Public Option? No Way!

Public Option? No Way

US Senator Tom Colburn (R-Oklahoma) lays out 10 questions for taxpayers to ask their Congressmen and Congresswomen during this August recess. See National Review On-line http://www.nationalreview.com/

The fifth question by Senator Colburn, one of only 2 doctors in the US Senate, is particularly telling:

5. If the public option is so wonderful, will you (as member of Congress) lead by example and vote for a plan to enroll you and your family in the public option?

I offered an amendment in committee to force members of Congress to enroll in the public option. Nine out of eleven Democrats on the health committee who back the public option refused. If the politicians creating the public option don’t have confidence in it, neither should the American people.

Now that the members of Congress are back in their home states and districts, there are a number of questions that the voters and taxpayers are asking. The rest of the questions that Dr. Tom Colburn is asking are putting the Democrats on the defensive, to the point of that some Congress members are discounting the dissent and vocal questions at town halls as “un-American” (See USA Today editorial by Speaker Pelosi) at http://blogs.usatoday.com/oped/2009/08/unamerican-attacks-cant-derail-health-care-debate-.html

Hello! This is American (at least for now) and our Republic was founded on peaceful assembly and the ability to petition the government (see the Bill of Rights on individual freedoms and liberty enshrined in the Constitution). To characterize hard working, taxpaying Americans, who disagree with socialized medicine and government run health care as un-American, is simply ridiculous.

So here are 5 more questions for your Congressperson:

1) Please give us several examples of US Government run health care, such as the Indian Health Services, VA Hospitals or Medicare re-imbursement, that actually work better that my employer provided health coverage?

2) As a member of Congress, will you go on record and sign up for the Government option for your healthcare?

3) How do you propose the US pays for a government run system that is estimated by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) to increase US government spending dramatically? What spending cuts will you make? What taxes are you proposing?

4) Do you believe that government bureaucrats can make better medical decisions than patients and their doctors?

5) Have you ever provided medical care and/or are you a licensed health care professional? If not, what are your qualifications to decide health care policy for your fellow Americans?

We have one month to simply say No! We don’t want ObamaCare! Clearly the Congress themselves (for their personal health care options) don’t want to sign up for the US Government option! Why should we?

© 2009, Jasper Welch, Four Corners Media www.jasperwelch.org