Cliff played dress-up to visit Guantanamo a few years ago

I have the misfortune of living in Florida’s Sixth Congressional District, which means that I am represented [sic] by Congressman Cliff Stearns. Because Cliff has gotten into office and maintained his position there by appealing to the baser instincts of his base in the Republican Party, he now faces the dilemma of being increasingly irrelevant. In his battle to find relevancy, he is up against a formidable opponent: reality. Two recent examples will show where Cliff stands in his losing battle against reality.

In Wednesday’s St. Petersburg Times, we learn that Cliff has joined forces with Representatives Ginny Brown-Waite and Ron Paul, and, after squinting really hard while looking sideways at the Constitution, they have decided that President Obama must ask permission from Congress before accepting the Nobel Peace Prize.

The Times gives us an excerpt from a letter they sent to Obama:

The letter reads: “Article I, Section 9, of the Constitution, clearly states: ‘No person holding any office of profit or trust under them, shall, without the consent of the Congress, accept of any present, emolument, office, or title, of any kind whatever, from any king, prince or foreign state.’

“As the Nobel Peace Prize is awarded by a committee appointed by the Parliament of Norway, the Storting, the prize is clearly subject to the requirements set forth in Article 1, Section 9, of the Constitution. Obtaining permission from Congress should be straightforward.”

The entire article is worth a read, as the Times steps us through the historical precedent (Teddy Roosevelt in 1906 established a Congressional committee to disburse his winnings to charity but did NOT ask permission from Congress before accepting the prize) and the legal analysis, presenting two legal scholars who dismantle the argument that Obama must seek permission to accept the prize. We also are provided with this gem from Democrat Debbie Wasserman Shultz:

“They’ve obviously lost control of their faculties, lost their mind and are so consumed by despair they are in the minority (party) that there is no depth they will not sink to,” said Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Weston.

There really is nothing that can be added to that description.

My second example of Stearns’ distance from reality was prompted by KarenM posting Anthony Weiner’s list of 55 Congrssmembers who receive govenrment-funded single-payer healthcare while fighting the public option. Stearns, unsurprisingly, is on the list. That prompted me to submit the following letter to the Gainesville Sun. It was published only on their website. [Ooh, look, someone is fighting back!] Here it is with the links embedded and their formatting errors corrected:

On October 22, Representative Anthony Weiner (D-NY) published a list of “55 Republicans who have steadfastly opposed other Americans getting the public option” but who “currently receive government-funded; government-administered single-payer health care – Medicare.” Included in that list was our very own Representative Cliff Stearns. If Mr. Stearns is so opposed to the public option or single payer for the rest of us, I respectfully request that he give up his Medicare coverage and take his business to the almighty unfettered marketplace along with his constituents who are under 65.

On October 26, The Villages Daily Sun reported on a town hall meeting held October 24 by Mr. Stearns. According to the article:

In a brief slide show, he outlined his position on health care reform. He broke down the numbers of those currently uninsured, pointing out when the number of illegal aliens is removed, as well as people who might not want to pay for coverage, there are 8 million uninsured Americans, a smaller number than being tossed around in the debate.

His stance is that because that number is smaller, reforms should be incremental, not as sweeping as other plans proposed.

“Why not let groups form cooperatives?” he asked.

It’s not at all clear how Mr. Stearns can take the widely accepted figure from the Census Bureau of 47 million Americans lacking health insurance coverage and whittle that down to 8 million. Perhaps he removed too many “illegal aliens”. The non-profit, non-partisan National Coalition on Health Care informs us that 85% of the uninsured are native or naturalized citizens. Further, they state that over 8 in 10 of the uninsured come from working families. I suspect that Mr. Stearns is conflating “might not want to pay for coverage” with “can’t afford to pay for coverage”.

As for Mr. Stearns’ call for cooperatives, he only needs to go back to the 1990’s here in Florida for an example of the failure of health care cooperatives. From the October 10 Miami Herald, we learn that cooperatives were enacted in Florida in 1993 but were closed in 1999 after suffering massive losses. As for the new cooperatives being proposed by Senator Max Baucus, the Herald quotes the Congressional Budget Office that `they seem unlikely to establish a significant market presence in many areas of the country.”

So here is Congressman Stearns in all of his hypocritical glory. He personally partakes of single-payer government-funded health care while advocating a failed model for the rest of us and engaging in partisan spinning of independent analyses in order to justify his position.

Cliff Stearns is fighting reality, and reality is winning. I haven’t yet gotten around to calling Cliff’s office for a response to my call for him to give up his government-sponsored healthcare. I’ll report back if I get a response.