Steve Driehaus voted for a very bad healthcare reform bill this past Saturday night. Back on October 29th, a spokesperson from his office had stated that he “would not support any bill that places an additional burden on small business” or “adds to the federal deficit.” This bill did both, but he voted for it anyway.
One of the worst things about the Pelosi healthcare bill is that it grows government control over our lives immensely. It also grows government itself, adding multiple new bureaucracies, and higher and higher taxes. It’s no surprise then that the government workers’ union (AFSCME), which favors more government, has decided to reward Driehaus for his vote by spending tens of thousands of dollars on a TV ad here praising him, in what has to be one of the most misleading ads of all time.
The ad indicates that by voting for this bill, Driehaus is “putting medical decisions in the hands of you and your doctor.” What a laugh. Washington bureaucrats will be injected into the healthcare process like never before under this 2,000 + page monstrosity-of-a-bill.
The ad goes on to claim that the bill will “reign in skyrocketing insurance premiums.” Again, that’s a joke. Premiums in almost every case will go up, in most cases dramatically. In fact, in a study done by WellPoint Inc, it was determined that a typical Ohio family of four, consisting of a 40-year-old husband and wife with two children would see their monthly insurance premiums jump from $332 to $737, a 122% increase.
Then comes a whopper – that the bill will “help small businesses survive and our economy grow.” You’ve got to be kidding. The burdens on small business in this bill are overwhelming. An 8% payroll tax on employers, a brand-new 5.4% surtax targeted especially at small business owners, more burdensome paper work, and on and on. At a time when the nation is in deep recession and hemorrhaging jobs, the last thing we should do is burden small businesses with even more regulation, taxes, and red tape, thus making it less likely that businesses will be able to keep current employees, much less add new jobs. We ought to be about implementing policies which result in businesses expanding and hiring more people, not cutting back even more.
The liberal special-interest-group-paid ad ends by telling us to thank Steve Driehaus for “fighting for us.” Well, he is fighting for this particular special interest group – government workers – since this so-called reform bill will grow government and mean more union jobs. But he sure as heck isn’t fighting for us, the hardworking tax payers who end up footing the bill for all of the out-of-control-spending going on in Washington.
By the way, there were 39 Democratic Members of Congress who, unlike Steve Driehaus, voted against the bill. Here’s what some of them had to say about this truly awful piece of legislation:
Congressman Charlie Melancon D-La.: “In these tough economic times, we’ve got to be smarter about getting spending and the deficit under control and the House’s health care bill simply costs too much.”
Congressman Mike Ross D-Ark.: “This is not the time to force employees to buy health insurance they cannot afford or require struggling small businesses to provide it. This is not the time to raise federal taxes $730 billion. I am also deeply concerned about this bill’s unintended consequences for our seniors. With more than $400 billion in cuts to Medicare it could force many hospitals to close, providing less access and care for seniors. I also voted against the health care reform bill because it allows illegal immigrants to purchase private insurance in the newly created government exchange.”
Congressman Dan Boren D-Okla.: “The worst thing we could do during a recession is raise taxes and this bill does just that. I also believe the public option would ultimately lead to a single-payer health care system. This 2,000-page and $1 trillion bill, is just not the answer to America’s health care problems.”
Congressman Ben Chandler D-Ky.: “In particular, the cost of this bill for the tax payer is too high… the Congressional Budget Office states that the bill does not bring down the growing cost of health care and perpetuates a system that is fiscally unsustainable. I have serious concerns about forcing people to purchase health insurance they cannot afford, especially if we are not bringing down the costs.”
Congressman Michael McMahon D-N.Y.: “I believe that the net negatives of this bill outweigh the positives. The House bill being debated costs over $1 trillion. It includes a tax increase that is not indexed to inflation. Medicare Advantage which serves approximately 40% of my seniors on Medicare would be cut dramatically, leading to significant monthly average premium increases of $130 per person per month. The bill would penalize small businesses and could have the unintended consequence of encouraging businesses to drop healthcare coverage and push people into the public option.”
Congressman Allen Boyd D-Fla.: “The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office has indicated that the House bill does little to reduce the escalating cost of healthcare services, meaning that healthcare costs will continue to rise at unsustainable rates and insurance premiums will continue to plague hardworking Americans.”
Congressman Chet Edward D-Texas: “Given the huge federal deficits facing our nation, I believe there is too much new spending in this bill.”
Congressman Parker Griffith D-Ala.: “I voted against the proposed healthcare legislation today because a public option has remained the foundation of the bill’s aim. This bill is bad for our patients, bad for our hospitals, and bad for our nation’s bottom line.”
Congressman Bobby Bright D-Ala.: “People across the country are struggling to make ends meet and this is no time to place additional burdens on them. I fear this bill will not reduce long-term costs, and our debt and deficits will suffer and balloon in the years ahead.”
Too bad Steve Driehaus didn’t see it the way these common sense Democrats did.