Duffy Defends Paul Ryan’s Medicare Ending Budget, Comments That He “Struggles” on $174,000 Congressional Salary
On last Sunday’s “UpFront with Mike Gousha,” Sean Duffy again defended his votes for Paul Ryan’s plan to turn Medicare into an unsustainable voucher program.
Duffy, who recently compared the purchase of life-saving medical coverage to shopping for garden equipment, also commented on his now infamous statement that he “struggles” to pay his bills on his $174,000 taxpayer-funded Congressional salary.
At a time when the families he represents in North and Central Wisconsin are doing worse as a result of Congressional Republicans’ failure to pursue job creation legislation, Duffy is still attempting to downplay his embarrassing and out-of-touch comments, claiming that he was actually referring to the period between his healthy salary as a District Attorney and his huge payday as a Congressman.
While it’s true that Duffy went seven months without his usual $98,000 state government paycheck during his campaign, he received money from his father and secured a second mortgage on his vacation home during that time period, in addition to collecting more than $52,000 in “reimbursements” from his campaign.
Such options are not readily available to average Wisconsinites who have lost their jobs from Duffy’s support for corporations that ship jobs overseas.
Duffy has also never addressed how, or if, his family paid for health insurance during his “unemployment.” Given that nearly three-quarters of unemployed Americans reporting that they are unable to afford health care or needed prescriptions, and Duffy has repeatedly voted to repeal the Affordable Care Act that expands health care coverage to millions of Americans, Sean Duffy has some questions to answer.
- Did the Duffy family go without health care coverage during the seven months they were without taxpayer-funded government health care?
- Did Duffy pay for a private health insurance policy, and, if so, how did the “struggling” family afford the premiums?
- Did the Duffy family receive BadgerCare?
“Sean Duffy wants people to believe his “struggle” to get by solely on income properties and money from his dad is the same thing as being forced out of your job because it was sent to China, or losing life-saving health care,” Democratic Party of Wisconsin Chair Mike Tate said Wednesday. “But Duffy’s out-of-touch posturing about his self-imposed “struggle” can’t compare to the economic pain felt by the rest of the working families in North and Central Wisconsin who can’t afford to fly in sushi for Christmas dinner. What’s more, Sean Duffy has some explaining to do about just how he and his family were able to afford the health care coverage he wants to deny others.”
