Key Vote: Stop Slaughter Scheme

Dear Representative:                                               

The opaque language I need to use in this letter to describe the parliamentary gymnastics House Democratic leadership is asking you to do to pass their health care bill should itself give you pause about joining them in their perversion of our democracy.  Fortunately for our democracy, the American people understand what is going on.  This in large part explains why Congressional approval numbers are down to 19 percent and disapproval up to 76 percent.  The American people DO care about how a bill becomes a law because they know in the long run the strength of our democracy is more important than short term legislative desires.

Now, to the opaque language.  On behalf of hundreds of thousands of FreedomWorks members nationwide, I urge you to vote NO on the “previous question”, or “PQ”, during consideration of the rule for a bill Democrats want to pass to allow consideration of suspension bills on Thursday, March 18th.  If those who support our democracy are successful in defeating this motion, there will be a vote on the “Griffith Resolution”, H.Res. 1188, being introduced by former Democrat Rep. Parker Griffith (R-AL).  Should H.Res. 1188 receive a vote, FreedomWorks urges you to vote YES.

H.Res. 1188 will require a usually standard “up-or-down vote” on the Senate health care bill (H.R. 3590).  A separate vote should not be needed to have the House vote like it is supposed to, but unfortunately today it is.  Passage of the Griffith resolution would block House leaders from proceeding with the highly objectionable “Slaughter Solution.”  As you know, this is the scheme to have the House just “deem” the Senate bill passed without having to have a recorded vote on it.  We all know the reason to avoid a recorded vote is to avoid accountability for ones actions.  That is NOT how democracy works.  It is how democracy crumbles. 

Some top House Democrats have acknowledged this.  Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-MA) has called the process “disingenuous” and he is right and we applaud his honesty and courage in saying so.  Anyone who steps out of the Beltway Bubble for just a few minutes would see that he is right. 

We again ask that you vote NO on the “previous question” and that you vote YES on H.Res. 1188 should it come to a vote.

We will count both your vote on the “PQ” and your vote on H.Res 1188 as KEY VOTES when calculating the FreedomWorks Economic Freedom Scorecard for 2010. The Economic Freedom Scorecard is used to determine eligibility for the Jefferson Award, which recognizes members of Congress with voting records that support economic freedom.
   
Sincerely,

Matt Kibbe
President and CEO
FreedomWorks.org

[Click here for the pdf version of this letter]

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