political sparring<\/a> between some of Pennsylvania\u2019s congressional representatives.<\/p>\nThe Center Square asked McCormick what he thought about recent comments from Republican Rep. Scott Perry, who’s district spans across central Pennsylvania near the capitol city, disparaging Democrats who serve in the military.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think those that are willing to put themselves, their lives on the line for the military, I salute them,\u201d said McCormick. He described the diversity in his platoon in the U.S. Army 82nd Airborne Division serving in the Gulf War.<\/p>\n
\u201cI never remember, never, talking about religion and never remember talking about politics, never. I couldn\u2019t have told you who was what. It was just about service to one another and service to the country,\u201d he added. \u201cI feel a huge obligation to do everything we can to make sure that we pay them back.\u201d<\/p>\n
While essential services including health care, crisis lines, burials and benefits payments are ongoing, Veterans Affairs is being squeezed by the shutdown. Call centers and regional offices are closed. Career transition and training programs are suspended, and several cemetery positions and functions are on hold.<\/p>\n
On the topic of the shutdown, the senator was asked what a deal between congressional Democrats and Republicans might look like.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think there is a deal,\u201d said McCormick. \u201cI mean, honestly, this is a pretty straightforward thing.\u201d<\/p>\n
McCormick emphasized that Republicans have voted consistently on continuing resolutions that would keep the government running, something he said could handle the basics while lawmakers continue to negotiate the potential extension of Affordable Care Act credits that were created during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n
The credits in question, advocates say, are essential to some 300,000 low-income Pennsylvanians who do not receive health benefits through employers and rely on them to afford health care through the state\u2019s insurance marketplace.<\/p>\n
McCormick pointed out that in some cases, people making \u201c$500,000 or $600,000 a year\u201d are receiving healthcare subsidies through the credits. Such situations occur because the subsidies cap plan contributions at 8.5% of total household income for those making 400% or more of the federal poverty level.<\/p>\n
McCormick wouldn\u2019t say whether he would support extending the credits without seeing the negotiations but that he was \u201cworried\u201d about the issue. He was critical of the Affordable Care Act more generally, calling it a \u201cdisaster.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt had three goals \u2014 lower costs, improve quality, and create more access,\u201d said McCormick. \u201cIt\u2019s failed on all three.\u201d<\/p>\n
Though McCormick pointed to Democrats with political motivations as the source of the government shutdown, he said he didn\u2019t think it would serve Congress to forego the filibuster rule and move forward with a simple majority.<\/p>\n
The senator linked himself once again to his Democratic counterpart, John Fetterman, who has diverged from others in his party on the shutdown.<\/p>\n
\u201cI believe it\u2019s bad policy, no matter who\u2019s in charge,” he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(The Center Square) – While visiting Harrisburg on Monday, U.S. Sen. Dave McCormick took questions on several issues,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":16996,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[4424,856,28,30,29,2349],"class_list":["post-16995","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pennsylvania","tag-military","tag-national","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania-headlines","tag-pennsylvania-news","tag-veterans"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16995","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16995"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16995\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16996"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16995"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16995"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16995"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}