by Fran Freedle
If there is one word that comes to mind when we think of what’s happening to healthcare, as we know it, it is corruption.
The American people deserve a fair and representative government. What we have watched unfold, with the Obama administration aided by Representative Pelosi and Senator Reid as well as the Democrat majority, has been a lesson in patience while engendering outrage and frustration. Vice-President Biden has stated that “we’re gonna control insurance companies” that Democrats have identified as the cause of our health care costs.
We are at an historic crossroad watching a citizen’s revolution that is battling from our homes and cities across America to hold on to our liberty and freedom, and to hold on to our rights granted in the Constitution. Nowhere does it say that government can mandate expenses that we must personally pay. The good news is that states and others are ready to take action through legal means to stop this government taking of our freedom.
We have been watching in horror as our health care system, the best in the world, is about to be changed to our detriment. The real problems are fraud and abuse, excessive costs that could be alleviated by tort reform, the need for insurance coverage for pre-existing conditions, insurance portability, and the ability to purchase any insurance a person wants to buy across state lines. If these few, though major issues were addressed in health reforms, most Americans would embrace changes that could meet a common goal of reducing the cost of health care while improving accessibility. And, by the way, this could improve our health care because we would not be subjected to unnecessary tests that primarily protect doctors and do little for our health. No, what is being rammed down our throats is a bigger and more intrusive government system that does not address the major issues, while putting our health care at risk of loosing quality and quantity. And the Democrat approach is bankrupting our nation and grandchildren.
The process includes the usual bill succession where the House sends their bill to the Senate; the Senate reviews and modifies it, and sends it back to the House for ratification before it goes to the President for signature.
Representatives of the American Medical Association and Health Insurance executives claim that passing the health bill is only the beginning, and there will be many changes, and many years devoted to enactment.
Because the majority rules, no matter what in Washington, the House majority will make the rules for the remainder of the process. These rules will limit debate, amendments, and ultimately the outcome. When you are the minority, this is a bitter pill to swallow. These rules will be used during the final debate of the health care Senate Bill and House Reconciliation bill, a process that we must go through to get the health care bill completed.
What is even worse is that the new rules that are being contemplated may allow the House to not take a vote on the Senate bill, but deem it approved without knowing what is actually in it, and move forward with an amended bill full of buy-offs and other matters unrelated to health such as the inclusion of the Student Loan program that will be taken from private business and put exclusively under government control, except for a bank in Bismarck, North Dakota.
What is new in this process is the insistence of the use of Reconciliation, a method primarily used to resolve budget and financial decisions. This ignores the super majority that is usually required for major policy change, allowing for a simple majority of 50 plus 1 to prevail. In California an initiative was passed to allow local taxes to be passed by simple majority that would otherwise not be successful if a super majority was required. A local example is the Sierra College tax that we all pay on our property tax bill for 20 years.
If Reconciliation is used at the Federal level, it gives the majority party much more power and is less representative of the people. In the Senate, the more deliberative body, it denies the traditional super majority for major legislation.
Adding to the corruption is the number of pages in the health care bill that cause concerned Americans be worry about what is tucked in that will be even more damaging to our freedom. And, this will be just the beginning. Once Reconciliation is used for policy issues, it could be used to pass “Tax/Cap and Trade”, Amnesty and other ideological concepts that we will find abhorrent.
Who would ever have thought that we would be fighting for our freedom and the constitutional rights we have under this guise of health care reform. Who would ever have thought that a candidate for President who promised transparency would bring such corruption to our nation?
Fran Freedle is a former Nevada County Supervisor.