The health care reform that passed the House last night won’t so much “destroy the country” as many Republicans claimed. Yes, people were “frightened”. Mostly because congressional Republicans were busy frightening them – about how this spelled the end of America as we know it.
My representative, Chris Lee, was on the wrong side of history last night. A first-termer, he voted against a fundamental reformation of America’s woefully broken, $2TN annual health insurance system – changes that will have immediate positive effects. The millionaire son of millionaires tried to deny to his poorer and middle-class constituents real help. His lying Code Red emails and ridiculously inconvenient “telephone town hall meetings” reveal a doctrinaire, knee-jerk, Limbaughist conservatism that I thought he eschewed.
Congressman Chris Lee ill served his constituents last night.
Last night, I stayed up as late as I could to watch the votes and Republican maneuvering unfold. Yes, Nancy Pelosi’s speech was rather fumfering and she has an odd laugh from time to time, but she substantively told the truth.
Before her, on the other side of the aisle, John Boehner gave an impassioned speech, pleading with the house to lead not based on principle, but on polls. He crowed that there would be not one single Republican vote for the bill, omitting the fact that “Obama must fail” was and is their sole platform plank. This despite the fact that the current bill, “rammed through” over the course of more than a year, contains at least 200 Republican amendments to it. This despite the fact that the current bill reflects what the Republicans recommended as an alternative to Hillary Clinton’s plan in the early 90s.
John Boehner also warned Democrats that they might lose their majority come November. That underscores the fact that the concern his side of the aisle is driven solely by politics, not policy. Yes, Democrats may be in some jeopardy. But so might the Republicans. In fact, in the long run, they will be the ones who will have to answer for their obstinant insistence on killing this bill, no matter how many concessions they extracted.
Public service is not about worrying about your electoral prospects, but instead voting your conscience and your principles. Boehner’s speech was a huge, perhaps unintentional, reveal of just how superficial Republican congresspeople have become.
Meanwhile, we don’t have to wait another 16 years to take up health insurance reform.
When the Republicans moved to recommit the bill to add the Stupak amendment into the bill’s language (which the Senate would have rejected), one rep from New Jersey all but accused this bill as being a license for everyone – even men – to have abortions on demand on a daily basis. The Democrats countered with a few minutes from Congressman Bart Stupak himself, who explained that not only did the compromise for President Obama’s executive order re-stating existing federal law do what pro-life forces wanted, but he re-stated the very real fact that the Democrats were helping not only fetuses, but all Americans from conception to death.
During Stupak’s speech, a Republican congressman yelled, “baby-killer!” at him.
Everyone’s dummied up as to who said it, but we’ll probably know today, and it’s clearly someone with a southern accent. Surprise, surprise. Earlier yesterday, Stupak was their hero. Now that Stupak secured the pro-life assurance he needed, and voted for the bill, he was their mortal enemy. Because it’s not about being pro-life for the poll-watching, phony congressional Republicans. It’s about Obama losing. It’s about November.
But despite the predictable, hateful, ignorant conservative outburst, today is an historic day. President Obama’s remarks last night:
For the first time in our nation’s history, Congress has passed comprehensive health care reform. America waited a hundred years and fought for decades to reach this moment. Tonight, thanks to you, we are finally here.
Consider the staggering scope of what you have just accomplished:
Because of you, every American will finally be guaranteed high quality, affordable health care coverage.
Every American will be covered under the toughest patient protections in history. Arbitrary premium hikes, insurance cancellations, and discrimination against pre-existing conditions will now be gone forever.
And we’ll finally start reducing the cost of care — creating millions of jobs, preventing families and businesses from plunging into bankruptcy, and removing over a trillion dollars of debt from the backs of our children.
But the victory that matters most tonight goes beyond the laws and far past the numbers.
It is the peace of mind enjoyed by every American, no longer one injury or illness away from catastrophe.
It is the workers and entrepreneurs who are now freed to pursue their slice of the American dream without fear of losing coverage or facing a crippling bill.
And it is the immeasurable joy of families in every part of this great nation, living happier, healthier lives together because they can finally receive the vital care they need.
This is what change looks like.
My gratitude tonight is profound. I am thankful for those in past generations whose heroic efforts brought this great goal within reach for our times. I am thankful for the members of Congress whose months of effort and brave votes made it possible to take this final step. But most of all, I am thankful for you.
This day is not the end of this journey. Much hard work remains, and we have a solemn responsibility to do it right. But we can face that work together with the confidence of those who have moved mountains.
Our journey began three years ago, driven by a shared belief that fundamental change is indeed still possible. We have worked hard together every day since to deliver on that belief.
We have shared moments of tremendous hope, and we’ve faced setbacks and doubt. We have all been forced to ask if our politics had simply become too polarized and too short-sighted to meet the pressing challenges of our time. This struggle became a test of whether the American people could still rally together when the cause was right — and actually create the change we believe in.
Tonight, thanks to your mighty efforts, the answer is indisputable: Yes we can.
Thank you,
President Barack Obama
If one family is no longer bankrupted by health care bills; if one person is no longer left destitute because his insurer rescinded his policy; if tip jars to help pay for someone’s leukemia treatments are no longer needed in corner stores, then we will have won a great and historic victory.
Tags: HCR, health care reform, health insurance reform, News, united states
The Republican party chose a deliberate strategy to vote no on any health insurance reform from day one. The strategy was a plank of an overall “Obama must fail” platform; it became more important to score cheap political points than to participate in representative democracy. Had they engaged and behaved like a legislative opposition (with real power, in the Senate) ought to behave, a lot of what they wanted changed could have been changed. Maybe not all the way, but part of legislative leadership is the art of negotiation and compromise.
The Buffalo Record 