Arkansas partisan politics

According to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, Tom Cotton will put partisan politics ahead of Arkansas’ middle class families when House Republicans vote for the 37th time to repeal health care reform. The Republican House voted 36 times in the last Congress to repeal health care reform and it went nowhere— it’s clear the House GOP caucus is more interested in trying to score political points than creating jobs, making quality health care more affordable, or ending Washington gridlock. 

Despite the terrible record of House Republicans in Senate races and the wildly unpopular policies they're pushing, more than a dozen House Republicans are considering Senate bids in 2014. In 2012, the GOP nominated seven current or former Republican House members for the Senate and six of them lost. Republicans and conservative outside groups spent hundreds of millions attacking Democratic Senators and Senate candidates on healthcare reform last cycle. Republicans not only failed to take back the Senate, but they lost seats.

“Tom Cotton is far more interested in scoring partisan political points than with helping middle class Arkansans, and supporting national Republicans as they vote for the 37th time to repeal health care reform proves it,” said Justin Barasky, a spokesman at the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. “Arkansas voters want their representatives in Congress working on common sense reforms to our health care system, not wasting the country’s time with meaningless stunts designed to score political points. Cotton’s reckless waste of taxpayers’ time and resources only threatens to take us back to the time when insurance companies could discriminate and deny coverage for people with preexisting conditions, drop you from your plan when you get sick, and kick children off their parents’ health care before they turn 26."

As a result of the Affordable Care Act, health care is more available and more affordable for all Americans and repealing it would have an instant impact on seniors and middle class families. Medicare benefits for seniors, including prescription drug coverage, and coverage for preventive-care benefits, like mammograms and free wellness visits, would be cut immediately.