By Mark David Blum, Esq.

Back on April 15, 2009, Americans across the land gathered for Tea Parties to protest loudly against the huge deficits being run up and massive spending programs being enacted.

The Establishment was aghast at the People’s then audacity to speak out on matters of great public concern. Americans saw the twelve trillion dollar debt as being a sin. Labeled nuts and fringe groups, Tea Party participants were summarily dismissed by the media (sans Fox), by Congress, and by the Administration. It was as if We the People, didn’t matter anymore.

Now anew comes a great national debate regarding the Democrats’ health care proposal – H.R. 3200. (Read it, if you can). Americans with strongly held opinions are speaking out coast to coast. Again comes the Administration and Congress with their respective media outlets blasting the sheer chutzpah of anybody who dares to oppose the legislation presently pending before Congress. According to Sen. Charles Schumer, the Republicans and the citizenry have until September 15, 2009 to fall in line or the Bill will be voted upon solely by Democrats following a party mandate.

The presentation and viewpoint of Americans must not be ignored. Every last one of us, from the richest to the poorest, from the most educated to the most enlightened to the most forlorn, must not be ignored. It is damnable and condemnable to dare make efforts to silence vocalized dissent. Give the People their voice lest they perceive themselves silenced which breeds revolution.

We as a People are now doubly angry. We are angry about the size and scope and spending by government. We have had it with taxes. We are furious with the size and scope of the current federal bureaucracy. Now comes this health care bill to cost more trillions of dollars and which at its’ core, does not resolve the problems faced by tens of millions of Americans regarding health care costs and coverage.

Already, the national government has grown so large that it requires more than $4 Trillion to manage. The cost of our federal government is greater than the tax receipts from over 300,000,000 people. Taxes are too high. People are pissed.

Taxes are too high because we are funding a government that is too large. Perhaps my President would have more legitimacy in his efforts if at the same time as he is pumping hundreds of billions of dollars into a decayed economy, he was slashing the size of the federal government.

Instead, we get H.R. 3200. A behemoth that threatens to consume what few tax dollars remain available. The Bill does not have a single payor option and so the People will be either paying a punishment tax for not having insurance, or will by tax dollars be buying private insurance to the uninsured.

Pulling the plug on grandma, rationing of resources, and cuts in Medicare are not at the root of the anger. These fallacious arguments are just the vehicle by which the People are venting their ultimate frustration with government, spending, and callous disregard for the opinions of others.

However you slice it, the bread and butter elements of the proposed health care overhaul are not being discussed. Our legislators are holding Town Hall gatherings and the People there are expressing their outrage or support. But the individual Congressfolks and Senators are not listening. There is no “debate” or “discussion” ongoing. My own Congressman, Dan Maffei has yet to hold a Town Hall meeting convenient to me but even if he did so, I sincerely doubt that anything I had to say would be considered and made a part of the ultimate end solution pending in H.R. 3200.

We need a vigorous national discussion. But it needs to be a discussion. What we are getting is either argument in support of the pending Bill or opposition thereto. Whichever way your own politics shake out on the issue, let nobody silence you. Loud and vocal opinions are part of how we as a nation will come to a consensus. Being polite and subdued does not resolve the debate and in fact, takes us further and farther away from the ultimate goal. Most importantly, whether spoken softly or with great volume, our legislators need to listen to the ideas of the People and take those thoughts back to Washington and find a real solution to our nation’s health care crisis.