Thanks to the Senate Democrats efforts to use all of the time available to them in resisting popular vote loser Donald Trump's cabinet nominations, the senate was voting in the early hours of Friday. So in the dead of night, which is kind of appropriate for how much of a crook he is, Tom Price was confirmed.
By a vote of 52 to 47, the Senate confirmed Mr. Price, Republican of Georgia, after a debate that focused as much on his ethics and investments as on his views on health policy. Democrats denounced his desire to rein in the growth of Medicare and Medicaid by making fundamental changes to the programs, which insure more than 100 million Americans. […]
Democrats said that Mr. Price, a House member since 2005, had shown bad judgment by actively trading shares of medical and pharmaceutical companies while shaping health policy in Congress ...
… Senator Patty Murray of Washington, the senior Democrat on the Senate health committee, said his financial dealings raised serious questions about potential insider trading that ought to be investigated by the Securities and Exchange Commission.
“While Congressman Price served on the powerful Ways and Means Committee, he traded in health care stocks, pushed policies that helped his portfolio and got special access to a promising stock deal,” said Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon, the senior Democrat on the Finance Committee. […]
“This is the first vote in the dismantling of the Affordable Care Act,” said Senator Maria Cantwell of Washington. Senator Jeanne Shaheen, Democrat of New Hampshire, said Mr. Price had been “a rabid supporter of defunding Planned Parenthood” and “seems to have no higher priority than to terminate health coverage for millions of people.”
No Democrats crossed over to vote for Price, Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO) did not vote (she is with her husband who is undergoing heart surgery and would have voted “no”). Cantwell was right in her assessment, and Republicans had better brace themselves for what could happen next. Because while they're still squabbling over how to repeal Obamacare, having not even progressed to the "replace" part, Price now has the power to start dismantling some of the key elements of the law. If it all falls apart, it's going to be on their heads to fix it.
You can do something to fight back. We can start by winning the House seat Price is vacating, and that means chipping in a few bucks to Democrat Jon Ossoff. He is a winnable special election that’s coming up soon in Georgia’s 6th Congressional District.