Politics

Marino's Deception

MarinoMy mailbox in the past few weeks has been bombarded by deceptive postcards from my congressman, Tom Marino. I say deceptive because Mr. Marino is not dressed in a suit and tie as befits his office, but an open collar shirt to make himself look more like one of us, and because he misrepresents the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare).

Mr. Marino claims that Obamacare "cuts" Medicare by $716 billion (even though his website claims it cuts $750 billion, which suggests he is unfamiliar with the law). In fact, Obamacare does not cut a penny from Medicare, but will save $716 billion over 10 years by cutting overpayments to healthcare providers, prosecuting Medicare fraud, and getting more efficiency by applying technology such as networking.

This deceit was trotted out in the first presidential debate by Mr. Romney and was promptly shot down by President Obama. I thought it would have been buried by now.

Voters in the 10th district have an unusual opportunity to decide what kind of congressman they want: a fiscally responsible liberal, a standard conservative, or a reactionary, someone who wants to push this country backwards. Democrat Scott Brion wants to move us forward, Independent Nick Troiano wants to fix what we have. Congressman Tom Marino wants to undo what we already have.

Scott Brion wants to move forward in a fiscally responsible way, by raising the minimum wage. The additional money in low wage-earners pockets will be spent on products and services from companies which will then have to hire more people. It would take many off food stamps, too, saving the government even more money.

Nick Troiano, judging from his recent article in the Daily Item, wants to repair the Social Security and Obamacare we have now, but to repeal nothing.

Repeal of Obamacare, Marino's position, would mean that insurance companies could return to "preexisting conditions" as an excuse for denying coverage and cancelling our policies for any reason when we get sick. On graduation from high school, our children would no longer be covered by our insurance plans. Obamacare extends the age children are covered by their parents' insurance from 18 to 26.

The cost of health insurance is rising now at a rate of only 3%, far lower than the 10% or more we had to endure before Obamacare. This means that companies who would have ended coverage can continue to insure their employees.

So we have a clear choice of conservative like our father voted for in Mr. Troiano, the new reactionary conservative in Congressman Marino, or democrat Scott Brion, who wants to move us forward.

Mr. Marino's voting record may be found here.

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