REP. GORDON LETS DOWN CONSTITUENTS, TENNESSEE
By admin | March 20, 2010
Representative Bart Gordon’s support of the healthcare bill ignores the will of the people, the request of our governor, and the lessons of TennCare.
Tennessee Governor Phil Bredesen has made no secret about his opposition to the healthcare bill currently before Congress. He stated last summer that he fears that, under this bill, Congress would bestow upon the states “the mother of all unfunded mandates.” Nevertheless, Representative Bart Gordon, of Tennessee’s sixth district, has decided that he will join the Democrats and vote for this fiscally irresponsible bill.
Rep. Gordon should listen to Governor Bredesen on this bill, based on Tennessee’s extraordinary difficultieswith our own attempts to obtain universal health coverage. In 1993, Tennessee enacted its TennCare program on the promise that it would provide healthcare to all state residents who need it, regardless of pre-existing conditions. The plan, which was sold as a cost savings bill, quickly spiraled out of control. GovernorBredesen himself has lamented that when he took office it was growing by 15% a year, and that Tennessee, normally a very low cost of living state, has developed the most expensive Medicaid program in the country. The program once took up one full third of the state’s budge
In 2005, Bredesen was forced to downsize the program by 170,000 adults and reduce the benefits for many more. The program was, as he put it, “a disaster.” And the governor says that the current national plan reminds him of just that disaster.
Not only is this bill fiscally irresponsible, but it also flies in the face of the public that Rep. Gordon purports to represent. Poll after poll has shown that Americans do not want this bill, yet Rep. Gordon chooses to ignore the will of his constituents. Tennesseeans have been protesting this decision at his office.
Representative Gordon should recognize that there is a better way. The GOP has made numerous recommendations that would lead to real reform in a fiscally responsible way. For example, the Congressional Budget Office estimates that tort reform could save $54 billion dollars over the next ten years, which would make health insurance and health care affordable to millions more Americans. Similarly, the Republicans would like to change the system to allow consumers to purchase insurance across state lines. This would allow consumers to bypass costly mandates that make insurance unaffordable and seek out only the coverage that they need, not the coverage thatgovernment bureaucrats think they should have.
Representative Gordon, we at the Hamilton County Young Republicans hope that you will reconsider your decision to vote for this costly and irresponsible bill and, considering the lessons of TennCare and the will of your constituents, will tell Nancy Pelosi that you will NOT support this bill.
For more information about the Hamilton County Young Republicans, please visit our website at http://www.hcyrs.com/.
Representative Gordon’s office can be contacted at http://gordon.house.gov/contact/index.shtml.
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click this link http://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/industries.php?cycle=Career&cid=N00003126&type=I to view donations congressman gordon has accepted, by industry, over his career. follow the money.