Rep. Greg Walden (R-OR), chair of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, is one of the leaders responsible for Trumpcare. There are two committees taking the lead, and one of them is his, and he's been right there in the middle of crafting—if you could call it that—the so-far failed plan. But you won't catch him admitting that to the angry crowds back home.
[W]hen faced with a large crowd of angry constituents in his district this week, the Oregon Republican seemed reluctant to claim the legislation as his own. Instead, Walden stressed the parts of President Obama’s Affordable Care Act that he wants to keep.
That did not stop about 1,500 of his constituents who packed this liberal area at two town halls on Wednesday from slamming the congressman for wanting to overhaul Obamacare in a state that heavily relies on it. […]
A few in the rowdy crowd at the next town hall seemed to know that Walden, as the chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, played a pivotal role in crafting the GOP’s American Health Care Act, which would have rolled back Obamacare’s system of subsidies and phased out that law’s Medicaid expansion.
“It was an embarrassment and a disaster,” said one attendee at Hood River Middle School, where 1,000 people showed up, prompting applause across the auditorium. “You don’t make the plan better by taking away insurance for 24 million people across the nation.”
Walden richly deserves all the vitriol he's been getting. He's one of those Republicans who actually does know how government is supposed to work, but who capitalized on right-wing anger running on repeal. Now when he had to face the music back home? He "responded to most health-care questions by touting the popular portions of Obamacare the GOP plan would retain, including preventing insurers from denying coverage to those with pre-existing conditions and allowing young people to stay on their parents’ plans."
Not that that's helping him a whole lot. It didn't work to placate any of his constituents on either side of the divide and it's not working with the Club for Growth. They're going to target him as a "moderate" with pro-Trumpcare TV and digital ads. Like I said, he completely deserves this.