Description: Bakersfield artist to run against House Majority Leader McCarthy... Democrats have pledged to use the health care vote against vulnerable Republicans. The fight also has prompted something unusualin Bakersfield: aRepublican is mounting a longshot challenge to House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy. Joe Aleman a photographer and artist who has never run for office said as a Christian he struggled with the details of theHouse plan to roll back the Affordable Care Act. Aleman 41 said he specifically opposes lifting bonus caps for insurance executives and causing an estimated 24 million people to lose health insurance. The measure goes too far sohe feelscompelled to challenge the six-term congressman in 2018. The whole thing just seems too corrupt I can't sleep because of it Aleman said. The injustice of it just the great injustice of it. The bill which narrowly passed the House Thursday and faces an uphill fight in the Senate phases out federal funding of expanded access to Medicaid a move expected to knock millions of people off of Medi-Cal as the program is known in California. Health Access California an advocacy groupusing UC Berkeley data estimates that nearly 70000 people in McCarthy's district alone would lose access to Medi-Cal and the 23rd District has been a flashpoint for protests about repealing the Affordable Care Act. How is this guy throwing his own district under the bus?" Aleman said.Who would do this to his own people? Aleman said hiswife Holly has fibromyalgia which insurance companies consider a pre-existing condition and could potentially be affected by the bill even with her employer-sponsored health insurance. Aleman himself is uninsured he saysit's too expensive. Alemanacknowledged his candidacy is "the ant against the elephant but addedI know God is behind opposing Kevin with me. He has not yet opened a campaign committee but he has a website. McCarthy won reelection with 69% against Democrat Wendy Reed last fall. He has easily defeated challenges from the right. Aleman found religion and studied theology after what he described as a troubled childhood including a stint in juvenile hall. He said political leaders have fallen away from their Biblical role as caretaker of widows and orphans. The difference between us and the rest of the world is how we treat our poor and those who dont have anything he said. Weve lost something in this. This is people this is peoples babies. The greater ill is for us to show our lack of humanity.
By Frankie Cordeira Jr.
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By Frankie Cordeira Jr.
Pinned to Domestic and Global News on Pinterest
Found on: http://ift.tt/2qMZN64