-By Warner Todd Huston
Just got word in that the Democrats seem to have overcome their so-called Blue Dog problem at least long enough to vote down any chance of stripping the “public option” from the Democrat sponsored Obamacare version of healthcare “reform” currently roiling the House of Reps.
U.S. Rep. Doctor Mike Burgess (R, Texas) tried to introduce an amendment that would strip the House bill of the public option. Burgess worries about the regressive price controls and rationing as well as the pressure that the public option would put on the medical and insurance industries that would, in the end, force millions of Americans to lose their current medical care plans — something President Obama keeps falsely claiming won’t happen.
So, as so many have said, don’t put your faith in the Blue Dogs to save us. They are still Democrats, after all.
WASHINGTON – Democrats united Thursday night to reject a Republican doctor’s advice to remove government-run health care from the Democratic health bill.
The sponsor, U.S. Rep. Mike Burgess of Texas, noted that newspapers brim with stories outlining the hardships suffered by people who have government health care under programs like Medicaid, the welfare program. If the Democrats’ bill is passed without change, “that would be the reality for millions more Americans who would be pushed onto the rolls of government-run health care,” he told the House Energy and Commerce Committee.
“I am committed to helping the millions of Americans who want coverage, and to lowering the costs for everyone,” the physician-congressman said. “I will not, however, allow that to come in the form of a slow but inevitable government takeover of our nation’s health care system.”
U.S. Rep. Christopher Murphy, D-Pa., defended government care against what he called “the bogeyman” of misunderstanding: “There’s nothing to be scared of. No one’s going to be forced onto the public option.”
He called the notion that people current have a choice of insurance “the mythology that’s out there,” adding that government-operated health care “is essential to injecting competitiveness into the health car market.”
The amendment and roll call tally can be found here.
(Cross posted at HealthcareHorseRace.com.)
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Warner Todd Huston is a Chicago based freelance writer, has been writing opinion editorials and social criticism since early 2001 and is featured on many websites such as newsbusters.org, RedState.com, Human Events Magazine, AmericanDailyReview.com, townhall.com, New Media Journal, Men’s News Daily and the New Media Alliance among many, many others. Additionally, he has been a frequent guest on talk-radio programs to discuss his opinion editorials and current events and is currently the co-host of “Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Conservatism” heard on BlogTalkRadio. He has also written for several history magazines and appears in the new book “Americans on Politics, Policy and Pop Culture” which can be purchased on amazon.com. He is also the owner and operator of publiusforum.com. Feel free to contact him with any comments or questions : EMAIL Warner Todd Huston
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Is there 1 politician who is NOT willing to sell this country for a bowl of porridge? Stealing tax $$$ to give to their election ‘donators’! Saying to hell with their children and children’s children.
I wish I could say otherwise. But it doesn’t seem so, does it?
Say, what’s the Republican Solution to the health care problem again? It’s tax cuts, isn’t it?
There IS no government “solution.” Government CAUSED the mess we are in!
So we should stop regulating the insurance industry and just let the free market take care of it?
Oh, fine. If you want to get SPECIFIC, I am for some regulation. But what we have now is about 60% too much.