Taking the First Left Turn: a Letter to Congress

Dear Senator Merkley;
Thank you again for your service to Oregon and to the United States.
After watching seven grueling hours of "debate" on a plan to nationalize medical care for all Americans, and apparently some who are South- or Central-Americans, I find myself wondering why this program is being ramrodded by the President, and particularly at a time when "official" unemployment stands at 10%, when this country is already trillions of dollars behind the proverbial 8-ball? So let's just add a few trillions more of new debt and thinly-veiled tax increases? What does he want, 100% of all our incomes, or does he want more?

A proposed bill some 2,700 pages long is on the surface too all-encompassing, too invasive, and puts far, far too much power into the hands of a select few in Washington. No offense, but much of what the Federal government has "fixed" in past years has progressed from "misaligned" to "train wreck:" Social Security for aliens, billions of dollars in annual Medicare fraud, the Postal Service, Amtrak, the TSA, the Department of Energy, just to mention the tip of the iceberg.
Socialized medicine, by its very nature, demands rationing of care, and guarantees a lower quality of care overall: ask any Briitish citizen. As a "senior citizen," I have been paying FICA and Medicare taxes since 1964. Am I now to be overjoyed that my medical needs exceed those of a 26-year-old and are therefore subject to denial or reduction?

Ability to purchase medical insurance in a truly open market should be mandated by congress, but not the provision of medical insurance. That is NOT Congress' job.

Tort limitations could be mandated by Congress, rather than thoroughly ignored as they are in all forms of "reform bills" to date. Illegal aliens, whether euphemised as "undocumented," or "guest workers," or whatever catchphrase-du-jour is used, should be excluded from any medical care unless paid "up front.:" hospitals can only "write off" so many losses due to flagrant fraud. Ask any hospital administrator in our southern border states.
This debate has always been about the transfer of power to Washington, no matter how altruistic the rhetoric. Whe the President besmirches doctors for "removing tonsils to cure a sore throat," or "amputating a leg" under dubious circumstances, the voters see right through the facade to the heart of the rhetoric: POWER over us all. Thanks, but no thanks. You can keep the Change