Democrats Vote For Big Government and Kill Arkansas Health Care Freedom Act
This vote in Committee was about killing or advancing to the Arkansas House floor for debate a bill that provided some aspects of limited protection of people's rights to make their own decisions regarding buying healthcare insurance. The democrats that controlled this committee feared that public debate and vote on the floor. The vote was 12-7 to "not pass" the bill out of committee. The vote split down party line with all democrats, except three, voted NO and supporting big government. Two democrats voted Yes and the Chair refused to vote.
This vote is a clear indication of the importance of getting "real" conservatives elected to the Arkansas State House and Senate. It is important for Arkansans to stop trusting in electing democrats who claim to be "Democrat Conservatives." We need to ignore the few morsels tossed on the floor for public consumption. No more "damned morsels." We need people elected who allow us to both earn and keep our own "bread." Arkansas government is "too big" and it continues to prey on its citizens by continued expansion while finding itself entangled and controlled by Washington elites.
The political party that is elected to control local and state government in Arkansas matters! The members of a political party that are in the majority sets the agenda, control the numbers and members assigned to committees, the chairs of the committees, the committees to which bills are sent, and the general influence on the outcome of the votes. Independents and 3rd Parties have little if any voice. The vote below is a clear delineation that while the majority of the other States in the Union oppose Obamacare, Arkansas democrats love or are resigned to accepting this big government progressive program.
As an aside, it is very duplicitous that a majority Arkansas democratic politicians will vote to support progressive policies like Obamacare and other Washington's controls or interference in Arkansas education, health and human services, land and resource rights, and even now mandating how we spend our own money. And, yet these same democratic politicians hide behind the curtain of private conversation and proceed to "demean" President Obama and others in Washington. While the other-hand, the majority of the representatives in the Arkansas Republican Party remain focused on the defeat or roll-back of big government and progressive socialism that is strangling Arkansans.
The vote today in the Arkansas House Committee on Public Health, Welfare and Labor was just another example of Plantation Politics being played out in Arkansas. While conservatives look toward 2012 in hopes of further gains in the number of elected officials, I both encourage and commend all to continue to hold our Arkansas elected officials publicly accountable.
Below is a list of members on the committee and their votes on Arkansas House Bill 1053:
| FOR BIG GOVERNMENT Tyler, Linda S. (D-45) - Chair Abstained From Voting Allen, Fred (D-33) - Member NO Gaskill, Billy (D-78) - Member NO Hall, Clark (D-13) - Member NO Hyde, Barry (D-40) - Member NO Leding, Greg (D-92) - Member NO Lovell, Buddy (D-56) - Member NO Pennartz, Tracy (D-65) - Member NO Perry, Mark (D-44) - Member NO Smith, Garry L. (D-7) - Member NO Wagner, Charolette (D-77) - Member NO Wilkins, Butch (D-74) - Member NO Word, James L. (D-16) - Member NO | FOR INDIVIDUAL FREEDOM Woods, Jon (R-93) - Vice Chair YES King, Bryan B. (R-91) - Member YES Lampkin, Sheilla E. (D-10) - Member YES Lea, Andrea (R-68) - Member YES Malone, Stephanie (R-64) - Member YES Mayberry, Andy (R-27) - Member YES Wardlaw, Jeff (D-8) - Member YES |
Tags: Arkansas, US House, House Committee on Public Health, House Bill 1053, obamacare, vote, democrats, plantation politics, Bill Smith, Ozark Guru To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
Posted by Bill Smith at 11:56 AM - Post Link
7 Comments:
It is sad that people refuse to wake up.
Working Arkansans deserve the freedom to choose whether or not they wish to purchase health insurance.
The unconstitutional federal mandate in the President’s healthcare law raises taxes on middle class Arkansans and exceeds the constitutional boundaries of our federal government.
While our four Congressmen took a principled stand to represent Arkansas values by recently voting to repeal the harmful law, Democrat state legislators today took a partisan vote to oppress individual liberty and freedom of choice.
