SENATE IN FINAL HOURS OF CONSIDERING BAD LEGISLATION

From what I have seen these past few days, the attitude in the left-wing of the United States Senate is, “It’s better to pass bad legislation than to pass no legislation at all.” Those of us who have been on the receiving end of some of the bad Bills that have come out of Congress in past years respectfully disagree.

Certainly, there are issues to come before Congress that require careful attention and deliberation. I am speaking of issues that have a profound and lasting impact upon the lives of our citizens, the conduct of our domestic and international affairs, our economy and our essential well-being. These are issues that need to be fully explored from all aspects in order to ensure that the decisions rendered are fully informed and considered out so that they can be well-executed.

Decisions should be based solely upon the common good; for someone to say that the ultimate decision will be based upon political campaign contributions or lobbying power is not acceptable. “Yes, we agree that malpractice awards should be capped, but most members of Congress are lawyers and a whole lot of legal firms contributed to the last campaign, so we don’t want to anger the lawyers,” is not a satisfactory explanation for the failure to reign in malpractice awards.

We have heard the same arguments about opening up the import of medicines from Canada, or allowing insurance companies to compete across state lines. Again, to excuse the failure to address these issues on the basis of what the drug manufacturer’s or insurance companies want is not acceptable. Congress works for us, not for them.

We now are in what appears to be the final and decisive hours of deliberation in the Senate regarding health care reform. We, the people, have made it well-known that we do not like the direction that this proposed legislation is taking. We are against the bills being considered; yet, those in power in the U.S. Senate seem to be hell-bent on getting a bill passed before Christmas because “failure to act is not an alternative.”

Here comes another very bad piece of legislation.

In these hours, we Americans must pause long enough to make it known to those in Washington that we demand better consideration, evaluation and full deliberation on all legislation before decisions are made on anything. Otherwise, this is not a democracy, of the people, by the people and for the people.

That’s MY AMERICAN OPINION, respectfully submitted.