Martha McSally's R-rated health-care rant haunts her

I’d guess Martha McSally doesn’t actually believe Kyrsten Sinema is guilty of treason or of promoting treason.

Even though she's been saying that lately.

McSally just wants to change the subject.

She has to know that an off-hand remark by Sinema made 15 years ago during a convoluted radio interview is not even close to treason, which is why no one paid any attention to it at the time or at any time since, until now, when McSally wants to change the subject.

She doesn't want to talk about ...

Which is health care.

And particularly any discussion about how she voted on a Republican plan that would have been a disaster for millions of Americans.

Protecting health care is kind of a big deal to voters and McSally voted for a plan to eliminate the Affordable Care Act that would have caused many individuals with preexisting conditions, along with others, to lose their insurance.

Not only did McSally vote for such a plan, she was quoted as urging her Republican colleagues to pass it with the fiery profane admonition: “Let’s get this f-ing thing done!”

About those preexisting conditions

As you might imagine, being reminded of this is uncomfortable for McSally.

She says it is a lie to say the plan she pushed so vehemently would have forced those with preexisting conditions to lose insurance. She said such people were protected.

Only they weren’t. The “protection” was a sham.

The House bill would have allowed states to eliminate a ban on high-priced premiums for people with preexisting conditions. A big jump in those premiums would have forced many to lose coverage. And the so-called “high-risk pools” that were to be created, and that the Republicans said would help such people, wouldn’t have had enough funding to do so.

A new attack after the midterms?

That plan didn’t become law, but Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said attacking the Affordable Care Act could be back on the table, depending on the results of the midterm elections. As would cuts to Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security, in order to pay for the recent massive tax breaks for the wealthy.

These are not things McSally wants to talk about.

She’d rather change the subject.

She’s trying to use a 15-year-old interview in which a long-winded radio host goes meandering on and on during what’s supposed be a discussion about the Iraq war, which Sinema opposed, until he says, “By me, as an individual, if I want to go fight in the Taliban army? I go over there and I'm fighting for the Taliban. I'm saying that's a personal decision ...”

And Sinema says, “Fine. I don't care if you want to do that, go ahead."

Not exactly treason, but ...

Sinema’s anti-war activism from the early 2000s is fair game for a political opponent, but it’s a big leap from an off-hand remark, spoken in 2003, all the way to treason. Yet that’s what McSally has been trying to do.

I wouldn’t be surprised if her campaign staff balked at the suggestion, perhaps gently telling their candidate that such a wild claim would be a pretty tough sell.

To which I imagine McSally saying, “Let’s get this f-king thing done!”

Reach Montini at ed.montini@arizonarepublic.com.

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