Sparks Applauds Reform, Questions Davis’s ‘No’ Vote

by Glynn Wilson

The U.S. House of Representatives passed historic health-care reform legislation Sunday night on a vote of 219-212. Obama is expected to sign the bill into law as early as Tuesday.

Summoned to success by President Barack Obama, the Democratic-controlled Congress approved historic legislation extending health care to tens of millions of uninsured Americans and cracking down on insurance company abuses, a climactic chapter in the century-long quest for near universal coverage, according to the AP.

Within minutes, the vote was applauded by Alabama’s Agricultural Commissioner Ron Sparks, the only candidate for governor who supports health-care reform and legalized gambling.

Despite the bill’s passage and overwhelming Democratic support for the bill, Rep. Artur Davis of Birmingham opposed it and voted with Republicans against the bill.

The bill will help 66,000 uninsured people in Artur Davis’ district obtain medical coverage, Sparks said. It will help thousands of small businesses in the district with the rising cost of healthcare, and it will save millions of dollars that healthcare facilities lose because people cannot afford to pay their medical bills.

And in spite of the Tea Party protests, it will also reduce the federal budget deficit by $138 billion over 10 years.

“The help this bill provides will be especially welcomed in the 7th District, which has the highest rate of people dependent on some form of public healthcare in the state,” Sparks said. “I have been on record supporting affordable healthcare. I am happy for the 7th District, which will finally get the assistance they desperately need and want.”

He had something else to say about his opponent n the Democratic Party primary, however, with the vote just over two months away on June 1.

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If true, it will be the eighth snowfall during the winter of 2009-10, the most since records have been kept

So much for the first couple of days of Spring in Middle Alabamaland.

Temperatures are turning colder already and there is a chance of snow showers in the late evening and overnight Sunday night, according to the National Weather Service. The chance of precipitation is 40 percent.

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The Big Picture
by Glynn Wilson

The Tea Party crowd will be singing Bye Bye Ms. American Pie today after the United States House of Representatives passes the first ever health-care reform legislation in this country’s history.

But why? There’s really nothing to be so concerned about. This is a great day in the history of American democracy.

I mean what is so freaking wrong with the country that invented a definition of democracy that created a middle class taking a step most developed democracies took a long time ago to insure most citizens?

It is a logical step in our evolution as an egalitarian society. I know that word scares the bejesus out of Glenn Beck, but who cares? Glenn Beck is an uneducated idiot playing toady for the big insurance companies, their lobbyists and drug companies who subsidize Fox News.

The bill expected to pass the House of Representatives today is not nationalized medicine. It is not Obamacare, as it has been portrayed by the radical political right on Fox and talk radio.

What does it do?

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