With 'manly firmness': Lawmaker calls on members of Congress to repeal ACA, oppose replacement
JEFFERSON CITY — State Rep. Mike Moon wants the Affordable Care Act repealed and according to a House resolution he’s sponsoring, it will take the proper application of “Y” chromosomes to get the job done.
Moon’s resolution details all the problems he sees with the law, from passage to implementation. The resolution asks members of the Missouri House to “insist that each member of the Missouri Congressional delegation endeavor with ‘manly firmness’ and resolve to totally and completely repeal the Affordable Care Act, settling for no less than a full repeal.”
Missouri’s congressional delegation includes six men and two women in the U.S. House and one man, Roy Blunt, a Republican and one woman, Claire McCaskill, a Democrat, in the U.S. Senate. Both women in the U.S. House are Republicans — Vicky Hartzler of Harrisonville represents the Fourth District and Ann Wagner of St. Louis County represents the Second District.
Moon, R-Ash Grove, said he wasn’t intending to demean or insult the three women. The phrase is taken from the grievances against King George III in the Declaration of Independence, Moon said, and isn't meant to disparage women.
“It is just like going to war," Moon said. "You want a soldier to fight like a man. If a woman is in the trenches, you want them to fight like a man, too.”
Hartzler and Wagner have voted repeatedly in the House to repeal the Affordable Care Act.
“Obamacare hurts families, costs jobs, and gives federal bureaucrats control over Americans’ personal health care decisions by forcing them to purchase coverage they do not want and cannot afford,” Hartzler said in a news release after the most recent repeal vote last week. “Our experience with this terrible and expensive law demands that it be repealed and replaced.”
That last word, calling for replacement, shows a lack of the necessary firmness and the need for the resolution, according to Moon. “It was not meant to downplay their womanhood at all. We just want them to know, every man and lady who is representing us, that we are demanding, as citizens of Missouri, that Obamacare be repealed and make it clear we don’t want a replacement.”
Moon said he does not believe that being a male makes him a better lawmaker than his female colleagues. “I know there are some women who are much smarter than I am and I tip my hat to them.”
Moon’s resolution is set for a hearing at 5 p.m. Tuesday before the House Health and Mental Health Policy Committee. It has 26 co-sponsors, 24 men and two women.
Rep. Sonya Anderson, R-Springfield, said she signed on as a co-sponsor because she opposes the law she calls Obamacare and supports sending a message to Congress.
“The voters of my district spoke pretty loudly about that so I just feel that is the way they want to go,” she said.
The “manly firmness” language does not bother her, she said. “That’s just a term that they used. I am not going to read anything into that.”
Rep. Wanda Brown, R-Lincoln, said she opposes Obamacare because “it is truly just an expansion of Medicaid. Medicaid is a terrible system. It is a broken system and we need to look at fixing problems, not increasing problems.”
She could not be more firm in her opposition to the law, Brown said. When shown the “manly firmness” provision, she shook her head and walked away, declining to comment.
State Rep. Stephen Webber, D-Columbia, said the language is unnecessary and insulting to Hartzler, Wagner and McCaskill. “It is a throwback to this idea of gender roles and I can’t believe anyone in 2015 talks like that. We have numerous female members of the congressional delegation, whether I agree with them or not they are capable of being strong people no matter what their gender is.”
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@ManFirmness You knew someone had to start this!
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