Common Sense University

            Well now, this does not sound correct, right? There are no Olympic events this year. Everybody should know this and so do we. We just decided on this title to summarize the major activities of the month of August. There were no Olympic events in the true sense, no medals were handed out, no national anthems were heard and yet, the television viewers were focused on this year’s real events, they were called Townhall meetings!

            Since Congress closed its doors in late July and early August, there have been hundreds of these so called town hall meetings for the purpose of having constituents meet with their respective Congressional representatives both in the House of Representatives and the United States Senate. Yet in terms of drama, suspense, excitement and also applause, quite a few of these public meetings were equal to regular summer Olympics. This year’s number one topic is, as everyone knows, healthcare reform legislation by the Federal Government. We personally have never seen such outpouring of public interest and emotion at any time during the past 45 years

            Of course, there is a very good reason for all this: Healthcare and the potential reform affects everybody in this country. While a vast majority of Americans is happy and content with their current healthcare, there are supposedly, according to President Obama, 47 million uninsured people living in this country. Many experts have tried to analyze and break down this number and almost all have concluded that it includes approximately 10 to 12 million illegal aliens (who should not be here in the first place). Removing this group, it would leave about 35 million uninsured of which twenty million fall into the category of the 19 to 30 year olds who feel, they do not need health insurance for a variety of reasons: A. They are healthy, B. It is too expensive, C. They rather spend this kind of money on the things they prefer to have and so on. That leaves roughly 15 million people who do not have health insurance. This number is about five percent of the American population.

            Now then, why do we have to drastically overhaul a system, representing sixteen percent of the economy when less than five percent are uninsured? The answer is very simple: It is called Socialized medicine, pure and simple! That has been a dream for the Democrats in America for a long time and with their overwhelming majorities in both houses of Congress and a Democrat President, they now think that this is the time to go for it. Never mind the cost or consequences. Committees in the House of Representatives produced legislation before the summer recess one of which is over a thousand pages thick. It did not get to the floor of the House for a vote but is expected to be ratified in early September when they return. The bill is called HR 3200. The U.S. Senate has not reached that point as of now as they try to reach a bi-partisan bill but have not been successful to date.

            But the folks across the country heard about all this and many even read all 1000 pages of HR 3200 and now confronted their representatives during townhall meetings and it got quite exciting when these Representatives found out that their constituents had many questions for which they had no answers and tried to get away with truly lame responses. This infuriated many voters and it got at times hot and loud. People were yelling and they spoke up forcefully to express their anger over this healthcare overhaul.

            This was responded by the Democrats as follows: These people were ‘Un-American’ and nothing more than organized ‘mobs’ and they even compared them to  swastika-wearing ‘Nazis’. Other Democrats accused the Republicans of organizing these people and Representative Dingell of Michigan said that these meetings reminded him of a time during the 1960′s when he voted for Civil Rights legislation and his opponents were wearing KKK sheets. Outrageous statements in all and yet, it did not work.

            The public is slowly but surely convincingly opposed to this major legislation and government take-over and all polls indicate this. The President spent over a week to defend the necessity of comprehensive health care reform but he could not be specific, admitted that he was not too familiar with some of the provisions in HR 3200 and repeatedly blamed the health insurance industry, doctors who charged too much for amputations and Republicans for opposing his plans for universal health care reform.

            This all had no effect on the public as a whole and as of this day, a majority of Americans is opposed to this legislation and the next weeks should be interesting for us all to find out how far the Democrats are willing to go in passing such massive reform and if they are willing to ignore the majority of their constituents who oppose such action. If anything, it calls for exciting times ahead but until now, we conclude that while there were no medals handed out, the score is: A majority of Americans get points for standing up to Congress and President Obama and the Democrats including the President get nothing.

            In more precise terms, it is American constituents: One, Democrats in Congress: Zero! Stay tuned, Common Sense University will keep a close eye on the events as they will occur and unfold during the next weeks and months.

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