From Patrick McGrady, a candidate for House of Delegates District 34A:
Editor,
Late Sunday night, the United States Congress and President passed the Health Care and Education Affordability act that has been in the works for the last 15 months. This will require every individual in the United States to have a qualified Health Insurance plan at their own expense, the expense of their employer, or at the expense of every taxpayer.
I am very concerned for the impact of this legislation on individuals and small businesses in Maryland. It brings with it tax increases at the Federal and State level, and adds more mandates to each and every State. In order to pay for these new unfunded mandates we will have to cut spending or raise taxes in Maryland.
I refuse to support tax increases on Marylanders. We already suffer from the 4th highest taxes in the United States and it doesn’t look like it is going to get better any time soon. As we move forward through this recession we must look at every possible option when cutting spending.
Politicians for too long have voted for new programs without any real solutions. I will bring solutions to Annapolis and make the hard choices required to keep Maryland a great place to live and raise a family. I do not want to be a politician. I want to represent you as a Statesman and citizen legislator.
As your State Delegate I will fight for families and small businesses as they face new issues that arise as the details of the 3,000 page legislation are discovered.
Sincerely,
Patrick McGrady
Aberdeen
What new taxes can I expect, just so I can be ready? I don’t use tanning beds, by the way.
That’s the issue Dave. We don’t know what is coming. The standards were upped for Medicaid coverage for the poor so now 300,000 more people will be covered.
The implication here is that there is no free lunch. We can’t supply health care for 300,000 Marylanders without paying for it with reduced spending elsewhere or increased taxes.
patrick, we can afford to take care of the sick and needy, we can’t afford $2billion a year minimum to take care of illegal aliens who are taking thousands of jobs from our citizens. Do you realize how many illegal aliens go into emergency rooms and don’t pay? Do you know how many are bringing tb and measles back into this country and many of their children were going to school without innoculations? Amazing how many leaders don’t even care to mention the severity of this. Could it be because of illegal aliens are voting? Thank God we have a few good leaders who are the minority that are diligently fighting on the behalf of the citizens and working class in md. Shank, Dwyer, McDonough, McComas,Smigiel and others..
How?
Mr. McGrady wants to live in the early 20th century. We are finally joining the 21st century like the rest of the developed western world. Everyone needs health insurance, just as we all need garbage collection, running water, police protection, paved roads, etc. The end of Bush’s inane tax cuts for the rich will help in paying for this necessary improvement.
Mr.Weinstock,
How do paved roads and police protection fit into the taxes that you pay for another tax payers’ insurance? The Constitution does not guarantee health insurance for all, it does not force people to buy health insurance, at least it did not until the current administration jammed through/bought/forced the hc legislation. We will see if it is legal to force people to purchase health care after the Supreme Court rules. Your analogy is faulty, apples and oranges, the gov’t is not my mother and I do not want it to assume the role.
I do not want to have the IRS determine if my parents need a heart bypass or if the dr. that they are seeing can make that determination. I do not want to pay for anyone’s abortion, or for the birth control choices of single teenaged girls, but this bill forces me to do so by my taxes paying for the services at women’s clinics that provide those services. I am not opposed to the procedures that those women chose, but I am opposed to paying for those procedures for some other woman to choose for herself.
This bill is a faulty and corrupt takeover of almost 1/6th of our US economy. It needs to be repealed.
I take it that Patrick McGrady doesn’t support Delegates Impallaria and McDonough since they voted for O’Malley’s plan to expand Medicare and cost Maryland taxpayers an extra $600 million a year. Or is Mr. McGrady’s objections only against Democrats spending millions of our tax dollars?