cuts to Medicaid included in the Republicans’ plan threaten to devastate rural hospitals across the country. That very much includes rural hospitals in Missouri.

Blunt says the Senate’s bill would “strengthen Medicaid,” though “strengthen” is an unusual verb to use given that the bill will slash Medicaid by $772 billion.

The Republican swing votes in the Senate necessary to get this trash passed seem unlikely to warm to the current bill. But the House’s plan was counted out for a while, too, and then it was resuscitated — with the help of every single Republican Congressperson in Missouri — and passed very quickly.

Blunt is fond of presenting himself as an aisle-crossing, common-sense moderate, not one of those aggro-conservative legislators who just wants to burn everything down. But his voting record tells a different story. He supported every single one of Trump’s nightmare-squad nominations (Sessions, Pruitt), he carried water for Trump during the Comey hearings, and he sat on his ass for eight years saying no to everything that came out of the White House when Obama was president. He also lies to his supporters about the effects of Obamacare.  

Blunt keeps an office in Kansas City, at 1000 Walnut Street. On Friday, July 7, at noon, there will be a protest held outside his office. Dubbed the “Keep Us Covered” rally, it’s an appeal to Blunt not to vote for a healthcare bill financed by cutting taxes for the richest people in America at the expense of everybody else’s health. Constituents are encouraged to bring umbrellas and “demand that Senator Blunt protect their health insurance and keep them covered,” according to a release.