Constituents took advantage of July Fourth celebrations to lobby Republican senators on healthcare, The Washington Post reports. The holiday was one of the few opportunities constituents had, to publicly address lawmakers about healthcare, a topic that has dominated the legislative agenda in recent weeks.
Senator Susan Collins said she heard constituents asking her if she’ll vote for the Republican bill to repeal and replace ObamaCare called the Better Care Reconciliation Act.
“I heard, over and over again, encouragement for my stand against the current version of the Senate and House healthcare bills. People were thanking me, over and over again. ‘Thank you, Susan!’ ‘Stay strong, Susan!’” Collins said.
Collins was one of several GOP senators who said she would block the first draft of the legislation from moving forward. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Senator Ted Cruz both faced protesters at events in their home states, according to The Washington Post.
Cruz said that the protesters were “a small group of people on the left who right now are very angry”. McConnell largely avoided the crowd as they were blocked from entering the event he was attending, but called ObamaCare “a disaster” in a video from the Louisville Courier-Journal.
Senator Dean Heller, who has openly opposed the first draft of the legislation, was met at a parade in his home state by constituents who were urging him to vote for the new bill.
Moreover, Senator Lisa Murkowski, who has also criticized the bill, reportedly faced dozens of constituent questions about healthcare as she walked in a local parade.
“Most people don’t ask ‘for or against’. They just say, ‘Make sure you’re taking care of our interests.’ In fairness for those that do the ‘for or against,’ everybody is pretty much saying they don’t think this is good for us,” Murkowski said.
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