All Texas GOP Voted Against Healthcare Reform

by: Libby Shaw

Sun Nov 08, 2009 at 09:47 PM CST

All Republicans continue to spin health care industry manufactured talking point garbage about HCR.

Showing their lack of honesty and the courage to cope with much needed change in this crucial area, Rick Perry and Newt Gingrich, mired in the same ol' out-of-touch GOP talking point silly nonsense and everything disingenuous, actually had the nerve to co-author an editorial in the Washington Post that extolled the virtues of states taking charge of health care.

They used Texas, of all places, as a shining example of the finest state run health care industry with choices for all.  

Surely Rick and Newt are kidding.  Surely they know they are insulting the intelligence of every Texan who knows better.

But, Rick and Newt don't really know that they are insulting our intelligence because they are completely out of touch with any reality that resides outside of their air tight bubble.

Texas, for example, has adopted approaches to controlling health-care costs while improving choice, advancing quality of care and expanding coverage. Consider the successful 2003 tort reform. Fewer frivolous lawsuits have attracted record numbers of doctors to the state as medical malpractice insurance premiums dropped by half. Christus Health, a large Catholic nonprofit system with a significant presence in Texas, spent about $100 million on liability defense payments in 2003. Last year, Christus spent $2.3 million on such payments. Much of that savings has gone into expanding health-care services in low-income neighborhoods.

Choice? Really?  I didn't get a choice to choose anything other than that which is offered to me by my employer.

As we can see, it always comes down to those evil doing trial lawyers in Texas who might actually hold a robbing cheater accountable for stealing life from patients by denying the care that they need, deserve and pay for.

You might think Washington would be curious about plans to provide more low-income Texans with insurance, reduce expensive emergency-room visits for basic care and make it easier to buy into employer-sponsored insurance. Unfortunately, Washington has failed for 18 months to give Texas permission to use Medicaid dollars for these policies.

Silly boys, many small businesses cannot offer health care insurance b/c it is far too expensive.

Perry, of course, wants to steal money from the poor who are entitled to Medicaid and give it to his buddies in small business.  Do you think for a minute small businesses would use the Medicaid bucks to insure their poorer employees in these dire times when banks will not lend them the money to increase inventories or meet payrolls?  I kind of don't think so.  At least not under the present conditions in which health care insurance coverage is off of the affordability charts.

Knowing what we know about Rick Perry, meet his Republican soul mates who voted against health care reform.  And meet the few brave and principled Democrats who stepped up to answer the cries from their constituents.   The picture below is not pretty.

Brady (R-8) NO. $500.676.

Burgess (R-26) NO. $1,270,423.

Carter (R-24) NO.  $237,124.

Conway (R-11) NO. $320,852.

Cueller (D-28) YES. $396,904.

Culberson (R-7)  HELL NO.  $273,909.

Doggett (D-25) YES.  $573,802.

Edwards (D-17) NO. $643,971. WTF? Do you need the health industry money, Chet?

Gohmert (R-1) NO.  $374,819.

Green (D-9) YES. $51.590.

Green (D-29) YES. $740,560.

Hall (R-4)  NO $795,396.

Hensarling (R-5) NO. $174,627.

Hinojosa (D-15) YES. $363,150.

Jackson-Lee (D-18)YES. $388,716.  Hell, I'm moving from TX 7 to 18.  

Johnson (R-3) NO. $51.752.

Marchant (R-24) NO. $96,150.

McCaul (R-10) NO. $149,225.

Neugebauer (R-19) NO. $252.096

Olson (R-22) NO. $83,497.
This guy lives in a district in which many residents work for the Texas Medical Center in Houston. Many are M.D.s, Ph.D.s, RNs and technical specialists.  The TMC is where the general hospital, Ben Taub, is located and Memorial Hermann Hospital. Both treat many if not most uninsured patients in this area.

Ortiz (D-27) YES. $151,870.

Paul (R-14) NO. $1,115,839.

Poe (R-2) HELL NO. Houston's ol' hanging judge gets $263,700 from the health industry.

Rodriguez (D-23) YES. $329,113.

Sessions (R-32) TALIBAN PETE: NO, NEVER, IN YOUR DREAMS.  Ol' Taliban gets a cool $1,424,900 from the health industry.

Thornberry (R-13) NO. $345,202.

Three Democrats, Ortiz, Cueller and Rodriguez made a really tough and courageous choice as all live in Republican leaning districts.  Hats off to these brave souls for standing up for all of their constituents.    

Edwards, however, did not take the chance.  In his district McCain won by 35%.  Edwards won by an 8 pt. margin and there are 23% of uninsured in his districts.  I am no political consultant but I think voting yes for HCR would have been a risk worth taking.

In my view, the U.S. House Democrats who voted against HCR because McCain won their districts, but also have a high number of uninsured, could have done a better job of educating their constituents about the long-term benefits and savings HCR will bring.

Voters in the districts mentioned above can see what representative actually represent its constituents best interests, its financial being and the resident's access to affordable health care. Do folks want lawmakers who will work hard to promote their constituents best interests or representatives that say one thing to the people while serving as shills for big moneyed and powerful interests?

The choice should be clear.