Voting Against Government-Run Health Care

Real Clear Politics ^ | December 24, 2009 | Senator Tom Coburn

[ConjunctionJunction]

This vote is indeed historic. This Congress will be remembered for its arrogance, corruption and stupidity. In the year of 2009, a Congress ignored the coming economic storm and impending bankruptcy of our entitlement programs and embarked on an ideological crusade to bring our nation as close to single-payer, government-run health care as possible. If this bill becomes law, future generations will rue this day and I will do everything in my power to work toward its repeal. This bill will ration care, cut Medicare, increase premiums, fund abortion and bury our children in debt.

This process was not compromise. This process was corruption. This bill passed because votes were bought and sold using the issue of abortion as a bargaining chip. The abortion provision alone makes this bill the most arrogant piece of legislation I have seen in Congress. Only the most condescending politician can believe it is appropriate to force Americans to pay for other people's abortions and to coerce medical professional to take the lives of unborn children.

The president and his allies genuinely believe that expanding government's control over health care is the way to control health care costs, improve lives and extend life spans. I don't question their motives, but I do question their judgment. History has already judged this argument and put it in its ash heap. The experience of government-run health care in the United States and around the world shows that access to a government program is not access to health care. Forty percent of doctors restrict access to Medicaid patients. Medicare already rations care and denies medical claims at twice the rate of private insurers.

[K-oneTexas]

I was thinking, what a kick in the but it would be if the bill didn’t pass tonight. Phone calls and faxes got to Senators.

Then again ... maybe in another universe.

[onyx]

Doctor Senator Coburn Hero PING.

Thanks for posting his essay!

[IbJensen]

The president and his allies genuinely believe that expanding government's control over health care is the way to control health care costs, improve lives and extend life spans.

And that is a f-cking bold-faced lie!