This past week Congress was consumed by the question of whether it would fund the budget to keep the government running. On Friday, September 20 the House voted along party lines to approve a budget through mid-December, but only if Obamacare was defunded. Congresswoman Lowey voted against that proposal. On Friday, September 27, following the theatrics of Sen. Ted Cruz’ 22 hour soliloquy (which annoyed many even in his own party), the Senate rejected the House proposal and approved a budget restoring funding for Obamacare, in a 54-44 vote also along party lines. In the interim between the House vote and the Senate vote Congresswoman Lowey was given ample time to return to her district talk to her constituents about her ideas on the defunding of Obamacare.
On Wednesday, September 25th she went to the Port Chester Senior Care Center in her home district to discuss Obamacare. Lowey spoke to her constituents about what she believes would be the terrible effects that the defunding could have. She said that a defunding would “roll back Medicare benefits, increase prescription drug prices for thousands of seniors and put Americans’ health care decisions back in the hands of insurance companies” (http://yorktown-somers.patch.com/groups/politics-and-elections/p/lowey-tells-seniors-defunding-obamacare-would-reduce-medicare-benefits_d6bb7166). She tried to drive home her point by putting the debate into concrete examples that would show her constituents at the Senior Care Center how the Republican plan would directly affect them: 9100 local Seniors in her district would be forced to pay on average $820 more per year for their prescription drugs constituents. Over 16,000 would lose access to their Medicare Advantage programs. http://lowey.house.gov/press-releases/congresswoman-lowey-republican-push-to-defund-affordable-care-act-would-hurt-local-seniors-risks-government-shutdown/.
Lowey would call this educating her constituents; Republicans would call it scare-mongering.
At the same time that Congresswoman Lowey made comments about her strong dislike of the bipartisan politics going on the House and Senate, she counteracted this statement by slamming her Republican colleagues. In her speech in Port Chester she said "We expect they're going to reject this draconian measure, and maybe it's going to take three or four days for the Tea Party crowd to realize they can't win. It's just a waste of time” (http://cortlandt.dailyvoice.com/politics/lowey-defunding-obamacare-would-hurt-port-chester-seniors) Lowey’s past experience in the House during governmental shutdowns (two in the 1990’s) may be fueling her fire and causing her to make harsh statements against the conservatives. Lowey did not sugarcoat her feelings: “I just think the Republicans are, shall we say, more unreasonable and more obstinate than any time I’ve been in the Congress” http://www.lohud.com/article/20130927/NEWS/309270039/New-York-lawmakers-split-shutdown?odyssey=tab%7Ctopnews%7Ctext%7CNews.
Lowey called for the Republicans to compromise, but did not say what type of compromise would be acceptable to her. In a vote taken after midnight on Saturday night, September 28, the Republicans did compromise, of a sort. They passed a budget to fund the government on a temporary basis, and backed away from their previous hard line position of completely defunding Obamacare. Instead, they voted to delay Obamacare for one year and to remove one specific tax included in the Act, against medical device manufacturers. Lowey, after calling for compromise, still voted against this proposal. It is unclear what degree of compromise would be acceptable to her.
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