Owens Gives Away His Vote to Pelosi & Betrays the People of NY-23

Today, the race for NY-23 just lost another candidate, incumbent Congressman Bill Owens, who told Nancy Pelsoi she could have his vote for Bigger Government this morning. Owens made his decision before he even finished reading the bill. You can read Owens' justification here. When you read it you almost have to wonder whether Owens' staff could write it with a straight face. At least now we really know how liberal Owens is, and now we know he is more liberal than his Democratic colleague, Michael Arcuri, who said he is voting no tomorrow.

I must admit that there was never actually any doubt in my mind about where Owens stood on this issue, but some people thought he would at least listen to his constituents and realize that a large majority of people are against this plan. But Owens chose a partisan path and people are continuing to ask themselves, "Where are the jobs and how will our state survive?" With his decision today, Owens basically just told every person who called him, visited him, wrote him or met with his staff to go bug off. So tomorrow Owens is voting to spend your tax dollars on the bribes we wrote about earlier this week: the Louisiana Purchase, the Cornhusker Kickback, the Gator-Aid and the Husky Hospital. But what did Owens get for NY-23? He got a commitment from Nancy Pelosi and Barack Obama for some extra campaign cash and union assistance this coming November.

Saying, "the math is sound on this bill," Owens continues to claim that this bill will lower premiums and that Medicare beneficiaries will see their coverage improve. Both of these statements are patently false though. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office makes it clear that this bill requires 10 years of tax increases and 10 years of Medicare cuts to pay for just 6 years of benefits. The American people don't want this bill and they realize that 10 years of payments are not worth just 6 years of benefits. They know there is a better way -- a bipartisan way. You can ask the Democratic Whip of the United States Senate who spoke very clearly on these issues: Medicare cuts and premium increases. Senator Durbin confirms that the Medicare program will be cut. In the second video clip, he also confirms that your premiums will rise.

After you see a fellow Democrat expose Bill Owens on these issues ask yourself if this Big Government take-over is the right thing for our health care system, our children and our grandchildren. Do we want to bankrupt the Medicare program and tax our middle class to pay for a government take-over of our health care system? Ask yourself if you want to continue down this path of reckless spending and higher taxes. We should shelve this bill and start fresh. We can do that just as soon as we shelve Bill Owens and put someone else in his office to do the job of the people. Remember this weekend this coming November.