Bill Straub: Barr’s clouded judgment leads to backing health bill denying coverage to his voters

WASHINGTON – Rep. Andy Barr, R-Banks and Financial Institutions, held a town hall in Lexington recently and it’s fair to say he didn’t receive the sort of welcome accorded the Chicago Cubs after they won the World Series last year.

What the way-back bench lawmaker did get were the raspberries from a constituency fed up with his kowtowing to the rich money lenders who own him and for his falling on bended knees to a House GOP leadership desperately seeking the support necessary to repeal Obamacare – something he proved all too eager to provide.

Barr consistently tried and failed to tap dance around his critics, many of whom were on hand to testify about the benefits they derived from the Affordable Care Act. The three-term lawmaker reached deep down into his bag of tricks, at one point pulling out that reliable, old Republican chestnut that Obamacare needed replacing because it’s in a “death spiral’’ – a hoax that has been refuted repeatedly by various fact-checking organizations.

And of course there was his embrace of Trump’s Folly – the proposed wall across America’s southern border, a boondoggle of massive proportions that will cost billions of dollars and ultimately fail in its effort to keep brown people from entering the country to eke out an existence.

It’s fair to say Lexington hasn’t seen a flop of this magnitude since the 1973-74 University of Kentucky basketball team. That squad, at least, went on to play for the national championship the following season. Barr faces no such hope. The word “laughingstock’’ hunkered down over the proceedings like the smog over LA and poor Andy had to beg the audience to be nice to him, an unseemly request for any congressman.

The problem, of course, is that Barr is trying to sell the folks of Kentucky’s Sixth Congressional District a bill of goods and many of them are having none of it. The measure embraced by Barr, the American Health Care Act, which could come up for a vote as early as Thursday, makes severe cuts in Medicaid and alters several provisions found in Obamacare, including protections afforded those with pre-existing conditions.

And while the number of people who will lose health care coverage under the GOP/Barr plan is something of a moving target given all the compromises in the works to attract the needed votes in the House, it will certainly total in the millions. The Congressional Budget Office maintained under the original Republican health care proposal there would be 24 million fewer Americans with health insurance by 2026.

According to the Kentucky Center for Economic Policy, the bill championed by Barr in front of hundreds of dissenting voters “contains the same harmful changes as before: it would dramatically reduce the number of Kentuckians with health coverage, make plans more expensive for those buying insurance through the marketplace and shift billions of dollars to the Kentucky state budget — all while providing large tax cuts to millionaires.’’

The Center, which produces research, analysis and education on important policy issues facing the commonwealth, determined that almost 70,000 people would lose coverage under the GOP health care package in Barr’s own Sixth Congressional District. It cited one report that the measure would eliminate jobs throughout the state by cutting off billions of dollars destined for doctors’ offices, hospitals and local economies.

In Eastern Kentucky, the Fifth Congressional District represented by Rep. Hal Rogers, R-Somerset, would lose more jobs than any congressional district in the country, at over 20,000 jobs by 2022.

The plan, according to the Center, would drive up costs for those purchasing insurance through the marketplace by reducing tax credits and raising out of pocket expenses — an average cost increase of $1,804 for Kentuckians and much more for older people.


Making these changes is what passes for a good idea in Andy Barr world and it’s why so many showed up at his town hall session to voice their opposition. His answer to those concerned about their futures without health insurance could be whittled down to one word – tough. People sent him to Washington to repeal Obamacare, he offered, and by jiminy he was going to do it.

But that’s based on a fallacy. No one sent him to DC to replace the nation’s health care law with another that is infinitely worse – something he rabidly hopes to do. He was sent there to exercise his judgment. So, apparently, it is old Andy’s position that robbing potentially millions of folks of their healthcare constitutes good judgment.

No wonder he keeps getting re-elected.

The sad thing is with proper adjustments Obamacare would work just fine. No one is saying the law doesn’t require fixes to, for instance, keep insurance companies in the marketplace. The only possible objection to taking these necessary steps is that a Democratic president despised by Republicans for his achievements and popularity has his name attached to it. And that’s good enough for Andy Barr.

Now, having escaped the clutches of his wretched constituents and returned to the friendlier confines of the District of Columbia where they can’t get in his way, our boy Andy is getting down to doing what he does best – serving as a tool for a financial services industry that owns him lock, stock and BARRell.

Barr is one of seven co-sponsors of the Financial CHOICE Act, offered to put the kibosh on the Dodd-Frank reform measures established in wake of the 2008 meltdown that nearly resulted in an economic crash – a tragedy averted, it should be noted, thanks in large measure to actions taken by former President Barack Obama.

The legislation would, among other things, weaken the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and place it under the authority of the executive branch, meaning the president, in this case Wild Man Donald Trump, can hire and/or fire the director. The CFPB currently is an independent agency.

It also removes the caps that banks and credit card companies can charge retailers under Dodd-Frank for processing debit and credit card transactions, thus allowing banks to pile up more dough for swipe fees.

There are several other godawful provisions opening the door for the sort of abuse that led to the 2008 recession. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-MA, a critic of the financial services industry, called the measure a “an insult to working families’’ and “an immoral choice.’’

So you can certainly understand why Barr would be out there leading the cheers.

Old Andy has displayed a true talent over the years for working against the interests of the citizens of the Sixth Congressional District. And as long as he delivers votes on issues like ending abortion and building a wall, they’ll keep sending him back and then wonder why Washington doesn’t listen to them.

Tis a pity.

Washington correspondent Bill Straub served 11 years as the Frankfort Bureau chief for The Kentucky Post. He also is the former White House/political correspondent for Scripps Howard News Service. A member of the Kentucky Journalism Hall of Fame, he currently resides in Silver Spring, Maryland, and writes frequently about the federal government and politics. Email him at williamgstraub@gmail.com.