Shame on California’s Republican representatives who voted for health care bill

To California’s Republican Reps. LaMalfa, Valadao, Knight, Royce, Calvert, Rohrabacher and Issa:

When America’s representative government did the best they could, we got the Affordable Care Act. With every other developed country in the world sponsoring successful governmental health care, all we could wangle was “Obamacare.” Big money interests, power and bad intentions limited us to that end. Imperfect as it is, it helps many of us in the 99 percent who need it the most.

Lady and gentlemen, you just helped pass what would doom many of us — families, friends and neighbors. You are not alone. From the beginning, many Republican state governors, congressmen and women have strived to undermine and destroy American realization that our health is part of the First Amendment: right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. When you don’t commit to refining the ACA, fixing what is incomplete with wisdom and good intentions and instead offer a cruel, arrogant document of doom to blow past us the lie: that you care and work for us.

Without “drama,” hyperbole or spin, you would be sending many of us to suffering, tragedy and death. That simple truth is an ugly bottom line.

This story was originally published May 9, 2017 at 4:31 PM with the headline "Shame on California’s Republican representatives who voted for health care bill."