Joe Kennedy III and Seth Moulton pounce on Republicans for celebrating health care bill
Massachusetts’s two young rising Democratic stars were in lockstep Thursday following the House’s passage of a Republican health care bill to dismantle the Affordable Care Act.
Reps. Joe Kennedy III and Seth Moulton, who both vocally opposed and voted against the bill, not only condemned the legislation — but also their Republican colleagues’ reported means of celebrating the contentious step toward fulfilling a longtime pledge.
Several reporters spotted cases of beer being wheeled into the Capitol ahead of the bill passing, as well as buses lined up outside the building to take Republican lawmakers to the White House to celebrate the bill — which is expected to be closely scrutinized in the Senate — with President Donald Trump.
Cases upon cases of beer just rolled into the Capitol on a cart covered in a sheet. Spotted Bud Light peeking out from the sheet
— Alexandra Jaffe (@ajjaffe) May 4, 2017
They are rolling cases of beer into Capitol and coming to the White House afterwards for a celebration. Kind of remarkable. So far to go.
— Josh Dawsey (@jdawsey1) May 4, 2017
https://twitter.com/BenjySarlin/status/860199524329017345
Asked by Vice News’s Alexandra Jaffe about the beers’ destination, the man pushing the cart denied that they were headed to celebrating House Republicans.
Here are the beers. Asked if they were going to a GOP conference meeting & he said “no, different meeting,” no further details pic.twitter.com/ugS8oW4kGj
— Alexandra Jaffe (@ajjaffe) May 4, 2017
Nevertheless, the congressmen jumped on the potentially damaging optics.
“Hell of a thing to celebrate,” tweeted Kennedy.
Moulton concurred.
I hope TVs in hospitals across the country are tuned in to the @GOP celebration for taking away health care from millions of Americans. https://t.co/vg4aFuC9Kj
— Seth Moulton (@sethmoulton) May 4, 2017
In a statement, the 38-year-old Salem Democrat — who thanked Republicans who voted no — called the bill “nothing but a tax cut for billionaires paid for not just in dollars and cents, but in the lives and health and welfare of working people.”
Kennedy, who has passionately opposed Republican health care reform efforts, also slammed the bill in an interview Thursday afternoon with Yahoo! News’s Katie Couric. The Newton Democrat said Republicans did not engage his party in the process and cited the broad opposition to the legislation, which was voted on Thursday without any report on its estimated impact.
“What we saw was a political deal between wings of the Republican Party … to a political problem that they created,” Kennedy said, criticizing the rushed manner in which the bill was passed.
“I think they’ve got to answer for it, and the answer isn’t boarding buses after this vote and going over to celebrate at the White House, clinking champagne glasses and drinking beer,” he said. “It’s diving into the challenges that affect us as recipients of health care across this country and trying to solve that problem.”
Asked about the so-called victory lap at the White House, Kennedy — referring to the Congressional Budget Office report on the original bill — said: “I struggle to understand how anyone could define victory as taking away health care from 24 million people.”
