Peter Roskam Indicates He Will Continue to Obstruct Universal Healthcare Coverage

On June 23, 2009, in Economic Justice, Healthcare, Peter Roskam, by RSR
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Jeff Berkowitz of Public Affairs reports today on Peter Roskam’s address to the Chicago chapter of the Republican National Lawyers Association. Roskam spoke to the group on June 22 at Svenson Law Offices in Chicago.  (Svenson is a law firm with a specialty in defeating Workers Compensation claims by injured employees. )

According to Berkowitz, Roskam addressed the issue of healthcare reform, indicating his opposition to any plan that includes a public option because such a plan would be a first step toward a single payer system, driving out options for private health coverage. Apparently leaving millions without any coverage or care is a better option in Roskam’s view than anything that might harm the private health insurance carriers.

Berkowitz says he asked Roskam if he could support a Democratic plan without a public option. Roskam “indicated that would get him and his fellow Republicans “to the table,” but other issues would likely remain to be worked out.” From this we gather that a vote by Roskam to support insurance coverage for 6th district Residents who presently have no access to care is highly unlikely. This is hardly a surprise. As usual, Roskam’s constituents will have to look to Democratic Congressmen in other districts to stand up for their needs.

According to Berkowitz, Roskam disputes the widely accepted estimate of 47 million uninsured Americans, indicating many are illegal immigrants or young people who are healthy and don’t want coverage, leaving only about 15 million truly uninsured. 15 million Americans without adequate health care, it would seem, are not worth worrying about.

Healthcare aside, it is interesting that Roskam chose to speak to this group. RNLA is in the vanguard of Republican efforts to suppress Democratic votes, devoting significant energy to the defamation of ACORN (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now).  ACORN is a large and venerable grassroots organization of low and moderate income families, born of the civil rights movement, that has worked tirelessly to ensure living wages for workers and benefits for workers,  increase the availability of affordable housing, end predatory lending practices, and improve the quality and funding of the public schools – all those things that Republicans like Roskam fiercely oppose.

Republicans hate ACORN because it has run very successful voter registration efforts aimed at giving a voice to the marginalized. Because the Republicans have such a diminutive base of economic elites, and because wedge issues like gay marriage are beginning to lose their power to sway voters, Republicans must increasingly rely on vote suppression to have any chance at all of regaining a majority. Hence the vicious and basesless attacks against ACORN that have become so common.

I find it quite ironic that many of the same Republicans who are so critical of what they view as a weak response by President Obama to the obvious fraud in the recent Iranian election are so eager to keep people from voting here at home.

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Peter Roskam Throws Hissy Fit on House Floor Over Taxes on Dead Rich Folks

On May 22, 2009, in Economic Justice, Estate Tax, Middle Class, Peter Roskam, Poverty, by RSR
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Received a Tweet from Peter Roskam  wanting to know what I thought about his floor speeech regarding the estate tax, which Peter and other wingnuts like to call the “death tax”.

Well. I always want to do my part to help my Congressman so here goes.

First off,  I was  pleased to hear him name publicly one by one the interest groups to which he is beholden: U.S. Chamber, National Association of Manufacturers, etc.

I was also impressed by Peter’s emotion, the passion that this issue arouses in him. Thought his hairpiece was going to fly off at the end ;) .

What troubles me deeply, however, is that it it is only taxes on rich people that can get Peter aroused this way.  Not homeless veterans on the streets of DuPage County, not children in Wood Dale without adequate health care, not torture and illegal detention authorized by the President and Vice President in Washington. Nope. Just taxes on rich white people in Wheaton, or in this case, rich dead white people in Wheaton.

The truth about the estate tax, which Peter Roskam is unwilling to share with you, is that the estate tax will affect only 0.24 percent of all people who die in 2009, individuals who die with an estate valued at $3.5 million or more or married couples (heterosexual) with an estate of $7 million or more. What’s really sad is that Peter Roskam has chosen to use his seat in Congress, OUR seat in Congress, to represent the financial interests of only that tiny fraction of the residents of his district.

Repealing the estate tax, as Roskam, would have us do, would cost billions in reduced revenue, necessitating either increased taxes on the poor and middle class or major reductions in spending. Cuts to the bloated defense budget, of course, are off limits, to Peter and his Republican colleagues, so cuts would have to be made for things like college financial aid, food stamps, Medicare, veterans services, childrens’ health care – all those programs to help poor and middle class families that Peter has fought against so vigorously during his time in office. More than likely, it would be a combination of both increased taxes and reduced services that would be required to give this expensive gift to a few very wealthy dead people.

So, thanks, Peter for letting me know about your speech.  I honestly have to say though that I didn’t care for it much.

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