A Representative Government?

 

You know, I must have been mistaken growing up. I kept hearing about how we live in a country with great representative government. You elect people to office and they do the bidding of their constituents. That even if there are those they represent who do not agree with them, they have an open dialogue and take the opposing viewpoints into account. After what I have heard from the White House and congressional representatives facing heat from their constituents, I just don’t believe that anymore.

At many town hall meetings across the country people who are normally quiet, you know, the people who spend their time making an honest living, have shown up to voice their opinion on health care. Most of the people showing up are against any type of government takeover of the healthcare industry. These individuals are well spoken and have very good, logical points they are making when voicing their opinion. What is the response from the White House and the very representatives that supposedly represent them? They accuse the people of being a “fringe” element and of using “talking points”. Let me figure this one out; because somebody has taken the time to research an issue, formulate an opinion, and put their conclusions and opinions with logic it is a bad thing?

Here are some examples:

People at a town hall in Austin, TX voiced their opinions and disagreement with Representative Lloyd. This is how he described these constituents.

“A fringe group committed to doing anything they can to disrupt and stop this healthcare reform legislation.”

If it is just a fringe group, how come there were recently 10,000 people that came out in Columbus, Ohio to protest healthcare.

Senator Arlen Specter and Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius were at a town hall in Philadelphia. This is what one constituent said.

“I see this healthcare plan I see nothing that's about health or care. What I see is a bureaucratic nightmare, senator. Medicaid is broke. Medicare is broke. Social security is broke, and you want us to believe that a government that can't even run a Cash for Clunkers program is going to run one-seventh of our US economy?”

Senator Specter and Secretary Sebelius accused the people of using “talking points”, that they can’t read on their own, and that all of their opinions were being fed to them by the insurance companies. The last time I checked, the big insurance companies were actually in the Oval Office supporting this legislation. Big business is in bed with the government on this because it will eliminate their competition for them. What they don’t see is that they are committing suicide.

This was Specter’s response to constituents asking why their representatives weren’t taking the time to read the legislation.

“My practice -- when you have a bill and you have a more than a thousand pages of healthcare and we divide up the bill, we have to make judgments very fast”

The crowd was not too receptive of that. They actually booed him. Call me crazy but if you are honestly representing the people who put you into office, shouldn’t you show the common courtesy of reading ALL legislation completely?

Recently on YouTube there was a video placed that showed President Obama making the following statement in 2003.

“Single-payer healthcare coverage. Universal healthcare coverage. That's what I'd like to see. But as all of you may know, we may not get there immediately because first we've got to take back the White House. We've got to take back the Senate.”

The White House went ballistic and had Linda Douglas, Communications Director for the White House Office of Health Reform ( I didn’t even know such an office existed, our tax dollars at work I guess) put out a video stating the following:

“Hi, I'm Linda Douglas. I'm the communications director for the White House Office of Health Reform. And one of my jobs is to keep track of all the disinformation that's out there about health insurance reform. There are a lot of very deceiving headlines out there such as this one. Take a look at this one. This one says uncovered video. Obama explains how his healthcare plan will eliminate private insurance. Well, nothing could be farther from the truth. You know, the people who always try to scare people whenever you try to bring them health insurance reform are at it again. And they're taking sentences and phrases out of context and cobbling them together to leave a very false impression. The truth is that the president has been talking to the American people a lot about health insurance reform and what is at stake for them. So what happens is that that because he's talking to the American people so much there are people out there with a computer and a lot of free time and they take a phrase here and there. They simply cherry pick and put it together. And make it sound like he's saying something that he didn't really say.”

If you watch the video, nothing was cherry picked and they didn’t use editing software to create some manufactured occurrence. The video is uncut. Glenn Beck was right, it’s like 1984. Two plus two doesn’t equal four, it equals whatever we say it is. Do they just think we are stupid? White House spokesman Robert Gibbs, had this gem to say yesterday, “I hope people will take a jaundiced eye to what is clearly the Astro-turf nature of grassroots lobbying." He basically called every constituent that came out to voice disagreement as a fake grassroots movement. That we are on some mythical person’s payroll and we are taking marching orders. What a load of crap!

This is what DNC spokesman Brad Woodhouse said, "The Republicans and their allied groups desperate after losing two consecutive elections and every major policy fight on Capitol Hill ... are inciting angry mobs of a small number of rabid right wing extremists funded by K Street Lobbyists to disrupt thoughtful discussions about the future of health care in America taking place in Congressional Districts across the country,"

I email my representative and Senators on a daily basis. I call them once a week to leave a message. This is all to voice my disagreement on several issues, but healthcare being a biggie. In Overton they have started having weekly tea parties on Saturday afternoons. Starting next weekend, this weekend I am getting away with my Sweetie!, I will be out there as well. I am doing everything I can to make my voice heard and encouraging others to do the same. Your country is being hijacked and although people are starting to wake up, I’m afraid the pace needs to pick up a bit. This battle is a long haul and if the reactions of our elected officials to our discontent are any indicator, it is going to be a drawn out knock down fight to the finish. Hopefully our Republic will remain intact and the TRAITORS will be replaced by honest hard working folks like us.