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Lynn Woolsey
By GUY KOVNER
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT
Rep. Lynn Woolsey, D-Petaluma, made the health care debate personal on Wednesday, citing her son’s lengthy hospitalization in a speech on the House floor protesting the Republican move to repeal the health care law.
Describing her son as “a husband and a wonderful father of two,” Woolsey told colleagues that he had just spent more than six weeks in the hospital and returned to his Petaluma home last week facing a lengthy recovery.
Woolsey said her son’s family “still has a huge challenge ahead of them (and) would not have a chance without health care — the health care coverage that they have.”
In a telephone interview, Woolsey, who was elected in November to her 10th term in Congress, declined to give her son’s name or to describe his condition.
“This has nothing to do with them personally,” Woolsey said, referring to her family. “This is about health care reform.”
Woolsey said her son has health insurance. The health care law approved by Congress last year, over solid Republican opposition, provides coverage to more than 30 million uninsured people.
In her brief floor speech, Woolsey said the repeal bill “goes in precisely the wrong direction.” Instead of strengthening the health care bill, which Woolsey advocated, “my colleagues on the other side of the aisle want to tear it apart,” she said.
The House voted 245 to 189 to repeal the law Wednesday evening, largely along party lines. Three Democrats joined with the Republican majority.
Rep. Mike Thompson, D-St. Helena, voted against the repeal measure. He said the repeal would add $230 billion to the national deficit and shorten the life of Medicare by 12 years.
“Today I voted against the repeal of the health care law because it would hurt small businesses, families, and seniors in our district,” Thompson said in a statement.
The vote is symbolic, Woolsey said, because President Barack Obama would veto the repeal measure and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada has said he will not bring it to a vote.
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@ Really Big Fish – Wow! Your post only attacks me, but does not give any factual rebuttal to my statements. Please grow up and discuss issues like an adult.
P.S. I have been a U.S. citizen since 1955.
@ Jaak. It’s hard to believe but your comments are an ignorant reflection of the American captialist system, the Constitution and Bill of Rights. If you are a citizen I would suggest a remedial course.
The big cry from the right-wingers comments I read is that Obamacare is taking away individual rights and liberties. I do not see it that way. Obamacare does not scare me as it does the right-wingers. Obamacare will not take away any of my existing rights or liberties.
We live in a society where we need to follow may social practices (laws) in order for the society to run smoothly. For example, we must school our children (pay fees and taxes), obey motor vehicle laws (pay fees and taxes), obey hunting and fishing laws (pay fees and taxes), obey airport security laws (pay fees and taxes), etc. etc. etc.
So where is the loss of individual rights and liberties with Obamacare? No more of a loss than any other law!
@ Jim Judd. Jim, you make far too much sense as does Mr. Bly and most of other posters. Remember the healthcare issue is not about healthcare it’s about power and control. Congress the Senate never even read it to pass it. The healthcare issue and financial issues can be resolved with a little common business sense. We are at a confluence where honest representation, integrity, credibility and making the world a better place is none existent in the current political realm. The unions now own the store and are charging what ever they want and they don’t care. Union bosses instruct their members to vote a certain way or their jobs are history. (Remember to Vote for National Right To Work Bill). They deal behind the scenes with politicians, ideologue consultants and various manipulators for money and votes. They believe in diversity and multiculturism but only for their membership. Together with the unions the special interests groups particularly the destructive illegal immigrant militia are systematically dismantling the American culture. Out of about 460,000 county residents the county is run by a handful of people. We are reaching the point of deminishing returns and although some leaders are lingering about we have an ignorant voting public. Trying to make common sense and discuss the issues is fruitless with these people. There is no American leadership at any level of government.
Let’s think this through . . . .
We’re going to be \blessed\ with a new health care plan we are forced to purchase and fined if we don’t,
which purportedly covers thirty million more people at no additional cost without adding a single new doctor,
but provides for 16,000 new IRS agents, and was written by a committee whose chairman says he doesn’t understand it, passed by a Congress that didn’t read it but exempted themselves from it, and
signed by a President who smokes, with funding administered by a treasury chief who didn’t pay his taxes, for which we’ll be taxed for four years before
any benefits take effect, by a government that has already borrowed from and most likely bankrupted Social Security and Medicare,and finally financed by a country that’s already broke!! What’s to worry about?
