  Rep. Michael Burgess (R, Aetna) wants everyone to know that even though he has made it abundently clear that he will never vote for meaningful health care insurance reform, President Obama has not chosen to invite him to the table to discuss health care.
Yes, wonder of all wonders that the President of the United States, who was elected on the promise of reforming health care insurance doesn't have time to sit with someone whose only ideas about fixing the major problem with health care are to make it harder for people to sue bad doctors, and to get people to just open savings accounts to pay for their health care.
Mike, let me explain to you how this works: You had a choice: serve your constituents, or serve your doctor friends and your big pharma and big insurance benefactors. You chose the latter, and you have chosen partisanship. You chose the path of NO. Rather than be constructive, you have sought at every turn to derail any reform, making statements ranging from stupid and misleading to flat out lying. You don't deserve a seat at the table if that's all you bring.
In a letter to a constituent today, Burgess wrote one of the stupidest statements I've read in a while: "... Others who receive health care through their employer may find themselves unwillingly losing coverage as many businesses, particularly small businesses, may find it cheaper to pay the fine that the bill imposes on employers who do not provide health insurance for employees."
In other words - your employer, who is currently not required to insure you, and may already drop your coverage at any time without any penalty today - would be MORE likely to drop you when there IS a penalty, and you'll just deal with it because we all just allow our employers to take away benefits.
Completely ignore that health benefits are part of compensation, and employees demand it. Employers provide it because they compete for good workers - not out of the goodness of their hearts.
This kind of logic can only indicate that someone might have imbibed at one too many Tea Parties. Burgess's letter went on for several pages like this finding fault with current health care reform ideas, but not listing even one specific idea for reducing costs or increasing coverage.
So it makes sense that the White House would rebuff him.
Burgess's letter to Obama (in which Burgess again showed his willful illiteracy by misusing the word Democrat as an adjective in the first paragraph), Burgess requested among other things "the names of any and all individuals, groups, associations, companies or entities who requested a meeting with the White House regarding health care reform who were denied a meeting."
The White House counsel responded with this gem:
... your letter requests information relating to any groups or individuals who asked to meet with the White House regarding healthcare and were denied. The White House receives millions of letters, emails, and telephone calls regarding high-profile policy issues such as healthcare, and we greatly value the public's ability to participate in this historic dialogue. Therefore we are willing to work with you to identify any particular groups or individuals that you or other Members believe were unable to communicate their views.
Really though, I think it's just precious that someone like Michael Burgess, whose major campaign funds come from insurance and pharma - and who continues to own stocks in these companies even while serving on a committee with oversight responsibility for them - would imply that the White House would make any secret deals with these industries.
Project much? Remember a guy named Dick Cheney, and a company called Enron?
Well unlike the previous President, this President posts visitor logs on the web. So the White House counsel sent Burgess a bunch of pages of screen prints from the whitehouse.gov website.
At any rate, look - I WANT Republicans to pull their heads out of their asses, quit trying being obstructionist, and get IN the game. Lets have some constructive debate. Lets have Republicans working to make this bill better, instead of trying to undermine reform and win a political victory even if the American people lose in the end.
The majority of Americans - especially those not brainwashed by the masturbatory drivel that comes from Fox News understand the need for reform and agree on many of the basic principles. We need our representatives to quit acting childish, and get in there and get our business done. We need Republicans, Democrats, and all in-between to find the common ground they can, and work together to make the best bill. |
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