Editor:

What is the health care reform all about?  Is it about people’s health or is it about the entrenched interests of the health care industry?  For Representative Jim Matheson, it must be all about money because if you look at the amount of money given to him by the health care political action committees from the first of the year through June, the Almighty Dollar was a big factor. 

Representative Matheson collected at least $109,500 from those PACs, and if you compare that with political donations from all sources for Rep. Chaffetz and Bishop, their combined take was about equal to Matheson’s. 

In a meeting with President Obama and the Blue Dogs, Matheson’s main objections to health care reform were that it contributed to the deficit and the costs were not contained.  In spite of the President’s reassurance that he would not sign a health care reform bill unless it was revenue neutral and costs were contained, Rep. Matheson voted against health care reform.  We do not know for sure what his other objections were, other than the bill needs more time for study and discussion.  There is a saying in the legal profession that justice delayed is justice denied, and in the case of Matheson, delaying a vote would give the lobbyists more time to defeat the bill.  In effect, Matheson would be voting with the “Party of No.” I always thought that Democrats were for the people while Republicans were for business.  Where does Rep. Matheson stand? 

 

Valerie Van Velkinburgh

Kaysville