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Monday, April 19, 2010 | 12:02 p.m.
Heller
Sun Coverage
WASHINGTON -- Republican Rep. Dean Heller is among Nevada officials expected to join the Revere America campaign in Reno this afternoon as it seeks 1 million signatures nationwide to “repeal, reform and replace” the new health care law.
Heller voted against health care reform, as all Republicans in Congress did, but has since said he does not want to repeal the law.
In fact, Heller supports aspects of what the campaign calls “ObamaCare” – including a provision banning insurers from denying coverage for pre-existing medical conditions and another allowing young people to remain on parents’ policies until they are 26 years old.
“I don’t know that you’re going to be able to repeal all the provisions and, frankly, I wouldn’t want to repeal all the provisions,” Heller said during an interview on KOLO-TV in Reno.
“There are some good provisions in the bill, there are some bad provisions,” Heller said. “I think it needs to be replaced.”
Heller called the tax provisions, which hit insurance companies, industry manufacturers and the wealthy “very onerous.” He believes the law’s requirements that employers provide insurance to their workers will cost jobs.
“Frankly, I think the bad outweighs the good,” Heller said. “We need to take another look at this piece of legislation.”
Former Republican Gov. George Pataki of New York is heading up Revere America, which is crisscrossing the country in a six-city blitz that targets states where Democratic lawmakers are in tough elections this fall.
The group began the petition drive in Boston on Sunday, the anniversary of Paul Revere’s ride.
In a prepared statement, before the congressional HCR vote, Heller justified his opposition to the bill by saying; "This isn't about Democrats versus Republicans, this is about Democrats versus Americans". This is the level of party hack representation we have in Congressional District 2. After Gibbons "retired" to become Gov., I thought we couldn't get much worse, but clearly I was wrong.
A recent Associated Press-GfK poll finds Americans now oppose ObamaCare 50 percent to 39 percent.
Disapproval of Obama's handling of health care increased from 46 percent in early March before he signed the bill, to 52 percent now.
62 percent of Nevada voters support repealing ObamaCare and 57 percent fear that it will be bad for the country. Nevada voters link Harry Reid to this very unpopular bill that creates a Federal Government takeover of the health care system.
LarryVegas --- AP hasn't done a HealthCare survey since early March.
You know what, the stupid lying republicans had plenty of chances to participate in healthcare reform. But you know what they did, they decided to play political games and tried to defeat it just so they could weaken obama. Not because reform wasnt needed. They are a party of old men who lie repeatedly about everything and hope eventually people will believe them. Problem is there are alot of crazy people out there who actually do believe them.
I am also wondering why when republicans held the house and senate and the white house did they not do health reform then. Fact is that they were protecting the special interests who line their pockets with money. Some thing is happening now with Financial Regulation. Old Mitch "the turkey" McConnell is up on wall street begging for money and then comes back and makes up a lie about this financial regulation will allow bail out. Its about time we expose these liars.
The american people deserve better.
It was the Democrats versus Americans.
HR 3590 (ObamaCare) was passed in the Senate before it went to the House - why? Well, it seems the Senate had the votes to pass ObamaCare, but because the Senate can't attach appropriations to a bill, they took an old HR bill which had funding in it, amended it to the point where it became 905 pages of ObamaCare and sent it back to the House where a simple majority could pass it. Clever, huh?
Does that seem like legislation everybody wanted? Nope. Sounds like backroom deals, rule-twisting, threats, ignoring the puplic and lying about it - FDR and LBJ Democrat-style politics.
"Nope. Sounds like backroom deals, rule-twisting, threats, ignoring the puplic and lying about it - FDR and LBJ Democrat-style politics."
Actually, that is more the style of Newt Gingrich and Dennis Hastert-style politics.
From the time Gingrich gaveled the 104th Congress open in 1995 until Republicans lost the majority in 2006, "Deem and Pass" was used a whopping 202 times.
In fact, one of the harshest critics of the rule, Rep. David Dreier, used it extensively when he chaired the Rules Committee and developed a whopper of one that had THREE self-executing rules in one.
Democrats sued during this time, claiming that "Deem and Pass" was unconstitutional. They lost.
sounds like business as usual - I do believe that is because there is a party of NO who thought they would get more benefit from being obstructionist - it will be interesting to see what the voters actually do - not what the right wing morons say and perpetuate
If Heller and his co-horts had started out with, "we like a) no denial for pre-existing conditions b)children covered until age 26" and then worked toward a bipartisan bill, they'd have a lot more respect from Democrats.
Why is it always Dems vs. Repubs and the notion one has to pick a side?
