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Altmire’s slim win reflects discontent; Joseph Bosh; Beaver County Times; November 7, 2010.
A previous Joseph Bosh letter was entitled “A more affordable health-care system” and it attempted to rebut a letter I wrote.
Below is a detailed critique of the subject letter.
“On Tuesday, my friends and I discussed our voting choices. I explained that I wrote in Alan Grayson for Congress.
“‘Why Grayson?’ they asked. They suggested that I had thrown away my vote, but I don’t feel that way.”
[RWC] In case you don’t know, Rep. Alan Grayson (D-FL-8) is a flame-throwing leftist. For example, on the House floor Mr. Grayson described “The Republican health care plan” as “1. Don’t get sick, 2. And if you do get sick …, 3. Die quickly.” Mr. Grayson is/was a one-term rep who lost his seat to Republican Daniel Webster in the 2010 general election.
“As a resident of Baden, I was given a choice between U.S. Rep. Jason Altmire and Keith Rothfus. I had no intention of voting for the radically regressive Rothfus, but what about Altmire?”
[RWC] Note Mr. Bosh didn’t describe what makes Mr. Rothfus “radically regressive” in his opinion. I’d be willing to bet Mr. Bosh finds the Founding Fathers “radically regressive.” After all, there is no constitutional support for Obamacare.
“Well, I thought, Altmire voted against the health-care bill. He was willing to let private health insurance companies continue unethically maximizing profits by denying coverage.”
[RWC] The “maximizing profits” comment is a mantra of the left. For more about this, please read my critique of “Put the blame where it belongs.”
As for the “denying coverage” comment, I’m guessing Mr. Bosh is referring to pre-existing conditions. Forcing medical insurance companies to cover pre-existing conditions is the same as forcing a company to issue a fire insurance policy on a house that’s burning down. That’s not coverage; it’s a handout and forces up the rates of everyone else. Shouldn’t I have the freedom to buy a policy that doesn’t cover pre-existing conditions?
“He bought into the ridiculous notion that this compromised bill was a ‘socialist takeover,’ rhetoric propagated by people who obviously don’t understand what socialism is.”
[RWC] If not socialist or a similar leftist label, it would be interesting to know how Mr. Bosh would describe a government-run, taxpayer-funded healthcare system which is where Obamacare leads us. In fairness to Mr. Bosh, fascism (a leftism) may be a better description of Obamacare in its current state than socialism. That’s because while the capital for the healthcare industry would be provided by the private sector, the government would provide so much regulation that it would be the de facto operator.
As a reminder, the Obamacare bill also took over the student loan industry.
“By voting against that bill, Altmire voted against making any progress toward fixing our broken health-care financing system, so I had no inclination to vote for him.”
[RWC] Please read my paper entitled “Healthcare.”
“By denying him my vote, I sought to convey my distaste for his shameful pandering to the right.”
[RWC] As a reminder, Mr. Altmire claimed he voted against Obamacare only because he believed it would increase the deficit.
“On Tuesday, Altmire barely scraped together a victory by only 2 percent of the vote.”
[RWC] This may be nitpicking, but Mr. Altmire won by one percent. That is, only one percent of voters needed to vote differently for there to be a tie.
“I hope that my disgust, and the disgust of other Fourth District progressives, is now abundantly clear to Altmire.”
[RWC] There’s nothing progressive about “progressives.” Since the beginning of humankind some people have always wanted to control the lives of other people. That’s exactly what progressivism is all about. Using the real-world definitions of progressive and regressive, today’s “progressives” are “radically regressive.” Please go to the Beaver County Reds (Progressive Democrats of America – PA 4th CD Chapter) website to see how far left these guys are.
As for what “is now abundantly clear to Altmire,” Mr. Altmire knows Mr. Rothfus would be the new rep of PA-4 if Mr. Altmire hadn’t opposed Obamacare, cap-and-tax, et cetera. Mr. Altmire also knows while his district is mostly Democrat, most of those rank-and-file Democrat voters are nowhere near as far to the left as Mr. Bosh and his pals at Beaver County Reds. Lefties not voting for Mr. Altmire in the general election because of his Obamacare vote would be insane. Mr. Altmire’s Americans for Democratic Action Liberal Quotients for 2007, 2008, and 2009 were 95%, 80%, and 70%, respectively. It’s probably fair to assume LQ ratings for Mr. Rothfus would have been in single digits or pretty close. Finally, why didn’t “Fourth District progressives” run a candidate in the Democrat primary to unseat Mr. Altmire? After all, Mr. Altmire had been pretty clear about his Obamacare vote for quite awhile and the final vote took place a couple of months before the primary.
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