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| 11/9/2009 12:09:00 PM | Email this article • Print this article | Skelton no way
defines 'liberal'
EDITORIAL
Jack Miles
Editor
U.S. Rep. Ike Skelton broke from his party and defied all those who try to portray him as a liberal by voting with the GOP against the Affordable Health Care for America Act and by voting yes for a key, social conservative amendment to that act.
Despite the close vote, 225-220, and how hard Democrats, with President Obama in the lead, pushed for passage, Skelton said no to the health care overhaul legislation.
Skelton earlier this year rejected holding town hall meetings on health care. He rejected the circus atmosphere that discolored some of those meetings because, in his 33 years in Congress, he has preferred to talk with people one or one or in small groups. Instead of taking Skelton at his word, some conservatives and liberals alike went off half-cocked, thinking Skelton, after a long career of voting conservatively, had somehow become a liberal. His vote Saturday should set the record straight. Skelton voted no. Emphatically no. No, he voted, against the health care bill.
"I am concerned about the impact the legislation could have on rural hospitals and doctors. The proposed reductions to Medicare reimbursement could further squeeze the budgets of rural health care providers," Skelton said. "I also oppose the creation of a new government-run public option and continue to have serious concerns about its potential unintended consequences for Missourians who have private insurance plans they like."
Nothing liberal in those statements.
Skelton's vote also helped attach a Republican amendment to the health care bill. The bill, breaking with the liberal wing within in his party, states no federal health care dollars can be used for abortion.
Not every vote by Skelton, who represents a district of broad interests - military, agricultural, urban and suburban - is going to please everyone every time. Some will point out this or that vote as outrageously liberal or outrageously conservative. But considering Skelton's position as chairman of the House Armed Services Committee - a body of power that focuses on the nation's defense, and the responsibilities that go with that position - imagining he has anything on his mind other than what is in the best interests of this nation strains the imagination.
With regard to the idea that Skelton could ever be pigeonholed as a liberal, his votes against the health care bill and for restricting abortion spending should put such fantasies to rest.
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Reader Comments
Posted: Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Article comment by:
Andrew Bauer
Although I applaud Congressman Skelton for voting No on the Health Care debacle, was it his true "non-liberal" stand on the issue, or the fact that Peolsi had carefully counted votes to allow those congressmen facing certain opposition to register their vote in the negative to avoid the embarrassing truth come November 2010?
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