health care

As is traditional for attempts at theft, the House version of [URL="http://www.associatedcontent.com/topic/71233/health_care_reform.html"]health care reform passed in the dead of night[/URL]. The way was cleared for the passage of health care reform after the Stupak Amendment banned funding for elective abortions.

The vote count for the House version of health care reform was very narrow, 220 for, 215 against. All but one Republican, he being Joseph Cao of Louisiana, voted against the





health care reform bill. Thirty nine Democrats also voted against the House version of health care reform.

The spectacle of the House passing a health care bill over the objections of the majority of the American people cannot be over emphasized. Unprecedented numbers of phone calls, emails, and letters had poured into Congress urging that the health care bill be voted down. Thursday, a protest had taken place on the steps of the Capitol, attended by as many as twenty thousand people, chanting, "Kill the bill!"

The degree of arm twisting and leg breaking that took place behind closed doors by Nancy Pelosi and the House leadership may never be fully documented. What is pretty clear are the depths of contempt that House Democrats have for the American people, especially the majority who opposed the health care bill. According to the New York Times:

"Mr. Obama, during his private pep talk to Democrats, recognized Mr. Owens election and then posed a question to the other lawmakers. According to Representative Earl Blumenauer of Oregon, who supports the health care bill, the president asked, 'Does anybody think that the teabag, anti-government people are going to support them if they bring down health care? All it will do is confuse and dispirit' Democratic voters 'and it will encourage the extremists.'"

Think about the argument President Obama used behind closed doors. Voting down health care reform would only encouraged people who opposed it, which happens to be the majority of the American people, who are, after all, "tea bag", "anti government", and "extremists."