U.S. Rep. Chris Gibson. (Photo: Dan Barton)
U.S. Rep. Chris Gibson (R-Kinderhook) voted with the ayes Friday, Sept. 20 as the House of Representatives approved a measure – the “continuing resolution” – that would keep the government running, but defund the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare). The measure is not expected to pass the Senate, and sets up a showdown between House Republicans and the Obama administration on keeping the government running. A deal of some sort must be concluded by Sept. 30 to avert a government shutdown. Here’s the text of Gibson’s statement explaining his vote, released Thursday evening:
“I will be voting ‘yes’ on the Continuing Resolution before the House tomorrow. This legislation provides funding for the government from October 1 – December 15, 2013, and it defunds the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare.
“I’ve been consistent since first retiring from the Army that the Affordable Care Act is not the direction our country should take in terms of health care reform. Although the goals are the right ones: to drive down health care costs and expand access to quality care – this law has not – and will never – live up to those goals. Furthermore, as even the President has acknowledged, this law is not ready and needs to be delayed. I’ve laid out comprehensive alternatives to the Affordable Care Act, and I will continue to advocate for those solutions.
“While this continuing resolution will not be the final package, a ‘yes’ vote on this bill moves the process forward and will allow for negotiations with the Senate. This is necessary to keep the government running.
“For the debt ceiling, I have shared with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle and House leadership what I think a fair and productive compromise should look like: we should delay the Affordable Care Act until 2015 and lift the sequester for the same amount of time, linking these two together going forward.
“This requires compromise from both parties and, in the end, we delay a health care law that clearly is not ready for implementation. This is evidenced through the President delaying the employer mandate and other provisions, the fact that many States are not ready to implement their exchanges and many questions left to be resolved. We can delay the law while lifting the harmful sequester for the same amount of time, allowing for the investments necessary for economic growth, medical research, support to education and national defense.”
“In addition, this proposal will allow both parties to work on long-term solutions to health care reform and a permanent pro-growth, fiscally responsible replacement for the sequester.”
Yep, crazy people don’t have to be crazy all the time… in fact, they are not. Often (especially when they agree with you, say, on something that you totally hate, for instance) they can be quite rational, eh?
But it never fails you ride the tiger when you actually choose to deal with them.
So, this is what you get with Gibson… here’s where you get to see, hmmm, the guy is crazy and wow wee! if he doesn’t get to do some serious damage to the social fabric of society when you buy into the myth of the “Good Republican”…
“Not just a party! It’s a cult. You can cut your dues in half.”
Almost 12 moons ago, the editorial board of the Kingston Times wrote this about Gibson:
What it comes down to for us is not so much who they are as to where they will fall in line. Schreibman will, when push comes to shove, no doubt follow the Democratic line in Congress. Gibson, when push comes to shove, will hew to the Republican line — which, in the past two years, has been solely obstructive toward any progress in government, sandbagging for primarily political reasons the recovery from the worst recession since the 1930s. We suspect that Grover Norquist would be quite happy with what Gibson calls “moderate” — his 74 percent record of voting with the Republican majority. We cannot support that.
They nailed it!
Every democratic country in the world has some sort of healthcare for citizens. The price of healthcare here is keeping the country poor; we are moving further behind our counterparts. When we pay taxes, we get something, when we don’t pay taxes, you don’t get healthcare or education or bridges etc. Health care is a fundamental right; we can’t lose on this one.
“Health care is a fundamental right”
Perhaps you can point that out to me in the Constitution. I don’t seem to see it in my copy.
Vote for Sean Eldridge!