It wasn't because the Republicans sat idly by, they KNEW all the issues but didn't have the numbers

[PHILIP SCHNEIDER]

Healthcare Reform Passes

Tuesday, March 23, 2010 - by Dr. Ron Paul

Dr. Ron Paul

Following months of heated public debate and aggressive closed-door negotiations, Congress finally cast a historic vote on healthcare late
Sunday evening. It was truly a sad weekend on the House floor as we
witnessed further dismantling of the Constitution, disregard of the
will of the people, explosive expansion of the reach of government,
unprecedented corporate favoritism, and the impending end of quality
healthcare as we know it.

Those in favor of this bill touted their good intentions of ensuring quality healthcare for all Americans, as if those of us against the
bill are against good medical care. They cite fanciful statistics of
deficit reduction, while simultaneously planning to expand the already
struggling medical welfare programs we currently have. They somehow
think that healthcare in this country will be improved by swelling our
welfare rolls and cutting reimbursement payments to doctors who are
already losing money. It is estimated that thousands of doctors will be
economically forced out of the profession should this government fuzzy
math actually try to become healthcare reality. No one has thought to
ask what good mandatory health insurance will be if people can't find a
doctor.

Legislative hopes and dreams don't always stand up well against economic realities.

Frustratingly, this legislation does not deal at all with the real reasons access to healthcare is a struggle for so many – the
astronomical costs. If tort reform was seriously discussed, if the
massive regulatory burden on healthcare was reduced and reformed, if
the free market was allowed to function and apply downward pressure on
healthcare costs as it does with everything else, perhaps people
wouldn't be so beholden to insurance companies in the first place. If
costs were lowered, more people could simply pay for what they need out
of pocket, as they were able to do before government got so involved.
Instead, in the name of going after greedy insurance companies, the
federal government is going to make people even more beholden to them
by mandating that everyone buy their product! Hefty fines are due from
anyone found to have committed the heinous crime of not being a
customer of a health insurance company. We will need to hire some
16,500 new IRS agents to police compliance with all these new mandates
and administer various fines. So in government terms, this is also a
jobs bill. Never mind that this program is also likely to cost the
private sector some 5 million jobs.

Of course, the most troubling aspect of this bill is that it is so blatantly unconstitutional and contrary to the ideals of liberty.
Nowhere in the constitution is there anything approaching authority for
the Federal government to do any of this. The founders would have been
horrified at the idea of government forcing citizens to become
consumers of a particular product from certain government approved
companies. 38 states are said to already be preparing legal and
constitutional challenges to this legislation, and if the courts stand
by their oaths, they will win. Protecting the right to life, liberty
and pursuit of happiness, should be the court's responsibility.
Citizens have a responsibility over their own life, but they also have
the liberty to choose how they will live and protect their lives.
Healthcare choices are a part of liberty, another part that is being
stripped away. Government interference in healthcare has already
infringed on choices available to people, but rather than getting out
of the way, it is entrenching itself, and its corporatist cronies, even
more deeply.

It would do well for the electorate to remember the last national election that put this gang of socialists in power. TOO MANY Republicans and Independents voted [democrat] and against Republicans whom they felt had been selling their conservative constitutional values to the highest bidder.Their disappointment with conservative Republicans and President Bush has created a nightmare from which the nation might never wake up.

[PHILIP SCHNEIDER]

You make good points Darlene but I feel Harold's anguish. We sat through the last 4 years of the Bush presidency and watched while Republicans spent money like drunken sailors and compromised our national conservative patriotic values. Then they (RNC) squandered our chance to gain a second Republican president by elevating McCain to be the next presidential candidate. I think most of us KNEW McCain was not going to be a winner.
My points now are, like you, spend what you can to support those candidates YOU feel will represent the conservative patriotic values you want in a politician, offer your time and expertise, and then prod those voters who will vote for our candidates. Don't wait for the Republican party or it's affiliates to tell you who to back for the next election. Remember Scott Brown wasn't getting RNC backing until he showed up in the polls.
I don't see it it written or spoken of often but it is my own opinion that many conservatives voted FOR Obama because they thought it was time to have a black man become president. They mistakenly thought that a black man couldn't or wouldn't be part of a democrat machine. And they mistakenly thought the charges of RACISM would go away if the country put a black man in as president. How wrong they were.
Many conservatives also voted out Republican legislators for the ignorant spending they did while in office. We ended up with a democrat president and a democrat congress with a super majority . . . . and we're paying for THAT mistake and so will our kids and grandkids!
I actually see a benefit of a third political party . . . . in congress. A third congressional party would be able to break stalemates when either party or both parties are vying for political gain rather putting the nation's needs first. In some states we may see our first Tea Party candidate for congress in the November election. It's going to be an interesting fall season.

[Darlene Littlejohn]

PS: I don't mean to sound harsh, and I do have more time than many of you, but please DO something instead of just complaining. The Republican Party will be whatever WE make it!

[Darlene Littlejohn]

Harold, what are YOU doing then? Our best bet is with the Republican Party and not going with a third party - even Ron Paul knows this. Right now, it seems to me that the progressive/liberal Dems are a lost cause.

There are many of us who are trying to take the Republican Party back to it's roots. How? Well, I am researching candidates before the PRIMARY. I don't have much money, but I am donating all that I can to the true conservative candidates; I am volunteering to work for one of the candidates and pluging many others all that I can; I am planning to sign up as a Precinct Delegate too.

What are you doing?

[Harold William]

The Repubican Party is in this sad position because of the Bush-McCain-Kennedy amnesty fiasco, Many of us will not return until the Republican Party proves it is for America .