Pingree Wants to Avoid Socialized Med Foes from Speaking to Congress at Home

How can she support ObamaCare since the current version will provide illegal aliens with free healthcare at the taxpayers expense?

She is a democrat...there are votes, illegal and illegal in those immigrants....

Mark, there's no such thing as illegal aliens and terms such as this are hurtful. In the future, please refer to them as "Undocumented Democrats". Thank you.

Sorry Mike, I'll try not to let that happen again... LMAO! :-)

When John MacDonald had Chellie Pingree on his program he gave the invitation for callers to speak with Pingree. I called immediately and was first in line. After listening for 15 minutes to Pingree sing the praises of the health care bill and her assurance that there is nothing in the 1000 page bill to worry about, I was told she was not taking questions. No one waiting on the phone line was able to talk to her. Typical of our leadership, they do not want to hear from their constituents. We need to flood her office with calls and e-mails.

And exactly what would that accomplish other than filling her deleted email folder Mainstreet ??? She is a MOONBAT that is doing EXACTLY what those who voted her in wants and she will be re-elected...Sad but true....

Scott, this could just have easily been inserted into your earlier thread challenging whether or not legislators should feel bound by the popular opinion of their constituents. I'll agree to guided but not bound, but that's another discussion for that thread.

In this case, it sounds like Ms.Pingree has discovered that an informed electorate is the greatest threat to congressional seniority, yet hasn't the sense to keep that news to herself.

If there were a compendium of political quotations, this citation would be found under the same heading as Bangor City Councilor Pat Blanchette's, "There are so many things the public doesn't know, nor should they." That's bad enough from a member of the council guiding a small city. From a member of congress??? The woman is clearly out of her league and an embarassment.

Haggis -

The million dollar question: Who's warming up in the batter box, preparing to beat Pingree in 2010?

skf

Would it REALLY matter , Scott ??? I don't think so....JMHO....And it's , who's on deck or who's warming in the bullpen ..LOL...But we knew what you meant...LOL...

Rep. Pingree should listen to what her fellow democrat and Chairman of the Health Care Task Force said told C-SPAN last week. Rep. Mike Ross (D-Arkansas) made the following statement about the current rush with ObamaCare; "We need to slow down and do it right." It's nice to hear a democrat say that!

MacDonald started to ask her " Do you want to .... "... I think he was going to say, Do you want to take some calls. AND then he stopped in mid sentence. I can see Pingree's hand waving "NO!"... What an outrage!

Earl - I need to work on my sports metaphors. No doubt. Instead of who was playing third base for a baseball team I was always more interested in who was playing third trumpet for Duke Ellington. :-)

skf

Scott, I really love the premise of this post: that Rep. Pingree doesn't want any delay in getting H.R. 3200 through Congress, because if there is a delay it will give "those opposing ObamaCare five-weeks to speak with Members of Congress in their home districts."

Who are these folks that you think Pingree is avoiding here in Maine? Or which constituents is Pingree saying that the other 534 other members of Congress should be avoiding?

Perhaps you listened to a different tape than I did, because this is what Pingree actually said to MacDonald:

JM: Why not just postpone the vote?

CP: Personally I think it would be a huge mistake to postpone the vote because nobody ever wants to take a toxic[?] vote. So taking it six weeks from now, or six months from now, doesn't make it any easier or more likely to work out the details - some day you just have to take a vote.

And particularly right now - August 1st we'll have a five week break...that's a good time to be lobbied by special interests...the insurance companies, the pharmaceutical manufacturers - a lot of whom don't want this bill to be passed.

So I think it's in our best interest to keep it moving.

What is ironic is that soon after this, Pingree explains how she has been meeting individuals and/or groups to listen to their concerns about health insurance/care reform, whether meeting with a chamber of commerce or setting up a table at a Reny's.

Regarding whom exactly should read the bill in its entirety, I'll refer you to your own question from Sunday, Elected Representatives Should Do What Constituents Want: True or False?

Gerald -- Pingree is a nothing in this congress. She's a mule answering to the whip.

Health care is a very real problem that has an effect (often adverse) on people of every political stripe.What's wrong with taking the time to actually try to make a contribution and do this right? I've heard nothing to persuade me that a reasonable amount of time will not "make it easier or more likely to work out the details." That's an inane statement. The only peril of time from my perspective is that Pelosi will get the bright idea to tack the military spending authorization on as a rider to this freight train of a bill.

And this " . . . that's a good time to be lobbied by special interests...the insurance companies, the pharmaceutical manufacturers - a lot of whom don't want this bill to be passed," nonsense. Perhaps it is a toxic vote. Those are sometimes necessary for the common good. Scott acknowledged that in the thread you refer to at the end. But to say, in effect, " I believe more information would be detrimental in that it might cause people to change their minds," is nothing short of a recto-cranial insertion, especially with regard to a bill of this magnitude being railroaded through by leadership. A good engineer minds the "curves, the hills, the tunnels," he doesn't steam blindly ahead.

Scott, I've tried to gt you out of the baseball jam by switching to railroads (switching, get it?). And thinking of third trumpet with Ellington, how about that Chris Griffin? I've heard that the only time he ever stood up with Goodman was at Carnegie Hall in Blue Room. A classic!.

"Health CARE" is not a crisis. The crisis is ... who pays for it. The majority of Americans pushing for single payer coverage want... SOMEBODY ELSE to pay for it.

My opinion is that the strictures placed on "design" of healthcare policies (it isn't INSURANCE) by state and federal governments have made them extremely expensive. Medicare is the driving force behind the PRICE of health care procedures. Medicare establishes what Medicare will pay for a particular procedure. NO healthcare provider with any sense would accept LESS than that. In sum, healthcare in the U.S. is expensive because YOUR GOVERNMENT(S) MADE IT EXPENSIVE.

It all boils down to that wagon again. The Pingrees of this world want more and more to get on the wagon while those of us pulling and paying get smaller and smaller. Common sense dictates that this cannot go on forever and those who cannot see it are either fools or idiots. It appears that Maine has a preponderance of both.

Any liberal in favor of government healthcare is a hypocrite.

But, then again, any liberal is a hypocrite. There is no other way to be a liberal.

Otherwise, logic would prevail, and they could not be liberal, thus a hypocrite.

After serving 21 years in the U.S. Navy, I know why government run healthcare is not going to be an option that I will ever accept again.

I know what it is like to have someone tell me what they will do with my body, against my will.

If you do not get absolutely livid at the thought of a government official deciding what you can and cannot do with your own private health decisions, then you deserve to be enslaved to the government.

If you are willing to subject someone else to that tyranny, then you are willing to enslave another and you deserve tyranny yourself.

I think it is time to send the arrogant Democrats home. They have over-reached, and underestimated in their hubris.

Again, I pledge money and effort for someone to run against Michaud and Damon when it is time. If no one else runs, I may even consider it myself. They deserve to at least spend their precious campaign cash defending themselves in their pride.

Gerald -

I think Rep. Pingree is worried only about special interests opposing ObamaCare. Certainly neither she nor you are suggesting Congressional Democrats and the White House aren't involved with special interests favoring ObamaCare.

Bare minimum: Maine's Congressional delegation owes it to their constituents to hold real town hall-style meetings on health care reform. No Potemkin meetings limited to "yes" men.

skf