Take This Healthcare Bill & Shove It

It is beginning to look more and more like a federal healthcare bill is going to be rammed down the throats of the American people. Despite numerous polls indicating that the American people do not want the current healthcare bill being offered, key Democrats in Washington are turning a deaf ear to the people and attempting to ram the bill through anyway.

President Obama has painted himself into a corner with this bill, having spent the last year trying to get it approved. Healthcare has now become known as a “Signature Item” for the POTUS. Many pundits have gone so far as to say that if he doesn’t get this bill passed he will be dubbed as a failure, and have no political relevance for the rest of his term. It’s almost if they are daring him to do it.

Mr. President, the people are going to respect you a lot more if you can acknowledge that the current bill is flawed, and work to get it right. Trying to strong-arm a bill through that is flawed, imperfect, and full of special interest pay-offs is wrong on so many levels. While I can appreciate a certain “dig-in-your-heels-and-finish-what-you-start” spirit, there comes a time when you have to admit that you have misread the will of the people, and you need to realign yourself with it.

Everyone knows this bill stinks. When Speaker Nancy Pelosi publicly states that the American people can know what’s in the bill AFTER it passes, everyone’s internal BS detector should be going off and sounding a red alert. What are Pelosi and Reid trying to hide? Why this mad push to shove something, ANYTHING through before the upcoming recess???

The answer is obvious: they know they are doing something wrong. We know they are doing something wrong. If you were buying an insurance plan, or a car, or a home, and the agent selling the product said to you, “Sign this, sign it now, and don’t read the fine print!” what would you say? You’d run away as fast as you possibly could. If she had nothing to hide, why wouldn’t she want you to read the fine print?

Yet this is exactly what is happening in Washington even now. The leading Democrats are running around to other Democrats, trying to pressure them into voting yes on the Senate Bill. Democratic Congressman Bart Stupak, of Michigan, has even stated that he is receiving threats from the party because he won’t vote yes on the bill. Other Democrats are siding with Stupak against the bill because of some questionable items in the bill that open the door to abortions being paid for with federal tax dollars.

It still remains unclear how we will pay for this bill. Estimates of how much the proposed bill will add to the deficit run into the BILLIONS. Non-partisan studies reveal that we simply cannot afford the bill as written. When questioned about this, Democrat supporters of the bill attempt to shrug the question off, claiming that the funding can be resolved through reconciliation. They believe the best thing to do is to pass the bill, and worry about funding it later! Have we learned nothing in the last few years about what happens with this type of “blank-check” mentality?

The media has made this a battle of wills, and has even stated that if the bill doesn’t pass, Democrats are going to lose political capital. At the same time, the press warns that if the Democrats vote yes, and pass this bill against the will of the people, the Dems will be destroyed at the polls during the mid-term elections is November of this year.

It’s a no-win situation for the Democrats. A true damned-if-you-do-damned-if-you-don’t scenario. It shouldn’t have come to this, but it has. I only hope that remaining holdouts against this bill in the Democratic party will do the right thing and hold true to their committment to vote against this atrocity of a bill. The time could come for healthcare reform, but this is not the kind of reform that the people want.

Why hustle through an imperfect product? It is widely held that successful healthcare reform could be the hallmark of Obama’s presidency.  Why not do it right? Remove the shadows surrounding the current bill, and remove the taint of corruption from this issue. After all, if it’s worth doing, it’s worth doing right.

I urge you to call your Congressional Representatives today and stress to them the importance of  doing the right thing. Scrap this bill, and let’s get started working on meaningful legislation that can do some good for everyone. Remember what you learned in the 80’s, and “Just say NO!”

Oh, and maybe we could even focus on some other issues; like reducing the deficit and/or getting Americans back to work. Just a thought.