Yesterday's House Vote on Health Care "Reform"

Yesterday, the Dumocrat-controlled House of Representatives passed health care and health insurance legislation that is estimated to cost $1.2 trillion over the next 10 years alone. (History has proven these estimates are always extremely low.) This is the most sweeping change to US health care since president Lyndon Johnson won congressional support to introduce Medicare (flat broke, even though it denies more claims than all insurance companies combined) for the elderly 44 years ago.

The current bill is typical in that it further extends the power of the central government far beyond that intended by the Constitution.

Thirty-nine Democrats (including my own Representative Jim Matheson) voted against the bill, primarily because of fears of retaliation from voters in mid-term elections late next year. The way Congress works, however, is that the Dumocrat leadership will allow a few defectors -- but only if the bill pass without them -- to protect the defectors at the next election. I doubt Matheson would have had the courage to vote no if Speaker Pelosi had demanded his vote.

Over the past few days, Matheson has hinted at a "no" vote by saying he was trying to make a few amendments to the bill but was not satisfied with the results. In September, I wrote to Matheson to say, "There is no health care legislation under consideration that can possibly be fixed by any amendment or compromise whatsoever. All federal health care legislation must be killed immediately! No legislation is infinitely better than bad legislation with compromise and amendments that only make it less bad." My opinion remains the same.

All compromise in politics is compromise with evil! A "no" vote from Matheson is insufficient. Instead of merely trying to amend this horrendous bill, he should have fought to stop it altogether. Matheson has again utterly failed to live up to his oath of office wherein he swore to "support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that [he] will bear true faith and allegiance to the same."