Immediately following Trumpcare/Ryancare's failure, a very exclusive congressional club formed. This club consists of the few Republicans in the entire country who actually, on the record, voted for a bill that was on such a bad trajectory that it ended up getting pulled. The New York Times's Jonathan Martin says that 15 of those GOP MOCs are "targeted" in 2018, meaning the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee thinks they're vulnerable in the upcoming election. Washington state's own Dave Reichert is now a member of that club.
On the House Ways and Means Committee, Reichert voted for Trumpcare without even knowing how much it would cost or how many people stood to lose coverage. When the Congressional Budget Office revealed that 24 million Americans would lose their health insurance coverage over the course of a decade, Reichert continued to defend the bill and his vote.
Reichert's support began to waver only after the members of the Freedom Caucus, Ryan, and Trump started making last-minute changes that would have removed several essential benefits from the bill.
Still, the fact remains that Reichert voted for Trumpcare. While other members of congress avoided going on the record, Reichert and fourteen others took an early leap—and are now going to take a political hit. I asked Reichert's office if the congressman feels abandoned by Republican leadership. I'll let you know if they get back to me on this or literally anything else.
Reichert Watch: Every time Reichert takes a party line vote that hurts his constituents or introduces needless legislation or does anything at all, we'll add it to the list.
• On March 9, he voted for the GOP plan to repeal and replace Obamacare.
• A week later, after a Congressional Budget Office analysis found the plan could leave 24 million people across the country without insurance by 2026, he defended it.
• Before that, Reichert made misleading statements about threats posed by his own constituents.
• Recently, he voted for the SCRUB act, which creates a regulatory committee to identify and eliminate regulations that don’t directly increase the GDP. The committee’s goals align with White House chief strategist Stephen Bannon’s plan to “deconstruct the administrative state," but the irony of commissioning a regulatory agency to cut back on regulations is lost on no one, especially not tax payers who are being charged $30 million for the favor.
• Reichert twice voted against forcing Trump to show Congress his tax returns (once in committee and once in a roll call vote), which may illuminate conflicts of interest and business ties with Russia.
• Reichert was the only Washington Republican who voted to gut the Office of Congressional Ethics.
• In 2014, he proposed a bill that would ban welfare recipients from using benefits to buy weed, despite the fact that such purchases were already illegal.
• In 2010, he voted to maintain “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell."
• That same year, Reichert suffered significant brain trauma when a tree branch fell on his head. The resulting hand-sized blood clot that formed in his brain went untreated for two months.
• In their 2006
