May 11, 2017

Major media turned out in force last night to cover a town hall held in New Jersey, a short ride from Philadelphia. It was held by Rep. Tom MacArthur, the author of the amendment that finally got Freedom Caucus support and pushed Trump's bill across the finish line -- even if he did have to gut essential benefits and allow states to waive cost controls on pre-existing conditions.

Many of his constituents are very upset about that. (Including Geoff Ginter, the man in the above video.)

This "moderate Republican" isn't a moderate at all. Not any more. Since Trump took office, Freedom Works rates him at 82%.

MacArthur frequently starts his appearances with the sobering story of taking his 11-year-old daughter off life support, and how much he cares about health care as a result. (A formerly sympathetic New Jersey journalist just wrote him off in a scathing column.)

Last night, he got interrupted. "We already know about your daughter," someone shouted. (Twitchy readers got very upset about such horrible incivility. Ha ha, Twitchy readers talking about civility!)

One of the reasons people are sceptical is because MacArthur was the CEO of an insurance risk management firm, and his net worth is reported as somewhere north of $50 million. He owns three houses.

Insurance has been very, very good to him.

So he was grilled, attacked, shouted at, and basically excoriated. And he lied.

"If you have continuous coverage, it’s against the law to health rate someone. You can’t deny or change the premiums," he insisted.

That's just not true. Once they repeal the ACA's consumer protections, they can rate anyone at any time. But whatever. He's a Republican, one who got rich off the insurance industry. Caveat emptor.

You can read more coverage here, here, here, here, here, and here.

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