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Friday, April 29, 2005
VT-Gov: Jim Douglas Taking Lots of Heat
Posted by Bob BrighamWhile some discuss Vermont Governor Jim Douglas as a possible Senate candidate, with all of the trouble he's having in the press, he might have trouble holding onto his own seat.
He was blasted by the Burlington Free Press for, "removing the lone African-American member of the state's Human Rights Commission when his term expired and replacing him with a white member, thus creating the first all-white commission since its creation in 1988."
And Douglas is taking a great deal of heat for his expected veto of health insurance, from the Brattleboro Reformer:
Add it up, and the scare stories about what a government-run health system would mean ring rather hollow. Care is already being rationed, by limiting the best care to those who have the ability to pay. We are already paying more money for less health care. And we still have more than 40 million Americans who have no health insurance and are more likely to develop expensive and deadly conditions because they postpone care because they lack the money to pay for treatment.Is this what Gov. James Douglas and the Republicans in the Legislature support? A system that works only for the fortunate few? A system that is bloated and inefficient? A system that all of us end up paying for anyway in higher consumer costs, higher taxes and higher insurance premiums?
The time is now. And again, as in so many other issues, Vermont can show the way -- but only if our leaders have the guts to do it.
Guts?
Well that is something Douglas lacks. He doesn't seem to have the guts to focus on civil rights for non-whites. He doesn't seem to have the guts to solve Vermont's health care crisis.
With how out-of-touch he is, it is a wonder that people are even talking about him getting another office.
Posted at 09:52 AM in Vermont | Technorati