As ThinkProgress has noted, despite spending the past year and a half railing against government healthcare, just five Republican members of the 112th Congress have been willing to forgo their own government healthcare coverage, which is provided to them as federal employees. Rep.-elect Joe Walsh (R-IL) is one of those Republicans who will opt out of his congressional health package, even though his wife will have difficulty finding coverage due to her pre-existing condition (that is, until portions of President Obama’s health care law barring insurers from discriminating against people with such conditions take affect in 2014).
Asked tonight about Walsh’s suggestion that it’s hypocritical for GOP congressmen fighting Obama’s health law to keep their own government coverage, Rep. Steve King (R-IA) didn’t seem to disagree. King told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer that he gives Walsh “a lot of credit for standing on principle,” even though King himself won’t forgo his government coverage:
BLITZER: [H]e thinks to accept the federal government’s health insurance program would be hypocritical, do you accept the federal government’s health insurance program for yourself
KING: Well, I’m on it now, like other federal employees are –
BLITZER: Will you stay on it?
KING: I don’t intend to pull off of it, but I give Joe a lot of credit for that. I went to Joe to help him in the campaign and I give him a lot of credit for standing on principle.
Watch it:
Walsh explained his decision by saying, “My wife and I now are going to have to go through the struggles that a lot of Americans go through, trying to find insurance in the individual market and having to deal with problems of preexisting conditions.” As of 2008, 12 percent of King’s constituents lacked coverage. Apparently King doesn’t think he should have to face the same struggles as them.
Angry, shocked, overwhelmed? Take action: Support independent media.
We’ve borne witness to a chaotic first few months in Trump’s presidency.
Over the last months, each executive order has delivered shock and bewilderment — a core part of a strategy to make the right-wing turn feel inevitable and overwhelming. But, as organizer Sandra Avalos implored us to remember in Truthout last November, “Together, we are more powerful than Trump.”
Indeed, the Trump administration is pushing through executive orders, but — as we’ve reported at Truthout — many are in legal limbo and face court challenges from unions and civil rights groups. Efforts to quash anti-racist teaching and DEI programs are stalled by education faculty, staff, and students refusing to comply. And communities across the country are coming together to raise the alarm on ICE raids, inform neighbors of their civil rights, and protect each other in moving shows of solidarity.
It will be a long fight ahead. And as nonprofit movement media, Truthout plans to be there documenting and uplifting resistance.
As we undertake this life-sustaining work, we appeal for your support. Please, if you find value in what we do, join our community of sustainers by making a monthly or one-time gift.