Living in Western New York is politically difficult. The community is every bit as conservative as what you would find in the South and rural MidWest. Politics are insular and based on the clique. Power is to be maintained. No risk is to be taken. Change is extremely difficult and avoided. Outside of the minority areas of the City of Buffalo virtually every Democrat contends with his or her Republican opponent for the endorsement of the local Conservative Party. Conservative politics dominates the area and because of it we remain the 3rd poorest community in the United States.
So when my Congressman, Chris Lee (R-NY26) told Jerry Zremski,the local Buffalo News Washington Bureau Chief, “I’ve yet to see the government run anything efficiently or effectively” in a piece on health care reform and Jerry did nothing to contradict him, I decided to write the following letter to him. He's never answered before, but, I've never passed my letter along to something like Daily Kos or up on my on political blog. I know that I will get a gibberish response but no answers to my questions.
So here's what I said. (It's followed by a very very basic poll with a question that amazingly needs to be asked.)
Sunday, October 25, 2009
Dear Rep. Christopher Lee (R-NY26):
As one of your constituents, I am writing you in regards to a comment you made to Buffalo News reporter Jerry Zremski and printed in today’s Sunday Buffalo News. You amazingly declared and Jerry Zremski amazingly failed or cooperatively declined to question your assertion: “I’ve yet to see the government run anything efficiently or effectively”.
Members of Congress, including you, participate in a Government run, taxpayer subsidized health care program, which incidentally, has never rejected a member of Congress for pre-existing conditions. Given your personal belief in endemic government mismanagement and incompetence in every program it runs and your desire to express that view to your constituents, will you be immediately withdrawing from this program? If not, why not?
Will you be introducing as part of the current health care debate any legislation which would eliminate the current federal program for Government Employees and Congress in favor of a privatized system which would the improve operations and delivery of much needed health care services at reasonable cost with greater success and financial savings for American taxpayers who pay for the program? If not, why not?
According to the Los Angeles Times: not only do members of Congress have available to them a choice of 10 plans that offer access to a national network of doctors. "Lawmakers also get special treatment at Washington's federal medical facilities (Office of Attending Physician) and, for a few hundred dollars a month, access to their own pharmacy and doctors, nurses and medical technicians standing by in an office conveniently located between the House and Senate chambers"
I understand the Office of the Attending Physician charges only about $500 per month for you and your family for all its services – with no exclusion for pre-existing conditions. Don’t you find it immoral for members of Congress to preach against the public option while condoning it for themself? If you agree it is morally wrong, do you have plans to introduce legislation terminating the OAP program which was established by a Republican Congress in 1928? If not, why not.
Surely based on your personal belief and observations you cannot morally defend the continued existence of government run programs like Social Security and Medicare, that would be deceitful. Can we then expect you to be introducing legislation which would terminate these government run programs and others, i.e. the VA Health and military Tri-Care system, replacing them with a privatized for profit system? If not, why not?
Sincerely,