No time for constituents

Two weeks ago I called Ron Kind's office and asked if he was going to be in St. Croix/Pierce/Polk Counties for a town hall meeting on healthcare. I was told by his office that he was not scheduled to be in our area. Imagine my surprise when he was not only here, but he had time to stop by the Star-Observer office for what must have been a very lengthy discussion with the newspaper about the hot topic of the day, Obamacare.

Does it seem unreasonable that Mr. Kind could take one hour out of his obviously very busy schedule to hold a "listening session" for his constituents? He had time for a "talking session" with the paper.

He probably didn't want to hear my question about Obamacare covering illegal immigrants. He would probably have denied it anyway. All of the rhetoric coming out of Washington says they won't be covered, that there is no language in the bill that would include them.

That is true, but you need to know that there is also no provision in the bill to specifically exclude them, and there is no provision to require proof of citizenship to obtain coverage. There is also an amendment to the bill introduced by Republicans a few months back that would have added specific language excluding nonresidents from coverage. Guess what happened with that amendment? Every Democrat voted against it. Every Republican voted for it. Does that tell you something?

Coverage for illegals is going to come at us through the back door, through omission of exclusionary language, through subterfuge and misleading information coming from Washington. Don't believe what they say. Do your own research. Read the bill! Most in Washington won't bother.

Tags: opinion, letter, gehrke