Thread: 2 top TN Dems to oppose health bill

November 7, 2009
2 top TN Dems to oppose health bill

Costs worry Blue Dogs Tanner and Gordon

By Bill Theobald
TENNESSEAN WASHINGTON BUREAU

WASHINGTON — Two of the four Middle Tennessee House Democrats who are part of the fiscally conservative Blue Dog Coalition will oppose a health-care reform bill the House might bring to a vote today.

Rep. John Tanner of Union City said Friday the House bill wouldn't do enough to control health-care costs and would create a system unsustainable over time. Rep. Bart Gordon of Murfreesboro also said he would vote against the bill.

Rep. Jim Cooper of Nashville was still studying the nearly 2,000-page bill, his spokesman said Friday. And Rep. Lincoln Davis of Pall Mall was not planning to announce his decision in advance, his spokesman said. Each has expressed concerns about the House proposal.

Capturing at least some support from the 52 members of the influential Blue Dog Coalition is considered key to the bill's passage. The House includes 258 Democrats and 177 Republicans. No GOP members are expected to vote for the bill, which means Democratic leaders could lose 40 members of their caucus and still have the needed 218 votes for passage.

The House bill would spend $1.1 trillion over 10 years insuring 36 million people who don't have insurance now, according to the Congressional Budget Office. But that cost would be more than offset through new taxes, spending cuts in some areas of Medicare and Medicaid, and penalties on people and businesses that don't buy insurance. As a result of those provisions, the bill would reduce the deficit by $129 billion.

Gordon, who voted for an earlier version of reform legislation as a member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, said he was concerned about the impact of the final bill on Tennessee's state budget. The number of people eligible for Medicaid, the federal-state health insurance program for the poor, would increase under the House bill. Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen and other governors say they would have trouble financing that.

White House reaches out

Nancy-Ann DeParle, a Tennessee native and director of the White House Office of Health Reform, said Friday she had contacted Cooper and Gordon and was planning to talk with Tanner.

"It's difficult when it's a good friend," DeParle said of Gordon's opposition. She said she thought Cooper might eventually support reform legislation to help President Barack Obama. Cooper was an early supporter of Obama.
DeParle discounted the effect of lost Blue Dogs support, saying "They are not the majority of the (Democratic) caucus in the House."

Rep. Marsha Blackburn, R-Brentwood, has long opposed the House Democratic plan. "The Democrats have come up with a bill that makes health care government-centered," Blackburn said.

She said the bill would spend money needed for economic development and improvements to roads and other infrastructure.

An alternative health proposal offered by Republicans would cost far less than the Democratic plan and insure far fewer people.

It would help states create high-risk insurance pools, limit medical malpractice awards, let families and businesses buy health insurance across state lines, and expand the use of tax-sheltered medical savings accounts. It would not bar insurance companies from denying coverage based on pre-existing conditions and would not create tax credits to help people buy coverage, proposals Republicans had previously supported.

The GOP proposal would spend $61 billion to insure about 3 million more people, leaving about 52 million uninsured, according to the Congressional Budget Office. Other provisions would reduce the deficit by $68 billion over 10 years.

2 top TN Dems to oppose health bill

Well, I know what I'm going to be doing all day. Trying to get through to Washington. I doubt their other offices will be open. Lincoln Davis isn't going to announce his decision in advance? Speaks volumes.

Contact Information:

Rep. Jim Cooper:
Washington, DC office: Phone: (202) 225-4311 Fax: (202) 226-1035
Nashville, TN office: Phone: (615) 736-5295 Fax: (615) 736-7479

Rep. Lincoln Davis:
Washington, DC office: Phone: (202) 225-6831 Fax: (202) 226-5172
Columbia, TN office: Phone: (931) 490-8699 Fax: (931) 490-8675
Jamestown, TN office: Phone: (931) 879-2361 Fax: (931) 879-2389
McMinnville, TN office: Phone: (931) 473-7251 Fax: (931) 473-7259
Rockwood, TN office: Phone: (865) 354-3323 Fax: (865) 354-3316

Rep. John Tanner:
Washington, DC office: Phone: (202) 225-4714 Fax: (202) 225-1765
Union City, TN office: Phone: (731) 885-7070 Fax: (731) 885-7094
Jackson, TN office: Phone: (731) 423-4848 Fax: (731) 427-1537
Millington, TN office: Phone: (901) 873-5690 Fax: (901) 873-5692

Constituent Service Hotlines:
Dickson County, TN: (615) 441-2030
Houston County, TN: (931) 289-3367
Humphreys County, TN: (931) 296-0860
Montgomery County, TN: (931) 503-1777
Stewart County, TN: (931) 232-4060

Rep. Bart Gordon:
Washington, DC office: Phone: (202) 225-4231 Fax: (202) 225-6887
Murfreesboro, TN office: Phone: (615) 896-1986
Cookeville, TN office: Phone: (931) 528-5907
Gallatin, TN office: Phone: (615) 451-5174

Your work paid off, Yonderis! Woo Hoo!! GO GIRL!!

Thank you so much for all your outstanding work on Gordon.

Bravo Yonderis. Keep up the great work.

We may need to approach our politicans of both parties to join in the fight to nullify this bill, if passed.

If they push through this unconstituitional bill we must go to plan B, which is to put our support behind States Rights legislation in our states. We must nullify this bill on the grounds that it is unconstituitional. Some people are talking about suceeding from the Union. I'll post some information that I found about sucession but can't endorse it as I don't know much about it.


http://secessionist.us/chattanooga_declaration.htm
I am posting a few things from this web site, I think it bears some investigation.

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THE CHATTANOOGA DECLARATION

The Chattanooga Declaration was drafted and approved by delegates to the Second North American Secessionist Convention on 4 October 2007.

We, the delegates of the Secession movements represented at the Second North American Secessionist Convention, acknowledging our differences, yet agree on the following truths:

1. The deepest questions of human liberty and government facing our time go beyond right and left, and in fact have made the old right-left split meaningless and dead.


2. The privileges, monopolies, and powers that private corporations have won from government threaten everyone’s health, prosperity, and liberty, and have already killed American self-government by the people.


3. The power of corporations endangers liberty as much as government power, especially when they are combined as in the American Empire.


4. Liberty can only survive if political power is returned from faraway and self-interested centers to local communities and States.


5. The American Empire is no longer a nation or a republic, but has become a tyrant aggressive abroad and despotic at home.


6. The States of the American union are and of right ought to be, free and self-governing.


7. Without secession, liberty and self-government can never be sustained, and diversity among human societies can never survive.

Originally Posted by ELE

Bravo Yonderis. Keep up the great work.

We may need to approach our politicans of both parties to join in the fight to nullify this bill, if passed.

If they push through this unconstituitional bill we must go to plan B, which is to put our support behind States Rights legislation in our states. We must nullify this bill on the grounds that it is unconstituitional.

***respectfully snipped for space***

Thank you both.

Agree, ELE. It'll be our only recourse.