Rep. Martin Heinrich voted in favor of the health care bill that narrowly passed the House over the weekend. He also wrote an opinion piece in the Albuquerque Journal defending the bill and his decision to support it. He points to six principles that he wanted included in the legislation:
1) Stability for health consumers; in practice, this means “guaranteed issue,” a practice that drives up the costs of health insurance for the young and healthy, thus driving them out of the insurance pool, driving costs up for everyone (as only the unhealthy will buy insurance) and pushing peopole into the so-called “public option.”
2) Contain costs: This from the National Taxpayers Union “Several analyses have placed the real cost at as much as $1.5 trillion over the first ten years, or more than $2 trillion over a decade when the bill is fully phased in. The House legislation used innumerable gimmicks to artificially reduce its score, including splitting the so-called “doc fix” into another bill to hide a quarter-trillion dollars and not indexing the taxes in the bill for inflation, meaning they’ll run deficits in the future if they don’t “fix” those provisions like they have to do with the Alternative Minimum Tax.”
3) Patients can keep their doctor and health plan. We already know this to be false. For starters, I hold a health savings account that I love. That plan will cease to exist under the House-passed plan.
4) Improving the quality of private insurance and closing Medicare Donut Hole; Oh, and I’m sure this will all come in at no additional cost to taxpayers, right?
5) Coverage for all Americans; Illegal immigrants are major consumers of uncompensated care, but they are not included in the legislation. How much of the uncompensated care will really go away?
6) Public option; Operating without government subsidy, but for how long? Will Congress really let the government option die if it can’t compete? No, they’ll eventually prop it up and you simply can’t write this legislation in such a way as to stop this from happening once you create the public option.
Below is a copy of a letter I just sent the Albuquerque Journal. I wonder if other people have encoutered the rudeness and disrespect of Bill at Senator Udall’s local office. I called Senator Udall’s Washington D.C. office and complained about Bill’s attitude so he may behave for awhile, but he has been very rude to me several times.
My email to the Journal below:
I wondered if you saw this NYT entry quoting President Obama and Rep. Heinrich.
http://prescriptions.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/11/07/lawmakers-detail-obamas-pitch/
Note how our President and Representative indicate no wish to represent those who did not vote for them. Note the switch from the paradigm of “dissent is patriotic” touted ad nauseum during the President Bush years to the new paradigm of attempting to marginalize those who disagree with you and call them extremists. Note Rep. Heinrich’s agreement as he states that his job is to represent Democratic party voters only and his implication that the new paradigm means the concerns of Independents and Republicans and the rest of his nonDemocratic party constituents mean nothing to him. Neither of them are even polite about their disdain for the rest of us, especially those “extremists” who attend tea party demonstrations.
I read this just after I watched my husband attempting to discuss his concern over the apparent whitewashing going on over the Fort Hood shooting with Bill at Senator Udall’s local office. Bill, who I assume was hired to answer the phone and take down constituent concerns and opinions, spent the whole conversation arguing with my husband and attempting to belittle his concerns. I too have encountered “Bill” before when I attempted to convey my views to Senator Udall. Bill is a confrontational individual who seems to delight in arguing with, upsetting, and accusing those who disagree with Democratic party positions of being less moral than he is. It seems telling to me that this is the kind of person Senator Udall is comfortable with in a front-line office position. All part of the Chicago way I guess: You either support all my views or I am not even obligated to expect my staff to be polite to you on the telephone, much less attempt to understand or listen to your concerns.
I have lived in Albuquerque since 1977. I remember Rep. Schiff, Rep. Wilson, and Senator Domenici. Agree or disagree with them – at least they were gracious and had enough class to act like they respected all their constituents.