Asked what he wanted to get on the record by writing a book about his role in passing the Affordable Care Act, former Michigan Congressman Bart Stupak says “the truth.”
He spoke with WMUK’s Gordon Evans. A version of the interview originally aired in October. Stupak’s book is called For All Americans: The Dramatic Story Behind the Stupak Amendment and the Historic Passage of Obamacare. Stupak, who served for 18 years in the U.S. House, came to WMUK in the fall before an event at Western Michigan University’s Homer Stryker MD School of Medicine.
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In November of 2008 Barack Obama was elected President, and Stupak says he told his wife that “I ran my last race… we’re going to pass health care, and I’m out of there.” Stupak says the uncivil tone by members of Congress convinced him leaving Congress was the right decision. Stupak received death threats after his vote on health care. But the former Congressman says those didn’t faze him because he was already planning not to run for re-election.
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Stupak says he doesn’t think about running for office again. The former Congressman now splits his time between Michigan’s Upper Peninsula and Washington D.C. where he works for the Venable Law Firm.