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[Escape Goat]

It seems the shoe is on the other foot for Republicans. Democrats dismissed the Tea Party and they got destroyed in the midterms. Some Republicans are trying to do the same by minimizing their impact by calling them paid protesters.

You would have thought that somewhere during the 6 years they have been voting to repeal Obamacare they would have come to a consensus on a Republican alternative. I guess they all thought they could just hit the magic reset button and the peasants would welcome their deliverance.

How many other stories will we see about GOP Congresspeople, particularly in deep red districts, that receive hostile constituents during this holiday weekend? Hopefully grassroots energy will be a mitigating factor in a GOP healthcare alternative.

"First and foremost, we are going to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act — Obamacare," Reed said at the outset, using a loudspeaker propped up on a ladder to try to reach the sprawling crowd.

The response was loud and sustained boos.

The congressman is just the latest Republican to face boisterous constituents voicing concerns with the nascent Trump White House, and more confrontations are expected as members head home for recess this coming week.

The backlash is happening in prime Trump country. Reed's 23rd District, which encompasses the western tip of southern New York, borders Pennsylvania and includes the more liberal college town of Ithaca. It has more in common with the neighboring Keystone State — which Trump carried — than New York City. It's rural, working-class, and made a big swing for Trump at the ballot box. After narrowly voting for President Obama in 2008, then narrowly going for Mitt Romney in 2012, Trump won the district by almost 15 points, according to calculations by the Daily Kos.

Republicans' biggest Achilles heel is front and center as they meet with constituents: their lack of a consensus plan to replace former President Obama's signature health care law, despite making it the cornerstone of their campaign platform for several years.

Others in the crowd grew angry as Reed explained why he believed Medicare reform was necessary, with some seniors shouting back that they liked their Medicare the way it was and didn't want it to change. Chants of "Do not privatize!" rang out.

The anger Republicans face as they try to replace Obamacare is almost the reverse of what Democrats saw eight years ago. Back then, Democrats' town halls became raucous as members of the growing Tea Party movement flooded events, angry about the president's health care proposal, stoking fears of not just rising costs but of mythical "death panels."

Most of the constituents at Reed's two morning town halls were middle-aged or senior citizens, and some carried signs with their ZIP codes saying they certainly weren't being paid.

Many people wanted to know why he had voted against a bill in the Ways and Means Committee that would have required Trump to release his income taxes. Reed tried to explain that he had concerns with that bill because of privacy rights, arguing that such an action was "a tremendous amount of power, for the government to come after one individual."

The crowd, not agreeing, drowned him out with chants of "What are you covering up?" and "He's not a private citizen!" At other times, attendees shouted, "Russia! Russia!" — demanding Reed address the president's alleged ties to the country and intelligence findings that Russia had tried to meddle in the U.S. elections to help Trump.

At his Cherry Creek town hall, Reed had a tense exchange with one woman after he said he didn't support further investigation into the Russia issues. Reed said he hadn't seen enough evidence to warrant a probe, but the woman argued other Republicans had called for such action and that it should be a bipartisan issue of national security.

 

[x24hrs2livex]

Good. More GOP Congress members need to face this kind of backlash.

 

[Ithil]

At his Cherry Creek town hall, Reed had a tense exchange with one woman after he said he didn't support further investigation into the Russia issues. Reed said he hadn't seen enough evidence to warrant a probe.

What a load of bullshit.

 

[The Technomancer]

Fucking good

 

[Rebel Leader]

What a load of bullshit.

Espically after benghazi where 6(?) GOP lead investigations found she did nothing wrong all 6 times

 

[Shoeless]

I'm pretty sure all he needs to do is say "We're killing terrorists and burning the homes of Mexicans" and all will be forgiven. Once the mob sees an opportunity to hate someone else, they forget about their own plight.

 

[TheSkullPrince]

*Palpatine voice* Good, goooood.

 

[TheYanger]

I'm pretty sure all he needs to do is say "We're killing terrorists and burning the homes of Mexicans" and all will be forgiven. Once the mob sees an opportunity to hate someone else, they forget about their own plight.

Yeah, THAT's the ticket to fixing this shit. Just reduce everyone on the other side to sub-human trash. BTW I'm referring to your completely ridiculous post, not the mexicans or terrorists you mention.

 

[Nelo Ice]

Warms my heart to see all of this. Make Republicans afraid again.

 

[sunshine and gasoline]

The more the GOP begins to fear their chances in upcoming elections the better.

 

[Electric Eye]

I'm amazed these people are seeing right through the bullshit of republicans version of "fake news" and are actually paying attention they seem pretty informed.

 

[You Are Viewtiful]

This bodes well for 2018.

 

[BigDug13]

I'm amazed these people are seeing right through the bullshit of republicans version of "fake news" and are actually paying attention they seem pretty informed.

In the grand scheme of things, there's not THAT much of a percentage of the population that watches Fox News.

