WASHINGTON – Delivering the Democrats’ response to President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer described the difference between the two parties as “pretty simple.”
“Democrats are trying to make your health care better,” Whitmer said.“Republicans in Washington are trying to take it away.”
Her focus on policy issues came after an acrimonious State of the Union address that began with a refusal by Trump to shake House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's hand and ended with the speaker ripping up the text of the president's speech.
Whitmer ended her remarks by referencing the vote the Republican-led Senate is expected to take Wednesday to acquit Trump of the two articles of impeachment approved by the Democrat-controlled House.
"The truth matters. Facts matter. And no one should be above the law," she said. "It’s time for action. Generations of Americans are counting on us. Let’s not let them down."
But on the eve of the conclusion of Democrats' effort to remove Trump through impeachment, Whitmer's speech showed how the party is trying to pivot to issues like health care that helped them take back the House in 2018.
Lawmakers brought more than 80 patients, doctors and health care advocates from across the country to sit in the spectators’ gallery as Trump spoke.
“Health care. Health care. Health care,” Pelosi said before the speech. “The three most important issues for America’s working families.”
Freshman Rep. Veronica Escobar of Texas, who delivered the party’s Spanish language response, accused Republicans in her state of refusing to lift a finger to improve access to health care. Texas is one of the largest states that has not expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act.
A pending lawsuit, which Trump supports, aims at undoing Democrats’ landmark 2010 health care law. The law stopped health insurers from denying coverage to sick people.
Sitting behind Trump as he spoke, Pelosi wryly smiled as Republicans stood to applaud when the president promised to protect patients with pre-existing conditions.
Many other Democrats laughed, booed and crossed their arms while the president talked about health care. Reps. Julia Brownley, D-Calf., and Norma Torres, D-Calif., both lifted their arms into a giant shrug.
As the president said he was combating pharmaceutical companies, Democrats started to loudly laugh.
Rising to their feet, some Democrats loudly shouted and cut off the president’s speech for several seconds as they chanted “H.R. 3,” legislation aimed at reducing drug prices that passed the House last year and has not been taken up in the Senate.
Trump accused Democrats of pushing a "socialist takeover" of health care through a single-payer system that would replace private health insurance plans.
Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders' advocacy of "Medicare for All" is one of the main issues fueling his presidential campaign.
Whitmer, who opposed Medicare for All in her competitive 2018 primary, described her own challenges with the health care system.
Soon after being elected to the state House at age 29, Whitmer got married, had a baby and took care of her dying mother. She had to figure out how to keep nursing her infant and fight the insurance company that refused to pay for chemotherapy for her mother while learning how to do her new job.
“It exposed the harsh realities of our workplaces, our health care system and our child care system. And it changed me,” Whitmer, 48, said. “I lost patience for people who are just talk and no action."
Whitmer pitched Democrats as the party trying to solve problems, whether that’s climate change, gun violence, stagnating wages or crumbling infrastructure.
“Bullying people on Twitter doesn’t fix bridges. It burns them," Whitmer said in her remarks, delivered from her daughters' public school in Michigan. "Our energy should be used to solve problems.”
Trump and congressional Democrats have both said fixing infrastructure is a top priority. But neither side has said how they would pay for it.
In Michigan, Whitmer’s proposal for a 45-cent gas tax increase was rejected by the Republican-controlled Legislature. Whitmer recently announced a $3.5 million borrowing plan that does not require legislative approval.
Aaron Kall, director of debate at the University of Michigan and editor of a book on State of the Union addresses, said Whitmer drew sharp political contrasts on major issues like health care and infrastructure, which were responsible for Democratic congressional gains in 2018 and need to be replicated for success in the 2020 election.
But Kall thought it was a mistake for Whitmer to end on the upcoming impeachment vote.
"The endgame is already a forgone conclusion tomorrow, and recent public opinion polls show Americans are at best divided on the question of removal from office," Kall said.
Whitmer's 2018 election was seen as an early test of whether Democrats could come back in a state that gave Trump a surprising – though narrow – victory in 2016. Trump beat Hillary Clinton by a margin of less than 11,000 votes as part of the sweep of Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania that earned him the White House.
Trump was the first Republican presidential candidate to carry Michigan since 1988.
"Michigan invented the middle class, so we know if the economy doesn’t work for working people, it just doesn’t work," Whitmer said in her criticism of Trump's handling of the economy.
Besides taking back the governor's mansion in 2018, Michigan Democrats also kept the Senate seat on the ballot and flipped control of two congressional districts and the secretary of state and attorney general offices. All winning Democrats in those races were women.
Democrats’ choice of two women – Whitmer and Escobar – to deliver the responses to Trump reflects the party’s female-driven enthusiasm.
As they have before, many Democratic women – including Pelosi – wore white.
“This is a sign of women empowerment and unity,” Rep. Nydia Velázquez, D-N.Y., said before the speech. “It is important for everyone, including the president, to understand that we play an important role here in the Congress and elsewhere.”
Contributing: Christal Hayes, USA TODAY
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