(John Chachas) – The release this week of a document titled “The President’s Proposal”, an 11 page re-hash of a failed Health Care expansion bill, is a political ploy to re-energize a terrible health care initiative crafted by back-room dealings of Nevada’s Senator Reid together with Speaker Pelosi’s ultra-liberal bloc in the House.
The initiative we can now call “ObamaCare I” failed to garner even a single Republican vote. Not even Republican Senators from reliably blue states could find enough positives in the bill to give it a single Republican “yes.”
Never in the history of the United States has there been a major piece of legislation of this importance that can’t find a single supporter in the minority party. Never. David Brooks in the New York Times refers to ObamaCare 2.0 as lowering the bar even further.
It is unconscionable that Nevada’s most senior official in Washington has his hand on the wheel, trying to steer abysmal public policy that a majority of Nevadans oppose through a parliamentary procedure loophole. Never, in the history of the United States Senate has this procedure been used to pass such monumental legislation, which begs a far more fundamental question:
Are the people of Nevada actually being served by having Harry Reid as Majority Leader?
I wonder how many Nevadans would trade better schools, better roads, better infrastructure and better jobs…just so they could have ObamaCare 2.0? Wouldn’t nearly every Nevadan prefer to have a Senator who looked out for Nevada rather than a national partisan agenda?
While Nevadans suffer with a lower return on their federal tax dollar, states without Senators in a Leadership position are reaping the benefits of political deals cut by Harry Reid. Under Senator Reid’s leadership, Nevada rests at or near the bottom in federal funding of education, transportation, infrastructure and Medicare…so what exactly are Nevadans getting from their representation by Reid’s leadership role?
We’re getting stuck with the bill for Harry Reid negotiated deals that benefit Washington insiders, big-time lobbyists and Senators who look out for the interest of their state over national political power.
Using any reputable measurement, Americans oppose ObamaCare. There is no question of interpretation: the numbers are indisputable and clear across the nation: American voters do not want this law. We all want change, but not this change. And the White House saying “Trust us…this will be good for you…” has not convinced anyone.
America already spends more money on healthcare per capita than any nation in the world. Does Senator Reid really believe that throwing good money after bad is the answer? The answer to our healthcare crisis is not financial, it is deep systemic reform. The answer is not more government intervention and control, it is breaking down the barriers to affordable and accessible healthcare for all Americans.
Does Senator Reid honestly believe that it is a good idea to transform 17% of the American Economy in a single 2,700 page bill? Has he actually read the entire bill?
Is Senator Reid so out of touch that he believes that Nevada voters will stand idly by while he uses a parliamentary procedure to cram a massive bill through the Senate, all to please the President and a handful of liberal organizations and bloggers?
Whether people oppose this bill on fiscal grounds, on a more basic principle that they don’t support additional government growth, or for some other reason, it is clear that the American people – and Nevada voters – have rejected the arguments of Senator Reid and his allies.
President Obama, Senator Reid and Speaker Pelosi know that the American electorate has rejected this initiative. They know that the people will speak in November and thus are making a concerted effort to leave a lasting legacy of government growth and national debt before election day. They know that once they pass ObamaCare it will be incredibly difficult to reverse course so they have made a calculated decision to use every loophole, archaic rule or opportunity to saddle us all with their burdensome policies.
All of this leads back to a very basic question: If Senator Reid is more worried about a national agenda than his representations of Nevada, he’s in the wrong job. If he wants to represent Nevada, he needs to step down from his leadership post. He cannot reconcile the two.
(Mr. Chachas is a Republican candidate for the United States Senate in Nevada)