Last Tuesday night House Democrats met with Senate Democrats to discuss the Health Care Bill. It would seem to me like the perfect opportunity for Gene Taylor to convey the frustration of his constituents… maybe even stomp his feet and raise a little hell on our behalf?

So, where was Congressman Gene Taylor during this meeting – laying out his argument against it? Possibly trying to convince a few Democrats to vote no?

Heck no! WAR’s in town on their “The Family Stone” tour and Gene Taylor has tickets!

Our Congressman was spotted skipping out on the Health Care discussion between House Democrats and Senate Democrats to go shake his leg at a WAR concert. Where are his priorities? Not in Mississippi.

Here’s a WAR classic for your listening pleasure. “All Gene’s friend’s know the low rider…”

From NewsJunkiePost.com:

Discouraged House Democrats are meeting to discuss health care negotiations with the Senate. But at least two members will be absent from that meeting.

As members left the House chamber for the first and last vote of the day to bring in the second session of the 111th Congress, I chatted with Representative David Wu (D-OR) about the unimportant issue of brutally long plane flights.  (I just took one last month.)

As we spoke, out walked a casually dressed Representative Gene Taylor (D- Miss).  He and Rep. Wu had plans to see WAR, the legendary long-running funk band most popular in the 1970s, at the Birchmere in Northern Virginia this evening.  Rep. Wu told me about their plans and Rep. Taylor chimed in. Taylor said he would rather go see WAR than go to a Democratic Caucus meeting “to be persuaded to vote for a bill I’m not going to support.”

Gene Taylor has no intention of fighting against ObamaCare on our behalf. He’ll simply vote “no” and watch his own party shove it down our throat. We need a fighter to represent us in Washington – sitting quietly in the corner is no longer enough.

20 years is enough of Gene Taylor’s political trickery. Email this link to your friends and family and help elect a true conservative in 2010!

Links:

Gene Taylor voted “No” on the Affordable Health Care for America Act (vote #887), but when given the chance to kill the bill before it had a chance to pass the House,  Gene Taylor voted “NO” (Vote #886).

You have been betraying me and all the other conservative constituents in your district far too long. I have decided to not vote for you again, however, if you vote for the healthcare bill, I will actively campaign against you or for someone else.

You have not properly represented your constituents for many years and now I have had it with you.

Well said Frank. I think many South Mississippians feel the same way.

From the Americans for Tax Reform:

(1) He will support it if it has “major changes.” This was his position on his website as of July 30, 2009.  Yet after the major changes orchestrated by Congressman Taylor’s own Blue Dog caucus, the congressman has become irate, offensive and belligerent in his attempts to distance himself from the caucus he helped found.

(2) He “opposes” the plan. This was stated in the offensive press release, littered with ad hominem attacks, issued by Rep. Taylor on Friday, July 31.

(3) He will support the plan if it is “paid for”. This was revealed in an interview with Mississippi’s WLOX on Saturday, August 1.  Rep. Taylor’s description of his newest policy is at http://www.wlox.com/Global/story.asp?S=10832230.  It is critical to note the Blue Dog Coalition’s enforced policy of “pay fors”.  Since Speaker Pelosi took the helm of Congress, Rep. Taylor’s Blue Dog Caucus has insisted that any government spending is fine as long as it is “paid for” with new tax increases.  Rep. Taylor has even voted to include the tax increase rule as a part of the governing rules of the House of Representatives. Now, Rep. Taylor admits that he will support government-run healthcare if it is simply coupled with enough tax increases.

He was asked a few pointed questions about his stance on the Health Care bill at a townhall in Waynesboro, Ms. So where does he really stand on this issue?

This video is courtesy of citizenlibertygc.

The best I can gather from Gene Taylor’s own lips is that he’s for government run health care (along with anything else he can get his hands on) under “3″ conditions:

1) so long as we can “pay for it”

2) it get’s rid of the anti-trust exemption

3) prescription drugs are more affordable

d) it doesn’t fund abortions

Even if all of this language is to his satisfaction, he still wants to put bureaucrats between you and your doctor. According to the bill, those social engineering bureaucrats would be necessary in order to ration health care services between the “useful”, the “useless”, and the “used” Americans (and non-Americans) among us; schedule “end-of-life options” consultations for the elderly; and to determine whether or not you need a liver transplant, a pain pill, or a just a band aid.

As one gentleman pointed out, if this bill passes, Gene Taylor should be held accountable and should be run out of Congress in 2010. He’s sat on his hands in his cushy little Congressional office for the past 20 years with his mouth shut and watched all of this socialist legislation come through the pipeline and hasn’t taken a clear stand against the socialist ideology that running a muck all around him on Capitol Hill.

After 20 years Gene Taylor should have mustered enough influence to put a stop to this sort of thing. The most conservative district in the nation should NEVER have to wonder where their Congressman stands on such an intrusive piece of legislation.

What Tax Increases Does Gene Taylor Want to “Pay For” ObamaCare?

