Not Right

I generally avoid discussing politics and religion on my blog. However, I am going to violate my own rule today.

I like President Obama. I voted for him. I respected the fact he wanted to do something about our health care system. Goodness knows it needs to be reformed. The cost of medical services is out of sight and too many people are not covered.



What I do not understand is why the Democrats believe it is necessary to change the entire system all at once. I mean, why couldn't we pass legislation to deal with people who are not insured? There are 45 million or so people with no insurance. That is a huge problem. The government is big enough to provide help to people who are not insured.



Yet the Democrats have decided they want to change the entire system. For the majority of us who do have insurance and who are happy with it, we don't want or need it changed. We would like to have costs controlled in some way - but it is not necessary to turn our private care health system into a government controlled one.

What really puzzles me is this last gasp effort on the part of the Democrats to pass the health care reform legislation through ..... without a vote! Are they serious?!?



Just days ago President Obama said he wanted to have an "up and down vote" on the matter. I was good with that. I mean, that is how the legislative process works. A bill is presented, it is voted on, if it passes, it goes to the other house, if consensus is reached by both houses it goes to the President.



But when the Democrats say they are going to use the House rules to approve the Senate version of the health care reform bill by having it "deemed to have been passed" without actually voting on it, well.... that's not right.

The Democrats in the House of Representatives want to pass a Bill without voting. Talk about a bunch of cowards!



See this man? His name was Edmund G. Ross. He was a United States Senator from Kansas. A Republican. A man of conviction. A man of honor.

A man who had the courage to be the deciding vote to keep President Andrew Johnson in office during our country's only truly serious impeachment trial. Senator Ross did what he felt was right. He knew it would cost him his Senate seat with the voters back home and he was right. But he still had the courage to do what he felt was right.



John F. Kennedy, while still a Senator, featured Edmund G. Ross as one of his eight men of true courage in his book Profiles in Courage.



Over the years I have supported Democrats and Republicans. I liked men who were strong. John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan are two I liked a lot. I respected what Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon and Bill Clinton got accomplished in office though I did not particularly like those men as people. I have deep respect for Franklin D. Roosevelt and Teddy Roosevelt. Certainly Abraham Lincoln is at the top of the list.

But to see what is going on in Washington this week is sad. It is an insult to the many men and women who have done so much for this country.

I hope people will take the time to reform our health care system and take the time to do it right. It is a serious problem. It deserves to be fixed in the right way and to do so by following the rules - not making them up as you go along.