NC-03: The doctor fights back

 

Politics IS a full-contact sport.  (As if you didn’t already know this.)  Far too often, I see really good people play way too nice and get their reputations destroyed.

Judging from a video taken at a recent Third District GOP confab, congressional candidate and state Rep. Greg Murphy (R-Pitt) is deciding to assertively stand up for himself.

Considered by many to be a front-runner in the race, Murphy has been accused by opposing campaigns of: (1) being a RINO, (2)favoring the expansion of Medicaid, and (3) supporting ObamaCare, among other blasphemies.  The state legislator, also  a Greenville physician, decided to take time and set the record straight.

On his philisophy, he said:

“[…] I’m here to tell you what I stand for, and what I stand against.  First of all, I consider myself a Ronald Reagan Republican.  I believe in lower taxes.  I believe in smaller government. I believe in more personal responsibility and more personal liberty.”[…]

Okay.  Now, let’s move on to some meat-and -potatoes:

[…] I want to tell you where I stand on issues that are important to me, and I also want to talk to you about where I don’t stand on issues. Because I think there’s a There’s a lot of misinformation that’s gone out and I actually want to clarify that.  There’s several things that are being said about my candidacy, about me, which are untrue and uninformed and I am here today to inform you.  

 

I tell you, I am a surgeon. I am a pretty direction individual.  If there’s a question,  you come to me. We  talk about it.   All of the half-truths, etc. that are going on are really not fair.  We’re Republicans.  We’re supposed to deal with the truth.  That’s what we’re supposed to be about.   So, invite you when we’re done, to actually have conversations with me and we can talk about things.”[…] 

 

Number one, I do not work for Vidant.  I am in the private practice of surgery.  I have been for twenty-five years.  Eastern Urological Associates. Look it up on the Internet.  Research it. It’s there.  Okay?  That’s misinformation. […]

 

And ObamaCare?

 

[…] Number Two, I do not support ObamaCare.  Somehow that’s gotten into the lexicon, into the words these days that I support it.  If you go back on my Facebook posts, long before I was ever in politics.  Three and a half years ago.  I talked about how it was the most disgusting disastrous piece of legislation we’ve ever had.  Don’t support it.  Never will. 

 

Something that’s also got out because I was appointed to the position is that I told the Executive Committee in Pitt County that one of my goals was to expand ObamaCare.  Flat out lie.  Flat out lie.  Untrue.  […] 

 

Okay.  So what about Medicaid expansion?

[…] And since we’re going to talk about expansion, let me also talk about Medicaid expansion.  I do not want it, and I do not believe in it.  Let me say that again.  I do not want Medicaid expansion. I do not believe in it. Medicaid expansion and ObamaCare have created a class of individuals specifically with Obamacare — our farmers, our fishermen, our clergy — who cannot afford insurance.  They have been pushed out — groups that could afford insurance before — to where they don ‘t make enough to qualify for Medicaid and they make too much to combat the skyrocketing cost of healthcare which have been caused in great part because of ObamaCare.

 

 What I have offered is a Republican response to Cooper’s Medicaid expansion.  This will be the number one issue in 2020. If we do not have a good conservative Republican response to Medicaid expansion, it will be the critical issue. And if we don’t do something, the election will get flipped in 2020.  We will be sitting on the back row, and our governor will have a clear road to Medicaid expansion. 

 

Carolina Cares, the bill I submitted two year ago and we’re working again to revive, does several things. It does not add anyone to our state’s Medicaid rolls. It does not add anyone to our state’s Medicaid rolls.  It has a work requirement.  These are people who are working hard for a living.  They just need that extra push to be able to be healthy individuals.  

There’s also premiums they have to pay.  OK?  Somebody has to pay two percent of their gross income to  buy into this new insurance product.  This insurance product will be very much metered just like our state health plan.  That comes from the state.  Medicare comes from our government.   These are people who care about personal responsibility but have been squished out because of ObamaCare. 

 

So, flat out lie. I do not support Medicaid expansion. […] 

What about HB2?

Third, House Bill 2.  I voted for House Bill 2.  I supported House Bill 2.  Men need to go to men’s rooms.  Women need to go to women’s rooms. Period.   Point blank. Let there be  no discussion or controversy about that. 

 

But I will tell you this.  And this is something that people read half the story and don’t make the next step.  The state under Roy Cooper sued the legislature against House Bill 2.    That was heading right for the Fourth Circuit. And if everybody knows what the liberal radical Fourth Circuit would have done, is that they would have overturned House Bill 2  and today those bathrooms over there would be equal access for anybody.  We had to have a Republican response to do things on our own terms. “[…]

 

On the video, Murphy also addresses the controversy in the House over treasurer Dale Folwell and the state health plan:

[…]”There is a lot of misinformation going out that I am opposing Dale Folwell.  I support our treasurer in 98 percent of the things he is doing.”[…]

A bill seeking to limit Folwell’s influence over the state health plan has been sent to the committee Murphy chairs by House leadership.  (Murphy is not a sponsor of the bill, and has not publicly taken a position on the bill.)

Murphy says he has sat down with Folwell to try and work things out on fixing the health plan.

“[…] We 100 percent agree on the goal.  We just disagree on how to get there.” […]