Health care vote betrayed constituency

To Rep. Foster: As a registered voter in the 14th district, I wish to express my extreme disappointment in you for voting in favor of the health care reform bill on Nov. 7.

You claim to be a pro-business Democrat. You stated that the bill had provisions that you did not support.

Your office claimed that you spent 43 hours reading and analyzing the legislation.

Therefore, your vote for this bill was completely irresponsible and ostensibly wrong for your constituents and for the country. You were "non-committed" the day before you voted. In truth, you were playing political games with your people in the 14th District before voting along party lines.

This bill forces higher taxes, will ration care, will dangerously lower the overall quality of health care, force physicians to leave their practices, and is punitive to employers and to individuals. The bill is also unconstitutional.

Instead of supporting another entitlement program doomed to fail, your attention needs to be focused on reducing taxes, eliminating fraud and waste in the existing Medicare and Medicaid programs, tort reform, and encouraging the expansion of free market competition for private insurance companies.

I, along with my friends and neighbors, will continue to closely observe your voting behavior to prepare us for the 2010 election.

Karel Follman-Jones

Pingree Grove