HONESDALE, PA — Democratic Senator Bob Casey drew a healthy crowd to Democratic Headquarters on Main Street in Honesdale on October 23.

County Commissioner Wendell Kay opened the event with brief remarks. He said Republicans are trying to energize their members to match the energy of Democrats. “It’s up to us to redouble our efforts and make sure that whatever [the Republicans] are doing now is inconsequential when it comes to the final result,” he said. “And we all know how important that result is, not just to Wayne County, not even to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, but to the United States of America and our form of government, which is under an existential threat right now.”

Casey’s address covered Medicare, Medicaid, the Affordable Care Act, Social Security and other programs the people depend on, that he said members of the far right are trying to reduce while at the same time giving tax breaks to the wealthy.

“The corporate special interests in the United States of America—let’s be honest about it—they run the House, they run the United States Senate, and they even run the administration, because the president just delegates policy to the corporate special interests,” he said. 

“They want to end Medicaid expansion completely. That’s the official position of the Republican Party,”

Addressing healthcare, Casey said that in Wayne County, 4,961 people have been added to the group of people who have health insurance thanks to the Affordable Care Act and expanded Medicaid. “They want to end Medicaid expansion completely. That’s the official position of the Republican Party,” he added.  If Republicans are successful in the effort to end Medicaid expansion, Casey said, more than half of the 4,961 recently insured people in the county would lose their healthcare.