A most excellent front-page diary is viral-crawling its way across social media today:
GOP congresswoman gets surprise on Facebook after asking constituents for Obamacare horror stories
Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R, WA-5) put up a Facebook plea for tales of Obamacare woe on the occasion of the law's 5th anniversary, and instead got pages full of comments like these:
My story is that I once knew 7 people who couldn't get health insurance. Now they all have it, thanks to the ACA and President Obama, and their plans are as good as the one my employer provides--and they pay less for them. Now, that's not the kind of story you want to hear. You want to hear made-up horror stories. I don't know anyone with one of those stories.
I work for cancer care northwest. We actually have more patients with insurance and fewer having to choose treatment over bankruptcy. Cathy, I'm a die hard conservative and I'm asking you to stop just slamming Obamacare. Fix it, change it or come up with a better idea! Thanks
With Obamacare, I saved 300 bucks a month premium.. I have more coverage.. I like ObamaCare and can't wait til we go to the next step... Medicare for ALL.
It's worth
a trip over to the original plea to read more. The pro-ACA sentiment is truly overwhelming.
And the diary concludes by asking:
Will she take their comments to heart and abandon attempts to take insurance coverage away from her constituents?
Unfortunately,
she already made her answer via video, and it wasn't the responsive one.
Follow me past the stylized orange hashmark for video-quotes (video itself is now embedded!)
After five years of #Obamacare, too many Americans are suffering. They deserve to be heard, and today I shared their stories.
Posted by Congresswoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers on Tuesday, March 24, 2015
(You'll have to click through to see the video -- if it's possible to embed a Facebook vid on DK, I haven't found out how.) Update - Thanks,
Jen Hayden, for the video code!
...Despite the promises, five years later, this legislation has not delivered what was promised. I wanted just to read some words from different corners of the country, voices that I believe deserve to be heard.
A woman from Georgia writes, "I'm a 62-year-old widow and only make $8.79 an hour. I lost my insurance and cannot afford to pay for it."
A man from Pennsylvania says, "My family's health coverage was cancelled, and my new health care premiums increased 85% thanks to Obamacare."
...
The stories are repeated all across the country. Obamacare has made lives worse. And that's why our Balanced Budget for a Stronger America is so important. We're bringing it to the floor this week. It repeals Obamacare and makes government accountable to you....
(Update: Oh good grief -- those weren't even stories that SHE collected/cherrypicked. They came from a national GOP website, from
a page that was put up the same day as her ill-fated Facebook solicitation for horror stories.)
NOT ONE WORD about the story after story after ACA success story. Not a one.
And the commenters on the video post... umm, yeah, they noticed.
Wow, talk about presenting only one side, congresswoman. I live in your district and have read the posts on your own facebook page over the past years. You are cherry-picking the stories you want to present. How shameful!
Where are the stories from your last post to gather stories. I read those and most were positive about the ACA. You're not distorting things are you? Why not tell the truth?
After 5 years somewhere between 9-11 MILLION Americans now have healthcar, most for the first time, thanks to the ACA! Please, Cathy, help the Rs understand the tremendous need for this and how it is driving healthcare costs down. In the end, I can't imagine the Rs will take this much needed service away from 11 million Americans.
I am appalled at your lack of concern for your constituents stories. Who is your master? Are you serving the people who live in your district, your own ambition or someone else?
Stop this nonsense Congresswoman. You look like a fool.
As of this writing, all of these telling exchanges are still online, testimony to...
Well, maybe I'll just let Upton Sinclair say it for me, with the caveat that this obviously applies to women as well:
“It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it.”
