I've been talking to friends for a long time about my frustration with the inflammatory rhetoric blasted around on various issues. But when I heard on the radio this morning that Jason Altmire, my very own Congresscritter whom moderates like myself helped to elect in 2004, had actually succumbed to the screaming and inaccurately presented statistics, I decided it was time to speak out in public. This is the text of a letter that I sent both to Mr. Altmire and to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. I hope others in the silent majority find that it resonates with them and helps them to voice their own concerns in the final hours of our national discussion about health insurance reform.
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Dear Mr. Altmire:
I just wanted to say that I am extremely disappointed to hear that you are planning to vote against the health insurance reform legislation currently pending in the House. I have not called or written up to the point because I was certain that you would be able to see through the rhetoric, misapplied statistics, and outright obstructionism of Republican opponents and think through the real issues on your own. But since you haven't gotten there on your own, I thought it was time for a member of the REAL majority (including those Republicans like myself who voted for you over Melissa Hart in the last Congressional election) to clarify a bit.
We are in favor of health insurance reform because it is good for our nation. We believe that every citizen should have access to healthcare. We believe the CBO analysis that indicates that this particular reform would reduce the burden of healthcare on the Federal government both in the short and in the long term. We believe that the only negative impact will be that those who currently have access to much more than the minimum amount of health insurance will be the only ones "hurt" by this bill in that they may have to pay taxes on some of the benefits they receive and that this impact is both minimal and justified by the needs of those less fortunate. We may believe that there will be no positive impact for us, but we are willing to go along with the plan because we recognize the enormous positive impact on others in the system and on the system itself. And finally, we believe that this legislation makes no changes from current law in whether Federal money "pays for abortions" or not.
I encourage you to take time between now and the actual vote to shut yourself quietly into your office and write out a list of "pros" and "cons" to the bill itself. Decide what YOUR priorities would be if you were not our Representative and how those priorities would induce you to vote based on the true content of the bill rather than the rhetoric that has been so cavalierly slapped in our faces these past months. I'm sure you'll note in particular that there are no "death panels," there is no language that supports abortion in any way, and there is nothing that will force anyone who currently has health insurance to do anything different than what they are currently doing. I hope you also notice the enormous benefits to those like my 24 year old daughter who has Crohn's Disease and is facing the prospect of being unable to afford the treatments that currently keep that disease in remission when she is no longer eligible for coverage under our family insurance plan.
Once you have decided how YOU would recommend that your representative vote, take a close look at the statistics that have been published recently. I am certain that you know how to separate journalistic rhetoric (such as that displayed in this article which implies that there is a "negative slant" against the proposed bill http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20100319/us_nm/us_usa_healthcare_poll ) from the actual statistics cited (which in the article I mentioned actually support quite the opposite conclusion). And when you've done that, I hope you will search your heart and realize that you can cast your vote based on your personal convictions and still be absolutely in line with the desires of a strong majority of your constituents.
We are counting on you to do the right thing, Mr. Altmire. We moderates may not be as vocal as the few who loudly oppose this legislation on extremely narrow grounds. But we are far "louder" when we come to the polls: we elected you, and we will certainly remember this weekend this coming November and reward your actions appropriately.
