Healthcare Monstrosity Passes House‏

Last night at about 11:00 p.m. the House voted 220 to 215 to pass the House's 2,000 page version of the healtch care bill, requiring Americans to purchase health insurance or face fines up to $250,000 and or jail up to 5 years.

Democrats, while accurately arguing in the last election cycle that Republicans spent to much, have now succeeded in spending in excess of 2 trillion dollars in 2 bills alone since the last election.

Taxes will now increase to pay for this monstrosity. People who chose no insurance to make ends meet will now have to decide what else they are going to give up instead (is that more foreclosures I see on the horizon?). Insurance carriers will lose clientelle and many will likely go out of business. People will lose yet more jobs in a time of economic distress. The government will be offering "cheaper" insurance while costing the tax payer more to offer it than a private insurance company would be able to.

Some of the mandates on private insurance companies include the following: private insurance companies may not deny coverage based on pre-existing medical conditions; and insurance companies may not raise rates based on gender or medical history. In other words, private insurance companies are required to ignore economics when setting rates. This is yet another Fannie-Mae style mandate from Congress which will lead to a private insurance company meltdown. With Fannie-Mae, Congress mandated on pubic and private lenders that they must make loans to economically disadvantaged people. In other words, you must make bad loans to high-risk individuals. Not surprisingly, that was bad business, and the entire nation suffered. In the last election, we put the perpetrators (or just traitors for short) of such policies in charge, and they are proving that they have learned nothing from past mistakes. So if Congress doesn't bankrupt private insurance through direct competition, it will do so by requiring bad business.

Expect a bumpy road ahead, because nothing Congress is doing is calculated to help with economic hard times. Indeed, their very actions show a morbid commitment to financial distress.

Here are the Texans who helped sell us out:

Lloyd Doggett
Ruben Hinojosa
Al Green
Silvestre Reyes
Sheila Jackson-Lee
Charlie Gonzalez
Ciro Rodriguez
Solomon Ortiz
Henry Cuellar
Gene Green
Eddie Bernice Johnson

The sole Republican who voted for this bill is Joseph Cao of Louisiana.

The vote was so close, and so many Texans voted for it, that it is frustrating to know that we Texans had the clout to stop it, but didn't. If only three of these listed above had voted differently, we would be out of danger. It now becomes our solemn duty to see these Representatives removed from office. Lloyd Doggett particularly is our very own representative, and we can all take an active part in his retirement from public office.

We can only remove and repeal if we all work together. Everyone who sits on the sidelines at this point costs us dearly.

Albert L. Ellison, Chairman
Bastrop County Republican Party