Emailed Relevant comments from KeepArkansasLegal:
Many people had signed up to testify, but the liberal committee limited public comments to only 30 minutes for both sides after a proposal was made by Barry Hyde. This denied many people who wanted to speak both for and against the bill the chance to speak. Some of the most interesting videos are below. The rest are on the YouTube account: http://www.youtube.com/keeparkansaslegal
"Plantation Politics" is right on correct. An old saying is " with 6 cent cotton and 8 cent meat, how is us po folks gonna eat" Well, we have got to pull together, work harder, leave our hoe's in the field and move into the Big House.... Hope this Delta Talk makes sense.
Kudos Mr. Bill
An AP article described the vote this way: "A legislative committee has blocked an attempt to reject a key portion of the federal health care overhaul. The House Public Health, Welfare and Labor Committee on Tuesday voted down a proposal by Republican Rep. David Meeks of Conway that would ban any law requiring Arkansans to buy health insurance."
The US House has just voted to repeal the Obama Health Care bill. One would think after the 2010 election and the defeat of Senator Lincoln that Democrats would have learned their lesson and would represent their constituents. But not so. There are 20 members on the committee and only 2 of the Democrats voted for the bill. That means 13 Democrats voted against the bill. Their vote in my opinion is a vote for Obama care.
Further, there are 44% of the Representatives in the Arkansas House, and this committee only has 25% Republicans on it. In other words the committee is stacked. Some very important bills are evidently going to be coming through that committee, and the deck was stacked so the 15 Democrats (to 5 Republicans) could block them. Sounds just like Washington to me. A Democrat on the committee made a motion to limit the time of the debate on this HB1053. Of course with 15 Democrats on the Committee, how did the Republicans have a chance of voting down the motion? Several people were there to testify but didn't get to because of the time limit.
Evidently the Democrats followed the leadership of their Party leader, Gov. Mike Beebe. Beebe is quoted as saying,
"Beebe told reporters afterward that he was glad the House Public Health Welfare and Labor Committee rejected House Bill 1053 by Rep. David Meeks, R-Conway, which was aimed at blocking the federal provision in the health-care overhaul that mandates people buy private health insurance. Passing a bill to defy the federal government is unconstitutional,” Beebe said. '“It would get us in a lawsuit. I applaud what the committee did.'” http://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2011/jan/27/beebe-hopes-his-mark-swagger-state-20110127/?subscriber-arkansas
If the truth doesn't work, liberals can always introduce the fear tactic. An assistant Attorney General and the state surgeon general spoke against the bill, evidently with the Governor's blessing, saying that it would all but guarantee that the state would be sued. I wonder what would cost more, the millions of dollars Obama's healthcare bill is going to cost Arkansas or the result of a possible lawsuit fighting that bill. And shouldn't Arkansas leaders do the right thing rather than basing their decisions on fear.
While our Governor and his Democratic friends are scaring Arkansans with a law suit, 26 other states have brought lawsuits against the Obama health care bill, and several states have passed laws similar to this HB1053. This one vote on HB1053 has already caused at least one person to announce plans to oppose one of the legislators voting against it.
I want to thank these five Republicans and two Democrats for voting for this bill. I especially thank these two Democrats for having the courage to stand against their own party.
Debbie Pelley
Maybe Arkansas will find themselves in the same position as the Washington Democrats in the next election. If we can defeat as many Democrats in Arkansas in the next election as in 2010, we may see the state of Arkansas wrenched from the hands of the liberals as has happened in some Southern states that are now representing the people rather than the liberals. In this area, even Mississippi is ahead of Arkansas.
"In the poll, 65 percent of respondents said they did not think the new health care reform law will expand and improve the quality of health care...A majority of those polled, 64 percent also said they opposed U.S. Sen. Blanche Lincoln’s vote in favor of the Senate version of the Health care Reform Bill."
We need leadership that will reflect the wishes of the people. "They [Arkansans] didn’t like it before (Congress) passed it, they didn’t like it when it passed and they haven’t changed their mind about (U.S. Sen.) Blanche Lincoln voting for it,” said J. Brad Coker, managing partner of Washington-D.C.-based Mason-Dixon Polling & Research Inc." Poll: Arkansans remain unhappy with health care overhaul"
Debbie Pelley
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