Improve Americans’ lives by ignoring Republicans

If it were not so serious a subject, it would be laughable to see Republicans giving advice to Rep. Michael Arcuri about how he should vote on health care reform, using thinly disguised threats about whether he will vote “in line” with President Obama and the liberals or “in line” with his constituents.

The fact is that the Republicans had eight years to address health care under George W. Bush and they didn’t. And the Republican Party has no intention of supporting any health care plan that President Obama proposes now. Their issue is not whether Americans are insured for health care; they only want President Obama to fail.

The Republicans would love nothing better than to sit back and watch Democrats torpedo their own president’s plan for health care reform and they are spreading fear and lies to try and pressure representatives of conservative districts to do just that.

We are pleased that Rep. Arcuri is aware of these tactics and is giving this issue such careful consideration. We urge him to vote in the best interests of all Americans, not just his constituency. The “Obama haters” are not going to support him anyway. And after all, there was once a time when voting strictly by constituency meant voting for slavery. It is time to improve the lives of as many Americans as possible, and we’ll just ignore any advice from the Republicans.