Vote Dan Maffei For Congress To the Editor, I can take the theft of campaign signs from my private property , the negative ads misrepresenting work actually done by congress during the Obama presidency , but not John Katco’s voice on a radio ad stating Dan Maffei’s “need to discuss important issues like Obamacare”. John Katco is “solid, steady and strong” with the Republican rhetoric on “Obamacare”, that has driven the dramatic house votes to repeal “Obamacare”, futile, according to Grant Reeher , from his “Campbell Conversations” interview with 24th district congressional candidates, who reminded John that a repeal would never go through as long as President Obama was in office, so what was the point. The Republicans know this! The corporate interests in this country that seem to have taken over the Republican party would never permit “Obamacare” to be repealed because the corporate private health insurance providers, stand to make a fortune in profits from us citizens mandated by “Obamacare “ to buy our health insurance from them . John’s follow up comments about “fixing “ “Obamacare” in the interview seemed disingenuous so I went to his Website. On the Katco website health care issues are discussed in a written statement and a verbal statement. The written statement is “Central New Yorkers want workable health care reform that allows us to choose our own insurance coverage. It must be patient –centered first and foremost with decision making controlled by the patient and his or her medical professionals, not bureaucrats and politicians” That’s right ! There are government regulations to protect citizens and dictate standards for health care plans but medical decisions are decided by patients, in concert with their medical professionals and insurance providers . You can listen to John accuse President Obama of“lying” to the American people about keeping their doctors and plans. But It’s not President Obama’s fault that the private insurance companies developing these plans choose not to including specific doctors in their participant provider list, , or choose to cancel a particular plan. . And you can listen to John accuse the Democrats of “raiding medicare for over $700 billion to fund “Obamacare” , depriving seniors” The number was $500 billion when Buerkle was in office , and she mentioned it at every town meeting ! No money was taken from anyone ! Private insurers were legally billing the federal government for providing Medicare Advantage Plans for some seniors at rates higher than actual Medicare payments made. “Obamacare” relocated this money from insurance companies back to Medicare to fix the “Doughnut Hole “ problem in George Bush’s Prescription Drug plan. Dan Maffei was a first term congressman when he advocated for the legislation that became “Obamacare” and fought for the “Public Option”, a government plan that he believed would have helped resolve the issues John Katco complains about , and kept prices down, if it hadn’t been eliminated from the legislation. He worried about whether the legislation was still strong enough, before he voted to support it. It is! In spite of the many kinks that need to be worked out , the “Obamacare” legislation with its higher standards for insurance plans, incentives for health care providers to cut costs, and additional teeth in the law for going after Medicare and Medicaid fraud, has slowed the rate of increase of health costs for our country and resulted in more efficient and consistent delivery of heal care services nation-wide, according to the Congressional Budget Office. John Katco has done an excellent job as a prosecutor and has clearly made important contributions to the Central New York community, but his Republican advisors should be fired. With one week until the election, his campaign style of taking statements, laced with derogatory comments, out of context , is making it impossible to have important discussions about the issues. And the issues he lists specifically on his website: Healthcare: Equal Pay for Equal Work; and Jobs; are more like responses generated by the negative ads from both sides. not his ideas about solving the crises of Global Warming already wreaking havoc with our weather and the world-wide sectarian violence that threatens Global Security for all of us, that we should be talking about. I chose to discuss “Obamacare” because I am disgusted with the consistent, overwhelmingly negative, Republican rhetoric that has been generated on all issues but particularly on this one, since President Obama came into office. It is destroying this country by setting citizens against each other , and undermining America’s ability to compete in the Global Economy. We need to do better! Republicans even complain about the wordiness of the “Obamacare” legislation, There is a lot of “legalize” bridging new statements with the legislation already there , much of it created by Republicans in past administrations. I have written too long a letter refuting ridiculous Republican stances on this issue and I need to move forward. It is clear that I am voting to send Dan Maffei back to congress. If he gets the opportunity to go back, he needs to go back to a congress that is working together , so that we all can move forward. Stephanie Ladd Syracuse
Posted on: Wed, 29 Oct 2014 18:40:16 +0000