Thread by @benwikler

One of the positive side effects of the excruciating, awful, relentless months in which the sole GOP legislative goal was to end the Affordable Care Act and eliminate protections for people with pre-existing conditions is that, today, people can tell that Republicans are lying.

Take, for example, this ad by Republican Rick Scott. One of his Senate campaign's closing arguments is that, he claims, he supports "forcing insurance companies to cover pre-existing conditions"—& cares even more than the Democratic incumbent, Bill Nelson.

The problem that Nelson faces is that the Floridians who care most about health care were watching the ACA fight very, very closely. They were calling @SenBillNelson's office day after day. They know Nelson promised to protect their health care. They know he kept his promise.

Floridians know that a single additional Republican vote in the Senate would've meant that Medicaid and the ACA—including protections for people with pre-existing conditions—would have been ripped to pieces. They know the stakes.

In race after race, for House and Senate and governorships and attorneys general, Republicans are claiming they want to protect those with pre-existing conditions. But for eight years, the GOP's central message has been its hatred of Obamacare. These Republicans left footprints.

Rick Scott is a good exemplar of his party's obsession w/ ACA repeal. Even before Trump was sworn in, in Dec 2016, Scott knew what he wanted from the new president: “I want to have a repeal as quickly as we can get it done. Day one would be nice for me."
thehill.com/policy/healthc…

Trump didn't repeal the ACA on Day One. He wasn't ready. He needed help. And who was there to help him? Rick Scott. As he bragged to reporters in January 2017, "Scott said he’s talking with Donald Trump every week or two" on his anti-ACA health care bill.
miamiherald.com/news/politics-…

The House GOP's first attempt to repeal the ACA fell flat. Though it would've torched pre-existing condition protections, Scott said "The House bill was way better than Obamacare." Never give up! "I’m going to do everything I can" to get it done, he said.
tampabay.com/rick-scott-say…

In July 2017, repeal was on the ropes in the Senate. Response? '“Floridians simply cannot afford the high taxes and mandates of Obamacare. This law needs to be repealed,” Scott spokeswoman Kerri Wyland said in an emailed statement.'
orlandosentinel.com/news/politics/…

(Side note: By that time, Rick Scott had written multiple op-eds in favor of repeal, including one entitled "Repealing Obamacare is only sane path." Uh huh.)
usatoday.com/story/opinion/…

ACA repeal legislation finally died in the Senate. But Scott still had a way to torpedo protections for people with pre-existing conditions: his ally, Florida's Attorney General, was on the anti-ACA lawsuit. And Scott wouldn't say a bad word about it.

politico.com/states/florida…

Every so often, over the years, Scott has paid lip service to pre-existing conditions. But his actions scream louder than his words. If he'd won, you and I would both be at risk. My asthma could prevent me from buying individual insurance coverage. I'm safer because he failed.

This is a Rick Scott story. But it's the same story nationwide. I'm writing this from the house where I grew up, in Wisconsin. Wisconsin's governor, Scott Walker, said of a hideous ACA repeal bill: "I think it’s awesome… It’s a winner all the way around." politifact.com/wisconsin/stat…

Now Scott Walker is running a campaign that, if you'd been in a coma since 2009, might convince you that he wants to keep protections in place. But as Politifact put it, "Scott Walker says he would cover pre-existing conditions, but backs plans that would end protections"

And for Republicans who've been in Congress, it's even worse—because those clowns actually have their own voting records to contend with. Here's Dana Rohrabacher saying he's "taking on both parties and fighting for those with pre-existing conditions."

Dana Rohrabacher has voted against the Affordable Care Act 57 TIMES.

57 TIMES.

Want me to show you the votes? Okay. Here they are. All 57. front.moveon.org/show-me-the-vo…

It began on HR 2, Jan 19, 2011. That vote would've ended protections pre-existing conditions. And it went on & on.

We might not have long attention spans. We might be forgetful. We might spend too much time on our phones. But we remember danger. And the Republican Party put us in danger, by putting our health care at risk. Their 30-second ads can't erase those months—years—of memories.

Our health care system is shockingly broken in an endless list of ways. It's far from perfect in the sense that Milwaukee is far from Neptune. Not even the same planet. But there's one direction we absolutely must not go: back. That's where the GOP wants to take us. We say no.

I met Charlie and her mom @woodra during the fight against ACA repeal. Charlie is alive because of Medicaid. At birth, she weighed less than two pounds. She'll forever have pre-existing conditions. But federal protections have allowed her to thrive. Fight this election for her.

Rick Scott co-founded "the largest private for-profit health care company in the United States," which defrauded Medicare so much that it paid billions in fines—"the largest fraud settlement in American history."
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rick_Scott

The Republican Party wants a health care system, and a government, that works for the Rick Scotts of the world, and abandons the Charlies. In the next two weeks, we get to decide if they win or lose. Don't waste a minute.

Coda to this thread: don't miss this supercut by @mmfa of Rush Limbaugh and Fox News pundits attacking the concept of requiring coverage for people with pre-existing conditions.