(Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)

U.S. Rep. Rod Blum (R-IA) speaks to guests at the Iowa Freedom Summit on January 24, 2015 in Des Moines, Iowa. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)

We know Rod Blum as the Iowa lawmaker who cruelly and confusedly wished economic hardship on 681,000 people … twice.

Never mind that those cranes are for The Wharf, a $2 billion development funded by the private sector. Or that Iowa receives a higher share of federal funding as a percentage of state general revenue than D.C. Or, you know, that District residents are taxpayers.

It’s enough to make you want to scream!

Perhaps Blum’s office is aware of how much he’s rankled some people who live outside his district, and that’s why they chose to make attendees at his Monday night town hall show their IDs at the door and prove they live in Iowa’s First District.

Turns out, though, that Blum’s own constituents also want to yell at him.

About 1,000 people packed a high school gym in Dubuque, according to KCRG, and yelled “liar,” “do your job,” and “go back to college.” The station notes that Blum, who was voted into office in 2014, also had supporters in the audience.

The major focus of the town hall was the American Health Care Act, which passed the House last week with Blum’s vote. A member of the House Freedom Caucus, he did not support the bill in its previous iteration. The bill goes now to the Senate.

“If you’re getting your insurance through Medicare, nothing’s going to change. Nothing’s going to change,” Blum tried to reassure the crowd, according to The Washington Post, but he was drowned out by boos.

At least he stuck it out for longer than two minutes. That’s more than we can say about the Republican lawmaker’s behavior earlier in the day, when he walked out of an interview with KCRG-TV9’s chief investigative reporter Josh Scheinblum.

(Who are those kids in the background of the interview? According to KCRG-TV, “the children you see in the background Representative Blum insisted be there.”)

Scheinblum asked the t-shirt-clad Blum why he was pre-screening attendees, and Blum replied that didn’t want people from outside his district to attend because “I don’t represent them. They should go talk to their representatives at their town hall meetings.” (As you may recall, Utah’s Jason Chaffetz claimed, without any proof, that the many people angry with him during a town hall were paid protesters from outside his district.)

Blum rejected the notion that he represented all Iowans. “That’d be like saying, ‘Shouldn’t I be able to—even though I live in Dubuque—go vote in Iowa City during the election because I’d like to go vote in that district instead.’”

It was Scheinblum’s follow up—”Would you still take donations from a Republican in Iowa City?”—that prompted Blum to cut the interview short.

“This is ridiculous. This is ridiculous,” said Blum as he took off the microphone. “He’s going to sit here and just badger me. Unbelievable.”

Blum might take issue with the question because his biggest donors last cycle came from outside the First District, and outside the Hawkeye State altogether, according to Open Secrets.

Blum has three more town halls slated for this week. And for that, we’ve got to give him some props. Of all the 217 GOP lawmakers who voted for the AHCA, only 14 are holding town halls during this recess, according to Politico.

Filed Under: ahca, cranes, just desserts, meanwhile in iowa, recession, rod blum,