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Joseph Cao made a big statement by voting in support of HR 3962. Joseph Cao became the only Republican to vote in support of the House health care bill, and it could place him in hot water with his party very soon. Joseph Cao is Louisiana Representative in the House, and one of 177 Republicans that are part of the House of Representatives. On Saturday night, 176 Republicans voted against the House health care bill, but Joseph Cao decided to vote in favor of it. By crossing party lines, Representative Anh "Joseph" Cao may have shown his hand, but he may also be doing exactly what his district wants of him.
Rep. Joseph Cao may be a Republican member of the House, but he is also from a very Democratic district of New Orleans. Keeping that in mind, he could have been voting for what they wanted, or he may have seen this as an opportunity to really curry some favor with President Obama. It was reported by the Huffington Post that President Obama had already contacted Cao, and that the two of them would be working to address the critical state of health care in Louisiana. From that stand point, it makes perfect sense for Cao to support a House Resolution that would bring direct benefits to his home state.
It had seemed that Rep. Joseph Cao would have a strong career in the GOP after comments made by House Minority Leader John Boehner shined a very nice light on him, but recent events could be showing that Rep. Cao may have thoughts of working with the Democratic Party more in the future. No matter how you look at the final vote of 220-215 on H.R. 3962, Representative Cao has made a move that would help out his constituency, and undoubtedly push him towards receiving even more support for re-election in the near future. It's a calculated risk by Cao, who may find he lost some favor in the Republican Party, but gained a new partnership with President Obama.
The vote from Cao wasn’t enough to sway the House in either direction, so people need not look at this as the reason that H.R. 3962 was approved by the House of Representatives. What it does do though, is give Democrats the hope that there can still be some headway made on the bill that has to go through Senate for any real changes to the health care system to be made.