Leading

Since the healthcare reform bill was passed by the House again, a lot of people have said a lot of things. I'd like to address them.

First, look at what this bill does.
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/interactive/static/stories/healthcare-comparison.html
In essence, it requires everyone to have health insurance, provides subsidies for those who can't afford it, and fines people who still don't get it. In exchange, it forces health insurance companies to cover people with pre-existing conditions at an affordable rate. There are hundreds more details, but that's the bill in a nutshell.

Now let's address the statements I'm seeing.

1. The government has just taken over health care. How, exactly? They've added some new regulations to the insurance industry, and they've added some new taxes and subsidies. Calling that "taking over health care" is a complete misrepresentation. The government has no more power over your health care under this bill than it had before it, and anyone who tells you otherwise is lying to you.

2. This is an unconstitutional assault on our rights. Maybe that's so. But look at what just happened. The government is regulating a major industry, subsidizing the poor to make their lives better, and taxing people who engage in certain behavior more than those who don't. How is that any different than a dozen other programs the government has been engaged in since before any of us were born?

I do look forward to the impending lawsuits, because if this health care bill is thrown out, a lot of things people support much more strongly, like Medicare and Social Ssecurity and higher education funding, will be thrown out too. This will force us to actually discuss the real question of what the constitution should say, instead of chasing our tails arguing about what it already says.

3. Because there was significant opposition to this bill, our representatives have violated our democratic process by enacting it. We are not a direct democracy, we never have been, and we were never intended to be. Our representatives aren't just allowed to enact unpopular bills; when their conscience requires it, they're expected to. A congressman is supposed to be a leader, and leaders have to be able to make unpopular decisions for a group. Expecting our leaders to do what we tell them all the time betrays a fundamental misunderstanding of leadership, and of America as a concept.

It is not a violation of the democratic process for Congress to enact an unpopular measure. Congress doing something unpoopular, and us replacing them and undoing it, IS the democratic process! If anyone voted for this bill knowing they'd lose the next election because of it, good on them! Some people have the idea that Congressmen should do whatever their district wants. Some candidates have actually said that they will vote however they perceive their district wants them to, on every single issue. I'd rather elect a leader, and I think this district agrees with me.

4. Barack Obama should be assassinated. Statements like this are what destroy the democratic process, not bills of any sort. Statements like this are anti-American. I reject them, and I reject anyone who doesn't reject them. You can dress it up all you want, lie about his place of birth or his religion in the face of all evidence, or claim he's destroying the constitution. But Americans don't kill their leaders when we don't like them. That's what makes us better than much of the rest of the world. If you're talking about killing a man because his politics are different from yours, you are the greater threat to America, by far. You would drag a great nation down into the muck.

Now, for the more important question: what will I do?

The same thing I always do: I'll keep trying to make things better. I maintain that this bill was the stupidest, most banal, most spineless outcome this debate could have had. The Democratic party gave up everything they believed in and implemented a wide number of Republican ideas, all to appease the Republican party, knowing full well that the Republicans would never support a reform bill of any kind. What utter failure to lead.

But as much as I dislike this bill, it's still better than doing nothing and leaving tens of millions of Americans without healthcare, and the rest of us not far behind. I will support the repeal of this bill, if and only if a better reform bill is proposed in its place.

Until someone makes that proposal, I will continue to push for my four-point cost reduction plan, which will require no new taxes, no expansion of government power, and save the average American hundreds of dollars per year.

I'm not going to let this health care bill take over every moment of my campaign. I'm going to focus on solutions, instead of anger.

I'm going to lead.