Barack Obama is targeting Florida in his attempt to pass a sweeping expansion of federal control of health care in the Senate before the end of the year. Could he be targeting Florida Senator George LeMieux?
LeMieux has been an outspoken opponent of the Democrats’ plans that will ration health care, raise taxes on the middle class and drive up costs. He was appointed in August to fill a vacancy and is not planning to run for his seat in 2010.
Friday evening, Ashley Walker, the Florida state director for Obama’s renamed campaign arm, “Organizing for America”, sent an email from info@barackobama.com to organize mass phone calls and other events on Wednesday, Dec. 16 throughout the state.
The call to action comes for a week that could bring a critical vote on Obamacare and the email specifically refers to the debate currently underway in the Senate:
This Wednesday, we’re holding rapid response phone banks throughout Florida to spread the word about the urgent need for health insurance reform. With debate in the Senate underway, we need to show that Americans support the President’s plan and want real reform.
Organizing for America volunteers like you will be getting together to make calls, asking folks to make their voices heard in this debate.
We’ve got events all across Florida — from Jupiter to Tallahassee, and Naples to Middleburg.
Why is Obama targeting Florida?
Democrat Senator Bill Nelson’s support for Obamacare is not in doubt.
Could he be targeting Florida’s other Senator, George S. LeMieux? LeMieux was appointed by Florida Governor Charlie Crist in August when Crist faced the dilemma of appointing a senator for the senate seat he wants to win in November, 2010. LeMieux is Crist’s former Chief of Staff and is understood to be loyal to Crist.
Could LeMieux become a potential pawn in the struggle to stop the Obama administration’s attempt to federalize health care?
LeMeiux has recently been singled out by Democrats for his opposition to Obamacare. On Nov. 22, the Los Angeles Times reported:
Consider the words of the Florida Democratic Party, where one of the signal Senate campaigns is playing out: A 2010 contest featuring a popular Republican governor, Charlie Crist, whose own party is challenging him for siding with President Obama on the first of the White House’s spending sprees, the economic stimulus. Democrats weighed in with this volley for interim Sen. George LeMieux, who was appointed to office by Crist and on Saturday was among the 39 Republicans voting against debating the healthcare bill.
“Instead of standing with his constituents, Sen. LeMieux has decided to stand with the Republican ‘Party of NO,’ which is offering no real alternatives and no real solutions,” the Democrats wrote in an overnight e-mail to their forces in Florida. “Sen. LeMieux’s unwillingness to even discuss the issue of health insurance in our country — which has been on the minds of Floridians for many years — shows that neither he nor Gov. Charlie Crist are interested in fixing our broken health insurance system and are only interested in seeing Democrats and President Obama fail.”
So far LeMieux has stood firm in opposition to Obamacare. The Democrats’ claim that he is “unwilling to discuss the issue of health insurance” is false. For example, a Nov. 24 article in the Palm Beach Daily News reports:
U.S. Sen. George LeMieux thinks the country needs to do something about improving health care coverage.
But he strongly believes the 2,074 pages currently on the table — which includes funding abortions, slashing Medicare coverage and raising taxes by a half trillion dollars — is not the solution.
In addition, health insurance prices will go up for those who currently have insurance, he said.
“So we’re going to raise taxes, cut Medicare and raise your health insurance prices,” he said. “That doesn’t sound to me like a good start.”
…
“The last 10 years, health-care premiums have gone up 130 percent, way outpacing inflation and the cost of living,” he said. “We’ve got nearly 4 million Floridians who don’t have health insurance … and that’s a problem.”
… if you have health insurance, your rates will increase, LeMieux said, citing the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office as the source.
As of last week, the federal government tallied $12 trillion in debt, he said.
“Every household in America is responsible for $100 thousand of the nation’s debt,” he said. “Right now, the third biggest expenditure in the federal budget is our interest payment. It’s more than $200 billion a year — twice as much as we would need in a year to pay for this health care plan.”
If the spending continues, the interest payment will become $700 billion in 2019, LeMieux said. That additional $5 billion is more than what is spent on education, energy, homeland security and the two wars combined, he said.
“I’m afraid that we’re on the precipice of not being able to uphold the American creed, which is that we have an obligation to the next generation to provide the same opportunities — or better — than we have,” he said.
LeMieux spoke about his first piece of legislation — a bill he introduced aimed at stopping health care fraud. Among its components: create a chief health care fraud prevention officer and use technology similar to the credit card industry to track questionable claims. It’s estimated that the government will lose a quarter trillion dollars this year to health care fraud, he said.
While LeMieux is not running for his seat in 2010, there are reports that he may want to challenge Florida’s other senator, Democrat Bill Nelson in 2012.
At this time, all Floridians should show support for Senator LeMieux principled opposition Obama’s health care legislation. You can call his senate office at (202) 224-3041 or email him at http://lemieux.senate.gov/public/?p=EmailSenatorLeMieux.
Florida Republicans are currently divided over the candidacy of Governor Crist. He has a strong challenger in former State House Speaker Marco Rubio. On this issue though all opponents of Obamacare, Republicans, Independents, and moderate Democrats are united in their support for Senator LeMieux.
LeMieux’s term as senator will end in January, 2011, but he needs to understand that his continued principled opposition to current health care legislation and any emerging deals Obama and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid may offer is critical to his future political ambitions whether they are for Nelson’s senate seat or other political positions in Florida.
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