Americans should be very concerned with the recent announcement of Representative Anthony Weiner, D-N when he declared that the “best” health care option would be “a single-payer plan, like Medicare for all Americans.” He went on to say that:
“In the House of Representatives, without a strong public plan, even stronger than the one we reported out of committee, that HR3200 would have a very difficult time getting 218 votes.” Moving past debate to aggressively assert his views as the final word on Health Care legislation has echoes of dictatorship. He represents a district not a nation; his “inside” information about majority opinion in the House is an opinion, not fact.
Ignoring the protestations of a significant number of Americans against the public option now in House Bill 3200. He put the President on notice that if the current public option currently in R 3200 is dropped from the bill, it will never make it out of Committee and, if brought to the floor would never get the votes needed to pass. He would help in this matter by abstaining.
“Look, the president has to lead on this, and he has to say very clearly a public option is important[.]“ He further opined that only the single payer system would end private insurance companies flagrant abuse of their position.
Representative Weiner appears to be a one man committee in the House who is taking the leadership position from both the President and the Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi. Isn’t the President still head of Party and Country? Last time I checked, we still live in a democracy based on voting and compromise and not the actions of a single member of the House who takes it upon himself to speak for an entire chamber of Congress – no matter the “inside” information he has.
POSTSCRIPT: The Federal Election Commission had two cases (MURs, or Matters Under Review) concerning Weiner. Both cases have the same name, Friends of Weiner. MUR 4995 resulted in a $47,000 fine (“civil penalty”) against Weiner because of some financial misconduct in one of his reelection campaigns. MUR 5429 involved an illegal $28,000 loan that Weiner’s parents made to one of his campaign committees.
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_Weiner#U.S._House_of_Representatives
NB: I blog with the best at votingfemale.wordpress.com
Posted on August 18, 2009