Senator Bennet
I appreciated being invited to your “Colorado Conversation” at Carbondale. I’m the conservative Republican who acknowledged your efforts to channel the “re-spending” of stimulus money to paying down the deficit, and then suggested that you work for the repeal of Obamacare as a first step toward getting federal spending under control.
I strongly urge you to consider my suggestion, and encourage your Democratic colleagues to do likewise. Obamacare received a death blow in Federal Appeals Court, which declared the individual mandate unconstitutional, and it is headed for an affirmation of that decision in the conservative-majority Supreme Court. Obamacare is dead, and well it should be. I AGREE THAT HEALTHCARE NEEDS TO BE REFORMED; however, Obamacare wasn’t the way to do it, and the way it was enacted directly resulted in the Democratic party’s big losses in the 2010 elections. If the Democrats in the Senate, as well as in the House, were big enough to admit that they made a mistake (at Obama’s bidding), and voted to repeal Obamacare, I firmly believe the Republicans would join you in enacting realistic health care reform that actually addressed the issues without creating a whole set of new ones, and I believe there would then be a meaningful dialogue on other ways to cut the deficit and balance the budget. Obamacare represents the lion’s share of the deficit spending which will occur over the next twenty years, so repealing it would send a clear message to the rest of the world that we’re serious about getting spending under control. I have had serious reservations from the start about putting the nation’s healthcare system under federal control, given the massive Medicare abuses that we’ve already seen. Additionally, we can look to the Social Security system for an example of what happens when the federal government is allowed to gather up that kind of money, presumably to be spent on one program. The fund gets raided, and IOU’s are left in exchange for the money, which is spent without any controls or accountability whatsoever.
I welcome future opportunities to visit with you about important issues, calmly and respectfully giving you the opposing viewpoints. There needs to be a dialogue, and I’m willing to have it with you. I told the press outside after the Carbondale event that I “respect the man” even though I disagree with you on certain issues. I strongly disagree with the leader of your party, because I think his efforts to “fundamentally change” our country are misguided, and will destroy the very best of what our country offers to the rest of the world. For the sake of the country, the dialogue needs to happen. Join me in it.
Sincerely,
Kevin Stephenson