Frustration of American people over healthcare rages

Lynch Pen

— The more information about the Congressional efforts to reform healthcare I read or hear, the more concerned I become for our nation. If we all had adequate time and an understanding of Washington legislation procedures, we could try reading the proposal passed by the Senate. It is unlikely that we would fully comprehend the bill even after we read the written document because there seems to be more undefined, potential problems requiring future changes than we would recognize. This must be the case also for many of the senators who voted for the bill. If even a small portion of the information you and I can find on the Internet and in newspapers or on television are correct, the passage of this bill by the Senate should be labeled a “catastrophe.” We don’tknow at this point what a “final bill” - requiring further compromise by the complete Congress to produce what the president will sign - will look like, or what it will be labeled by the various interests. It is doubtful that the average person on the street will actually receive any immediate healthcare relief when Congress completes its work, regardless of its signing. (I think I have said all that previously.)

Various sources of reading and watching information may contain a great deal of personal bias on the part of the source, but no matter where you look, two things seem to be constant: 1) some kind of meaningful healthcare reform is needed and 2) the majority of informed citizens do not believe the current legislation is in the best interest of our nation and citizens.

It would be interesting to see a nation-wide (national) election on the bill as passed by the Senate. It wouldn’t mean anything to our elected legislators but it would be nice to get a meaningful count. I hear helplessness, desperation and even pleading in letters submitted to our daily newspapers.

According to an editorial in the Arkansas Democrat Gazette which quoted information compiled by the Wall Street Journal, the Senate version of the bill is loaded with special projects, subsidies, reimbursements and specific benefits to states and an individual company in at least one instance. Do we blame the senators from the states involved or justaccept it as part of the political process? I must admit that there is no way I will ever understand how these elected individuals can use their vote, their longevity, their committee assignments or any other privilege they have been given, to get something at the expense of the rest of the nation. Is that why we elect them? Are we “numb” to the election process?

Some of our more powerful senators, including Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas, will be coming up for election later this year. The Senate is “divided” into three classes depending on when they are elected. Class III Senators’ terms run through January 2011 since they were elected in 2004 and took office in January 2005. (Senator Pryor is part of Class II, and will come upfor re-election in 2014.) Along with Senator Lincoln, some names most people would recognize from Class I, and being up for re-election include Democrats Chris Dodd of Connecticut and Patrick Leahy of Vermont, Evan Bayh of Indiana, Barbara Boxer of California and Harry Reid of Nevada. A total of 16 Democrat senators and 18 Republicans apparently face re-election - approximately one-third of the seats are up for election each major election cycle. Senator Dodd has apparently obtained $100 million for a medical center at the state university as part of the healthcare reform package. Vermont has benefited from $600 million in the Senate’s version of the healthcare bill. However, not all Senators with clout are up for re-election. In Nebraska, Class I Senator Ben Nelson (up for re-election in 2012) seems to have obtained a $100 million concession in Medicare cost extensions plus an item listed as a “$6.7 Billion break” for an insurance company in Omaha.

The fact that the “reform bill” has been produced in yet another environment where some senators were able to provide financial concessions for their states, makes the process and the legislation suspect in my eyes. When we have so many people in Arkansas writing and calling their elected Congressional members questioning and asking them not to support this legislation, how can they not know a very large segment of our state, and probably a large percentage of the United States, objects to its passage? And, since one letter to the editor indicated the writer had met personally with one of Arkansas’ senators (Pryor) who said thepeople “didn’t understand the bill,” they must realize the mood of the people, whether they understand it or not!

No doubt the majority of Americans who oppose the bill from “lack of understanding” will voice an opinion but will they actually get personally involved in the next election for senators and representatives? Are we going to see the current verbal unrest die out as the actual elections approach?

How strong will any Independent candidates be across our nation? The Senate currently has two senators who claim the Independent label - Lieberman of Connecticut and Sanders of Vermont. We know Lieberman’s voting record from his years as a Democrat. Do the people of Connecticut view him differently since he became an Independent? We seem unable to get beyond major party candidates when we vote.

My personal concern is simply that it is easier to call a senator or write a letter threatening to vote against the incumbent than it is to make a commitment to get involved. Unless we have a groundswell of voter unrest, we will be complaining about the same members of Congress next time we are opposed to their legislative actions.

Opinion, Pages 4 on 01/06/2010