We have to read this article to find out what’s in it.
Woolsey is wrong, as usual. The health care reform bill, which is about about insurance and NOT the badly needed changes to actual health care, is a disaster in its present form. The key is to either repeal or de-fund its harmful provisions, and replace this idiotic monstrosity with reform that makes sense. This includes being able to purchase coverage across state lines, ensuring that pre-existing conditions don’t disqualify an individual, increasing Health Savings Accounts, and keeping big government from taking over and ruining what does work now.
Some politicians are beyond stupid.
All we need is the same health coverage that Congress and illegal immigrants get- Top-of-the-line, state-of-the-art…and free.
Stupid people really irritate me. And when they do it for almost two decades, it irritates me even more.
@Really Big Fish….could not have said it better and John Bly makes a good point too.
Entitlement programs are destroying this Country. Focus on doing something to be a part of the solution and get involved.
It’s Obama Power not Obama Care. Control people’s health, then jobs through unions you get the vote…the power. Control their money so that many are desperate. What better time to gain power as the saviour arises to save the hudddled masses. Obamacare is just a great political stratergy in Obama’s plan to see us fail.
Why be concerned about bottoms up Woolsey? Focus on her replacement meaning changing the union vote, stop outrageous health costs by eliminating fraud and corruption, outrageous lawsuits and getting rid of illegal aliens. By doing this healtcare can be greatly improved with benefits to all citizens. If Obama care is NOT overturned and he continues to support illegal immigration illegal and legal immigratants from all over the world including those with radical relgions will overwhlemn and destroy America.
There are certainly some problems with health care, but Woolsey’s tale sounds more like an example of the current system working than it does a case of failure.
Here’s a personal perspective from somewhere besides the ivory tower- My insurance is going up 59%. “Fix” that, Lynn, and actually do something that works for a change.
Until elected officials have the same health care at the same cost as the general public, there should not even be a debate.
If Obamacare is so great, why do the House and Senate exempt themselves from it??????
This helps further my argument that Lynn Woolsey is a crackpot who should have retired 10 terms ago. How did Obamacare even factor in on her son using his own private health insurance appropriately? I was listening on accident to *gasp* Alan Colmes yesterday when he was lecturing people about how awesome Obamacare is because instead of your hospital rates going up due to the fact that we are paying for the uninsured the hospital rates will go down because everyone will be insured. So who is going to pay for everyone to be insured? Exactly. What sickens me is that the Libs find nothing ridiculous about the federal government forcing you by gunpoint (try not paying your fine) to buy something from a private industry.
As a middle-class American I cannot afford these loony leftists in power financially. I would have never guessed that things would become this ridiculous.
The problem is that we have heard so many lies, falsehoods, and unique accounting rules used to support healthcare and most everything else in this Congress that I simply dont beleive anything they say.
How affording millions of new is free is still beyond reason! So is Woolsey!
Once we eliminate the individual mandate,the other pieces will fall.
With so many state legislatures and attorney general’s offices going Republican last November,the number of states joining the lawsuit will only increase.
The Commerce Clause will not protect Obamacare.And WE WILL defund and dismantle this 2,300+page power grab.
AS LONG AS THERE IS OBAMACARE,THERE WILL BE AN AGGRESIVE AND COMMITED TEA PARTY MOVEMENT.
DarkHelmet123 has a typical ‘progressive’ response- don’t address the argument. Instead, demonize, ridicule and destroy the credibility of the opposition, all with a smirk of snarkiness.
Well done.
Now that you’ve displayed your creative writing skills, why not ask yourself why the majority of Americans demand repeal of the law?
Hint: it has to do with the constitution and the protection of individual freedoms.
Very interesting…Woolsey has a family member that used his workplace provided health care for an illness.
@Mork Poole Stalin…Really? Then explain why 26 states have entered into the lawsuit.
