Senator Bill Nelson (Fla.-D) - Please Answer My Health Care Reform Questions

As a resident of Florida, I thought I had the right to question my elected Florida representatives to Congress about their views and voting record on any issue affecting the American public. My Congressman and one Senator, both Republicans, have been very good in responding to my inquiries, in both acknowledging my inquiries were received and providing pretty specific answers to my questions. However, the same has not been my experience with my Democratic Senator, Bill Nelson. His office and staff rarely even acknowledge they have received my inquiries and on the very rare occasion they do respond, the response is always in a form letter format that never addresses my specific questions.

Given his non-responsive attitude via his own email system, I would like to pose the following questions to Senator Nelson via this blog and a hard copy that I will mail to his office to see if I can get any kind of response this way. I have previously asked the following questions of his office, most of which have been have been ignored:

Senator Nelson:

Please answer my following questions as it regards the 2,000 page health care reform bill that the Senate just passed:

1. Have you read the entire contents of the bill? Not your staff but have you personally read the entire bill? Given the far reaching affects it will have on the country I would have hoped you took the time to read the entire bill. A simple yes or no answer would be fine.
2. Do you agree with the perceived way the bill was constructed? Namely that it was constructed via Senator Reid and a small cadre of Democratic Senators working behind closed doors cutting deals for certain states and specific special interest groups? A simple yes or no answer would be fine.
3. In a related question, given that this bill will affect every American, are you happy with a process that grants special monetary grants and exemptions from taxes to only certain states and special interest groups? A simple yes or no answer would be fine.
4. Early last week a Rhode Island Democratic Senator basically called those opposed to the Senator bill to be racists and members of Aryan nation groups. Do you agree with the Senator that citizens, such as myself, that disagree with the contents of this bill are racists? A simple yes or no answer would be fine.
5. Do agree with the part of the bill that forces young people to spend their limited resources to buy health insurance even though they probably do not need it, given their generally good health? I see this as a significant infringement of personal freedom but would appreciate your opinion on this matter of government interference in the private lives of millions of Americans. A simple yes or no answer would be fine.
6. In a related question, just how is the government going to go about forcing these Americans to buy insurance and penalize those who do not? Will their tax returns be audited, will insurance companies put out hit lists for those suspected of not buying health insurance, will citizens be randomly stopped on the street by Federal agents and forced to provide insurance cards?
7. Given that Texas and several other states have had considerable success in reducing health care costs via tort reform in the health care industry, why does this bill have no significant tort reform aspects? Could it be that the lawyer lobbyists and ABA were able to block it?
8. As just one example, in the past year, the Federal government built a new visitors center that came in about 50% over budget. What assurances can you give the American public that this bill will actually cost what you say it will when every other Federal program and project, even the simple act of building a single building, goes way over budget?
9. I still maintain the political class in Washington never did a root cause analysis of what the true underlying causes to high health care costs were. High health care costs are the symptoms of underlying causes. Since I do not believe that this analysis was ever done, the chances of any legislation curing the undefined problem are pretty low. The current bill appears to just move money around and raise taxes without solving any core problems? Could please educate me to what the underlying root causes are and how this bill addresses those causes?

Senator, I do not believe that these are unreasonable questions, given the wide ranging impacts this type of legislation will have on this country. I would hope you can assure me that the concerns I have voiced above are being addressed. However, the fact that you have not assured me so far, despite numerous requests, does not give me confidence that you and your fellow politicians really understand what you are doing in this area. Maybe this is the cause of the pathetically low ratings you folks in Congress now receive in public opinion polls, maybe most of us out here in America do not believe you know what you are doing or are acting in the best interests of ALL Americans.

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