If you get a phone call tonight it could be from your Congressman. Chet Edwards is holding a telephone town hall meeting tonight between 6:30-7:00pm, and will call over 200,000 households throughout the twelve counties of Texas’ 17th Congressional District. It should be expected that those phone calls will be filled with questions about the Obama Administration’s health care reform plan. Many of the people that Edwards will talk to tonight will be critical of the plan to reform health care. It is evident from reading the internet forums, the comment sections of local media, and the letters to the editor that conservative constituents, that comprise a significant portion of this district, are critical of Edwards and have expressed their disapproval. However, in reality the people that should be expressing their disapproval are Progressives. While Edwards may not be conservative enough for some of his constituents, who would never vote for a Democrat, he may be losing support from the very people that help him get elected. While conservatives may have the loudest concerns with Edwards, progressives have the most legitimate concerns with Edwards.
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Health care is one of the most important issues facing Americans today, and perhaps the most significant problem in the health care system is the number of uninsured people in America. The National Coalition on Health Care notes that “nearly 46 million Americans, or 18 percent of the population under the age of 65, were without health insurance in 2007.” According to Health Affairs, due to the economic recession the number of uninsured people in America will increase by 6.9 million by 2010. Bloomberg reports that health-insurance premiums for families have risen 119 % since 1999, and in the last fifteen years America has increased the amount it spends on health care from $912 billion to $2.5 trillion and the amount of uninsured has only increased.
Edwards states that his goals are “lowering costs, maintaining competition and choice, and preserving quality health care.” However, the most significant way to lower cost is to provide a public option, without a public option it is unlikely that health care reform will actually be able to significantly lower the cost of health care. Also, the idea that Edwards supports maintaining competition and choice suggests that there is current competition and choice, while for many Americans that only competition is the choice they have to make on whether or not they will actually be able to afford health insurance. It is obvious that “preserving the quality of health care” is important, but the real goal should be expanding access to the quality health care that is currently not available to many Americans. It is often said that the best quality health care can be found in the United States, however, who is that health care actually available to?
Congressman Edwards has said that he will “oppose any single-payer plan that socializes our health care system or prevents people from keeping the quality private health care plan of their choice.” Even though Edwards believe the current health care system is “financial unsustainable,” a public option would increase access to quality health care while the status quo is what is keeping millions of Americans from having quality health care.
Conservatives have tried to paint Edwards as a liberal, and have constantly promoted the idea that because Edwards voted with the Democrat Party 96% of the time during the 110th Congressional session that makes him a liberal. This is a distortion of the truth. The percentage of votes that a lawmaker cast that are in line with his party does not necessarily correspond to their political ideology. Congressman Randy Neugebauer (Texas-19) is ranked by the National Journal as the most conservative member of the House of Representatives, however according to the Washington Post database he only voted with the Republican Party 93.3% of the time. Congressman Sam Graves (Missouri-6) voted with the Republican Party 97.3% of the time, which is more than any other Congressman in the House of Representatives, but Graves is ranked by the National Journal as the 104th most conservative member of the House of Representatives.
The truth is that Congressman Edwards is a conservative Democrat, and any attempt to paint him as a liberal is disingenuous at best. While there are issues that Edwards supports that progressives have agreed with, progressives have support Edwards because he is better than the alternative. However, the alternative now seems to be not too far away from an obstructionist Republican, which will be plentiful in this year’s Republican primary in the 17th Congressional District. What Edwards needs to realize is that while his moderate record garners him bipartisan support in a conservative district, the people that knock on doors and make phones calls for his campaign are the same people that have the most legitimate concerns.
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