Don’t Let Them Get Away With It: Urge Your Local Newspaper to Report Your Congressman’s Vote on the House Health Care Reform Bill

Our local newspaper ran a wire service story reporting yesterday’s vote on the Democrat’s health care reform legislation. They also ran a syndicated piece tracking key votes last week from our local legislators.  What the paper did not include was any mention that our local “blue dog” democrat, Jim Costa, voted for the legislation. Costa told the newspaper in August that he favored an “incremental” approach that wouldn’t include a tax on the wealthy or a public option. And perhaps he did favor an incremental vote… up until the majority whip told him to put his party before his conscience.

Voters in his district who read their local newspaper every day deserve to know the nature of the decision Costa eventually made.  That’s particularly true because the newspaper provided him significant cover from mobsters in August and September when they did a story on how he won’t vote for the House Democratic Health Care plan because of its radical provisions like a public option.  Here’s the lead paragraph of the story: “Congressman Jim Costa said Wednesday the health-care reform bill passed out of a House committee is too much, too fast and he would not vote for it as is.”

Some might think that the oversight was due to the local paper’s perceived political bias. Maybe, but we think that the vote late Saturday night meant that many “blue dog” democrats who gave assurances or hints that they were opposed to ObamaCare or skeptical of socialized medicine in order to weather the political storm, were able to vote for a public option under a kind of unintentional media blackout.  We suspect that our local newspaper will ask Jim Costa about his vote and inform readers of his decision in the next couple of days.

If you live in a relatively conservative district, but have a Congressman who voted in support of the Democrat’s health care legislation, we suggest that you urge your local newspaper and television stations to cover the Democrat’s support for the controversial legislation.  Be polite and respectful in your request, but don’t allow the scheduling of the vote to stop people from finding out that when their “blue dog” democrat has an opportunity to vote to open the door for sweeping government control, they’ll say one thing and jump to do another.

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