I just received a newsletter from my congress critter, Frank Wolf (Malign Neglect - VA). He was crowing about his so-called SAFE amendment, which is a ploy to slow down voting on HCR by 30 days.
Here's Congressman Wolf's bragging piece:
Congress needs to listen to the American people and take its time to get health care reform legislation right. This is too important of an issue to rush through under some artificial timeline. It is for this reason that I am cosponsoring a measure calling for any health care reform legislation considered by Congress to be made available online in its final form 30 days prior to being voted on in the House. I believe that every American should have the opportunity to read and understand what Congress is considering.
Thirty days -- sounds so reasonable -- until you stop to think what this means to Americans who are uninsured or underinsured. The recent Harvard study of the death rate among uninsured Americans estimates that approximately 44,789 Americans die every year because they lacked health insurance to allow them to get adequate health care. That's more than 122 people per day. In 30 days, 3,681 Americans without health insurance will die.
Think about that number, 3,681 Americans in 30 days. As of July, 2008, the official death toll from September 11, 2001 reported by CBS was 2,975. So Frank Wolf is proposing to let us suffer a greater death toll than September 11, 2001, just to take his time reading the bill.
Republican delay = the new terrorist threat.