Opinion: Fitzpatrick's Priorities Uneven
A Doylestown resident takes on Congressman Mike Fitzpatrick in verse.
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Ann Shenkle, of Doylestown, wrote this poem after Bucks County Congressman Mike Fitzpatrick voted recently to repeal a medical device tax in President Barack Obama's healthcare law.
An Expanding Vision
Of the possible news that Fitzpatrick could skew
There’s a technique that we especially hate
He takes a concern that‘s a little bit true
And proceeds to fully EXAGGERATE!
As a region Bucks County is known
To care about rivers and clean air and such
Fitzpatrick has voted to curb all the rules
But to the vocally local he won’t say as much.
In his news he glad-hands and smiles for the pics
And loudly proclaims his good will
For everything wild and everything clean
But behind him the funding is nil.
His “newsletter” reports the repeal of a charge
On the makers of medical devices
According to him, he has to vote no
To save big business from costs and high prices.
Perhaps in some places the burden is great
But it is hard to imagine, once more,
How the thousands of jobs and lost billions he states
Will much bother the Eighth with just four.
That is four Eighth District makers who were saved a few bucks
Does it make your own burden much lighter my dear?
But four businesses saved of 2 plus percent
Means that four happy owners are now in the clear.
With ink on such drama all over the Eighth
A tax-saving tree loving Rep can expect
To keep coffers flowing with lobbyist checks
And the voters bogged down in political dreck.
Ann Melby Shenkle, Doylestown
Kathy McQuarrie
4:52 pm on Thursday, June 14, 2012
Much ado about the little stuff because Congress isn't dealing with the big stuff. They think we don't notice?
Nadia
9:54 am on Friday, June 15, 2012
Right on Ladies ! Fitz is a die-hard politician only.
Art As Social Inquiry
11:51 am on Friday, June 15, 2012
Recently I had a conversation with an insurance broker. I asked, "So tell me, what does a person do who does not have health insurance through a job; has a pre-existing condition; has been denied coverage on the individual market; makes too much or isn't old enough to qualify for a government program?
The agent said there wasn't much this person could do. Uninsurable.
I have spoken to Rep. Fitzpatrick and his legislative director a few times about this. The congressman's response is always that there are clinics, chambers of commerce where people could join and get group insurance through them, selling insurance across state lines.
Working people seeking out charity care? And why isn't there a system where a hard-working American can access affordable health insurance?
Rep. Fitzpatrick is woefully out of touch on this issue. He would have our healthcare system continue to rank LAST among ALL first-world nations.
Donna Witkowski DiPietro
1:20 pm on Friday, June 15, 2012
Love the poem as it represents my sentiment as well.
R-Factor
8:51 pm on Friday, June 15, 2012
There are many avenues that provide good quality "charity" health care to those who, by choice or hard times, find themselves without health insurance. In America, access to health care is available to all. Most hospitals, including St. Marys and Lower Bucks and Doylestown hospital, provide free care to those without insurance and unable to pay. Fitzpatrick is right. There are many ways to get 'free' quality health care in the Bucks/Montco region. So please, stop the woe-is-me lines and open your eyes. Instead of blaming Mike Fitzpatrick, do a little leg work and you will be surprised as to the available health care.
LA
4:06 pm on Sunday, June 17, 2012
@R-Factor ~ yes but, that "free" healthcare isn't really free. We're all paying for it through higher insurance premiums or local taxes.
I know someone who is of the working uninsured; makes (barely) too much to qualify for medicade, is too young for medicare, is diabetic, has high blood-pressure and recently had a heart attack and had to have a stent put in. He can't afford doctor visits, prescription meds unless given samples and has no-where to turn. Can he really go to the ER and spend a good portion of a day every time he needs to see a doctor?
I'm not being sarcastic, I'm asking for this person. So far, at every turn, he is stymied by lack of coverage, lack of money for coverage and by having a pre-existing condition. Are you saying that he can continue to go to St. Mary or Doylestown and never receive a bill that he can't afford to pay?