What's at Stake this November

The Essential Charlie Bass (4.00 / 2)

I'm sorry.  I realize that I'm a bit redundant on this, but I still can't get over Charlie's comment to Mary Rauh on the Patients' Bill of Rights.

"The big problem with the bill you support is that it requires insurance companies to cover any procedure that is medically necessary."

It's 12 years old, but I have yet to read anything that better explains the extraordinarily out of touch mindset of Charles Foster Bass.

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by: Dartmouth Dem @ Thu Sep 23, 2010 at 01:38:47 AM UTC

One More Thank You -- To Congressman Dick Swett (4.00 / 2)

Dick co-sponsored President Clinton's health care reform legislation in 1994 because he knew it was right.  That fall, his opponents attacked him mercilessly for this courageous act:

Manchester Union Leader, 22 October 1994:

Charlie Bass, Republican candidate for the 2nd District congressional seat, said the people of New Hampshire are outraged at incumbent U.S. Rep. Dick Swett's co-sponsorship of the Clinton health care plan and his advocacy of a federalized health care system.

"If Dick Swett had taken the time to listen to the people of New Hampshire he would have learned that the Clinton plan had no support here," Bass said at a news conference with U.S. Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H., in Nashua.

"Instead, Swett continues his campaign of denial and distortion. . . . New Hampshire does not need 'SwettCare."'

Gregg said, "The Clinton-Swett health care plan would have resulted in less choice, lower quality, billions of dollars in new entitlements and hundreds of new state mandates. The plan would have imposed the largest tax increase in American history and put government bureaucrats between us and our doctors."

Of course, Judd and Charlie were lying.  They still are.  But we have reform today in spite of them.

Thank you to President Obama, Jeanne, Paul, Carol -- and Dick.

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by: Dartmouth Dem @ Thu Sep 23, 2010 at 01:57:50 AM UTC

Well, while it's not a crime to tell a lie, they weren't lying anyway, (0.00 / 0)

'cause you can't lie about what hasn't happened.  They were making predictions about what would happen, what they feared would happen to their constituents -- the middle men who make a living getting in between doctors and patients and taking a "cut" of every dollar that passes through them.  Insurance companies aren't like a silo or warehouse that stores goods and services until they are needed.  Insurance companies are like highway men who exact a tariff from travelers and turn back the undeserving (people who have no money to pay).

Insurers have turned into impediments.  Highway men on the road of life.

They are right to see our agents of government as a threat.  It's the job of government to keep the highwaymen in check.

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by: hannah @ Thu Sep 23, 2010 at 07:11:17 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

Analogy (0.00 / 0)

That's one of the best analogies I've read, Hannah.  Thanks.

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by: mevansnh @ Thu Sep 23, 2010 at 08:47:34 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

Sorry, Hannah (0.00 / 0)

"The plan would have imposed the largest tax increase in American history and put government bureaucrats between us and our doctors."

That's a lie.  The Clinton Plan would have done neither of those things.  (Death Panels of '94.)

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by: Dartmouth Dem @ Thu Sep 23, 2010 at 12:32:22 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

It's not a lie, either. It's a supposition for which there is no (0.00 / 0)

evidence.
Although there's some nattering about the Democrats not bragging on the health insurance reform, fact is that it's going into effect TODAY and we can now brag on what it does -- not on what it would do or will do or might do or may do, but what it does.  And that's actually risky because that can be proved false, if it is.  So, our congress critters have got to make damned sure they've got it right.  
President Obama is good on timing.  It gets a little hairy when he cuts it close, but you've got to trust.

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by: hannah @ Thu Sep 23, 2010 at 13:31:56 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Now, to answer the question, "the same thing we had to do (0.00 / 0)

in November of 1992.  Why do we have to do it again?  Because the power-addicted moneyed elite are always after the same thing -- to break the power of the people.

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by: hannah @ Thu Sep 23, 2010 at 13:36:00 PM UTC

Don't forget to keep the State House blue (0.00 / 0)

Just this past May

On the House floor, a group of Republican lawmakers led by Rep. William O'Brien of Mont Vernon tried to nullify federal health care reform on the basis that it exceeds the power the granted to the federal government by the Constitution. The amendment declared the law unconstitutional and invalid in New Hampshire. It would make enforcing health care reform a crime.

Once the nullification amendment failed, and the bill passed, Republicans lined up to file official protests. The protest slips read: "As most of NH Citizens find forced National Health Care repugnant and this bill facilitates the implementation of Universal Health Care on NH citizens, I file my protest against this vote according to Part Second, Article 24 of the NH Constitution."

It's all well and good to send a great, Democratic delegation to DC, but if the State House or Senate turns red, very little will help us.

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by: Jennifer Daler @ Fri Sep 24, 2010 at 12:04:25 PM UTC