Ray LaHood Makes His Case

Current Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, himself a 14-year Republican Congressman before joining the Obama administration in 2008, makes the case for Republicans supporting health care reform.

There are several Republican ideas in the bill. It allows Americans to buy health insurance across state lines. It increases the bargaining power of small businesses by allowing them to pool together — much like large corporations or labor unions — to bargain for a better insurance rate. It gives states the flexibility to come up with an alternate health care plan, and it gives them resources to reform our tort system by developing new ways to deal with medical malpractice.

I also feel compelled to remind my former colleagues that contrary to what many people have been saying, the bill explicitly prevents federal dollars from being used to fund abortion. It ensures not only that those seeking abortion coverage will be required to pay for it with their own money, but also that their personal money will never be commingled with federal funds. As a former congressman with a 100 percent pro-life voting record, I'm comfortable supporting this bill.

There isn't one member of Congress who represents a district that is without a health care crisis. There are good, hardworking men and women in every part of this country who work for a living, but not at a business that offers the opportunity to purchase health insurance. On their own, the cost of insurance is just plain out of reach.

During my time in Congress, I was known for reaching across the aisle. I did it not for the sake of bipartisanship alone, but in order to get important things done.

Now, my former colleagues have the opportunity to change the lives of their friends and neighbors for the better by voting for health care reform.

The Republican response of course is to crucify the man and call him a liar.  But then again, it's not like Republicans are interested in either the truth or in allowing Democrats to take credit for health care reform.  They would rather have no bill, and for the crisis to continue, than allow Obama a victory here.

This is fact.  Politics are simply more important to them than Americans are.  A man with a 100% pro-life voting record or course is a filthy liar to Republicans.  But there's one point in the winger's response screed that is true:

If LaHood were still an elected member of Congress and voted for this mess he'd be out of office as soon as the primary came around this year.

Democrats are the enemy to these people.  They must be eliminated, crushed, and destroyed.  And so must anyone who sides with them, ever.   To them, it's war.

They're playing to win.  Are we?  Ray LaHood's response here would have been far more useful in June than now, when even the most dense in Washington know there will never be any Republican support for Obama's agenda.  None of them can.  If they do, they will be annihilated.

But there's a reason why the Republicans are fighting as if they are doing so for heir very political survival...because they are.  If this passes, they're in mortal danger.

And they know it.