In a highly unusual Saturday session, Speaker Pelosi made history as the day was coming to a close on Saturday, November 7, 2009, with a nearly straight Democratic vote, the US House of Representatives passed a Healthcare Reform Bill by a tally of 220-215. No one is debating that healthcare reform needs to be addressed, but the way Pelosi got it done might be considered more notorious than genuine, cost-effective, or historic. The way Speaker Pelosi and President Obama had written, debated, and had the Bill voted on, may have just killed the Democratic Party for more than a generation.In a nutshell, Pelosi just signed a pink slip for anyone running on the Democratic ticket for Federal office in 2010 and 2012. Sure, every Congress passes controversial partisan policies, but not like this one. According to a recent Rasmussen poll, the American public is overwhelmingly opposed to Government Run Healthcare by 58%-42%. The red flags were all there for Pelosi and Obama to see, but they ignored the will of THE PEOPLE that began with the Summer Tea Party protests and culminated with huge gubernatorial victories in New Jersey and Virginia for the Republican candidates. Both states Obama won in November 2008, but after heavy campaigning for the Democratic challengers running for Governor, the Democrats lost the Independent swing vote by nearly 20 points.
The entire healthcare bill deliberation process has been secretive, biased, rushed, and disorganized. Just a few days ago, Speaker Pelosi said the final draft would be available to the public to read for 3 days prior to the vote, but that ended up being a lie. President Obama said, the debate would be transparent and on C-Span http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-5b3e0rSX8 and that also ended up being a lie because this Bill was written behind closed doors between Obama’s and Speaker Pelosi’s staffs. Even Congressman Murtha said in the Tribune Review that the Healthcare Bill wouldn’t be voted on until 2010, so either fellow Democrats were clueless or this was a deceptive measure by Pelosi, Obama, and the Democrats in the House.
Even though Pelosi “allegedly” dropped healthcare coverage for those seeking abortions and illegal aliens, the Bill that passed, was still a bad Bill. This Bill was to come in under $900 Billion, but was really marked at $1.1 Trillion and that doesn’t include the additional Medicare provision of $250 billion. So clearly, neither Obama or Pelosi were concerned with making cost-effective decisions to decrease the National Debt. There also were no free market solutions in Pelosi’s Bill that the Republicans suggested to immediately drop the cost of healthcare insurance premiums, i.e. tort reform, health savings accounts, competition across state lines, preventative medical practices, buying groups for prescription drugs, make more funds available to schools to increase the number of doctors, nurses, and medical staff, etc.
The sad irony of this is THE PEOPLE that will get hurt the most by Obama's and Pelosi's Bill are the responsible, law abiding citizens and companies, that pay their bills and taxes on time. Under this President and Congress, what incentive do responsible citizens and companies have to continue doing the right thing? Obama and Pelosi’s Healthcare Bill is a punishment Bill because if you do the right thing, you are taxed. If you have or offer your employees great healthcare, you are taxed over the Government’s definition of the status quo. If you can’t afford coverage or don’t want coverage, the Government is forcing you to pay for it anyways via additional taxes. This Bill decreases competition, will ration services, create longer treatment lines, discourage professionals from pursuing medicine, and adds more red tape to the relationship between the doctor and patient. Plain and simple...this is a bad Bill.
Republicans did counter the Democrats' Bill with a proposal that was less expensive and less intrusive with free market solutions, but it was voted down by the Democrats (because they hold the majority). In the end, after mismanaging the Government with radical Leftist views, political favors to corrupt groups, i.e. ACORN, uncontrollable spending, tripling the national Debt, and remaining unaccountable to THE PEOPLE, maybe the Democrats painted themselves into a corner and felt they have nothing to lose by passing healthcare. But whatever their motive, they appeared to have shot themselves in the foot for 2010 and 2012. However, this will send a message to any politician, no matter their political party, that if they do not listen to THE PEOPLE, they, too, will get a pink slip.
The debate is not over yet. Pelosi's and Obama's healthcare bill must pass the Senate before it is signed into law.
YES WE CAN…VOTE BETTER in 2010 and 2012!
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