Richard Burr’s lies will get people killed

Mattias Jonsson
Jul 28, 2017 · 2 min read

Remember this in November 2018. Burr voted last night for the LessCare plan, and he is disappointed it did not pass. LessCare is what I call the Republican plan that will cause millions of people to lose health coverage, millions more to have the cost go up, is a major HUGE tax handout to the 1%, and coincidentally was made behind closed doors, and put up for a vote at 2:00am. (In contrast, Obamacare was discussed in committee for months, and had almost 200 Republican amendments before it passed.)

He is wrong about what is causing unbearable weight for families, and the reason Obamacare is in trouble, though. A house does not stand forever without maintenance, and a health care plan needs ongoing work as well. Trump has already announced that he wants to “let Obamacare fail.” In North Carolina (and around the country), Republican state legislators are actively sabotaging the health care marketplace, for example by not accepting Medicaid expansion that is virtually free to the states.

Imagine if a Democratic city council built a city hall, and then a few years later a Republican-controlled council just out of spite votes not replace the leaking roof, and you end up having to tear the building down. That is what is done here, but on a huge scale. It’s hard to imagine this at a city level, but at the state and federal level, because of gerrymandering, lawmakers don’t have to answer to anyone.

If Obamacare fails, through voting it out or otherwise undermining it, Richard Burr and his Republican friends are responsible for the millions of people who will lose coverage, costs that will go up (unless you are young and healthy, and on a high deductible plan), and frankly they are responsible for the thousands of people who will die. Very likely including many people in rural North Carolina.

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