Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Oakland Press Editorial Focuses on the Trees, misses the Forest

This morning's Oakland Press editorial focuses on my recent guest column in the paper. The piece focuses entirely on the wrong issue. My point of the column was not Joe Knollenberg's urging women to do self exams and to get their mammograms. My point was the hypocrisy of Joe Knollenberg being at a health conference for women, when he has such a terrible voting record on health issues. Joe Knollenberg voted against expanding a successful government program that provides health care coverage for millions of low income children (SCHIP). Even when the majority of his colleagues voted to expand the program, Joe voted against it.

The issue for millions of Americans is that they don't have any health care coverage for themselves and their families. Families across Oakland County and this country are afraid every day that they will have a major health issue that they won't be able to afford to get treated because they have no insurance or worse yet, no job.

Oakland County residents are hurting because of $4 gas, lack of health coverage and an uncertain economy and Joe Knollenberg is talking about being called a name.

  • Maybe Joe Knollenberg should start talking about issues that really matter to Americans, like a health care program that makes it so that a mother earning minimum wage can afford to take care of her children when they get sick and take them to a doctor.
  • Maybe Joe Knollenberg should do something about outrageous profits of America's oil companies that continue to rip Americans off at the pump.
  • Maybe Joe Knollenberg should worry more about our soldiers in Iraq that are committing suicide at an unprecedented rate and others that are coming home and not being able to get the care they need to lead productive lives.
  • Maybe Joe Knollenberg should think about what it does to our soldiers to be sent into a war zone for 3, 4, 5 times and what it does to their families.
  • Maybe Joe Knollenberg should vote for funding to screen and treat our soldiers for post-traumatic stress syndrome when they return from Iraq.
  • Maybe Joe Knollenberg should introduce legislation to address the mental health issues that are causing our returning soldiers to commit suicide at the highest rates in history.
  • Maybe Joe Knollenberg should think of what a war that our President lied us into and our country is borrowing hundreds of billions of dollars from China to support is doing to our nation's economy and the fact that our great, great grandchildren will be working to pay off that debt. Those are some of the real issues.
  • Why isn't Joe Knollenberg talking about those issues, instead of worrying about whether his opponent's campaign literature has a logo on his shirt or not?

Joe Knollenberg has had almost 16 years to make the lives of his constituents better and his most noted legislation is the repealing of a law that required low-flush toilets because they couldn't clear the bowl. I know my life isn't one bit better because Joe Knollenberg has been my Congressman for the last 16 years.

Other people have noticed Joe Knollenberg's voting record too. I repeat these rankings for those that may think that I've veered off course.

Stop your whining, Joe and let's talk about the issues.

2005-2006 Representative Knollenberg supported the interests of the National Breast Cancer Coalition 0 percent in 2005-2006 and 2006-2007.

2007 Alliance for Headache Disorders ranked Knollenberg as a 0

2007 American Academy of Family Physicians gave Knollenberg a 0 rating

2007 Children's Health Fund gave Knollenberg a 0 rating.

2006 American Public Health Association ranked Knollenberg with a 0 rating.

2005-2006 AIDS Action Council rated Knollenberg with a 0 rating.

2005-2006 American Academy of Emergency Mediine ranked Knollenberg - 50 percent.

2005-2006 American Nurses Association ranked Knollenberg with a 0 percent.

2005-2006 National Rural Health Association ranked Knollenberg with a 0 percent.

1 comment:

MIKE said...

It is a ashame that the media and some people focus on the trivial and ignore the root issue. Sad to say, the media follows the Rove gameplan which is to attack the messenger so they don't have to defend their message. Knollenberg is a shill for big business - that has become abundantly clear. Calling him a statesmen, as one writer said, and Peters a 'politician' is so laughable. The perverbial pot calling the kettle black! Time for change!