That’s Debatable - Daily Pilot
On Nov. 7, you were among the 178 House Republicans and 39 House Democrats who voted against passing House Resolution 3962, or the Affordable Health Care for America Act. The bill passed with a 220-215 vote tally. Why did you vote no?
If the editors of the Daily Pilot gave me the entire paper today, I could fill it up with reasons that the Pelosi Government-Run Health-Care Bill is, as the Wall Street Journal said, the single worst piece of legislation since World War II. But here are a few things to start with:
It will cost $1.6 trillion more than we are spending now. This includes the companion bill that you probably haven’t heard about. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi was forced to create this separate bill in order to offset some of the price tag, so that the main bill appears to cost less than it actually does.
It increases taxes by nearly $800 billion. These tax increases will be on everything from wheelchairs and hospital gowns to artificial organs.
It is 2,032 pages long. Anyone who voted in favor of this bill and says they have read and digested it all is not telling you the truth.
It has the word “shall” 3,425 times. Therefore, it compels someone to do or not do something at least 3,425 times. That doesn’t include the several hundred “musts” and “requires.”
Yet there is one time it poignantly says “may.” Members of Congress “may” join the government-run program. But members of Congress are not compelled to do so like everyone else under the plan. The Pelosi/Obama government is endeavoring to create a new “elite.” These “elite” individuals are not people who have earned it by their talents and hard work. They are members of Congress, and the government will not be compelled to use the government plan as most other Americans will eventually be, and that’s not right.
It massively expands government into our lives. This bill creates 111 new programs, boards, commissions and bureaucracies.
Over five to eight years, the bill will effectively transition most Americans into the government-run system.
You are required to buy health insurance. You are required to buy the health insurance that the “health choices commissioner” deems that you should. If you don’t, and you don’t pay the tax/fine that they impose on you for not buying the insurance they tell you to, it is considered a felony and you can be fined $250,000 and go to jail for five years.
This bill will increase health-care costs, increase the deficit, increase taxes and decrease the quality of care in this country.
Rather than support this massive and invasive takeover of health care, I support a reform measure called the Patient’s Choice Act (House Resolution 2520).
Rather than putting government in charge of the system, this plan largely removes the failed portions of government involvement, and puts each individual in charge of their own health-care plan and decisions.
If you’d like to learn more about this plan, visit the health-care center at www.campbell.house.gov/healthcare.
I could go on, but this is just the beginning of the explanation. To call this socialized medicine is to understate the case; this is nothing less than command and control government, brought to you by President Obama.
If I could have voted “no” on this bill a thousand times, I would have.
This is about our debt, deficits, taxes and whether or not anyone of intelligence and capability will want to go into medicine anymore. But it is really more than that. It is about freedom. This bill takes away your money, your choices, and your free will and will put you in jail if you do not cooperate.
We must defeat this thing. If we are not successful, we must repeal it.
U.S. Rep. John Campbell (R-Newport Beach)
