Tag: 3rd CD

Scott Pruitt, left, administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, with President Trump and a group of coal miners in March as the president signed an executive order that rolled back many climate-change policies. Credit Stephen Crowley/The New York Times

The following article by Jason DeRusha was posted on the WCCO website May 6, 2017:

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) — WCCO has learned wealthy Twin Cities businessman Dean Phillips says he will run for Congress against Rep. Erik Paulsen in Minnesota’s 3rd District covering the western suburbs from Eden Prairie to Maple Grove.

Phillips told WCCO’s Jason DeRusha that Republican Rep. Paulsen’s Thursday vote in favor of “Trumpcare,” the health care bill designed to roll-back parts of Obamacare, moved up his timeline to begin the process to declare as a candidate. He said he expects to officially announce in the coming week.

Phillips’ family started the Phillips Distilling Co., a Minneapolis company that created Phillips Vodka and Prairie Organic spirits, he also owned Talenti Gelato. He has sold both of those businesses and in recent years has worked on philanthropic issues and co-founded Penny’s Coffee, a Minneapolis coffee shop near downtown.

Phillips created a Twitter account Friday, tweeting: “@RepErikPaulsen? More like Mis-Representative. Your vote for #TrumpCare betrays the people you serve. #ReadTheBill ’18 can’t come soon enough,” and DFL leaders and activists have been recruiting him after a disappointing showing by former Plymouth mayor and State Representative Terri Bonhoff.

Dean Phillips @deanbphillips

.@RepErikPaulsen?More like Mis-Representative.Your vote for betrays the people you serve. ’18 can’t come soon enough

DFL leaders and activists have been recruiting him after a disappointing showing by former State Senator Terri Bonoff.

WCCO reached out to a spokesperson for Paulsen Saturday morning but did not get a response.

View the post here.

Tevlin: Dear Reps. Paulsen, Emmer and Lewis, spare us the crowing over your ‘health’ bill

The following column was posted on the Star Tribune website May 6, 2017:

With America in a health care crisis, the solution shouldn’t be winning the lottery.

Demonstrators gathered at the Burnsville offices of Minnesota Republican Congressman Jason Lewis in the wake of his health care vote on Thursday.

Dear Reps. Erik Paulsen, Tom Emmer and Jason Lewis:

Thank you so much for your news releases praising the passage of the American Health Care Act. This is the first time in my career that I have received political suicide notes from sitting members of Congress.

Congratulations for taking ownership of America’s health care crisis. As Rep. Emmer phrased it, “This is what President Trump campaigned on and what he asked for, and the House has delivered.” Continue reading “Tevlin: Dear Reps. Paulsen, Emmer and Lewis, spare us the crowing over your ‘health’ bill”

Paulsen’s constituents support Planned Parenthood

To the editor:

The March 17 article “AHCA: Rep. Erik Paulsen Weighs in on Republican Health Care Bill” concluded with Congressman Paulsen’s statement that he plans to continue regularly taking feedback from his constituents on important legislative issues.

Although the American Health Care Act was withdrawn, I hope Congressman Paulsen still intends to consider his constituents’ views on crucial health care matters, particularly in forthcoming votes concerning the federal budget. The congressman should remember that defunding Planned Parenthood is both dangerous and unpopular, as multiple peaceful protests at his district office have already demonstrated. Continue reading “Paulsen’s constituents support Planned Parenthood”

‘Sleep well tonight’: After Trumpcare vote, Rep. Erik Paulsen’s Facebook page is a shitshow

The following article by Mike Mullen was posted on the CityPages website May 5, 2017:

GOP U.S. Rep. Erik Paulsen is one of many members of Congress who are avoiding constituent town halls for the time being.


Congressman Erik Paulsen, on Election Night in 2016. It appears some voters in the 3rd Congressional District do not like his support of Trumpcare
Jeff Wheeler, Star Tribune

And, let us safely assume, for the foreseeable future. After yesterday’s healthcare vote, which found Paulsen among the 217 Republican “yea” votes to pass the Trumpcare/Ryancare/tax cut/services cut healthcare plan, Paulsen issued a statement explaining his support.

His enraged constituents stood ready, and quickly tore his statement to tatters with their pitchforks.

