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When my local newspaper prints a cartoon of an angry President Obama driving a tank labeled HEALTH TAKEOVER, and only a courageous Blue Dog (could that be Congressman Taylor??) standing in the way, it is time for me to at least express my reasoned opinion in favor of Health Care Reform. This is an issue of extreme importance to our future. We must all study the facts, and hope that Congress will ignore the special interests and do likewise.

Despite the many naysayers so often featured on this page, Health Care Reform will SAVE money. We are currently on an unsustainable cost curve. We need to change it. The current plan before Congress will do that. It may not be perfect, and the Blue Dogs may be right that it needs more ways to control costs. Let's make whatever changes we can to control even more costs, and get this thing passed, the sooner the better!!

President Truman wanted to do this sixty years ago, and it should have been done then. Europe, Japan, Australia, every other advanced country, have all adopted a type of National Health Care, and all have much lower costs, and most have better health care for more people. We have given the private health care industry too much power and money for too long. Surely we have learned, from the many abuses committed by that "industry", that "Markets" do not magically deliver quality health care. Markets ignore social concerns. Government should be empowered to protect citizens from the abuses, and guarantee health care based on the social contract with the citizens.

I urge Congressman Taylor to do what he can to put cost-cutting measures into the health care plan, leaving the essential elements in place, and then lead his Blue Dogs in voting FOR it.


John T.
Long Beach, MS