Healthcare Education Project Needs an Education On Rep. Pete King's Voting Record

The Healthcare Education Project took out a full-page advertisement in Sunday’s Newsday thanking Congressman Peter King for announcing his “opposition to the Senate’s devastating healthcare repeal bill.” I can only hope that they were trying to publicly shame Rep. King into voting against the bill when it returns to the House. It might have been a brilliant move, if Rep. King had any shame.

I certainly hope that they did not forget that it was King’s May 4 vote for the House’s version, the American Health Care Act, that put the lives of 24 million Americans at risk.

The House’s healthcare repeal bill passed with 217 votes (it needed 216 to pass). King’s vote mattered, and he admitted that he hadn’t fully read the bill when he voted for it. For months, King’s constituents held rallies and continuously called his office pleading with him not to cast a vote that would leave more than 10% of us without health coverage. Our words fell on deaf ears though, as King voted for a bill that would cut more than $800 billion from Medicaid, drastically increase premiums for older Americans, and provide $600 billion in tax cuts for the wealthy!

While Sunday’s advertisement thanked Rep. King for “standing up for Long Island families,” Long Islanders know the truth! King voted for a bill that would leave 2.7 million New Yorkers without access to health care. He passed the buck to the Senate, saying “I would hope it gets changed over there,” and is now hoping we forget who’s responsible.

Rep. King said the Senate’s healthcare repeal bill will"cause real impact to hospitals in New York and to lower-income people in New York." This is true, but so did the House bill that he voted for in May. The bill that King voted for would have cut more than $14 million in funding from three hospitals in our district – Good Samaritan, Southside, and St. Joseph.

Where was King’s fake concern then? Did he attend the Town Hall that we invited him to, where hundreds of his constituents came to discuss their concerns about healthcare and how this bill would directly affect them? No, he dismissed us, saying that meeting with his constituents would “just be enabling aberrant behavior.”I can assure you - there was no aberrant behavior at our Town Hall – just constituents from two to 98 years old whose lives King put in danger with his self-serving vote expressing their fears.

In March, President Trump attempted to persuade King to vote for the American Health Care Act by pointing him out in the crowd and reminding him that they grew up near each other in Queens. Rep. King told reporters after that, “it would be hard for me to vote ‘no.’” If a small gesture from the President can sway King away from his duty to protect his district, he is not qualified to represent us in Washington.

King has said of the Senate bill, that "it's wrong to pass something for the sake of passing it," but that is exactly what he did on May 4.

As a constituent of Rep. King, I am insulted by the misleading advertisement in Newsday thanking him for his leadership and opposition to the Senate’s healthcare repeal bill. Opposing the Senate bill costs King nothing politically.

King voted YES when he had the chance. He voted YES when it mattered, and his constituents remember!

Liuba Grechen Shirley
Founder & District Organizer
New York’s 2nd District Democrats