The Blue Dog betrayal (OneNewsNow.com)

The Blue Dog betrayal

James L. Lambert - Guest Columnist - 11/20/2009 8:25:00 AM

James Lambert On November 7, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D- California) rammed through passage of the Affordable Healthcare for America Act (H.R. 3962) in the U.S. House of Representatives. The bill's title is misleading -- it is anything but affordable. Any sincere, candid politician should know this -- and the 21 Blue Dog Democrats in the House should know it too.

The Blue Dog Coalition is a group of 52 Democratic members of the House of Representatives. On their website, the group states they are a "fiscally conservative Democrat coalition [that] was formed in '95." The coalition claims to "appeal to the mainstream values of the American public." Yet the government's own fiscal reporting agency, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) projects Obama's healthcare bill will cost American taxpayers $891 billion in additional outlays over the next ten years. (This figure is no fabrication. It is gleamed from the CBO's own report filed earlier this month.)

Any reasonable, fiscally concerned American citizen would have to ask: Is almost $1 trillion in new federal debt something that we really want? Despite their conservative claims, 21 of 52 supposed "fiscally prudent" House Democrats voted for socialized medicine on that Saturday night. With one exception, all 179 Republican House members voted against this radical bill.

Weeks before the bill passed the House, Speaker Pelosi and other Democratic leaders in that chamber prodded and cajoled their fellow Democrats to secure the votes she needed for passage (218). American Family Radio's Tim Wildmon believes Pelosi forced members of the Blue Dog Coalition to "toe the party line." The Today's Issues host believed that strong "political intimidation took place...[explaining] why party affiliation is so important." According to the Wall Street Journal, Blue Dog member Mike Ross (D-Akansas) reacted by conceding, saying he did "not want to be a roadblock" of the legislation. But millions of us ask: Why? Ross, as much as anyone, should know better. If H.R. 3962 is finally enacted, it will mean that seniors will suffer more than $400 billion in Medicare budget cuts during the next ten years. It will also leave over 12 million seniors with fewer healthcare options.

The dirty little secret is that the CBO acknowledges that states will also have to pay in excess of $33 billion in new healthcare expense. Many of these same states have plenty of financial problems already. They simply don't have the money to cope with additional public healthcare costs. Nevertheless, some Blue Dogs like Representative Ross didn't have to vote for the final passage of Pelosi's bill after all. The Speaker had just enough votes to get her bill through.

Still, I believe the phony "conservative" Democrats who voted for the bill need to be fired by their constituents in November 2010. Besides Republican Joseph Cao of Louisiana, the 21 Blue Dog Democrats who voted for H.R. 3962 need to hear from you, their constituents (go to House.gov). They are:

Mike Arcuri (New York - 24)
Joe Baca (California - 43)
Sanford Bishop (Georgia - 2)
Dennis Cardoza (California - 18)
Christopher Carney (Pennsylvania - 10)
Jim Cooper (Tennessee - 5)
Henry Cuellar (Texas - 28)
Kathy Dahlkemper (Pennsylvania - 3)
Joe Donnelly (Indiana - 2)
Brad Ellsworth (Indiana - 08)
Gabrielle Giffords (Arizona - 08)
Jane Harmon (California - 36)
Baron Hill (Indiana - 09)
Mike Michaud (Maine - 02)
Patrick Murphy (Pennsylvania - 08)
Earl Pomeroy (North Dakota)
John Salazar (Colorado - 03)
David Scott (Georgia - 13)
Zack Space (Ohio - 18)
Mike Thompson (California - 01)
Charles Wilson (Ohio - 06)

I believe we must demand that Congress stop this careless expansion of government through this insanely expensive legislation. For those of us who still believe in free choice and free enterprise, it is imperative that we call our U.S. senators, too. Tell them your concerns. (You can do this by going to Senate.gov). ObamaCare will not be signed into law until it passes the Senate.

Remember it took only a 15-page document -- the Constitution -- to grant us our freedoms. Let's not allow a 2,074-page document to take our freedom away!

James L. Lambert, a frequent contributor to OneNewsNow.com and author of Porn in America, is a licensed nationwide real-estate mortgage loan sales agent and can be contacted through his website.

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