Do People Really Want Healthcare Repeal?

*Author's Note: Due to the shooting in Arizona this post was postponed like the upcoming repeal vote. We think this information is important and this issue needs to be addressed. Our hopes and prayers are with people are recovering from the shooting and the families that lost love ones on Saturday.

It has been the goal of the Republican Party to repeal the Health care bill as soon as they arrived into power. The second bill that the Republican House brought up H.R.2 ,Repealing the Job-Killing Health Care Law Act, to repeal the current Health care law. Today is the day that the House will vote on this bill.  It will be interesting to see how many Republicans will defect from their parties vote.

According to Mother Jones looking at the January 16, 2011 Washington Post/ABC Poll show at a glance 45% in favor of the bill and 50% not in favor of the bill. The kicker with this is that 13% of the 50% did not think the bill went far enough. In reality that means 58% were in favor while only 37% were not in favor of the bill. Granted the 13% are not happy with the bill, but they are glad that it is there. To show the support of the bill  only 1 in 4 people favor repeal of the bill according to AP-GFK Poll. Overall, the Health care law should not be repealed.The benefits of the law are favorable enough that even polls show people favor this law after they know what is in it.

From a budget perspective repeal is horrible. If repeal passes it will cost us 320 billion dollars over ten years, unlike if the bill still stays in effect which would save us 149 billion dollars over 10 years. That is roughly a half of a trillion dollars in difference between repeal and keeping the law. That is a huge difference. We are talking about 1/26th of all U.S. debt difference.  Money alone shows that this law should be kept.

Overall, we believe that the Health care law should be kept instead of repealed. The benefits law are far better than its imperfections or the process of creating the law. It is in our best interest to improve this law and move forward instead of backwards.

*Updated  The House of Representatives have passed H.R. 2 by the vote of  245 to 189. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has made a statement that H.R. 2 will not be considered in the Senate. Without the Senate voting on the bill it is practically dead.  The only way the House Republicans can stop the Health care bill is by defunding it. That battle will come later on. For more information go to CSPAN website

DADT Repeals Passed in the Senate 65-31

At 3 P.M. EST today the Senate passed the repeal of Don't Ask Don't Tell by a vote 65-31. Senator John Ensign from Nevada and Senator Richard Burr of North Carolina. This was increase of two Republican votes from the cloture vote. Now the bill will go to President Obama for his signature, which will happen since it was part Obama's goals told during his 2010 State of the Union. Below is the Democrat response to this historic day.

DADT Passes Major Senate Hurdle Thanks to Six Republicans

Today the Don't Ask Don't Tell leaped over the final major hurdle to passage. It passed a cloture vote today with a 63 to 33 in favor of moving the bill to vote. Six Republicans Scott Brown (R-MA), Susan Collins (R-ME), Olympia Snowe (R-ME), George Voinovich (R-OH), Mark Kirk (R-IL), Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) voted in favor of the bill. This allows the bill to have an up or down vote. The possible vote will happen as early as 3pm today. After that it goes to the President for his signature, and after his signature he will implement the repeal. This is a great day to be an American.

Below is a link to CSPAN-2 so if anyone is interested they can watch the Senate proceedings.

Watch the Debate on CSPAN-2

We need health care now!

Today is an important day as any other day in the Senate. Five progressive Democrats changed some text of the bill with five moderate Democrats to gain their votes. They include an expansion of Medicare to people 55 and over. The ability for people to buy into the Federal Employee Plan. Another important amendment would be the oppurunity of people to be able to buy precription drugs from Canada. 
We support this because people need health care. One of the toughest age groups to insure is from 55 to 64. This group is most likely to have health problems and their premiums are high. We also support the idea that people should be allowed to buy into the Federal Employee Plan. Everyone here legally is a taxpayer to the United States Government and should have the ability take an insurance plan that federal employees have.
We hope that the Senate passes the bill and that legislators use their minds to think about the whole nation instead of one area. The importance of passing healthcare this year is very important. Many people need help and this bill will bring it to them.