Jerry Moran is a profile in courage. I had called his office many times in past weeks urging him to vote no to Trumpcare. On several occasions his staffers explained that he was concerned about the loss of healthcare to rural parts of Kansas and particularly about the loss of rural hospitals — all of which would result from the massive Medicaid cuts in the bill.
In the end — as we all know by now — he came out against it and argued that a new effort had to be started from scratch with hearings etc etc. — like it used to be when senators truly represented their constituents.
I called today to thank him and his staffer explained that he was the only repub senator who did town halls and his constituents were really clear about their unhappiness with Trumpcare. He also said the Moran had spoken with a number of hospital administrators who were extremely worried about the fate of their hospitals — particularly in rural areas.
I mentioned that Moran was being grouped with the ultraconservatives like Mike Lee and the staffer said that Moran doesn’t like to go by such categorical groupings and that in looking carefully at the bill he saw that “it didn’t pass the smell test.”
I think as many of us as possible should call to thank him for his integrity and standing up to McConnell for what he believes.
After calling Moran’s office I called Shelley Moore Capito urging her to tell Capito to stand up the way Moran had done and was told by her staffer that she had received my voicemail the day before and then she loudly declared “The bill is dead” and hung up.