GOP lawmakers face hostile crowds

WASHINGTON — Angry constituents confronted Republican lawmakers at separate town halls in California and Florida, fearful of the GOP promise to repeal former President Barack Obama’s health care law without a comprehensive alternative.

In Roseville (Placer County), Rep. Tom McClintock of Elk Grove (Sacramento County) faced tough questions Saturday about health care and President Trump’s agenda and had to be escorted by police after his hour-long event.

The events captured on Facebook, the Saint Peters blog and other news organizations echoed the angry town halls that Democrats faced in 2009 as Obama pressed for passage of his sweeping law.

With the Trump administration support for scrapping the law, the Republican campaign to overturn it is no longer a political exercise to be stopped by Democrats and Obama but rather a reality.

Democrats say the GOP effort will threaten health care’s availability and raise rates, angering the 20 million people who gained insurance under the law and tens of millions of others who benefit from the statute’s coverage requirements.