Healthcare Nationalized—Phil Hare claims Republicans have no alternatives


On August 30, 2009, page B5, the Peoria Journal Star published almost a full page with this title and subtitle—“Congressmen weigh in on health care” “Gatehouse News Service asked Illinois congressmen five key questions about the health care issue to give readers more insight into how their representatives view the debate.” The four Congressmen interviewed included Democratic Senators Dick Durbin and Roland Burris and House of Representatives members Aaron Schock [R] of the 18th Congressional District (my district) and Phil Hare [D] of the 17th Congressional District (the district west and south of the 18th). Although I have reservations about the five key questions since NOTHING was asked about allowing the MURDER of unborn babies in H.R. 3200, this post is not about the questions asked. Rather, I’m concerned about one question and the resultant comment by Congressman Phil Hare.

Phil Hare [D] (Illinois—17th District)
428 Cannon House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515
http://www.hare.house.gov/ (Website)

The question was the fifth question listed. It was as follows: “Do you think the divisive nature of the issue will continue once Congress weighs in this fall? Why or why not?” (I know, that is actually two questions but I didn’t write the article)

Representative Hare’s answer as given by the Peoria Journal Star was as follows: “Hare thinks the divisiveness will continue. (I do too!—my addition) He blames some Republicans and commentators such as radio personality Rush Limbaugh for deliberately spreading bad information—“death panels,” for instance—and frightening people. (I wonder if he has actually read and studied H.R. 3200. I don’t listen to Rush Limbaugh and I’m quite capable of drawing my own conclusions without help from others. Does he think the American people are NOT capable of drawing their own conclusions without help from the “wrong” people?—my addition)

‘If you don’t like what we have, come up with something different. But come up with something,’ Hare said. ‘I think it’s shameful that the best they’ve got to offer is just demonize the bill.’”

The last quoted paragraph is my emphasis for tonight’s post. First, we have every right as American citizens to “demonize” the bill! EVERY RIGHT! And guess what, in my opinion, it is a demonized bill written to take CONTROL our healthcare system by the federal government.

From the quoted paragraph, it seems obvious that either Congressman Hare is

1) not aware of what is occurring within Congress or

2) parroting the “gospel according to Obama” without any concern for the truth or

3) getting really bad information from his staff or

4) lying!

I was watching C-SPAN Monday night the 31st which was televising a Republican town hall meeting held in Louisiana (I believe) on Friday the 28th of August. Included in the Republican group were several doctors who are also members of Congress—both the House and the Senate. They said that the Republicans have bills in Congress (I believe a total of five in the House and Senate) but the Democrats have buried them. One such bill is H.R. 3400.

After going to http://www.house.gov/, it took only a few minutes to find one Republican alternative to the Democratic Party’s H.R. 3200. That alternative is H.R. 3400! The following is from the first page of the bill—

“SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE; TABLE OF CONTENTS.
(a) SHORT TITLE—This Act may be cited as the ‘Empowering Patients First Act’”

This Republican bill is not 1017 pages long as is the Democratic bill (H.R. 3200) now being considered. Remarkable by comparison, it is only 268 pages—only about 26+% of the length of the Democratic proposal. Wow, Congressmen might actually take the time to read and study this one, if given the opportunity!

So, my question is: If I can do this, why doesn’t Congressman Hare know that the Republicans DO have an alternative? Which one of the four possibilities above is the correct one?