GOP Hypocrisy: Taking Credit For Healthcare They Want To Defund

Remember back in the day, when the GOP was all “the Stimulus is the worst thing ever”, but then lots and lots of them went back to their districts and took credit for Stimulus-funded projects and were caught at photo ops handing out giant checks and wielding ceremonial scissors? Well get ready for a little déjà vu…

The Nation’s Lee Fang reports this week that many of the “defund Obamacare” movement’s biggest voices also happen to be pretty big fans of things like community health centers. In a brief post, with just four photos, Fang pretty much de-fangs the GOP position and exposes it as just so much political posturing (albeit at the expense of actual human lives.)

The vast majority of healthcare reform is funded through what is known as mandatory spending that is not necessarily affected by the continuing budget resolution now at issue in Congress. If the government shuts down, the only aspect of Obamacare that will be defunded is the portion that is covered through discretionary spending. Affordable Care Act discretionary spending includes funding for community health centers, preventative health programs, school-based health clinics for children, rural and Indian health centers, doctor and nurse training grants, among other programs—spending that overwhelmingly benefit rural Republican districts in many states.

That’s right. The programs most praised by GOP lawmakers and most beneficial to their districts are the very programs which would be wrecked were they to actually accomplish their goal of defunding the Affordable Care Act. Take a gander at the hypocrisy:

Senator Jerry Moran (R-KS) helped sponsor Senator Ted Cruz’s (R-TX) bill to defund healthcare reform. While Moran has attacked the law and called it a failure, he proudly appeared at a publicity event to promote the groundbreaking of a $4.7 million expansion of the Community Health Center of Southeast Kansas last August. At the event, where Moran held a ceremonial shovel, the senator heaped praise the community center for helping provide comprehensive care, noting “even the most conservative politician…ought to be in favor of community health centers.” Though he did not acknowledge the source of the construction money, the $4.7 million came completely from Affordable Care Act discretionary spending.

It would seem that, just like the Stimulus, Obamacare spending is a terrible slide into government tyranny and national insolvency; unless of course, it’s in your district. You can read the rest of Lee Fang’s post and view more defunding hypocrites in action here.

By: Sandi Behrns

Sandi Behrns is a noted policy nerd, new media & web developer, and consultant to progressive organizations and campaigns. She is a senior contributor to Liberaland, and the Executive Editor of Progressive Congress News.