Can you donate now to join our fight?

We just launched the Power to Appoint Fund to highlight the important role Dem Govs play to ensure integrity in our country’s judicial process and protect fundamental freedoms. Your support will ensure we can make crucial investments in key states and protect our democracy. Please don’t wait: rush your gift to elect Democratic governors! >>>

Roundup: Trumpcare Bombs at NGA

Latest News

Dem Govs Opposition to Health Care Bill ‘Unanimous and Fierce’


As governors gathered over the weekend in Providence for the National Governors Association summer meetings, the Trump administration tried once again to pitch its deeply unpopular health care bill. And once again, the governors were not impressed.
The Trump administration’s full-court press – with in-person appeals from Vice President Mike Pence, HHS Secretary Tom Price, and CMS Director Seema Verma – fell flat with both Democratic and Republican governors. Democratic governors kicked off the conference on Friday with a united opposition to the Senate bill, and were joined by a number of Republican governors throughout the weekend in expressing deep concerns with the bill.
Below is a roundup of the coverage:
NYT: Governors From Both Parties Denounce Senate Obamacare Repeal Bill
Among Democratic governors, opposition to the legislation was unanimous and fierce, and party leaders declared anew on Friday that Democrats would pummel any Republican who dared support the bill in the more than three dozen governors elections unfolding over the next year and a half.
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy of Connecticut, the chairman of the Democratic Governors’ Association, accused Republicans in scorching language of being willing to let “people die in your state because they’re no longer eligible for health care.”
Other Democrats took a gentler approach, coaxing Republican senators from their states with do-the-right-thing appeals. Gov. John Bel Edwards of Louisiana invoked Mr. Cassidy’s years of work as a doctor in their state’s charity hospitals.
 
NBC News: Governors ‘High Degree of Anxiety’ Over Health Care Bill
With billions of federal dollars for their states on the line, the nation’s governors are watching closely as the Senate GOP bill to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act stumbles toward a conclusion in Washington.
“It’s on everyone’s mind. It’s in every private conversation. There’s a high degree of anxiety,” said Rhode Island Democratic Gov. Gina Raimondo, the host of the summer meeting Friday and Saturday of the National Governors Association here. “They see it as an unfair shift of financial burden from the federal government to the states.”
 
Associated Press: ‘Still Trying to Put Lipstick on a Pig.’ Governors Slam Revised Health Care Bill
Some Democratic governors gathered Friday morning to publicly criticize the revised health care bill, which was released Thursday. They spoke about how unwinding the Medicaid expansion created by the Affordable Care Act would hurt their states.
Montana Gov. Steve Bullock, a Democrat, said Republicans in Congress are “still trying to put lipstick on a pig, but guess what? It’s still a pig.”
 
NYT: Governors Give Chilly Reception to Health Bill Push
While Republican governors stopped well short of declaring common cause with Democrats on health care, state executives from both parties gave a brusque reception to Trump administration officials who trekked to Rhode Island to lobby governors for their support.
Gov. John W. Hickenlooper of Colorado, a Democrat who is part of a group of seven governors who have been outspoken about their discomfort with the legislation to repeal the Affordable Care Act, said he expected an even larger bloc of the state chief executives to voice their unease about the proposal after the annual summer gathering of the governors concludes here this weekend.
 
Associated Press: White House Pitches Health Bill to Skeptical US Governors
Connecticut Gov. Dannel Malloy, chairman of the Democratic Governors Association, said the mood at the Saturday breakfast meeting was “tense” and “there are a lot of Republican governors who apparently have a neck problem, because they were all looking down.” Malloy added that a few Republican governors did ask questions. Others said they raised their concerns to the White House in one-on-one meetings.
 
CNN: Governors skeptical after ‘pretty atrocious’ session with top Trump health officials
But the closed-door session with Price and Verma on Saturday was “pretty atrocious,” said Connecticut Democratic Gov. Dan Malloy.
“They repeatedly pretended that the federal government saving hundreds of billions of dollars won’t translate to actual cuts,” he said. “I was told that I’ll innovate sufficiently to save them hundreds and hundreds of billions of dollars.”
 
US News: White House Fails to Sway Governors on Senate Health Care Bill
After a visit Friday from Vice President Mike Pence, the governors met Saturday morning with Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price and Seema Verma, administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
But based on the governors’ reactions, the Administration’s attempt was largely unsuccessful and seemed to further frustrate many of them.
Though he appreciated Pence’s presence at the meeting as a former governor, Democratic Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe says he found Pence’s speech “a little strident,” adding that he doesn’t think any of the state legislators have changed their minds on the bill.
 
Bloomberg: White House Takes Pitch for Health-Care Bill to US Governors
Democratic governors scoffed. The Congressional Budget Office has said Medicaid funding in the previous version of the bill amounted to a cut of $772 billion from current projections over a decade.
“President Trump promised everybody gets covered, it will cost less money and you will get better results,” Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe, a Democrat and chairman of the National Governors Association, said in an interview. “None of that is in this bill.”
 
Governing: White House Lobbies Governors on Latest Health Bill, But They’re Not Buying It
Despite a full-court press from the White House this weekend, many of the nation’s governors remain unsupportive of the latest version of legislation that would replace the Affordable Care Act, which was released by the Senate late last week.
 
Reuters: Cuts to Medicaid could worsen U.S. opioid crisis, governors warn
Democratic and Republican governors meeting in Rhode Island warned that many residents of their states were relying on Medicaid to get treatment for opioid addiction, which grips an estimated 3 million Americans and killed 33,000 people in the United States in 2015, according to federal data. 
“We’re kidding ourselves if we don’t think what’s happening with healthcare in Congress right now is affecting this issue,”
North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper, a Democrat, told his counterparts at a meeting of the National Governors Association in Providence.
 
WLNE: Democratic governors voice concern over Senate GOP healthcare bill
Democratic governors from across the United States congregated in Providence to deliver a strong message against the latest Republican healthcare bill.
Governor Raimondo has been outspoken about healthcare saying getting rid of Obamacare would have disastrous consequences in Rhode Island. 
Many of her colleagues in government shared her sentiment. North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper said his biggest problem with the latest version is the impact it could have on the opioid crisis.