The truth is the bills major problem are hidden costs, mandates which abuse the commerce clause (most likely unconstitutional), mandates onto states (which might also be unconstitutional), the bills assumptions that another entitlement from the 50's (Medicare) will be slashed to pay for this entitlement, and the way it happened was against the will of the people and shady. Who cares if it was done by the other side in the past, it shouldn't be done period.
I don't care which side of the isle did this, and I don't care that Bush was an awful president. You cannot live in the was, and you cannot abuse the now.
I get the feeling that some are supporting this behemoth solely based on politics, and that's sad, everyone should be an American individual first, a responsible adult second, and after that chose their sides for grievances.
This law has some good things about it; all legislation does. We elect our representatives on the national level to provide national security and infrastructure in a way which provides freedoms all states cannot provide on their own (military, transportation, macro world issues), and on the state level we elect representatives to provide services, protections, provide for the welfare of the residents, education, and other local items (community issues).
The notion that the federal level should to tell communities how to live and tax them is what happened in other countries and led to the formation of the USA.
The minority always seems to fight for what's right, and today that's the Repubs, 4 years ago it was the Dems. It just seems like to me each party flip flops when they get into power and stop listening to who they were elected by; and some give them a pass because they have the same party affiliation. I give neither party a pass, they both need to be held accountable, and right now the Dems are not listening and are pushing their party agenda forward instead of what's right for the citizens of the USA.
No matter how much you republicans try and spin it, you could have participated in true healthcare reform. But you decided to be obstructionist to try to give Obama his "Waterloo". Thats a quote. That was the republican strategy. Well turned out to be their waterloo and now they are mad about it. If only they had participated we could have had a great healthcare bill. Instead we ended up with a healthcare bill that was the best Democrats could get without republican support. We certainly would have prefered to work together and get a great bill but the party of old lying men who just want to say "Hell no" didnt want to work for the american people.
VC, do you work for congress? How does one compromise with a party that wants government control of healthcare to centralize more power to politicians for votes by dependent citizens? The dems didnt need a public option They received public options in the form of private insurance companies working as government agents. This wasn't healthcare reform, it was insurance reform. The real reforms will come when interest rates and inflation rises due to a depreciating dollar. Medicare is broke and neither party has the guts to make the cuts to keep it solvent.
"Who cares if it was done by the other side in the past, it shouldn't be done period."
It's called being a grade-A hypocrite.
When Republicans get on TV and blast Democrats for tactics they employed when they were in power, they lose credibility.
Douglas,
Most politicians are short-memory hypocrites. This is why the Tea Party (like them or not) hasn't formally aligned with a party. They like more repubs because they are supposed to be conservative but that wasn't the case from 2002-2006, which led to their ouster; and seems to be the rallying call today.
The Dems from 2002-2006 sounded very similar to the Repubs today ironically. Yes these are the same Dems who decried deem/pass, spending like crazy, fiscal craziness, pushing ones agenda to no end because they could, and so on and are doing the same exact thing today; even in the face of all the publicity; its like they didn't learn a thing from the Repubs of a few years ago. Today the defense for being hypocritical on the Dems side and defenders of the Dems is the Repubs did it so it makes it fair game. I think this is what irritates me and others who vote for people, not parties; that those who decried how wrong these behaviors were are doing the same stinking thing today.
Mind you many of the Dems are just as guilty all the way up the ladder. I've seen many clips from Obama the campaigner talking down to Hillary Clinton and McCain telling them how he would and wouldn't do certain things and discounting each persons views. Obama the president has in turn implemented many of the things he discounted as well as reneged on many of his promises; and has accepted/encouraged the processes he decried not to long ago to get his agenda through.
Washington is full of grade-a hypocrites. That doesn't mean we need to apologize for them when one is defending their party. I think the main thing people are most fed up with today is the lack of accountability and the willingness to do whatever one wants, Washington seems like two frat houses where the dominant members keep doing stupid things and high five-ing each other because they got away with it while the lesser frat decries how unfair it is. As soon as the lesser frat becomes the dominant frat they start doing the same thing they decried.
I think the climax for the current frat is the champagne toasting after the passing of the health care law; this couldn't have happened if the will of the people was listed to and if normal due process was followed. I think most voters will remember this in November. Unfortunately history seems doomed to repeat itself...
I wonder what the Hobos will do; will they be required to participate?
If you like your insurance and your doctor, you can keep both of them. And, you will have more options and new protections against insurance company abuses. Bottom line: health insurance reform will save you money because lowering administrative costs and creating real competition will lower premiums.
Get the facts. http://bit.ly/9wE4jt
JustinBReidCampaign,
The number one cause of health insurance is the economics of supply and demand, number two is associated costs from malpractice/drug costs. Administrative costs are way down on the list, but insurance companies are a concern to some degree. I expect competition to be eaten away by government mandating that insurance companies in these new "pools" can only have a gross operating margin of 15% to pay for providing and managing their services; this is outrageous to have government mandate this.
