Look, I'm a political animal (severely wounded now), and fully understand the need to provide political cover for some representatives in conservative districts. The reason we do it is to prepare for the rainy day when we need Democrats to cast the really important votes. Well guess what, IT WAS FUCKING RAINING YESTERDAY!! I understand the need for some reps to cast a vote against the party in order to survive, but your SUPPOSED to be more concerned about OUR literal survival than YOUR job survival!
Liberalism has some basis in the belief that government is part of the solution to our societal and individual problems, and not part of the problem as some moron lied about 30 years ago. If the ACA fails, or even if there's a false impression that the ACA has failed, health care for everyone could be set back decades or permanently lost. Liberalism itself will go back to being a dirty word and we may end up seeing a repeat of 2010 in both 2014 and 2016.
These 39 Democratic cowards just gave out a big scream that the ACA is a failure, Obama is a failure, Liberalism is a failure, and Democrats are a failure. Each and everyone of these people should be primaried.
Below the fold is the wall of shame.
District Name Obama 2012 Margin Population without health insurance Percentage without health insurance Percentage below poverty line
UT-04 Matheson, Jim -37 112,836 16.3 12.5
WV-03 Rahall, Nick J. II -32.2 90,300 15 20.5
NC-07 McIntyre, Mike -19.3 124,878 17 17.9
GA-12 Barrow, John -11.8 129,113 19.2 22.3
MN-07 Peterson, Collin C. -9.8 59,737 9.1 12.8
FL-18 Murphy, Patrick -4.1 123,438 18.1 14.8
TX-23 Gallego, Pete -2.6 163,167 23.2 20.3
AZ-02 Barber, Ron -1.5 92,007 13.1 17.3
NY-01 Bishop, Timothy H. 0.5 64,906 9.1 7
MN-01 Walz, Tim 1.4 51,958 7.9 11.6
IL-12 Enyart, Bill 1.5 78,569 11.3 20.3
NH-01 Shea-Porter, Carol 1.6 71,777 11 8.9
CA-36 Ruiz, Raul 3.2 148,533 21.2 19.9
OR-05 Schrader, Kurt 3.4 113,788 14.9 15.5
CA-07 Bera, Ami 4 84,103 12 12.4
NY-18 Maloney, Sean Patrick 4.3 71,973 10.2 11.6
AZ-09 Sinema, Kyrsten 4.5 140,244 19.5 19.5
MN-08 Nolan, Rick 5.5 59,664 9.2 14
NY-21 Owens, Bill 6.1 61,553 9 15.5
CA-52 Peters, Scott 6.4 68,852 10.2 9.9
FL-26 Garcia, Joe 6.7 201,853 28.1 15.6
OR-04 DeFazio, Peter A. 6.7 119,425 15.6 21.4
CT-05 Esty, Elizabeth 8.2 66,677 9.5 12
NH-02 Kuster, Ann McLane 9.7 65,145 10 8.7
CA-26 Brownley, Julia 10.3 120,324 17.2 12.1
WA-01 DelBene, Suzan 10.8 72,431 10.6 8.1
WI-03 Kind, Ron 11 66,654 9.5 14.6
CA-03 Garamendi, John 11.2 98,223 14.5 16.6
IA-02 Loebsack, Dave 13.1 77,077 10.2 15
IA-01 Braley, Bruce 13.7 60,687 8.1 11.3
NY-24 Maffei, Dan 15.9 64,339 9.2 16.1
IL-10 Schneider, Brad 16.4 90,333 13.2 11.6
IL-08 Duckworth, Tammy 16.5 107,634 14.9 11.1
IL-17 Bustos, Cheri 17 84,855 12.2 18.9
IL-11 Foster, Bill 17.2 91,431 12.7 11.6
CA-09 McNerney, Jerry 17.7 113,913 16.2 18.4
CA-16 Costa, Jim 19.2 155,856 22.4 31.2
TX-34 Vela, Filemon 22.5 215,844 31.5 33
MI-14 Peters, Gary 62.4 106,899 15.3 26.5
Most of us believe HealtCare.gov will soon be working well enough to get millions of people signed up for better insurance than what they have now. So either these Democrats actually believe the ACA may fail, and it's politically better for them to help the Republicans sabotage it than it is to run on a successful ACA next year, or they are political fools. How will they run their campaigns next year if millions have signed up and the ACA is working pretty well? Will they try to say they were for it, before they were against it, and now they're for it again? Good Luck with that!
This was a vote cast that could plunge a dagger into the heart of the progressive argument that only government can stop us from losing our democracy to Republican Oligarchs who are pushing us toward a new gilded age. For their short term political gains, they literally have put the country's future at stake.
Update:
And as far as me losing my health coverage? I currently have a junk policy that is expensive and will only cover some parts of my expenses. Under the ACA, I'll save about $150/month and will get much better coverage. By voting for the Republican Upton bill, even though it has no chance of getting anywhere, they've done a LOT of political damage to the Democrats and the ACA, and are now risking the entire ACA will get repealed by future Republican administrations. And by betraying their party's signature issue for the last 50 years, they've made the chances of Republican control of the government, much more likely.