Critical of Ron Kind

The word this week is that our U.S Congressman Ron Kind, D-3rd District, wants to run for governor. A small obstacle, however, may be the way he handles himself during the ongoing health care controversy.

It will be interesting to see if he has the guts to support President Obama’s reform package, including the public option, or whether he caves and goes along with the Republican hooligans who are trying to kill honest debate with their lies about “death panels,” etc.

So far, his behavior has not been reassuring; for all his brave talk about reforming the system by focusing on value over volume, he never mentions the egregious profiteering by the insurance companies or the health care industry, nor has he voiced support for the public option, which is the main tool for reform and which is supported by the majority of Americans.

This must be an uncomfortable moment of truth for our smiling young congressman; on the one hand he wants to portray himself as a forthright champion of the people but on the other hand he has accepted substantial campaign contributions from the very industries that caused the problem in the first place: Over $450,000 in the 2008 election cycle, according to the non-partisan Center for Responsive Politics.

Here’s the breakdown of what he took from the various lobbies:

$168,000-insurance industry; $162,000-health professionals; $73,000-pharmaceuticals; $34,000-hospitals/nursing homes; $23,000-health services/HMOs. That’s a lot of IOUs.

It will be interesting to see how he spins it. If he betrays the liberals and moderates of his own party by siding with the Blue Dogs and Republicans it will probably scuttle his chances to win the Democratic nomination for governor next year. Maybe this would be an opportune time for him to switch parties.

Tags: opinion, letters, see