Health care local, not national issue
Edmund Lazzari
Issue date: 3/19/10 Section: Opinion
Democratic leadership in Congress has decided to bring health care reform to a vote this week, according to a March 15 Wall Street Journal article. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi claims to have enough votes in the House of Representatives to pass the health care bill that's already been passed in the Senate, according to a Mar. 13 Associated Press article. The Senate bill is flawed in many different ways, but the foremost is the questionable abortion language.
I said in my first Bona Venture article that the Democratic leadership would try to force Americans to pay for unethical policies they do not support.
Unfortunately, I was right.
Section 2303 of the bill (H.R. 3590) allows states to use federal funds to provide "family planning services" to women who are pregnant. This allows the federal government to fund abortion.
A majority of Americans are as pro-life (51 percent, according to a May 2009 Gallup poll) and want Congress to scrap this bill and start over with bipartisan support (53 percent, according to a March 6 Rasmussen poll).
Why does it even matter? Why should St. Bonaventure students care what happens in the federal government?
First off, everyone who pays taxes should care how federal money is spent. It's our money, and our representatives should not ignore us when they spend it. Tax dollars should serve the common good and certainly shouldn't fund the executions of the most innocent among us.
Second, millions of Americans do not have health insurance and are unable get treatment or medications at a reasonable price. When we leave college, we could be the ones struggling to pay premiums for our children's antibiotics or for our grandparents' arthritis treatment. Even those of us who will get jobs straight out of college may find, because of the way the economy is going, companies limiting health care coverage or cutting it entirely to stay in business.
Which brings me back to my first point. Even though many are without health care and need help soon, a mistake here could be much worse than doing nothing. The Obama administration has already reversed U.S. policy by funding abortions overseas.
I said in my first Bona Venture article that the Democratic leadership would try to force Americans to pay for unethical policies they do not support.
Unfortunately, I was right.
Section 2303 of the bill (H.R. 3590) allows states to use federal funds to provide "family planning services" to women who are pregnant. This allows the federal government to fund abortion.
A majority of Americans are as pro-life (51 percent, according to a May 2009 Gallup poll) and want Congress to scrap this bill and start over with bipartisan support (53 percent, according to a March 6 Rasmussen poll).
Why does it even matter? Why should St. Bonaventure students care what happens in the federal government?
First off, everyone who pays taxes should care how federal money is spent. It's our money, and our representatives should not ignore us when they spend it. Tax dollars should serve the common good and certainly shouldn't fund the executions of the most innocent among us.
Second, millions of Americans do not have health insurance and are unable get treatment or medications at a reasonable price. When we leave college, we could be the ones struggling to pay premiums for our children's antibiotics or for our grandparents' arthritis treatment. Even those of us who will get jobs straight out of college may find, because of the way the economy is going, companies limiting health care coverage or cutting it entirely to stay in business.
Which brings me back to my first point. Even though many are without health care and need help soon, a mistake here could be much worse than doing nothing. The Obama administration has already reversed U.S. policy by funding abortions overseas.
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