There’s out of touch, and then there’s Dennis Moore.
I just heard an interview that Dennis Moore gave to EJ of “Kansas City’s Morning News with EJ and Ellen” on KMBZ, minutes after his vote on the Pelosi bill on Saturday night.
Never before have had I heard a sitting member of Congress so completely in the clouds regarding what he had just voted on just a few moments before his interview. Here is a rundown of what he said:
- He dodged the question about what insurance would mean for someone who currently has private insurance.
- He continued with the line that the bill would cover 45 million Americans who don’t have health insurance, a figure which has been proven incorrect time and time again.
- He continued with the ridiculous claim that the health care plan would reduce the deficit.
- He didn’t know how much insurance would cost for individuals under the plan passed.
- He couldn’t explain the missing “4%” in the reported “96% will have coverage” figure.
- He didn’t know why the bill cost what it did, or why the cost had gone down from previous estimates.
- He didn’t know if government insurance would be more expensive than private insurance.
- He didn’t know what would happen to insurance rates for people currently with private insurance should the bill pass. When asked if they would go down, he said “I hope that’s the case.”
- A staffer had to tell him that the Stupak Amendment passed, which banned funding of abortions. Despite almost 70 of his Democratic colleagues voting for that amendment, he voted no.
It would be one thing if he had voted for the bill and could passionately defend his reasons for doing so. But, he refused to answer most specific questions about the bill, because, as he said, the Senate hadn’t taken up the bill so he just didn’t know. Hey, Dennis -- why not talk about what the bill you just voted for would do if it passed as is?
All of this points to a very troubling aspect of this whole charade. He claimed he reviewed the bill and that his staff read the bill – but he was unable to answer very specific questions about what the legislation would do. Given that his staff read it and he studied it, shouldn’t he be able to give some kind of answer?
We’re only left to two conclusions – either one, he didn’t read the bill and had no clue what was in it, and simply voted as Pelosi told him to; or two, he did read the bill, knows what’s in it and what it does, but doesn’t want to tell the public, hiding behind excuses.
Either way, it’s not good this man is our Congressman. Either way, it’s crystal clear he’s out of touch.
It’s time to send him home.
Patricia
