According to Democratic National Committee chairman Tom Perez, the GOP’s healthcare reform bill showed Republicans “don’t give a shit about people.”
Perez, who was elected to run the Democratic Party in late February, delivered the tough, off-color commentary on the American Healthcare Act (sometimes referred to as Trumpcare) to an assembled crowd at a New Jersey Working Families Alliance event on Friday, part of a fiery speech condemning both President Donald Trump and the GOP.
Perez, 55, has clearly concluded that the Democratic Party needs to sound a bit less polished and elite to appeal in today’s political climate and a little more willing to get its hands dirty, at least rhetorically. He also referenced January’s Women’s March on Washington, calling it a “far more important” day than the president’s inauguration and shouting out the millions of women who marched all over the world.
Said Perez:
Donald Trump, you don’t stand for our values, that’s what they said. Donald Trump, you didn’t win this election. Donald Trump, that bromance you have with Putin, it’s not gonna do you any good. Donald Trump, we will resist.
Perez also hit Trump over his initially reported reluctance to attach his name to the Obamacare replacement bill, taunting him for suddenly shying away from his usual branding. Then, Perez let his language get a little blue. He said:
Donald Trump wants his name around everything. Trump Tower, Trump steaks, Trump ties. But when it came to healthcare, he didn’t want Trumpcare. So what do we call it? Trumpcare? Do we call it Ryancare? Well, I’ll tell you my idea. You know what embodies the program? I don’t care. Because they don’t give a shit about people!
Perez went on to condemn the failed AHCA bill as “a massive tax break for the wealthy” and an “age tax” for anyone 50-64 years old. It was an aggressive and blunt speech, and a far cry from anything one would’ve seen from previous DNC chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz. Ronna McDaniel, the current chair of the Republican National Committee, has demanded an apology from Perez, saying “He should be ashamed of himself for insulting the millions of Americans who don’t share his liberal vision for our country. The Democrats are the minority party because of comments like those, and if he thinks this is the way back from the wilderness, he’s sorely mistaken.”
Given the litany of offensive and cruel things that have been said by the man who now sits in the Oval Office, however, it seems unlikely that her demand will be answered. Simply put, the 2016 presidential race seems to have killed the old rules of political discourse. And despite any Republican objections, it wasn’t the Democratic nominee who caused that.