How much did taxpayers pay to get the health care bill passed?

Troy, Mich. - In a little-noticed news story, our Upper Peninsula's congressman, Bart Stupak, and his 10 fellow pro-life Democrats in Congress last week requested a total of $4.7 billion in pork barrel earmarks, following their last minute switch to support President Obama's health care takeover. Stupak alone requested $578 million in earmarks.

Backroom deals in Washington by career politicians are wrong, no matter who is doing them and who is benefiting.

Let's be clear - this was a quid pro quo deal, plain and simple. It was clear - the bill was going down unless these Members of Congress were given the money they wanted. The bill only passed by 3 votes and would have not passed but for this legislative pay off.

Stand With Israel

Like many Americans, I was disappointed and dismayed last week when President Barack Obama undercut one of our country's strongest allies in the Middle East - and indeed in the world - when his administration took a hard, critical line against Israel for its decision to construct apartments in East Jerusalem.

Vice President Joe Biden reportedly told Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu: "What you're doing here undermines the security of our troops who are fighting in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan ... That endangers us and it endangers regional peace." For starters, that's flat out slanderous and untrue and demonstrates a profound lack of understanding on the part of the Vice President on the important issue of America's foreign policy in the middle east as well as the threat of Islamic fundamentalism.

Those who attack U.S. troops abroad are not doing so because of Israel's decision to build housing-- their motivation is terror and their enemy is the United States and all the freedoms it stands for. They are Islamic radicals who have a religious belief that everyone should live by their religious dictates or not live at all.

A Congressional Tongue Depressor Getting Jammed Down Our Throats

You know what I hate the most about going to the doctor when I'm sick? The tongue depressor. Even though I trust my doctor, I just don't like the feeling of having a stick jammed down my throat.

Watching the news today, that's exactly what I feel the politicians in Washington are doing with health care policy.

They're asking us to open wide and swallow their government takeover of health care, and the people of Oakland County, like people all across America, are rejecting their plan.

Now they're coming back with their form of the tongue depressor to try and shove their failed policy down our throats. They call it reconciliation; I call it just plain and simple the wrong thing to do.

We all agree: health care in America needs serious reform. The costs have gotten out of control, and it's hurting plenty of families and businesses. I know this first-hand. I provide my employees with good health care plans, and it costs me more and more to do it every year.

I am the only candidate running for this Congressional seat, from either party, who has provided health care for their employees, for many years, during the most challenging time for auto suppliers like my company.

I have run our company without debt, which has allowed us to not only stay in business, but also to provide health care to our employees.

Had our company done what the federal government is doing - spent itself into a hole and piled up mountains of debt - we would have been out of the business, and those employees would be out of a job and without health care.

Sure, health care costs have increased, but everyone needs and deserves health care. What we do not need is a federal government takeover of health care. What we do need is more "citizen legislators" who have real world experience to deal with the health care challenge.

As an auto supplier who has survived during the roughest time in our industry's history, I have never abandoned the belief that employers should provide health insurance to employees if they can. And I know what needs to be done to provide health care to Americans.

I want to roll up my sleeves and work with Republicans and Democrats alike to address those issues which we need answers to: portability, pre-existing conditions and affordability.

But I also know that a government takeover isn't going to fix the problem - it's going to make it worse. A plan that puts the government in control of health care will lower the quality of medicine and require massive new taxes to be placed on our backs.

This, as much as anything else I've seen, makes me know we can and must do better. As your citizen legislator, I won't use complicated rules and processes to push through legislation you don't like - I'll represent you. I'll go to Washington and put forward a sensible health care reform plan that lowers costs and increases access to high-quality care.

That's what Oakland County families have demanded, and it's exactly what I'll deliver as your next Congressman.

Oakland County's Newest Republican, and My Favorite Democrat