How do you feel about the health care reform bill?
I’ve started a new website that tells exactly how I feel about the new health care reform bill that passed the U.S. House of Representatives last night. The site is called Repeal the Healthcare Reform Bill and it urges repeal of the bill.
Although I’ve traditionally voted Democrat in previous elections, I can’t say how I’ll be voting in the future, except to note that I won’t be voting for anyone who supported this bill, nor likely anyone belonging to the party that supported this bill.
I have many reasons for why I don’t agree with this particular legislation, but I won’t clutter this site with those. Check out Repeal the Healthcare Reform Bill if you’d like and leave a comment.
As an F.Y.I., Lincoln Davis, our Democratic Representative in the U.S. House of Representatives, voted No on the bill in question.
Davis released the following statement, "Having analyzed this issue as the congressman from the Fourth Congressional District, and as I have articulated to constituents in Tennessee and leaders in Washington, there are reasons why I could not support this legislation. One of the main reasons, if not the most important, being that the overwhelming majority of the constituents I represent opposed this plan, regardless of their party affiliation."
April 3rd, 2010 at 7:48 am
Although Lincoln Davis voted against the Obama health control bill, according to his staff and website he remained “undecided” right up to time of the vote. Having personally read both the House and Senate bills I have no idea how any sane person could possible be undecided on either bill at that late date. He was clearly waiting to see whether or not his vote would be necessary for passage. Neither of these bills have anything to do with improving health care. Quite the opposite. What they do accomplish is giving the government more control over our lives. When the government controls your health care, they control you!
Davis voted in favor of TARP and the so-called “stimulus” bill, both of which were nothing more than political slush funds. These two bills together adding nearly two trillion dollars to our already enormous national debt. Some estimates put our national debt at more than $100 trillion, when Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid shortfalls are also included. This is going to devastate our economy if it is not corrected immediately. A complete collapse of the Dollar is possible, if not inevitable if this is not corrected.
Davis clearly has no understanding of the hardships our children and grandchildren will face in the coming years from the massive debt that has been run up by the unbridled spending by our government. In effect, he voted to spend our children’s futures for petty, political reasons. Neither bill accomplished their stated goals.
Davis clearly isn’t willing to do his job and vote against this unnecessary spending. He should be replaced with someone who will indeed represent the best interests of the constituents of the 4th District. How many more jobs in Sequatchie County have to be lost before voters will demand results?
I have attempted to call attention to these votes with Representative Davis on several occasions. Thus far, he has ignored me and avoided commenting publicly on his voting record. For this reason I will not support Davis in the upcoming primary or the November election. I would urge every resident of Sequatchie County to do the same.
April 3rd, 2010 at 7:56 am
I’ve only recently become motivated to take a closer look at the policies our government has been putting in place to restrict our freedoms and rights, so I appreciate you taking the time to detail Davis’s stand on TARP and the stimulus package.
I began to become politically aware when the Wall Street failure happened, but it wasn’t until the weeks leading up to the passage of healthcare reform that I began to really pay attention. I believe a lot of people like me are now starting to pay attention, and my goal is to teach my children to do better than I have in monitoring these issues and taking a stand.
At the moment, I’m still learning so much that I didn’t know about the entire political system, most of which I never learned in school or at home, and I’m shocked by what I’ve discovered.
April 3rd, 2010 at 9:39 am
The entire Wall Street collapse we’ve witnessed was entirely set and caused up by our own government because of the rules and regulations that they passed into law.
For example, under the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA), originally passed during the Carter Administration and greatly expanded during the Clinton Administration, forced banks to loan money to what were essentially deadbeats, IOW, people who could not qualify for a regular mortgage because of their work history (or lack thereof), payment history (or lack thereof), and/or criminal record. Imagine if you ran a business and the government forced you to sell your products to a buyer who could not pay for them. This is precisely what the CRA does.
Under the CRA banks who wanted to expand their businesses (open new branches, etc) had to have a certain percentage of their loans made to “sub prime” mortgagees, IOW, people who could not otherwise qualify for a mortgage. The CRA forces banks to make loans to people who, in most cases, could not pay the money back. In addition, banks were allowed to make mortgage deals that were up to 125% of the value of the property. This is insanity! It is no wonder at all that this house of cards came crashing down. It was all set up to fail by our own government.
