I am very glad that U.S. Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler’s, R-Camas, family had health insurance, which helped pay for her family’s serious health needs but it seems cruel for her to seek to deny health care to other families by supporting the House legislation to defund Obamacare.
Her attitude is also puzzling from a political standpoint. Much of the spending on Obamacare is “mandatory spending,” which is not affected by this vote. What is affected is “discretionary spending,” which covers community health centers, preventative health programs (which reduce overall health costs), school health clinics, and rural health centers. These types of programs benefit Beutler’s rural supporters, who should be asking her why she is taking this attitude.
Other Republican politicians have seen the light. According to The Morning Sun newspaper in Kansas, Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Kan., said that “If you are the most conservative politician … you ought to be in favor of community health centers.”
Ruth Stevens
Vancouver