Betty Sutton

is anybody home?

At the conclusion of our August Tele-Town-Hall, Nichole Francis Reynolds, Sutton’s chief of staff, told us that dialogue on health reform would continue click here.  Silly me, I thought she meant that Sutton’s office would continue the dialogue on health reform.  Sixty-three days later, I see that I was wrong.

So, what happened?  Ms. Reynolds had always been a respectable and honest member of Sutton’s staff.  In fact, there was a time when many in this district felt that if Reynolds said is was, it was.  Those days are clearly past.  Today, Ms. Reynolds is as tainted by power as any other Washington insider.

my3×5s.blogspot.com recently posted a list of unaddressed “dialogue”.  Below are a few of the health reform questions – to view the entire list click here.

Why isn’t the economy our top priority instead of another government entitlement program?

Rep Sutton said that HR 3200 will “inject competition into the private insurance market.” Why do you not believe that opening interstate commerce for insurance providers prove to be enough competition?

How can private insurance providers fairly compete with a government entity which is under no pressure to make a profit, and holds the purse strings; the ability to print money?

Do you want health care reform to benefit trial attorneys or patients?

You say this “public option” will be funded by premiums alone? Is this a hypothesis?

If the “public option” health care plan is so good, why won’t politicians agree to have that as their plan?

To that list I add the following:

• When the opportunity presented itself, and doing so would not have taken any additional time to implement, why didn’t you accept language that would expressly forbid abortion funding in the health reform bill?  You’ve told us time and time again this bill would not fund abortion, but you refused to vote for language to back that up. Why? read more

• In 2007 you understood the importance of the Constitution, the separation of powers, and the proper relationship between the government and the people.  Yet today, you seem perfectly comfortable riding roughshod over the founding document.  Why? read more

• And of course, we cannot leave off the famous constitution question, “Cite the portion of the Constitution which allows the federal government to force people to buy insurance.”  read more

It’s been 63 days now (and counting) and still no dialogue, no answers, and no Sutton.  Instead, our Congresswoman’s offices hand out excesses. Here are a few of my favorites from the Lorain office:

• “We are very busy trying to answer everyone’s questions.”
• “We are doing the best we can.”
• “I’ll pass along your concerns.”
• “You’re obviously a republican.”
• “You right wingers don’t know what you are talking about.”
• “The congresswoman doesn’t have to answer your questions.”

With the House of Representatives poised to vote on Health Reform, Sutton must be feeling some sense of relief that this mess may soon be over.  Sorry to break it to you Betty Sue, we’re only getting started.