EDITORIAL: The hypocrisy of Marco Rubio | Editorial

July 29--As the U.S. Senate slogged toward a fateful vote to impair the health of many millions of Americans, the attention of Marco Rubio, the junior senator from Florida, was focused overseas.

Rubio, who has made himself an advocate for human rights in repressive nations, co-signed a letter Tuesday urging President Trump to increase sanctions against the regime in Venezuela, where more than 100 people have died protesting the country's economic collapse and President Nicolas Maduro's bid for dictatorial powers.

The letter took particular note of the health crisis in Venezuela, where, it said, "more than 75 percent of medicinal drugs are either unavailable or difficult to find" and 17 hospitalized infants have died for lack of money to clean up an infestation.

Two days later, however, Rubio cast his vote for a reckless scheme to leave 15 million more Americans without health insurance and increase the cost of it to virtually everyone else.

Before the vote, Rubio persistently refused to meet with Floridians who wanted to tell him how the bill would hurt them. He was immune to warnings from the health insurance industry, the American Medical Association and other informed voices that the so-called "skinny repeal" bill was a dagger aimed at the heart of American health care.

His hypocrisy is stunning. The catastrophe in Venezuela is a direct consequence of a fanatic fixation on an extreme economic ideology -- in that case, a socialistic one. At home, the Republican Party's relentless, seven-year campaign to repeal the Affordable Care Act was no less a fixation on an extreme economic ideology -- in this case, the right-wing doctrine that health care is not a basic human right and that the health of our nation's people is not the government's business.

We say "was" with fingers crossed. Friday's dramatic, early-morning 51 to 49 vote against the so-skilled "skinny repeal" bill should be the end of the vindictive campaign to erase former President Obama's historic achievement by any possible means. However, the law needs improvement in several respects and Trump has made clear his intent to try to kill it by neglect if he can't do so outright. So this is no time for concerned Floridians to let up on Rubio.

We take no issue -- indeed, we share it -- with Rubio's concern for human rights in Venezuela, Russia, Egypt and wherever else they are denied. Yet there are issues on which America needs to come first. Health care is one.

Rubio voted multiple times last week against the best interests of America. Each time, the scheme fronted by Majority Leader Mitch McConnell was an affront to the time-honored tradition that major legislation originates in committees where public testimony is taken and both parties contribute.

"Skinny repeal" was an admitted ploy to leave the fate of health care in the dubious trust of a House-Senate conference committee, a venue closed to public input and designed for quick action,

That made even some Republican senators nervous, fearing that the House might just accept the bill and send it to Trump.

"I'm not going to vote for a bill that is terrible policy and bad politics just because we have to get something done," said Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina.

Among other things, the bill would have increased the number of uninsured Americans by up to 15 million next year, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. It would have allowed states to waive required coverages such as maternity care. It would have repealed the requirements that employers of more than 50 people insure them and that individuals who can afford it purchase their own coverage.

It would have continued the popular Obamacare provision of guaranteed insurability without concern for pre-existing conditions, but because of the other changes, it would have essentially been like letting someone buy homeowner's insurance when their house is on fire.

"A system that allows people to purchase coverage only when they need it drives up costs for everyone," the Blue Cross Blue Shield Associations warned the Senate.

Even so, Graham, like Rubio, voted for the bill. So did every other Republican senator except John McCain of Arizona, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine.

Think of it. It took a war hero who is gravely ill with cancer and two women with more guts than every other male Republican to save America from a terrible mistake.

Among the unified Democrats were some, like Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Bill Nelson of Florida, who can expect to be targeted by Trump in their re-election campaigns next year. They, too, deserve thanks and support.

The two Republican women rebuffed crude threats from Trump's secretary of the interior to take revenge against their states. They endured misogynistic attacks from the House, including implied threats of physical violence. News accounts describe McCain resisting 21 minutes of cajoling on the Senate floor -- and more later in the cloakroom -- from Vice President Mike Pence, and also a phone call from Trump himself.

At 1:29 a.m., on July 28, 2017, the hero of the Hanoi Hilton showed the nation a new profile in courage. May there come a time when Marco Rubio, a man of limited achievement but limitless ambition, can follow McCain's example.

Editorials are the opinion of the Sun Sentinel Editorial Board and written by one of its members or a designee. The Editorial Board consists of Editorial Page Editor Rosemary O'Hara, Andrew Abramson, Elana Simms, Gary Stein and Editor-in-Chief Howard Saltz.

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