In an interview with WLOX on Saturday, Congressman Gene Taylor (D-Miss.) stated he would support the Pelosi/Waxman government takeover of healthcare if it was “paid for”.

Rep. Taylor now has at least three positions on the Pelosi healthcare scheme:

(1) He will support it if it has “major changes.” This was his position on his website as of July 30, 2009.

(2) He “opposes” the plan. This was stated in the offensive press release, littered with ad hominem attacks, issued by Rep. Taylor on Friday, July 31.

(3) He will support the plan if it is “paid for”. This was revealed in an interview with Mississippi’s WLOX on Saturday, August 1…  Since Speaker Pelosi took the helm of Congress, Rep. Taylor’s Blue Dog Caucus has insisted that any government spending is fine as long as it is “paid for” with new tax increases.

Taylor doesn’t disagree with Obamacare (forcing Americans into government programs) because of a reduction to individual liberty and infringements to a citizen’s right to pursue private markets… nope! Taking away your natural rights to quality healthcare choices within a free-market doesn’t seem to bother the congressman. Rather he’ll gladly allow the federal government to micro-manage your healthcare if only the funds are available!

Taylor grossly implies that he would vote for Obamacare in a Mississippi second if the Obama/Pelosi team could provide evidence of funding. The referenced statement signifies that he is in favor of universal health-care… just not the way it’s currently packaged. And Congressman Taylor, true to his concerns, did expand the size of a Clinton Administration federal healthcare program with an increase in taxes.

And that’s one of the reasons why I’m not voting for Gene Taylor in 2010.

The more I analyze Gene Taylor the less I understand why he is re-elected…

Recently Taylor responded to an email from a District 4 constituent in regards to his stand on socialized medicine. After reading Taylor’s response I was left baffled and had to stick my head in a bucket for an hour to get things back to normal. Perhaps it was the following statement which began the perplexing descent down the Taylor hole to unclearedness confusing polititalk:

We have allowed a system in which the private sector provides coverage while people are young, healthy, and employed, and then shifts them to government programs when they are older, have chronic health problems, or are poor. The federal government’s share of health care spending has steadily increased as Medicare, Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program have filled gaps in coverage.

I wasn’t aware that the private insurance market was shifting the sickly over to the government. Rather, Mr. Taylor, I thought it was the socialist brilliance of Democrat legislators, stretching back to FDR, which implemented socialist programs to buy the votes of the ‘underpriviledged’ at the expense of the working-class. The federal government’s share of our nation’s health-care spending continues to grow, not due to the failure of markets, but due to the artful disposition of liberal legislators interested in procuring re-election.

The Americans for Tax Reform responded to the ’scummy’ language with the following:

Gene Taylor like many others is a BDINO (Blue Dog in Name Only). He voted to make Pelosi Speaker, he voted to make Waxman head of the Committee. He voted to put Barney Frank in charge of our banking system. Mike Ross, Pelosi and the other Democrats declared that the Blue Dogs were on board. If he’s not, he should have proudly indicated so–he didn’t. If he’s upset with the Blue Dogs for their decision, he should consider resigning from that caucus. If he doesn’t like being tarnished with supporting Pelosi’s government take over of healthcare, he should bring it up with her.

Congressman Taylor has historically had a difficult time telling the truth and keeping his promises.

On March 1st, 1996, Gene Taylor signed the Taxpayer Protection Pledge, promising his constituents he would oppose all income tax increases while serving in Congress . Apparently, he did this just to get elected, as his written word has turned out to be worthless. When Republicans controlled the Congress from 1996 to 2006, he never had the opportunity to vote for a tax increase. The first Congress he had the chance to vote for a tax increase, he did.

I can’t decide which is worse:

• A tax- reform group submitting misleading information about a congressman who often submits obscure information himself.

or

• A congressman who claims to be conservative while providing his constituents with a steady diet of increases in the size and influence of the federal government.

The citizens of Mississippi’s 4th Congressional District would like to know why it took the involvement of Americans for Tax Reform to get a straight answer out of Gene Taylor as to where he stands on the current version of Obamacare. Gene Taylor’s response, to the ATR claims that he supported Obamacare, finally produced some straight talk from a congressman who too often sounds like a record played backwards. Thanks Gene for finally producing an actual answer to the question… “Where does Gene Taylor stand on Obamacare?”

“I am opposed to the current health care reform bills being debated in Congress,” Taylor says on his website. “We should not create an expensive new government health program or promise new government health benefits when we have not figured out how to pay the future costs of Medicare, Medicaid, Tricare, and other federal health programs that were promised by previous Presidents and previous Congresses.” – Gene Taylor 7/31/09

I’m confident when Gene says “other federal health programs” he’s including his ‘Aye’ vote for SCHIP.

I suppose next time Gene Taylor’s constituents need a straight answer on a particular issue we’ll have to contact the Americans for Tax Reform, rather than our actual congressman, who too often provides answers that leave us wondering.