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On November 7^th, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) rammed through passage of the ‘Affordable Healthcare for America Act’ (HR 3962) in the US House of Representatives. The bill’s title is misleading. It is anything but affordable. Any sincere, candid politician should know this and the twenty one Blue Dog Representatives should know it, too.

The ‘Blue Dog Coalition’ is a group of 52 Democrat House of Represent-atives members. The group states on their website that they are a “fiscally conservative Democrat coalition (that) was formed in ’95.” The coalition claims to “appeal to the mainstream values of the American public.” Yet the government’s own fiscal reporting agency, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) projects Obama’s health care bill will cost American taxpayers $891 billion dollars in additional outlays over the next 10 years. (This figure is no fabrication. It is gleamed from the CBO’s own report filed earlier this month.)

Any reasonable, fiscally concerned American citizen would have to ask: is almost $1 trillion dollars in new federal debt something that we really want? Despite their conservative claims, twenty one of fifty-two so-called ‘fiscally prudent’ House Democrats voted for socialized medicine on Saturday night. All 179 Republican House Representatives (except one) voted against this radical bill.

Weeks prior to the bill’s House passage, Speaker Pelosi and her loyalists in the House’ Democratic leadership prodded and cajoled members within her own party to secure the votes she needed (218) for passage. American Family Radio’s Tim Wildmon believes that Pelosi forced the Blue Dog coalition’s members to “toll the party line.” The Today’s Issues host believed that strong “political intimidation took place … (explaining) why party affiliation is so important.” Blue Dog member Mike Ross (D- AR) reacted by conceding to say he did “not want to be a roadblock” (WSJ) of the legislation. But millions of us ask, why? Ross, as much as anyone, should know better. If HR 3962 is finally enacted, it will mean that seniors will witness over $400 billion in Medicare budget cuts during the next 10 years. It will also leave over 12 million seniors with fewer health care options.

The dirty little secret is that the CBO acknowledges that the states will also have to pay over $33 billion in new health care expense. Many of these same states have plenty of financial problems already. They simply don’t have the money to cope with additional public health care costs. Nevertheless, some Blue Dog members like Representative Ross didn’t have to vote for the final passage of Pelosi’s bill after all. The Speaker had just enough votes to get her bill through.

Still, I believe the phony “conservative” Democrats that voted for the bill need to be fired by their constituents next November (2010). Besides Republican Cao (Louisiana), these Blue Dog Democrats need to hear from you (www.House.gov), their consti-tuents. That’s why I giving their names. They 21 who voted for HR 3962 include:

Mike Arcuri (NY - 24)

Joe Baca (CA - 43)

Sanford Bishop (GA - 2)

Dennis Cardoza (CA - 18)

Christopher Carney (PA - 10)

Jim Cooper (TN - 5)

Henry Cuellar (TX - 28)

Kathy Dahlkemper (PA - 3)

Joe Donnelly (IN - 2)

Brad Ellsworth (IN - 08)

Gabrielle Giffords (AZ - 08)

Jane Harmon (CA - 36)

Baron Hill (IN - 09)

Mike Michaud (ME - 02)

Patrick Murphy (PA - 08)

Earl Pomeroy (ND)

John Salazar (CO - 03)

David Scott (GA - 13)

Zack Space (OH - 18)

Mike Thompson (CA - 01)

Charles Wilson (OH - 06)

I believe we must demand that Congress stop this careless expansion of government through this insanely expensive legislation. For those of us who still believe in ‘free choice’ and ‘free enterprise’, it is imperative that we call our US Senators too. Tell them your concerns. (You can do this by going to their website: www.Senate.gov ). Obama care will not be signed into law until it passes the Senate.

Remember it took only a 15 page document (the constitution) to grant us our freedoms. Let’s not allow a 2,074 page document to take our freedom away!