Interview with Representative Todd Platts

At dinner at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Washington DC tonight I ran into Representative Todd Platts, Republican Congressman from Pennsylvania's 19th district. We had an enjoyable conversation, and I walked away from my meeting with him feeling that he is a genuinely good Congressmen who cares about his district.

The main thing that we talked about was healthcare. Congressman Platts serves on the Education and Labor Committee, which is the main committee that is dealing with the healthcare legislation. He said that he got the healthcare bill, which was over 1000 pages in length, and then had two days to look it over before it was passed out of committee. Amendments were only allowed to be discussed under very narrow rules, and he felt that the end result was a healthcare bill that was flawed in every possible way.

The Republicans do have real ideas on how to lower healthcare costs and expand access- Congressman Platts talked about not having the government tax small business owners or individuals health care premiums, about letting people from all over the nation pool together to get healthcare, about having healthcare providers and insurance agencies compete across state lines, and several other even more technical policies that would reduce cost and expand coverage.

According to Congressman Platts, the Democrats refused to hear any of these ideas and are fixed on one goal- making the United States government the sole provider for healthcare in our nation. Oh, the Democrats might pretend like this is not their goal, but when you begin to talk about the logical conclusions to their proposals, they shut their minds and ears and quit listening- they know what they are doing, they know what they are doing is disingenuous, they know what they are doing is wrong, but they don't care, they are not going to let a crisis go to waste. Now is the time to remake America, before voters wake up and realize what they have done, and they know it.

Congressman Platts is a good guy, and will work hard to slow down or at least inform the American public about this healthcare bill, but the only chance it has of not passing is if you contact your Congressman and put public pressure on them. He can't do it alone. I also encourage you to support Congressman Platts for re-election in 2010- we need more guys like him in government.