It’s sad and scary that the Democrat-controlled U.S. House of Representatives passed the government takeover of health care Saturday night. The initial vote passing HR 3962 was only by two votes before a very scared Republican from New Orleans named Anh Cao added on.
Thank you to our SaveCalifornia.com and SaveAmerica.com activists who called House members in the final hours before the vote. Your time and effort was worth it, because the vote on this terrible bill was so very close.
The good news is that the enemies of liberty and personal responsibility are being exposed to angry voters who are looking forward to the 2010 elections.
More good news is that HR 3962 is said to be “dead on arrival” in the U.S. Senate. That’s where 40 Republican senators oppose a government-run plan, and Independent Joe Lieberman and two or three Democrats don’t like it either.
Remember, it takes 60 votes to break a filibuster, and without Lieberman and every single Democrat, government-controlled health care can be filibustered until it is dead. Watch Lieberman on Fox News Sunday promise to oppose the so-called “public option.”
HR 3962 is a 2,032-page monstrosity. It removes choice and responsibility from individuals and hands over tremendous power and control to the government. A health-care solution that so vastly increases the size of government and imposes large fines and jail time for noncompliance is the wrong solution.
Elected representatives would do much better to remind people that they, not the government, are responsible for healthy living and their own health insurance. True reform would empower families and individuals to purchase private-sector health care insurance that is much more affordable, accessible, and portable.
This is a philosophical debate over whether people should be in charge of their health, or whether they should abandon all choices and rewards and let the government ‘take care’ of them instead. Americans must remember that, to maintain a free society, we must respect personal responsibility and restrict the size of government.
It was a mistake for pro-life Republicans to vote for a pro-life amendment that enabled this government-run health care bill to pass. Any pro-life legislator should have realized that voting for the Stupak amendment was ensuring that the government healthcare takeover would succeed, and that defeating the government takeover would have also prohibited abortions being performed with federal taxpayer dollars. Therefore, we are not counting the Stupak amendment as a pro-life vote, but as a mistake at best and a deceitful scheme at worst.
For more information read:
The Wall Street Journal, “The Worst Bill Ever,” Nov. 1, 2009
Congressman John Shadegg Statement on Stupak Amendment, Nov. 8, 2009
The Oklahoma Daily, “Government interference in health care not needed,” Nov. 5, 2009
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