Update:
Rep. Peters had a "Town Hall" telephone conference call. It was obvious that the majority of the callers were supporting the health care bills [about 70% based on polling questions during the call] and a great deal of discussion revolved around trade that sent jobs overseas or extending unemployment benefits. Rep. Peters was vocal for more jobs in Michigan, but he never addressed the issues of why jobs were leaving other than "unfair trade." I agree with some of the points regarding China's tactics that undercut American manufacturing, but there are real cost issues related to unions that were never mentioned.
Rep. Peters dismissed the Rep. Slaughter approach of "deeming" a vote had occurred on the Senate bill by saying it was common practice and enumerated how many times it had been used in recent decades. I think the point was missed that such a procedure was never used for anything of this magnitude where differences between the Senate and House versions of a bill were so great and the stakes of passing or rejecting a bill were so high.
I left a voice message that asked how we could have any confidence in the government to "fix" our health care system when the government could not "fix" the Veterans hospitals, the Medicaid mandates that are bankrupting the states, the Medicare program that is fraught with fraud and waste and underpays doctors by so much that doctors are increasingly refusing to see medicare patients, and on top of all that the Budget Office projects huge deficits from these "deemed" bills.
I'll let you know if I get a response... and I will display it here.
Original post:
I attempted to send a message to my Michigan representative in Congress, Gary Peters, regarding the health care bill/non-voting scheme. So I clicked on the "Contact Us" link on his Congressional home page...
and got...
If you are out there Rep. Peters, this is my message.