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AUDIO: Senators talk about health care vote
U.S. Sen. Jeff Bingaman
This morning, U.S. Sens. Jeff Bingaman and Tom Udall, both Democrats, held a joint tele-news conference with New Mexico reporters to discuss Thursday’s vote on the the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.
Listen to the call — recorded off a speaker phone – here.
Bingaman, a member of the ”Gang of Six,” which forged many of the early provisions in the legislation, has said the bill is going “to help shrink the nation’s deficit and reduce the growth in health care costs that have been crippling family finances.”
“As a state with one of the fastest rising premium rates and a very high percentage of uninsured residents, New Mexico has a lot to gain from the passage of this bill,” Bingaman was quoted in a news release earlier this week.
U.S. Sen. Tom Udall
Today, Bingaman said nothing in the legislation is “etched in stone,” and he expected Congress to continue to modify this bill during reconciliation with a House version, and over the next few years.
He also said he is disappointed the measure was going to pass on a party-line vote because he contends numerous efforts were made to include Republicans “in a constructive way.”
Udall told reporters a provision to reauthorize the Indian Health Care Improvement Act — which he cosponsored — allows the United States to “live up to its treaty obligations.”
“We can’t truly address the health care crisis in our country without improving health care for all of our citizens, and that includes the 1.9 million American Indians and Alaska Natives whose health care is coordinated through this act,” Udall said.
Both senators say that they’re pleased the measure will provide more New Mexicans access to affordable health care and increase the number of doctors working in underserved areas of the state.
Bingaman said the bill, if adopted and signed by the president, will stop insurance companies from rescinding insurance policies from people “when they need it the most.”
Bingaman said within six months of the bill being enacted insurance companies would be prohibited from denying coverage to children with pre-existing conditions, and by 2014 a provision covering adults with pre-existing conditions would be phased in.
The state’s senior senator said legal scholars he’s talked to say Republican arguments that the bill may be unsconsitutional because it requires citizens to purchase insurance has “no real basis” because “clearly congress has the right to impose this requirement.”
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The question — “Why are you picking on health insurance?”
This country’s foundation rests upon the Constitutional rights of the individual and not the collective common-good.
Health insurance is not a Constitutional right. Instead it is a luxurious want that not everyone can afford. Therefore, forcing everyone to purchase something they may not be able to pay for or want is akin to living in a dictatorship.
Regardless of the theoretical merits of this insurance scheme – in my opinion – to steal what little bit of freedom remains from individuals is the ultimate act of thievery – similar to kidnapping a woman’s child.
Isn’t this insurance legislation in opposition to the 10 Commandments that says: not to steal or covet anything that belongs to a neighbor?
Is it not odd that when President Regan said to Russia’s Mikhail Gorbachev tear down that Wall that it unleashed upon the world the disease of communism, which is the utopian embodiment of this Insurance?
“You cannot legislate the poor into freedom by legislating the wealthy out of freedom. What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that my dear friend, is about the end of any nation. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it.”
Dr. Adrian Rogers, 1931
What have we learned in 2,064 years? “The budget should be balanced, the Treasury should be refilled, public debt should be reduced, the arrogance of officialdom should be tempered and controlled, and the assistance to foreign lands should be curtailed lest Rome become bankrupt. People must again learn to work, instead of living on public assistance.” Cicero – 55 BC
“They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” Benjamin Franklin
J. Cummins, laws tend to force so called freemen into taking actions. Our Senators and Representatives do make laws and there are plenty of other examples of laws that “force” behaviors in our civilized society. Why are you picking on health insurance?
The Left is not happy about the mandate to buy insurance because a public option is not amongst our choices keeping a high standard of care and premiums reasonable. We essentially have to buy from companies that we do not trust and that have caused our dysfunctional health care system in the first place. Single payer would have been a much simpler and cost saving solution.
I completely disagree with the premise that Congress has the right to FORCE a freeman to do anything – especially buy something he/she may not want or need.
Hopefully, when American’s who cherish liberty realize that this health care legislation is merely another progressive scheme to destroy what little remains of freedom and prosperity these thieves will be run-out of office.
If the uncle sams and aunt nannies don’t know their road from cradle to grave then how is it possible for them to know the right road for anyone else?