August 6th, 2009, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson today condemned House Leadership for orchestrating what he said was “a deliberate smear campaign against their own constituents to deflect legitimate opposition to their plans to take over the nation’s health care system.”
“There is no question that citizens visiting with their Congressmen is a legitimate exercise in any representative democracy,” said Wilson, adding that, “Attempts by House Democrats to discredit their own constituents are already backfiring, and have only served to embolden residents across the country to adamantly express their opposition to their Congressmen.”
“Citizens feel as if their voices are not heard in Washington in the health care debate, and so they’re letting their representatives know exactly how they feel,” Wilson explained.
According to recent polling from Rasmussen Reports, 60 percent of likely voters are opposed to paying higher taxes to expand government-run health coverage for “all Americans.” 80 percent of likely voters who do have insurance rated their coverage as good or excellent.
“The American people believe they have good health care, which is why they are adamantly opposed to the nationalization of the health care system—against the so-called public ‘option’ that eventually would become a single-payer system. And they’re opposed to what Congress is attempting to do, which boils down to reducing the quality of their care to redistribute it to somebody else,” said Wilson.
According to 2006 Census Bureau estimates*, between 282 and 294.2 million Americans had health coverage: 177.3 million from employment-based insurance, 27.03 million from direct purchase, 40.4 million through Medicare, 38.3 million through Medicaid, and 10.7 million through the military.
“The overwhelming majority of Americans, anywhere from 282 to 294.2 million, already have health coverage—that’s a range of 94.9 to 99 percent. And the government wants screw them over to give welfare to anywhere between 2.85 and 15 million people that don’t have it,” Wilson said.
“Even many House Democrats know it’s a bad idea,” Wilson said, pointing to Blue Dog Congressman Parker Griffith’s (AL-CD5) recent statement that “We don’t want to fix the 15 percent of the problem at the expense of 85 percent of the system that is working.”
“Reorganizing the entire health care system makes absolutely no sense, unless the goal is a complete takeover of the health care system,” said Wilson.
Wilson said local efforts in Congressional districts across the country will most likely continue escalate throughout the month of August, culminating in the August 22nd “Recess Rally,” which Americans for Limited Government is co-sponsoring.
“It’s Congress’ job to listen to their constituents at home, not for their constituents to listen to what Washington tells them to do. It’s called representation for a reason,” Wilson concluded.
*ALG Editor’s Note: ALG News is compiling a brief backgrounder to further explore the complexities of the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2006 data.
Interview Availability: Please contact Alex Rosenwald at (703)383-0880 or at arosenwald@getliberty.org to arrange an interview with ALG President Bill Wilson.
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