Labrador protects rich

Thanks Rep. Raul Labrador for your instrumental vote in narrowly passing the Republican health-care bill. Raul voted for the bill without bothering to wait for the CBO report that would show the cost of the bill or how it would affect his constituents.

He did know that parts of the old bill remained unchanged in the new bill. One part, as Chris Wallace of Fox News pointed out in an interview with Reince Priebus: “Under Obamacare, older people, let’s say 55 to 64, could be charged three times as much as younger people. In (your) House bill, it’s five times as much or even more.” Small things like that don’t sway Labrador from his unrelenting fight to repeal Obamacare. He apparently was more interested in the tax cuts included in the bill. They largely benefit the 400 very richest Americans, average incomes of $300 million (over $1 million per working day). This bill will give them an average tax cut of $7 million, which they so dearly need.

It’s unfortunate that older middle-class Americans who will see huge insurance increases won’t get any of that tax cut. But Raul understands which Americans are really important.

Paul Mowat

Coeur d’Alene