In his impassioned plea on the floor of Congress Friday morning, Democratic Congressman from St. Petersburg Charlie Crist sought to appeal to his Republican colleague's ultra-religious sensibilities ahead of looming votes that would have left millions without health insurance.
"Medicaid is for the poor, and Medicaid is for the disabled. We are in Lent. We are in Lent. [It's] supposed to be the holiest time," he said before reading a verse from scripture. "'I want to read to you from Matthew 25, verse 45: Whatever you do to the least of my brothers, you do unto me. Think about that before you vote on this bill, please. God bless."
It's unclear whether his Republican colleagues would have heeded the words of a book by which they often claim to base every decision; as of Friday afternoon, hopes of enough votes in favor of repealing and replacing Obamacare by the weekend were officially dashed.
Back home, on the sidewalk outside Crist's district office in St. Petersburg, members of the local leg of progressive activist group Indivisible waved signs expressing gratitude to the Congressman for taking a stand on the issue.
Back when the vote on the ACA repeal was still expected to take place Thursday, Indivisible had been planning such events at Congressional offices across the country, whether or not a given chapter agreed with the way their member of Congress voted on the issue. When the vote got postponed and ultimately canceled, they decided to show up anyway.
"We're here to show support for Congressman Crist," said David Higgins, an organizer for Indivisible FL-13 (the name refers to Florida's 13th Congressional District, which Crist represents). "We're very aware that this is the first time he's held elected office as a Democrat. He's relatively new to the party in that sense and we've been very interested to see how he behaves in that capacity. We feel it's really important to show support, give feedback when they do something… that we support, to give them the strength and support to do it again."
Crist, of course, is formerly a Republican governor who became an independent in 2010, when the GOP took a sharp turn to the right during the Tea Party wave. He has since become a Democrat. But even if he hadn't changed his affiliation, given his moderate positions on many issues, it seems likely he would not have supported the repeal and replacement of Obamacare.
Like their counterparts in other Congressional Districts, the handful of activists who showed up Friday afternoon say they worry about what would happen if Obamacare were to be replaced with a proposal that doesn't extend health insurance coverage to all.
"Lives are at stake," Higgins said. "Healthcare is at stake."
He added that the Affordable Care Act, while not perfect, made sense; by requiring everyone to buy coverage (the controversial individual mandate) meant that costs go down for everyone. The Republican substitute (which is called the "Affordable Health Care Act," as if this whole issue wasn't confusing enough) would do away with the individual mandate and a host of other things — like the requirement that insurance companies cover maternity care or people with preexisting conditions.
"Repealing the individual mandate is ridiculous," Higgins said. "It's a recipe for disaster. It's going to cause a death spiral. Costs are going to go up. How are costs going to be controlled if people are not in the pool, they're not buying into insurance."
In the wake of the non-vote, Crist released a statement via a spokeswoman calling the healthcare bill debacle "a teachable moment" and expressing hope that Congress would "put people over politics" as it moves forward in the healthcare debate.
“This is a win for the American people," said Crist of the canceled vote in his statement. "It was a bad bill, plain and simple. It would have harmed our seniors, and particularly those who often don’t have a voice in the debate — ‘the least among us’ if you will, the poor and the disabled,”
This article appears in Mar 23-30, 2017.