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Signed, Sealed, Delivered: Susan Collins’ Letter Makes Her Part of the Problem On Health Care, Not the Solution

By April 1, 2019No Comments

Washington, DC — After Senator Susan Collins wrote a letter to Attorney General Bill Barr regarding the Trump lawsuit to destroy the ACA, Protect Our Care executive director Brad Woodhouse issued the following statement:

“Susan Collins may want us to believe that a letter to the attorney general will absolve her ownership of the Trump lawsuit, but we know that her vote on the Trump tax bill opened the door for this disastrous move to ‘terminate’ our health care. Senator Collins voted to confirm Attorney General Bill Barr who is executing Trump’s disastrous lawsuit and pro-repeal Justice Brett Kavnauagh, and once again millions of people are in danger of losing their live-saving care. Mainers deserve a leader who will do more than write an empty letter.”

Background:

Susan Collins was a key vote for the Republican tax bill, which repealed a key provision of the Affordable Care Act that required most people to have health coverage and which is the basis of the Trump-Republican lawsuit seeking to overturn the Affordable Care Act.

Susan Collins voted to confirm Attorney General Bill Barr. Six weeks after Barr’s confirmation he led the DOJ to back a full invalidation of the Affordable Care Act in Texas v. Azar, a sharp escalation of the Trump administration’s ongoing war on the law.  

Susan Collins refused to support a Senate Resolution that would authorize the Senate legal counsel to intervene in a lawsuit seeking to overturn the Affordable Care Act. Collins refused to sponsor the resolution (S. Res. 581), which would authorize Senate legal counsel to defend the Affordable Care Act against attack in Texas v. Azar.

Susan Collins was a key vote to confirm Brett Kavanaugh.  Collins voted to confirm Justice Brett Kavanaugh.  Kavanaugh authored rulings expressing skepticism about the Affordable Care Act and could be the pivotal vote to overturn the law if Texas v. Azar were to reach the Supreme Court.

  • August 2018:  Collins Said It Was A “Stretch” To Be Concerned About Brett Kavanaugh’s Record On The Affordable Care Act.  As the Texas lawsuit makes its way through the courts and as Brett Kavanaugh refuses to weigh in on the case that even conservative legal scholars call “a mockery of the rule of law,” Collins refuses to acknowledge the threat Brett Kavanaugh poses to Americans’ health care: “Susan Collins: For those who have somehow drawn the connection between [Kavanaugh’s] not wanting to hear that case because of jurisdictional issues and the very important consumer protections that are part of the ACA is, to me, a stretch.”