BART'S EXPLAINATION WITH REPLY

[Guest BEARMAN]

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March 22, 2010

On Sunday, March 21, 2010, the House of Representatives passed with my support health care reform legislation that will reduce health care costs for families and small businesses; improve access to affordable care, regardless of pre-existing conditions; and lower our budget deficit by reining in growth in federal health care costs. This bill will bring about major, commonsense remedies to our system, and it will do so while remaining fiscally responsible.

Over the years, many Middle Tennesseans have told me how their families have struggled to get adequate and affordable health care. I voted for them today?people like Sherry in Rutherford County whose family was evicted when medical bills wiped out their income, Ruth in Murfreesboro who could not afford her prescription drugs, and Beverly in Putnam County who could not get employee-based health care even though she and her husband both worked.

The health care reform package will provide relief in the following ways:

• Small businesses and the self-insured will be eligible for new health care tax breaks and will be able to join large insurance purchasing pools where they can buy private insurance at lower group rates. It will also allow them to purchase policies across state lines under streamlined state regulation.
  

• For seniors, the bill will close the Medicare Part D donut hole and cover all copayments and deductibles related to preventive care. By reining in fraud, waste and abuse, the bill will put Medicare back on fiscally sound footing, extending the solvency of the program by almost a decade.
  

• Individuals with pre-existing conditions like cancer, diabetes and heart disease will be able to purchase private insurance without fear of rejection or inflated prices. Health plans will be prohibited from dropping individuals when they get sick.
  

• Families whose adult children are not receiving insurance from an employer will have the option of keeping their children on an existing family plan until age 26.
  

• Commonsense measures in the bill, such as medical malpractice reforms, going after waste, fraud and abuse, and tax incentives to help more people buy insurance for themselves and their families will help lower health care costs for everyone and will reduce the federal deficit by $143 billion over the next 10 years and $1.2 trillion in the 10 years after that.
  

• The bill does not create any form of government-run insurance program or public option; instead, it expands access to affordable private-sector insurance policies.
  

Because health care accounts for one out of every five dollars of the federal budget, this bill will be critical to the strength of our economy, our families and our nation's fiscal solvency. We've debated this issue for almost a full year. Now is the time to move forward, look at how it benefits families and small businesses, and address the economic challenges our communities are facing.

Stay in touch,

BART GORDON

Member of Congress

Good thing you're getting out of politics in Tennessee, Bart…..because you don’t have a snowballs chance in hell of EVER winning your seat back. I also hope and pray to God you fail miserably at any and all endeavors you choose to pursue in the future.

You won’t be able to run for Dog catcher, and win, after this vote! And rightly so.

Bart, you will forever be known in the Great State of Tennessee, as the great TENNESSEE TRAITOR!

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[Mark@Sea]

Well, if past performance is a useful indicator, healthcare costs will soon account for 3 out of 5 dollars of the federal budget. The country will be bankrupt about 2030.

Why is it supposedly intellectual people fall for the 'central planning' meme over and over? It didn't work out well for Germany (twice), Italy, the USSR, China, North Korea, Cambodia... The list goes on.

Like a gambling addict, socialists fervently believe that just a few more dollars into the pot, just a little more control over this or that segment of the economy, and surely their luck will change. They can't walk away from the table, can't admit that the (very predictable) outcome will be the same as it has every other time. I feel like someone watching their spouse lose hand after hand. First the surplus, then the grocery money, finally the rent.

Thanks, Bart, for upping the ante, instead of folding your welfare-state hand and walking away while it was still (painfully) survivable. Idiotic isn't the right term for this behaviour, perhaps lunacy is.

[Guest gts]

+1

[SHbicycle]

I think he could get reelected I live in his district and know a lot of people around here that will vote for him no matter what he does just as long as he has a “D” after his name. It just strikes me odd that people will vote for and give excuses for a person they do not agree with on 95% of the issues.

[mcurrier]

...can't admit that the (very predictable) outcome will be the same as it has every other time.

The definition of insanity. Doing the same thing over and over, yet expecting a different result.

[Guest HvyMtl]

Um. Praying to God for another person's failure? I dont think it is supposed to work that way.... :/

Bart knew he was leaving, so he voted with his party. Shock. Surprise. Most Dems AND Republicans vote with their party instead of their conscience... and that is a major part of D.C.'s ills....