Commentary by James L. Lambert
On November 7th, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) rammed through passage of the ‘Affordable Healthcare for America Act’ (HR 3962) in the US House of Representatives. The bill’s title is misleading. It is anything but affordable. Any sincere candid politician should know this and the twenty one Blue Dog Representatives know it too.
The ‘Blue Dog Coalition’ is a group of 52 Democrat House of Represent-atives members with its own website). The group says they are a “fiscally conservative Democrat coalition (that) was formed in ’95.” The coalition claims to “appeal to the mainstream values of the American public.” Yet the government’s own fiscal reporting agency, the Congressional Budget Office projects Obama’s health care bill will cost American taxpayers $891 billion dollars in additional outlays over the next 10 years. (This figure is no fabrication. It is gleamed from the CBO’s own report filed this month.)
Any reasonable, fiscally concerned American citizen would have to ask: is almost $1 trillion dollars in new federal debt something that we really want? Despite their fiscally conservative claims, twenty one of fifty-two so-called conservative House Democrats still voted for socialized medicine on Saturday night. All 179 Republican House Representatives (except one) voted against this radical bill.
Weeks prior to the bill’s passage in the House, Speaker Pelosi and her loyalists in the House’ Democratic leadership prodded and cajoled members within her own party to secure the votes she needed (218) for passage. American Family Radio’s Tim Wildmon believes that Pelosi forced the Blue Dog coalition’s members to “toll the party line.” The Today’s Issues host believed that strong “political intimidation took place … (explaining) why party affiliation is so important.” Blue Dog member Mike Ross (D- AR) reacted by conceding to say he did “not want to be a roadblock” of the legislation. But millions of us ask, why? Ross, as much as anyone, should know better. If HR 3962 is enacted, it means that seniors will witness over $400 billion in Medicare budget cuts during the next 10 years. It will also leave over 12 million seniors with fewer health care options.
The dirty little secret is that the CBO acknowledges that the states will also have to take on over $33 billion in new health care program expense. Many of these same states have plenty of financial problems already. They simply don’t have the money to cope with additional public health care expenses. Nevertheless, some Blue Dog members like Representative Ross didn’t have to vote for the final passage of Pelosi’s bill after all. The Speaker had just enough votes to get her bill through.
Still, I believe these phony “conservative” Democrats need to be shown the door next November (2010). Besides Republican Cao (Louisiana), all these Blue Dog Democrats should hear from you www.House.gov), their consti-tuents. That’s why I giving their names. They include:
Mike Arcuri (NY - 24)
Joe Baca (CA - 43)
Sanford Bishop (GA - 2)
Dennis Cardoza (CA - 18)
Christopher Carney (PA - 10)
Jim Cooper (TN - 5)
Henry Cuellar (TX - 28)
Kathy Dahlkemper (PA - 3)
Joe Donnelly (IN - 2)
Brad Ellsworth (IN - 08)
Gabrielle Giffords (AZ - 08)
Jane Harmon (CA - 36)
Baron Hill (IN - 09)
Mike Michaud (ME - 02)
Patrick Murphy (PA - 08)
Earl Pomeroy (ND)
John Salazar (CO - 03)
David Scott (GA - 13)
Zack Space (OH - 18)
Mike Thompson (CA - 01)
Charles Wilson (OH - 06)
We must demand that Congress stop this careless expansion of government through this insanely expensive legislation. For those of us who still believe in ‘free choice’ and ‘free enterprise’, it is imperative that we call our US
Senators too. Tell them your concerns. (You can do this by going to the website: www.Senate.gov). Obama care will not be signed into law until it passes the Senate also.
Remember it took only a 15 page document (the constitution) to grant us our freedoms. Let’s not allow a 2,074 page document to take our freedom away!
James L. Lambert, a frequent contributor to ChristianMirror.net and author of Porn in America, is a licensed nationwide real-estate mortgage loan sales agent and can be contacted through his website.
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