 

[Boke1879]

Yea I don't know how this will impact voting in 2018, but Dems did dismiss the tea party and got slaughtered in the midterms.

 

[PrivateWHudson]

Warms my heart to see all of this. Make Republicans afraid again.

Nice slogan. Hope someone runs with it.

 

[Lois_Lane]

Yeah, THAT's the ticket to fixing this shit. Just reduce everyone on the other side to sub-human trash. BTW I'm referring to your completely ridiculous post, not the mexicans or terrorists you mention.

Oh please. Trump has been saying he would do what he's doing since 2012 and same said for Republicans and repealing Obamacare. People still voted them in. It certainly wasn't to make their lives better.

 

[BradC00]

This bodes well for 2018.

Na, Dems will lose more of congress in 2018.

 

[Plinko]

"Paid protestors"

 

[Boke1879]

Oh please. Trump has been saying he would do what he's doing since 2012 and same said for Republicans and repealing Obamacare. People still voted them in. It certainly wasn't to make their lives better.

And a lot of people didn't vote unfortunately. Sometimes it takes a loss like this to wake people up and realize shit isn't a game anymore.

Hell I don't even think the GOP expected to win the Presidency simply due to the fact they didn't have a plan to repeal the ACA.

People are turning out to these town halls and now the shoe is on the other foot. Many GOP congressman aren't even holding them because they don't want to face this.

That's cool though. They can continue to do that. Continue to call these people "paid protesters"

 

[Rebel Leader]

Na, Dems will lose more of congress in 2018.

We won't know until it happens either eay

 

[Aaron Strife]

Note that Trump did win this district heavily, but Romney only barely won it in 2012, and Obama won it in 2008.

There was a giant swing here towards Trump from Romney, but that can easily swing back when exasperated voters realize that Trump promised the impossible. A town hall like this can demonstrate too that their representative is nothing more than a rubber stamp for the president, which will flare up Democrats and independents who perhaps supported him across party lines because of checks and balances against Obama and Hillary.

2018 can be a big year, but we need to keep it up. There's a town hall in MN for Erik Paulsen (3rd district Republican representative, won by 13 points while Clinton won the district by 9). I plan on going and raising as much hell as I can, I would encourage all other progressives or even mere moderates to do the same.

Na, Dems will lose more of congress in 2018.

The Senate, perhaps - the deck is stacked against us due to the 2000, 2006 and 2012 classes doing so well. At most we could probably bring it up to a tie by holding all our seats and winning Nevada and Arizona, or if you really want to dream big, Texas which would give us a 51-49 majority. But that's rather unlikely.

The House will very likely see Dem gains in 2018. The president's party almost always suffers in the midterms, the only recent exceptions are 98 when Republicans overreached by impeaching Clinton and 2002 when Bush was still enjoying a post-9/11 rally effect.

Now, the question of whether that will translate to a Dem takeover is still very much up in the air. We could win 5 seats or 30.

 

[entremet]

Good. Pressure these assholes.

 

[PrivateWHudson]

Oh please. Trump has been saying he would do what he's doing since 2012 and same said for Republicans and repealing Obamacare. People still voted them in. It certainly wasn't to make their lives better.

Nah, people don't REALLY want Obamacare repealed, they just don't understand healthcare. I think the people that are against it truly believe the Republicans have a better plan and are the type of people that only look at their contribution to premiums and forget about their employer's contribution. Once rates go through the roof and employers can't make up the difference, they will revolt. How will the rates not become astronomic when the old expensive plans now need to cater to preexisting conditions and all of the other good stuff in the ACA?

 

[BradC00]

We won't know until it happens either eay

you aren't wrong, but when you got a segment that want to primary dems in red states, i'm not optimistic.

 

[Shoeless]

Yeah, THAT's the ticket to fixing this shit. Just reduce everyone on the other side to sub-human trash. BTW I'm referring to your completely ridiculous post, not the mexicans or terrorists you mention.

I'm not reducing everyone to sub-human trash, just the people that came out in enough numbers to vote Trump in. Just look at the comments on the Internet on his rallies, or his press conference. A lot of Americans really are willing to give up just about everything (except guns) if it means they hurt foreigners.

Hate has overtaken reason for many Trump supporters. If it hurts the democrats, Muslims or Mexicans, they're happy with their lot, as long as they're on "the winning team."

 

[Stinkles]

Nah, people don't REALLY want Obamacare repealed, they just don't understand healthcare. I think the people that are against it truly believe the Republicans have a better plan and are the type of people that only look at their contribution to premiums and forget about their employer's contribution. Once rates go through the roof and employers can't make up the difference, they will revolt. How will the rates not become astronomic when the old expensive plans now need to cater to preexisting conditions and all of the other good stuff in the ACA?

They want the black guy thing to fail.


And healthcare is a shitshow for everyone so it's easy to conflate two negative energies regardless of logic or data.

Tea Party was energized by "black guy + government is bad" and detail or logic be damned.