CROOKED CRAMER’S CHRONICLES – CRAMER’S WEEK OF LIES – THREE PINOCCHIOS – CRAMER TAKING CREDIT FOR HEIDI’S WORK
Welcome to Cramer’s Chronicles where, every Friday, we’ll break down the latest and greatest weekly hits about Cramer’s crooked, self-serving, extreme, and gaffe-prone behavior that puts himself and his partisan politics ahead of North Dakotans.
CRAMER’S WEEK OF LIES. It wouldn’t be a day that ends in ‘Y’ if Cramer wasn’t caught stretching the truth about the issues or papering over his record to mislead North Dakotans before Election Day.
THREE PINOCCHIOS FOR HEALTH CARE CLAIM ON PRE-EXISTING CONDITIONS. Cramer’s false claim that the Republican House bill prevented price discrimination against folks with pre-existing conditions was highlighted in the Washington Post and published by the Forum:
- [The GOP’s pledge on preexisting conditions] may look great on paper, but the reality is that it is not a sustainable pledge.
- Thus Cramer goes too far to claim that in the AHCA, there are “safeguards to make sure that there’s not price discrimination as a result of preexisting conditions.” […] He earns Three Pinocchios.
CRAMER AD CLAIMS HE LED CRUDE OIL BAN REPEAL, BUT OTHER LAWMAKERS CREDIT HEITKAMP. Both NBC News and Washington Post highlighted Senator Heitkamp’s leading role in helping to lift the crude oil export ban – and Cramer’s attempt to take credit for her accomplishment.
- North Dakota Democrat Sen. Heidi Heitkamp went out on limb three years ago to convince skeptical members of her party to support legislation that lifted 40-year ban on exporting crude oil from the United States to countries around the world.
- Heitkamp […] first called for the repeal of the ban on crude oil exports in August 2014. She wrote a standalone repeal bill and began trying to sell the issue to her fellow Democrats throughout 2015, pitching it as an economic boon and a source of good jobs while lobbying the White House on the issue.
- She worked with Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, to push the issue, and started putting the oil industry in the same room with unlikely supporters like Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., and Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, to talk a repeal out.
- Heitkamp turned “no” votes into “yes” votes in the Senate, and by many accounts, was crucial to getting the bill across the finish line and signed by the White House.
- Lifting the ban, however, is an accomplishment for which many lawmakers in both parties give Heitkamp credit.
- Without Heitkamp, “I don’t know that it would have happened,” said Rep. Joe Barton (R-Tex.) in 2015, according to Bloomberg Government. Sen. Lisa Murkowksi (R-Alaska) added that Heitkamp was “just dogged in her efforts to help educate her party.”
MORE TARIFFS ANNOUNCED, SOYBEANS NOT SELLING, BUT CRAMER IS ABSENT. On Monday, the president further escalated the trade war, announcing tariffs on an additional $200 billion of Chinese imports and prompting the Chinese to retaliate. There haven’t been orders for soybeans from the Pacific Northwest for over 13 weeks, but Cramer still hasn’t become “concerned” enough to do anything. In fact, he’s still maintaining that “the trade issues [are] to the benefit of North Dakotans and North Dakota farmers.” Anything to increase his political capital, we guess.
Reminder: It’s been more than 20 days since Cramer missed his self-imposed deadline for when he’d become “concerned” enough to stand with North Dakotans against the trade war. But all we’ve seen from him is paying lip service to the president.
MORE ON CRAMER’S HEALTH CARE AGENDA. Cramer’s dangerous health care agenda was back in the spotlight this week after being called out for his false claim on preventing price discriminations against folks with pre-existing conditions. Besides lying to North Dakotans about their care, Cramer voted FIVE times to repeal the current health care law without a replacement and actively supports a reckless lawsuit – both of which would get rid of patient protection laws that prevent insurance companies from denying coverage to folks with pre-existing conditions or charging them more for their care.
TWEET OF THE WEEK.
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