Representative Barney Frank, (D Massachusetts, Chairman of the House Banking Committee, is on record as late as 2006 saying that no crisis existed in the banking community whatsoever when in reality a crisis of epic proportions was brewing and clearly did exist, as has been evidenced by the near collapse of the financial markets worldwide over the past three years.
Although Democrats are not entirely to blame, another thing that happened shortly after Democrats took control of the House of Representatives in 2006 was the elimination of the so-called “uptick” rule in regard to the short selling of stocks. The uptick rule was put in place in 1938 in an effort to bring stability to the markets during the Great Depression. It was created to slow or eliminate “runs” on stocks that drive down the stock price artificially. The uptick rule requires that whenever a stock is sold short, IOW, below current market value, a .1 point “uptick” in the price must occur before that same investor can enter another, lower short sale price of the same stock. This prevents the stock from being “shorted” into oblivion and protects other investors who also own the same stock.
The Securities and Exchange Commission removed the uptick rule 15 months before the last election, shortly after Democrats gained control of the House of Representatives in late 2006. However, eliminating the uptick rule had also been discussed when Republicans were in control of Congress and a process to remove the rule was put into place by the then Republican controlled Congress and later enacted by the Democrat controlled Congress. Why, we may never know, but I have my suspicions. The timing is just a wee bit too convenient.
The House of Representatives is the sole body in our government that oversees the Securities and Exchange Commission which oversees the trading of stocks and securities. The decision to remove the uptick rule was done in committee behind closed doors, not on the full House floor. The result of the removal of the uptick rule was the devastating market fall we saw over the past 2 years. The turmoil the resulting market upheaval caused helped Obama win the Whitehouse. Coincidence? I don’t think so. Both parties were involved in this and both parties are culpable. You can bet the farm that these so-called “Representatives” were aware and prepared their own investment portfolios for the coming crash they had ensured would happen while they allowed our retirement and investments to suffer because of their actions. Some “representation” we got there, huh?
Similarly, various laws passed by both parties in Congress have driven up the cost of health care by altering market forces. Failure to enact meaningful Tort reform, for incidence, which would eliminate frivolous medical liability law suits, is the main culprit, but there are other causes as well. Our government, at both state and Federal level, restricts us from purchasing health insurance from any of the more than 1400 companies in the USA that offer such insurance policies. When we buy insurance on a car, motorcycle, boat, airplane, house or RV we can purchase coverage from any company in the world who offers it. Not so with health care. Why is this? Control, that’s why. By controlling who we purchase our health insurance from the government dictates who receives those premium dollars. This is one of the most incestuous relationships that exists between any industry and our own government.
If, as Obama claims, government entry into the health care arena has been done to “increase competition” with insurance providers, yet these providers are still not allowed to sell their products to anyone who wants to buy them would someone please explain to me how a private insurance company is supposed to compete with government, an entity that both makes and enforces the rules, prints it’s own money and does not have to answer to investors in the form of making a profit?
Essentially, what we have now is a government that is “Of the lawyers, by the lawyers, and for the lawyers”. Nearly every member of Congress has a degree in law and they clearly mean to take care of their own. The overwhelming majority of the people who “serve” in Congress are career politicians who have never run a business, never had to meet a payroll and have no idea how the average American goes about dealing with the trials and tribulations of their daily life. If they did most of what has been made into law would have ever been considered, much less passed. The unbridled arrogance we have seen from elected politicians over the past few months tells the story much better than I can. We do not have citizen legislators as was envisioned by our founding fathers. What we have are career criminals with no business experience who are stealing vast amounts of money, not only from us, but from future generations that have not even been born yet. These people make the scam artist Bernie Maddoff look like a pickpocket by comparison.
Ladies and gentlemen, the time has come to clean house. We don’t need term limits, we just need to vote the criminals out! Diapers and politicians should be changed often and for the same reason. The time has come to flush Congress! I suggest voting out ALL incumbents over the next four election cycles until we have rid ourselves entirely of the criminals who now populate our government! At that point, voters should see to it that no elected official in any level of government serve more than two terms. If we fail to do this the financial and social collapse that is on the horizon will make the Great Depression seem like boom times. It is clear to me that without massive intervention from the people our republic is doomed. The very essence of Freedom and Liberty are at stake here. It’s ours to lose and if we fail we will have no one to blame but ourselves.