Mark Bitz is seeking the Republican nomination for the NY25 congressional seat. Bitz has never run for office before. He’s a successful businessman who has created hundreds of jobs here in Central New York. I’ve been keeping an eye on the NY25 race, and it seems to me that Bitz is the most serious candidate to challenge Dan Maffei.
Surprisingly, the Syracuse Post Standard published his argument against ObamaCare on the front page (below the fold) of Sunday’s opinion section.
A few years ago, when writing “Creating a Prosperous New York State,” I discovered that party leaders had two agendas. One was stated and one was unstated. The stated agenda involved rosy outcomes benefiting the citizens, while the unstated agenda involved maximizing the party’s future campaign contributions.
This duplicity also exists in the Democratic Party’s health care bills in Washington. The stated agenda is to see more Americans covered with health insurance, lower the cost of health insurance and gain control over the future costs of the Medicare and Medicaid. However, the unstated agenda is to create policies and disburse taxpayer dollars in a manner that maximizes future campaign contributions to, and dependency on, the Democratic Party.
Do the House and Senate Democratic health care bills deliver on their stated agendas? Apparently not, according to the federal agency entrusted with running Medicare and Medicaid, the non-partisan, independent Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
The Centers report the current House and Senate health care bills could: 1) raise the country’s total health care expenditures, 2) raise the cost of health care to employers and individuals, 3) force millions of Americans, who choose not to have health care coverage, to pay penalties, 4) require taxpayers to subsidize the health care of tens of millions of Americans, 5) cause millions of Americans to replace their current health care coverage, 6) cause millions of seniors to lose their Medicare Advantage Plans, 7) jeopardize Medicare access for some seniors, and
worsen health care access for the poor.
In addition, the report excludes the tremendous increase in the state and local government costs associated with an additional 21 million people who end up on Medicaid. In New York state, the state government and county government are each responsible for 25 percent of Medicaid expenditures. To cover a larger Medicaid population, state and local income, property and/or sales taxes would have to substantially increase.
If the Democratic leadership’s bills do not really address the stated agenda, then perhaps they address the unstated agenda? One health care lobby made $65 million in campaign contributions to President Barack Obama. This and the millions more it gave to the Democratic Party and its members are grounds for serious concern.
Bitz is right, the health care legislation, if passed, will surely cause taxes here in New York state to go up. The last thing we need is an increase in property taxes. It’s mind boggling that Schumer, Gillibrand, Dan Maffei and all the other Democrats in the House will vote to raise our property taxes.
The piece goes on to outline some common sense health reform measures that the Democrats refuse to consider.
I’m considering volunteering for Bitz’s campaign next year. Check out his website and consider making a donation.
Also, check out Reverse the Vote. I wish they included NY25 and Dan Maffei on their target list of House Democrats who are vulnerable next year. But it’s of the utmost importance to take the majority away from the Democrats next year. The future of our children depends on it.
Recent Comments