Letter to the Editor: Kratovil Challenge
Posted by Spy Staff on November 6, 2009 · 7 Comments
Editor:
Rep. Frank Kratovil needs to face the fact that he squeaked into his congressional seat largely because the turnout for Barack Obama was so large and so enthusiastic.
Mr. Obama said he’d close Guantanamo, repeal “don’t ask, don’t tell” and the Defense of Marriage Act, run an open government, scratch secret meetings, reform health care, bring our troops home from Iraq, and provide a stimulus to energize the economy and create much needed jobs, which is why I—with the majority—turned out to vote for him.
Mr. Obama is not on the ballot in 2010, but Mr. Kratovil is.
Between now and then, no matter how Mr Kratovil votes on health care—or anything else—or what he writes, or what he says, or what he doesn’t say, or everything, or nothing, or whether he’s a “Blue Dog” Democrat, or not, he will be subjected to a scurrilous-bordering-on-hate-bordering-on-toxic campaign in 2010 by his likely, thoroughly right-wing opponent and the fat-cat Club for Growth.
In summoning his courage to vote “YES” on health care reform, Mr. Kratovil needs to realize that in spite of winning in a conservative area that has sent Republicans-only to Congress since Ulysses S. Grant was president, and despite the prospect of a second contest with the same far-right extremist, that NY District 23 winner—Democrat Bill Owens—has already told Speaker Nancy Pelosi that he backs the Dems’ health care proposal.
GRENVILLE B. WHITMAN
Rock Hall, MD
” While I will continue to work with my colleagues to pursue a better bill as this process continues, I do not support HR 3962 and will vote against it when it comes to the floor this weekend.”
Straight from Mr. K’s press release. Like it or not… this is what he has said he was going to do from the gitgo. Does this vote really represent the 1st District… or is this a vote representative of what our congressman thinks will get him re-elected?
http://kratovil.house.gov/index.cfm?sectionid=22§iontree=21,22&itemid=215
And from the U. S. Chamber of Commerce:
“We applaud Congressman Frank Kratovil for his statement opposing H.R. 3962, the House health care bill, which could wipe out more jobs, raise costs, and put employers’ and employees’ current health benefits at risk.
These commercial folks should remember this vote come 2010.
Re-election, so it appears, is very important to Frank.
“Re-election, so it appears, is very important to Frank.”
He may be surprised next November, then. I would hazard a guess that if people have a choice between voting for a Republican or a Democrat that votes like a Republican, they’ll pick the Republican. Or, they’ll stay home.
This conversation is ridiculous. This is not the final bill. Nancy Pelosi said last week that the bill was unfair to rural areas. Well, rural areas need adequate medical infrastructure too. Kratovil has preserved leverage–that’s how you make things better in the legislative process. The Senate bill is a lot fairer to rural areas. Why shouldn’t Kratovil be able to push for the better language?
Dear Editor:
With more than 11.1 % of the people in Congressman Kratovil’s congressional district having no heath care insurance, with a sizable number of the approximate 60,000 uninsured people being children, and with some of those likely to die premature deaths because of the health care deficiency, our Congressman’s chief concerns about health care reform are, in his words, “the bill’s failure to curb long-term costs, it’s potential to increase the deficit, and its inadequate protections for small employers, which I fear may have an adverse impact on job creation.”
I wonder, if one of the uninsured children who is facing a serious or life threatening illness were one of his sons, would he still have the same chief concerns?
If a man’s heart is measured by his dilemmas, where is Congressman Kratovil’s?
Bill Parks
Rock Hall