Gianforte waffled on his support for the health care bill that the House passed this month, telling wealthy donors he backed the deeply unpopular bill, then backtracking to voters who could lose their health insurance or be forced to pay higher premiums. Quist hammered Gianforte for flip-flopping and raised more than $550,000 from donors contributing on average $25 each over the course of just four days.
The links are each worth following, but lengthening the post by quoting is unnecessary. One point only, image from here,
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| Trump ties. Would a cowboy hat be expected here, or might some hand-in-glove fellowship carry the day? |
Actually, one quote, after his lobbyist money-shake conference call:
Gianforte told a local CBS affiliate in Montana that he would have voted against the bill, which allows states to waive rules protecting people with pre-existing conditions from being turned away or charged astronomical rates.
“I’ve been very clear, to repeal and replace ‘Obamacare’ we must have guarantees here in Montana that rates will go down, rural access will be preserved, and people with pre-existing conditions will be protected,” Gianforte told KPAX. “If I didn’t have that assurance I would have voted against it.”
Gianforte has accepted $2 million from the Congressional Leadership Fund, which only supports candidates who back the AHCA. His campaign did not immediately offer a comment Wednesday morning.
The personal histories of Gianforte and his opponent play handily into Democrats’ health care narrative. In 1991, Gianforte, a software entrepreneur, settled a lawsuit with a former employee who’d accused Gianforte of firing him for having multiple sclerosis. By contrast, Quist, a musician and son of ranchers whose wife is a real estate agent, spiraled into debt after undergoing a botched surgery that counted as a pre-existing condition, disqualifying him from health insurance. He was forced to sell off part of his family’s ranch and access Social Security early to afford follow-up surgeries and avoid bankruptcy.
[links omitted] The drift there, the cowboy hat would be absent from joining the pictured troika; the man rich from software enabling customers to outsource jobs, more likely from looking up from GOP back benching to the Ryan leadership, seeking membership where, the Financial Services Committee, portfolio concerns and all? (It's where dear Michele Bachmann finagled membership; and her sophistication is less than Gianforte's.)
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Only a marginally related thought, related to portfolio holding and not presently trading, does Gianforte hold any Exxon stock, what with the Exxon headed State Department and sanctions against Russia presently standing between Exxon and a half-trillion dollar oil deal? Which would boost share price, presumably.