“Seriously?” Tom Kean Jr. Called Out for ACA Flip-Flop

Kean Jr. has spent years trying to undermine the ACA and has done nothing to lower health care costs. Now, with ACA tax credits set to expire and health care costs set to spike, Kean Jr. realizes that voters will hold him accountable and is flailing and flip-flopping in an effort to pretend like this isn’t a crisis that he himself created. 

A new column in the NJ Advance sums Kean Jr. and House Republicans’ hypocrisy up nicely: “Their prospects are not looking so good. So, they are trying to switch gears, while, ahem, they wait on a new plan to replace the Affordable Care act, set to expire at the end of the year. Seriously? Didn’t they just close the government to avoid extending those subsidies?”

Read the full piece for yourself:

• All three of New Jersey’s Republican congressmen – Reps. Jeff Van Drew, Chris Smith, and Tom Kean Jr. – supported the bill to open the government with no evident hesitation.
• Before the vote, Republican representatives refused to even discuss options to help families afford their healthcare coverage. They stayed home to avoid doing so.
• Now what they are concerned more about, though, is a mid-term backlash that may come in response to their previous votes against extending the subsidies.
• In short, they are less certain about their chances of being re-elected in 2026.
• Their prospects are not looking so good. So, they are trying to switch gears, while, ahem, they wait on a new plan to replace the Affordable Care act, set to expire at the end of the year.
• Seriously? Didn’t they just close the government to avoid extending those subsidies?
• The subsidies, in particular, have been hugely successful: In the four years since their inception, the new and expanded credits helped ACA Marketplace enrollment explode from 11.4 million to 24.3 million.
• Canceling them will hurt those who rely on them and they are letting their representatives know about it. And, they, the representatives, those that have opposed the subsidies and the healthcare program itself all along are acknowledging that something needs to be done…..for now.
• A bipartisan bill to extend the subsidies, for example, provides that they last only for one year, conveniently enough, ending after the mid-term elections!
• But most GOP representatives are opposed to extending the subsidies; they outnumber those of their colleagues who fear the loss of their positions and want to extend them.
• Americans needing help, any interest? Nah, not the focus, not the problem.
• Of course, let it be known that when it comes to helping American citizens deal with the increasing costs and pressures on them, the GOP doesn’t even try to be with them; it’s with the well-off who want tax cuts and other benefits.
• Healthcare-related challenges, on several fronts, are putting families in crisis. And, the Republican-dominated Congress, well, it’s having little, if anything to say but, for those who face re-election, saying what may be needed to stay seated.

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