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The political fallout from the election last week of a Republican to fill the U.S. Senate seat held for a half-century by the late Senator Teddy Kennedy, D-Mass., is a wake-up call to Democrats which U.S. Representative Mike Ross, D-Ar., said he saw coming.
“I hope it was clear to everyone on Washington that the Massachusettts Senate election was a wake-up call and resounding rejection of the closed-door meetings, secret negotiations and backroom deals that have plagued the health care reform process on Capitol Hill,” Ross told the Hope Star. “It confirms what I have been saying since last summer, the American people want common sense health care reform, not a 2,000 page bill that costs a trillion dollars and puts the government even further into the health care business.”
Ross has consistently reminded voters that he opposed early efforts concerning a single-payer health care system by working through the Blue Dog Coalition in the House to stop legislation last summer. He said that was the impetus for his recognition of a pending political shift.
“That’s why I voted against the House Health Care Reform Bill,” he said. “This process must be deliberate, bipartisan and open to the American people, going so far as to cosponsoring a House resolution that requires the health care negotiations to be broadcast live on CSPAN.”
Ross said Congress must recognize that “the American people are paying attention and are tired of politics-as-usual. I hope Washington is listening.”
Ross has recently begun to gauge the sense of priorities within his congressional district as shifting to jobs, he said.
“As I have said all along, our primary focus in Congress must be the economy, jobs and putting people back to work,” Ross stated. “We have got to stop the out-of-control spending in Washington and begin reducing our skyrocketing national debt. I fwe do not, we will begin to suffer from massive inflation costing our already fragile economy even more jobs.”
The election of Scott Brown to the Senate from Massachusetts prevents the Democrat Party from holding a 60-seat majority in the Senate, thereby allowing the Republican Party to affect how legislation will be shaped on the floor, and effectively stopping passage of a Democrat-written health care bill.
The political fallout from the election last week of a Republican to fill the U.S. Senate seat held for a half-century by the late Senator Teddy Kennedy, D-Mass., is a wake-up call to Democrats which U.S. Representative Mike Ross, D-Ar., said he saw coming.
“I hope it was clear to everyone on Washington that the Massachusettts Senate election was a wake-up call and resounding rejection of the closed-door meetings, secret negotiations and backroom deals that have plagued the health care reform process on Capitol Hill,” Ross told the Hope Star. “It confirms what I have been saying since last summer, the American people want common sense health care reform, not a 2,000 page bill that costs a trillion dollars and puts the government even further into the health care business.”
Ross has consistently reminded voters that he opposed early efforts concerning a single-payer health care system by working through the Blue Dog Coalition in the House to stop legislation last summer. He said that was the impetus for his recognition of a pending political shift.
“That’s why I voted against the House Health Care Reform Bill,” he said. “This process must be deliberate, bipartisan and open to the American people, going so far as to cosponsoring a House resolution that requires the health care negotiations to be broadcast live on CSPAN.”
Ross said Congress must recognize that “the American people are paying attention and are tired of politics-as-usual. I hope Washington is listening.”
Ross has recently begun to gauge the sense of priorities within his congressional district as shifting to jobs, he said.
“As I have said all along, our primary focus in Congress must be the economy, jobs and putting people back to work,” Ross stated. “We have got to stop the out-of-control spending in Washington and begin reducing our skyrocketing national debt. I fwe do not, we will begin to suffer from massive inflation costing our already fragile economy even more jobs.”
The election of Scott Brown to the Senate from Massachusetts prevents the Democrat Party from holding a 60-seat majority in the Senate, thereby allowing the Republican Party to affect how legislation will be shaped on the floor, and effectively stopping passage of a Democrat-written health care bill.