The costs associated with having many more people competing for the same care without adding supply of doctors as well as insurance companies not in the pools being able to jack up their rates to account for all the extra costs of people with pre-existing conditions.
Let's face it, the people without insurance are the ones who most likely are going to cost the most or still won't buy it. They are going to drive up the cost for everyone but themselves.
The facts are in economics, laws of supply and demand, mathematics not in political spinning by someone working for a campaign...
Don't get me wrong, I might be against this law but I am not on either side of the fence when it comes to parties.
Opponents of the health care reform just make things up. Just like "Death Panels" they keep telling the uninformed or low information voter that the government will take over the health care delivery system.
In fact the reform legislation is very moderate in that it still gives the insurance industry control while being closely monitored and in some vital ways regulated.
The consumer is provided much needed protections and benefits, but it's in no way a government takeover like a single payer as in the Medicare system. It's a surprise to see that even Dean Heller recognizes this. Even this honesty is too extreme for these opponents.
What they have to depend on in making their arguments is exaggeration, false presumptions, fear and distortion.
They will never admit that the law assists small businesses to provide health care. They never address it gives 35,000 uninsured coverage. It's always curious they ignore that it will provide seniors with free preventive care and help with the burden of the high costs of the prescription drugs if they are in the despised doughnut hole. Pre-exisitng conditions will be eliminated. Children will now be covered under their parents' policies until 26 years of age. Lifelong caps and rejection by the greedy insurance companies is over.
Subsidies will be provided to incentivize small and big businesses to provide insurance. They continue to ignore these facts.
Long term care will be available for the elderly.
More Americans will not have to fear they face bankruptcy because of the new law.
A healthier nation is good for all Americans. Quality and affordable health care is now a right not a privilege.
These are the facts informed voters will remember.
Repeal and replace with Medicare for all!!!!!!
If he doesn't like government medical care, let him give up his. He is acting like a "hobo" accepting free medical care from the taxpayers. Go out and buy your own medical insurance Congressman Freeloader.
LarryVegas: ..."Nevada voters link Harry Reid to this very unpopular bill that creates a Federal Government takeover of the health care system.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
There's no "government takeover of healthcare" and people who continue to blather this GOP generated lie should be considered ill-informed and followers who are unable to think for themselves.
GO Harry Reid!!!!!!!
What I mostly hear are ideological opinions from the right on why health care reform is unconstitutional, or socialist, or a government takeover, etc; they never really give reasons on why it won't work.
I think the doctors, nurses, technology and medical facilities in the US are top notch if not the best in the world, but the way we go about paying for services is hopelessly broken. This is why I sincerely hope this health care reform legislation works. Granted it will need tweaking along the way and only time will tell its overall effectiveness. What I fear now is instead of a bi-partisan approach on the inevitable tweaking of this legislation, that instead what we'll get is the party of "No" doing everything in its power to see that this fails. That's no way for a government to work. To both sides, I say if you're not going try and improve our health care system (which by the way should be the envy of the world) and instead just protect your ideological views that I will do my best to vote you out of office.
An Associated Press-GfK poll conducted April 7-12, finds Americans now oppose ObamaCare 50 percent to 39 percent.
Disapproval of Obama's handling of health care increased from 46 percent in early March before he signed the bill, to 52 percent now.
62 percent of Nevada voters support repealing ObamaCare and 57 percent fear that it will be bad for the country. Nevada voters link Harry Reid to this very unpopular bill that creates a Federal Government takeover of the health care system.
The last two major nationwide polls that actually counted for anything tossed the incompetent and irresponsible Repubicans out of power.
Well Mr. LarryVegas,
If you don't want to have health insurance I say exercise your opposition by paying the $750 fine and go without insurance. Take lots of vitamins through.
The next major nationwide poll will come on November 2nd.
We will see how many incompetent and irresponsible elected officials get tossed out of office.
I'm not saying all the incompetent Repubicans will be tossed out, yet again, this November.
It's entirely possible some will be indicted before then.
We refer to Dean Heller as the Winston Churchill of northern Nevada. He and Gov. Gibbons hosted ex-Gov. Pataki in a astro-turf rally in Carson City to repeal the HCR legislation. The local paper said the rally attracted 100 people, which means about 50 people. Three of those people were Heller, Gibbons and Pataki. Several were Republican party hacks who always show up for these things. Maybe some of Gibbons' girlfriends showed up. The rest of the crowd were elderly, overweight, ignorant and white. All of them were covered by Social Security/Medicare/SSI/VA benefits. Heller was there to pander to their fears and superstitions.
Winston Churchill? Really?
How about Benny Hill?