Protest signs went up, “Don’t Tread on Me” flags waved, and car horns blasted outside Rep. Frank Kratovil’s Bel Air office as Maryland’s Tea Party movement rallied to ensure a no vote from him on the health care bill.
About 200 people came to send a message to Kratovil by rallying outside his Main Street office for two hours Tuesday.
Tony Passaro, an organizer with the Bel Air “Tea Party Patriots,” said his group wants to reform the health care system, but not if it means turning it over to more government control.
“We’re just against big government doing health care reform,” said Passaro. “We’re afraid that if you leave that much money and that much power to the federal government, they’ll lose control of it.”
Kratovil, a moderate Democrat who voted against the health care bill passed by the House in November, has said he will vote no if, as expected, the House is asked to pass the Senate version of the bill.
After almost a year of public debate, House Democratic leaders are trying to round up 216 votes to pass the Senate version of the bill by this weekend, which is the most viable way to move the legislation forward after Senate Democrats lost their filibuster-proof majority with the election of Sen. Scott Brown, R-Mass.
Kevin Lawlor, a Kratovil spokesman, said the congressman’s position hasn’t changed; he will vote no on the Senate bill but will reserve judgment on any proposed fixes that might come later.
When asked about the proposed “Slaughter solution,” a complicated parliamentary tactic that would allow House Democrats to pass the Senate bill without a direct vote, Lawlor said Kratovil is more focused on the bill’s content.
“He’s been in favor of transparency the entire time,” said Lawlor. “In the long run, he knows he’s going to have to answer for this bill.”
[By Graham Moomaw of Capital News Service]
Carla Massoni says
Perhaps Mr. Kratovil will consider having “coffee” with his many constituents who voted to put a Democrat in office for the express purpose of health care reform. The Tea Party advocates do not speak for all of Mr. Kratovil’s constituents. I keep hearing about how we need to support Mr. Kratovil no matter what he does because “heaven forbid” we get an Andy Harris. Well, at least I would know for certain that Mr. Harris – a member of the Party of No – would be against health care reform – I did not expect it from Kratovil.
robert garland says
hmm- “we’re against big government doing health care reform”- I guess that leaves it up to the insurance industry and the medical profession to get it done, since that’s worked so well in the past.
as for Senator Harris- might as well have the same kind of uberpartisan minority obstructionist representation in congress that we now have serving us in Annapolis to further guarantee the lack of beneficial legislation. but then again these folks really don’t have anything positive to offer.
MARY WOOD says
I am disgusted with the fact that Kratovil is not supporting his 1st District constituents. He does not seem to have the courage to lead us into Health care reform. I am benefiting from Medicare,and wish a similar program was available for all ages.
Doneitall says
If he continues to fight against ‘health reform’, he is representing his constituents. One of the few Dems who is. BTW, what is a moderate Democrat? Just asking…
John in Worton says
I’m with Carla, Robert and Mary on this. If Andy Harris were our rep, at least we’d know what he stands for. As I said in another post, bring back Wayne — better a RINO than a Blue Dog.
To paraphrase a radio story this morning, Frank may try to distance himself from Health Care with his vote on Sunday, but he’ll find in November that the Republicans will tie him to it nonetheless — and he will have lost the Democratic base by deserting us.
Good luck, Frank.