The House's Hall of Shame

How do Representatives like Louis Gohmert (R-TX), Kay Granger (R-TX) and Jeb Hensarling (R-TX) vote against health reform?  Their districts, Texas's 1st, 12th and 5th Congressional Districts, have 25.5 percent, 25.7 percent and 25.8 percent, of their respective populations uninsured.

How do guys like Connie Mack (R-FL) and Vernon Buchanan (R-FL) vote against health reform?  Their districts, Florida's 14th and 13th Congressional Districts, have 26.1 percent and 26.2 percent of their respective populations uninsured.

How does a guy like K. Michael Conway, (R-TX) vote against health reform?  His district, Texas's 11th, has 27 percent of its population uninsured.

How does a guy like David Boren (D-OK) vote against health reform.  His district, Oklahoma's 2nd Congressional District, has 29.3 percent of its population uninsured.

How do guys like Lincoln Diaz-Balart (R-FL) and Mario Diaz-Balart (R-FL) vote against health reform.  Each of their districts, Florida's 21st and 25th Congressional Districts, have 31.3 percent of their populations uninsured.  

How does a woman like Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL) vote against health reform.  Her district, Florida's 18th, has 32.7 percent of its population uninsured.

How does a guy like Pete Sessions (R-TX) vote against health reform?  His district, Texas's 32nd Congressional District, has 35.7 percent of its population uninsured.  

Do these people believe we can just keep doing what we are doing? Do they really think high quality hospitals and skilled physicians will continue to survive in markets where one-in-four, or one-in-three people have no insurance, and therefore no way to pay for their healthcare?  Do they really think it makes sense for the small percentage of the population that is hospitalized, to pay all the costs of treating the uninsured, so our hospitals can stay solvent?

These are House members.  They run from areas that are relatively small, geographically.  Their districts have enormous needs for health reform, with uninsured populations 60 percent or more above the the national average.  And yet, apparently, they are unable to hear the painful sounds of today's status quo crying out from within their own districts. 

These Represenatives are my nominees for the House's Hall of Shame.