Its all about power, and leftist control of every aspect of peoples lives. We at the Water Agency understand control of you lower life forms is necessary. Now, like the tin man “If I only had a brain!!”
Oh, but Widdle Skippy, when he skinned his knee and didn’t tell anyone, instead got gangrene and had to have his leg amputated. Now Skippy has one leg, and his parents have three mortages and a bankruptcy in order to pay for Skippy’s wheelchair and access and the fact that Skippy can’t work. Ever. However, his parents are Republicans, and conjuring fantasy scenarios and treating those with opinions and views that differ from theirs is a very Republican thing to do. So they keep voting Republican and signing onto every piece of GOP legislation like it was the word of God because, well doggone it Skippy, they don’t know any better. Like you.
The healthcare law strikes a blow to freedom. Freedom to decide whether or not to buy insurance or whether to buy healthcare directly without insurance. I did the latter for many years and came out way ahead financially. I paid doctors directly and could get whatever I wanted, even non-traditional healthcare which did more for me than the standard drug oriented healthcare. I think the plan actually plays right into the hands of the healthcare industry. They will insure more people and there doesn’t seem to be a cap on what they can charge. What a racket. This is worse than the way it was before.
People will still go to the emergency rooms because many people will not comply. People that don’t pay taxes won’t buy the insurance either. The mandate is totally unnacceptable in a country where we are supposed to be free. Socialized medicine is better than this. At least with that there can be limits on our costs. This is one more fleecing of the American middle class, this plan is DOA.
So what exactly is it about the Obamacare that has anything to do with Woolsey’s son? He has his own insurance. He was covered by it. I would say that Woolsey’s comments make no sense.
Earlier today, I saw an interview with Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas I think?). Jackson Lee tried to say that some lady with medicare would have died if not for Obamacare. When the host challenged her on that statement, Jackson Lee could only say that the host wasn’t smart enough to understand her statement.
It sounds like the latest democratic talking points are to make inane statements that people will die without Obamacare.
Basic Economics explains very well what Skippy was saying. The Government, like it or not, is adding price controls to Medicine. Price Controls always accomplish two things, increased consumption and shortages. The Government has been using price controls in medicine since LBJ passed Medicare, the people who buy insurance make up the difference because it is only a partial price control, so prices in the insurance sector increase and there is a shortage in Doctors accepting Medicare.
Health Insurance is backwards anyway. We insure against the common cold and go broke when we are truly ill. We should be insuring against catastrophic illness and taking care when we catch the common cold. You don’t insure you care for oil changes or your house for paint, why insure for maintenance of your health?
Ms Woolsey,
So what exactly did your son’s recent medical issue have to do with anything? He has insurance and he is an adult so this bogus bill would not affect him in any way. So why bring it up? Sounds like you were trying to pass it off as something different. This bill will raise the cost of living, raise the cost of doing business and increase the national debt. All of those are facts. Why push something down the tax payers throats when we don’t need it? No one gets turned away at the hospital. Just ask any illegal alien if they have trouble getting health care. Mike Thompson has his facts completely backwards here and is misleading the tax payers. I have read the bill something you (Lynn) and most liberals have not done. The bill is full of things people should know about their freedoms being taken away. Bottom line is the constitution clearly states that government cannot engage in commerce but can ONLY regulate it. You and your liberal or should I say socialist friends have stepped way over your bounds.
I guess Woolsey could push a bill keeping “children” on their parents insurance for life so he could share in the fantastic health care benifits package she has, but is too good for the common folk paying her wages!
Dear Congressladyperson;
The answer to your son’s healthcare coverage challenges is not more Government, but more Capitalsm.
When patients pay doctors directly the price plummets.
When Ms. Woolsey was a wee gal, her family paid the doctor for services rendered.
Little Lynn got well; the parents weren’t bankrupted and the Doctor got a new Buick every 2 years.
The system worked like a charm, without Government running it all.
An affordable catastrophic policy combined with tax-free Health Savings Accounts would solve most of the issues currently plaguing the system.
Spending trillions of borrowed Chinese dollars to fix a relatively nonexistent crisis is a very Woolsey thing to do.