A statement remarkable for its “let them eat cake” aloofness on the matter of Medicaid coverage for poor Colorado children and families, recorded last week from Rep. Cindy Acree of Colorado House District 40. Rep. Acree, as you may know, is one of the Democratic Party’s principal targets this year as they campaign to retake the one-seat GOP majority Colorado House.
Top-targeted incumbents should definitely be more careful than this:
CINDY ACREE: if we expand Medicaid beyond the 400 percent–the 400,000 recipients we currently have–how are going to pay for it? We need to help people pay their own way. Okay. We need to make sure we don’t expand Medicaid beyond the poorest of the poor, and get off the backs of insurance companies [Pols emphasis] and allow them to offer products that people can afford. The state’s the barrier for most child-only policies, the state’s the barrier when we don’t allow companies to give you major medical-only policies. For some reason we have this idea that nothing is better than something.We can’t be everything to everybody. And we’ve got to tighten our belt, and we’re going to have to cut things that aren’t necessary to the function of general society, and we’re going to have to move on. Somebody’s gonna hurt. That’s just the way it is. [Pols emphasis]
For a generic Republican candidate, some of this “belt tightening” rhetoric makes sense–or at least might not be considered as politically damaging. In a newly competitive district like Rep. Acree’s, though, cutting health care for poor kids and families is not a subject we would choose to expound on. Acree’s HD-40 seat is one of a number that became dramatically more competitive following reapportionment, a situation she has never encountered.
And based on this little stream of consciousness, she might not be ready for the competition.
Even if we did decide to engage on this delicate issue, we would never, ever say “somebody’s gonna hurt” in reference to a policy goal we are seeking to achieve. That’s the kind of rhetoric that maybe goes over alright in a safe GOP district, but horrifies everybody else.
Republicans are about hurting people. All Cindy Acree did was admit it.
A retired principal of Overland High School. Aurora isn’t a good town to proudly talk about turning your back on the most vulnerable Coloradans.
http://www.bucknerforcolorado….
Cindy Acree is an extremely courageous survivor of epilepsy and stroke. Each year, the Colorado Neurological Institute gives out the Cindy Acree Hope Award to patients who succeed against all odds in fighting neurological condition. Everyone who knows her, including Arapahoe County Republicans, considers her a saint. It’s going to take more than spy videos to stop her.
How is Rep. Acree anything other than a role model for us all? How dare you criticize her views on health care? Cindy Acree knows more about health care than many doctors. She’s a living testament to the quality of free-market American health care.
I’m saddened to see how low you are willing to stoop.
One person’s courageous fight with disease isn’t a shield against criticism. Shame on YOU for that bluff.
If she’s trying to throw the poor and elderly under the bus, she’s no saint. But then again, the presence of all the evil assholes in the GOP today kinda skews one’s perspective of what one considers saintly behavior, doesn’t it?
That’s a Monday night joke, right?
So one person gets taken care of as we would all hope, and the “free market American health care” system is absolved of all their many sins over the years.
So how did those Coloradans w/o a good private care plan fare at the same time. Let me gues……
They’re dead.
Clarence Thomas–Willard and Ann Romney–Cindy Acree: I got mine, fuck the rest of you.
Which at least kept her carrier somewhat pre-ACA honest. There is a reason that insurance is very heavily regulated – to greater or lesser degrees – in every state.
Too much tempting gain to be made at the expense of policy holders.
is supported by us, the CO taxpayer
you pretty much stated that her comment was right on the money: some people need to get hurt – it’s for their benefit, really.
Do you disown that comment over here?