Bill Bolling Takes Our Senators To The Woodshed

December 21, 2009

The Honorable Mark Warner
United States Senate
SDB Building 40C
Washington, DC  20510

The Honorable Jim Webb
United States Senate
144 Russell Building
Washington, DC 20510

RE:  Federal Healthcare Reform Legislation

Dear Senators Warner and Webb:

I have been following with great interest the important debate currently taking place in Washington with respect to the proposed reform of our nation's healthcare system. 

While I certainly agree that we face serious problems with respect to the affordability and availability of healthcare for many Americans, it is important that any reform legislation address these issues without creating other problems for American consumers and businesses or jeopardizing the quality of our healthcare delivery system, which is currently the best in the world.

For many reasons, I strongly oppose the healthcare reform legislation that is currently pending before the United States Senate and I encourage you to vote against this legislation and any procedural votes that would allow this legislation to come to a final vote.

In my judgment, the legislation currently pending in the Senate will ultimately increase the cost of healthcare and result in higher health insurance premiums and higher taxes for the vast majority of the American people. 

In addition, I believe that this legislation will jeopardize the quality of healthcare that is currently available in our country and take important healthcare decisions out of the hands of consumers and turn these decisions over to government bureaucrats.

Perhaps most importantly, I am concerned that the cost of this legislation will be much higher than currently estimated, and it will inevitably add significantly to the cost of our federal deficit, which is, quite frankly, out of control and threatens the long term financial viability of our nation.

If these concerns were not reason enough to vote against this misguided legislation, I am writing to you today to let you know that I am outraged by reports that surfaced this weekend regarding concessions that were made to Nebraska Senator Ben Nelson to secure his vote in support of this legislation. 

As you know, one of our major concerns with this legislation is the potential impact it could have on the cost of Medicaid for Virginia's state government.   Many reports have suggested that this legislation could result in much higher Medicaid costs for state governments across the nation, costs that state governments simply cannot bear.

Against this background, I was amazed to hear that the Senate's Democratic leadership had made concessions to Senator Nelson that would hold his home state of Nebraska harmless as to any additional Medicaid costs that might come about as a result of the enrollment of new Medicaid recipients after 2017. 

I find these reports particularly troubling since they come on the heels of similar concessions that were given to Senator Mary Landrieu of Louisiana to secure her vote in support of this legislation just a few weeks ago.

In addition to the "pay offs" that were offered to Senators Nelson and Landrieu, unconfirmed media reports over the weekend have revealed that other Senators may have negotiated similar special treatment deals for their states. If these reports are accurate, this type of quid pro quo is unacceptable, and you and your colleagues should object strongly to the practice, which I have no doubt the American people will find offensive as well. 

If the Senate's leadership is so desperate to obtain votes to secure the passage of this legislation that they would make these types of concessions to these Senators, I would ask that you demand that the same concessions be extended to Virginia, and for that matter, to every other state in the nation.

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So, while we are talking about potential 2012 US Senate candidates, lets talk about Bill Bolling.  I know I know, he's suppose to run for governor in 2013, and yes I know he probably will.  But I must say that I believe our strongest potential candidate for the US Senate is Bill Bolling.  Having two statewide victories under his belt, Bolling won the admiration and loyalty to every Republican for his selfless sacrifice of not challenging for governor in 2009, avoided a contested convention, and really was as responsible for the GOP wins in 2009 as anyone else. 

Its nice to see Bolling jumping into the national debate and leading on giving some serious blowback to our senators who went along with this travesty despite one supposedly being a "maverick" and the other a "centrist" concerned about costs.  Weak men, both of them.

Combine this letter with a recent RTD editorial that Bolling wrote, I can't help but think he's laying some breadcrumbs out just to test out the response to national issues.  Here's the thing, I know a lot of people want to be governor but in the end its just one term and then what?  If Webb is vulnerable, which I suspect he will be, Bolling could make a Senate run to ensure himself a greater and longer role in the party.  Besides, he made a great senator in Virginia - a proven small government, tax-cutting conservative - why not take the show on the road up 95 to DC?

Oh yeah, and it doesn't hurt that Bolling is throwing a free party for his inauguration the Science Museum of Virginia.  Now that is thanking your supporters.