Brian McNeil, of the Charlottesville Daily Progress, wrote an article about some of the reactions to Tom Perriello’s vote for the health care bill on Saturday. Even better than the article are the comments section, where teabaggers abound with the usual misinformation and hair-on-fire pronouncements with little or no basis in fact.
Here’s Robert Hurt, State Senator and declared candidate for the 5th District seat in Congress:
“Make no mistake: this bill is a devastating blow to our economy at just the wrong time. With job losses continuing to mount, Congressman Perriello voted to raise taxes on small businesses,” Hurt said in a statement. “With seniors getting squeezed, he voted to slash Medicare benefits. With Virginians working harder for less, he voted to give taxpayer-funded healthcare benefits to illegal immigrants. Because of our congressman’s actions, one-sixth of our economy may be subject to government control. The consequences are monumental: premiums will rise even faster, bureaucrats will be in charge of healthcare decisions and the quality of patient care will suffer.”
Katie Wright, a Republican National Committee spokesperson, also weighed in. She said Perriello was saying one thing to constituents, and doing another in Washington. Obviously, I disagree.
Here’s part of Tom’s statement:
“Our work on this bill is not over,” he said in his statement. “As health care legislation advances through Congress, I will work with my colleagues in the Senate to push for better inter-state competition. But I am proud of the changes I fought for. After hearing from my constituents during over 100 hours of town hall meetings in August, and by continuing those conversations in the months since, I worked to include their ideas in the bill, pushing for legislation that now protect Medicare, ensure deficit neutrality, encourage wellness and preventive care, and protect small businesses.”
I guess this goes to show that not everyone is interested in everyone being able to obtain healthcare. Instead, the teabaggers are interested in protecting billionaires’ salaries at the insurance companies. People who make $35,000/yr are trying to protect the rich people who would deny them health care as well.
Welcome to the race, Senator Hurt. We’ll be watching and listening to you and the other candidates. We will be reporting on them as well.
Like I said, make sure and read the comments after the article.
[UPDATE: To correct placement of blockquote 10AM 11-09-09]
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