Joe Knollenberg, Republicans Make Us Sick

As I was sitting in the audience at the Rochester Chamber Legislative Update meeting in Rochester yesterday I felt angry and the more I listened, the angrier I got. There was Joe Knollenberg telling everyone how his health care idea, tax credits for wellness programs for employers, and his other mantra, personal responsibility, are the cures to what ails the American health care system.

Then I see this little article in the Oakland Press. I see them all the time, people holding fundraisers for people who have some kind of health care crisis, many times it's children. When I saw this article it made me think, this should NEVER happen in America. It also made me think how Joe was telling the audience about personal responsibility. Mike Bishop was doing it too. Well, I have to say, all that talk about personal responsibility was making me sick. When someone we know gets diagnosed with cancer, there is usually no personal responsibility that person has for getting cancer. Maybe smoking is an exception.

The boy mentioned in the article isn't to blame for getting cancer. What did he do that he doesn't deserve to get the best treatment available?

We are spending trillions of dollars on the fiasco in Iraq, but we can't afford health care for all of our citizens? What a joke.

As the line from the movie Network says, "I'm mad as hell, and I'm not going to take it any more." We can have universal, single payer health care in this country, if we just get mad enough and direct our anger at our government and demand it.

Joe, we aren't going to take it any more. Republicans are out of touch with main stream, middle class Americans and the "Let them eat cake" attitude of the Republican party is going to lead to sweeping victories for Democrats in the fall.

Knollenberg At the Rochester Chamber Legislative Update

Well, at least Joe Knollenberg showed up in person this year. But as to what he had to say on health care, I must say, it was less than impressive. Nothing new from Joe. Just more of the same. Knollenberg again talked about employer based wellness programs and the idea of offering tax credits to employers who offer "wellness" programs.

The other favorite topic of conservatives was also touched up, blaming trial lawyers for the high cost of health care, even though studies show that only 1% of our health care dollars go to patients who are harmed by medical negligence.

One place where Joe and I agree is on creating and using electronic medical records more extensively. My only concern with electronic medical records are privacy issues and protecting those records against government spying or those records being used for nefarious activities.

While Knollenberg, Bishop and Garfield all talked about the problems, the don't seem to have many solutions, except for more personal responsibility and cutting costs, and of course more competition.

The only problem is, none of them really offered one solution for the 47 million Americans with no health care, regardless of how healthy they are, they still can't afford. Oh, and the other thing Republicans always talk about, the word privatization always rolls off their tongues.

Basically the Republican response to those 47 million Americans, "Let them eat cake," or to paraphrase Dick Cheney's response to Martha Raddatz when Cheney was told that 2/3's of Americans are against the war in Iraq, "So."

Joe Knollenberg wants more jobs shipped overseas

The Colombia Free Trade Agreement has been in the news a lot lately. Yesterday Nancy Pelosi had a vote to change the rules to allow the House to delay a vote on the deal. Joe Knollenberg says he wants to protect Oakland county jobs, but guess what, Joe wants even more jobs to be shipped overseas apparently. Free trade has proven to be the giant sucking sound for good paying American jobs going to other countries. Yet apparently Joe Knollenberg wants even more free trade and even more jobs to leave Michigan for low wage countries.

Joe, what American Doesn't Deserve Health Care?

Tomorrow morning, Joe Knollenberg, Mike Bishop and John Garfield will face the public and talk about health care. Joe Knollenberg's position on this issue is that businesses should offer wellness training to their employees and the business owner deserves a $200 tax credit per employee for offering the training.

Well, I have news for you Joe, that's not nearly a good enough plan for the 47 million Americans without health care coverage. Studies are now coming forth that lack of health coverage is killing us prematurely and an employer based wellness program won't help. I ask you this question, Joe, what American doesn't deserve the same coverage that you have as a member of the House of Representatives? What American doesn't deserve to be able to go to the doctor and receive the best health care available? Are you better than the rest of America, Joe?

Joe's Man, John McCain and the 100 year Doctrine In Iraq

Joe Knollenberg has endorsed John McCain for President. John McCain wants to stay in Iraq as an occupying force for 10,000 years. How do we stay in Iraq for 10,000 years? 6 months at a time.

John McCain's Temper has also been an issue. John McCain drops the C* word

Joe Knollenberg actively seeks help from Michigan College Republican "volunteers"

Joe Knollenberg in the video below is seeking the help of College Republicans, headed up by Justin Zatkoff. Usually volunteers aren't paid, which is the definition of being a volunteer. Apparently though, Joe Knollenberg isn't getting volunteers to help his campaign, as my prior posts indicates. Joe has to pay his "volunteers" to come help his campaign.

Zatkoff an embarrassment to Joe Knollenberg

This post showed up in a conservative blog, bconservative.blogspot.com. It's interesting because it seems to point out that the chair of the Michigan Federation of College Republicans, Justin Zatkoff has become somewhat of an embarrassment to the Joe Knollenberg campaign. Zatkoff offered in a video he recorded to pay expenses for students to travel to Rochester, Michigan to help Joe Knollenberg's campaign knock doors. The video has been removed after some inquiry from The Michigan Review, a conservative newspaper. You can read the article here. You can read the full post from bconservative.blogspot.com here. You can view Zatkoff's video here even though Zatkoff took it down. I captured it before he removed it.

I wonder if Joe will acknowledge that Zatkoff's efforts were possibly breaking campaign finance law and tell voters that his "volunteers" are actually being paid to knock doors for Joe Knollenberg.

218 Days

Since Joe Knollenberg was invited to appear in public to answer questions and has refused to appear and answer questions.

New Web Site Highlights Republican Offenders

I just read a post about a very interesting topic, Republican offenders. And boy is the list long; 272 Republicans accused of various crimes, from embezzlement to rape. You can visit the site at by clicking here.
Want the entire list in a .pdf file, click here.

217 Days

Since Joe Knollenberg was invited to appear in public to answer questions and has refused to appear and answer questions.

216 Days and Counting

216 Days

Since Joe Knollenberg was invited to appear in public to answer questions and has refused to appear and answer questions.