Said Paulsen: “With millions in Minnesota and the United States in need of relief from skyrocketing costs, diminishing choices, and limited access, the status quo under Obamacare is no longer acceptable. This is just the latest step in reforming our health care system to be more patient-centered, and my focus remains on finding solutions that will make sure Americans have access to high quality, affordable health care. I’m also pleased to see the permanent repeal of the medical device tax included in this effort, which is critical to encourage medical innovation and make life-saving technologies accessible to patients.” Continue reading “‘Sleep well tonight’: After Trumpcare vote, Rep. Erik Paulsen’s Facebook page is a shitshow”

Health care is now set to be a defining issue in the next election cycles

The following article by Philip Rucker was posted on the Washington Post website May 5, 2017:

With one hasty and excruciatingly narrow vote, House Republicans have all but guaranteed that health care will be one of the most pivotal issues shaping the next two election cycles — including congressional, gubernatorial and state legislative races in the 2018 midterms and President Trump’s likely reelection bid in 2020.

Just as Democrats were forced to defend Obamacare in the 2010 midterms — the result was a coast-to-coast drubbing that President Barack Obama called a “shellacking” — Republicans this time will be in the hot seat. Continue reading “Health care is now set to be a defining issue in the next election cycles”

An Obligation to Provide Care

There is a key concept often left out of the health care debate and something that politicians seem to continually misunderstand or refuse to acknowledge: that we have an obligation to provide care. This does not necessarily translate to “we as a nation” but “we as clinicians,” who have a moral obligation and, in the case of hospitals, a legal obligation to provide emergency care under the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act. There is a need to acknowledge the moral and deontological sentiment that exists here. This was borne out of many failures and Supreme Court decisions resulting from a refusal to treat people, who then died or had bad outcomes. Patient dumping led to overcrowding of emergency rooms in county hospitals, where turning people away may have been legal but was ethically reprehensible.

The continuing frame of thought that health care is a market-based product is doomed. We may continue on this path for some time, but the end is inevitable; either we finally recognize an obligation to providing care or we allow hospitals to turn people away. It is all well and good to be a congressperson and treat health care as a free-market product, but when you are face to face with the bad effects of this mind-set, you may think differently. When the major groups representing clinicians in the trenches are against what you are doing, you ought to take some time to contemplate this.

Ian Wolfe, Minneapolis
Star Tribune, May 5, 2017

AHCA Limits Access for Sick, Gives Tax Break to Wealthy

With all the talk of “protecting” the preexisting conditions in the AHCA, I’m not convinced the GOP definition of protection means anything but allowing the free market to reign over the misfortune of their constituents.

So, what is protection anyway? The online resources I see all include it in a financial sense. For example (of an insurance policy), a promise to pay someone an agreed amount in the event of loss, injury, fire, theft or other misfortune, or “in the event of your death, your family will be protected against any financial problems that may arise.” So I am at first comforted in knowing I will be protected from financial ruin should the unthinkable happen.

But wait: Noticeably absent is a framework for my protection. Without that, we have just blind faith in the free market for the healthy, and risk pools for the rest. Without essential protections that define our rights as purchasers of lifesaving access to health care, without protection from financial demise, why call it insurance?

We need to call it what it is: a plan to fix health care and limit spending by limiting access for the sick, while offering a tax break to the wealthy for health savings account contributions.

Tracie Wollman, Plymouth
Star Tribune, May 5, 2017

Rep. Paulsen’s Yes Vote on Trumpcare

In voting “yes” on the AHCA, Rep. Erik Paulsen sent a clear signal to voters that he stands with the ultraconservative wing of the GOP and not with his constituents. Rather than insisting on public hearings, a Congressional Budget Office report, transparency in government and, ultimately, affordable health care for all, Paulsen proved he is a party puppet, doing the bidding of Trump and Ryan. The Democratic candidate for president has carried Paulsen’s district in three straight general elections. The Third District is moderate. Paulsen is not. His cover is blown once and for all.

Heidi Strommen, Plymouth
Star Tribune, May 5, 2017

Minnesotans have been ill-served by their representatives.

I am disgusted that every single one of Minnesota’s Republican congressional representatives voted for the American Health Care Act, agreeing to strip away the protections provided by the Affordable Care Act. President Trump repeatedly promised during his campaign not to cut Medicaid; now he’s going to cut it by $800 billion in order to fund a tax cut for the wealthiest Americans.

More than a million Minnesotans have preexisting conditions. Even if you’re not among them, if you’ve ever found a suspicious lump or mole and felt the fear of possibility, you know how tenuous good health can be. And anyone who considers themselves prolife should be aghast at the idea that a family who “chooses life” for a child with health problems diagnosed in pregnancy will be faced with costs they can never even hope to pay in order to heal a child who will have a preexisting condition from the moment they take their first breath.

Trumpcare even removes preexisting condition protections for people with employer-provided health care! No one is safe from this atrocious bill’s consequences. Reps. Jason Lewis, Erik Paulsen and Tom Emmer should be ashamed of themselves, and I hope all three are voted out in 2018.

Naomi Kritzer, St. Paul
Star Tribune, May 5, 2017