I just received an email from one of our members, who will remain anonymous. She just had a personal encounter with Sen Johnson. I asked her if I could share it with our members and she agreed. It presents some interesting and compelling information. Here is her story.

Gordon Howie

Senator Tim Johnson

My recent encounter with Senator Tim Johnson:

I called Senator Tim Johnson’s office on Friday Nov. 20th to voice my opposition to the health care legislation. The Senate was planning on getting the legislation out of committee on Saturday Nov. 21st to be debated on the Senate floor starting the first week of December. The gentleman I spoke to on Nov. 20th informed me that Senator Johnson did not support the current bill, however he would be voting ‘yea’ to bring the bill out of committee so that it could be debated. I did the same drill as usual when I call, left my name and number and asked for Senator Johnson to vote NO.

I was in Rapid City on Tuesday November 24th and decided to go to Senator Johnson’s office, rather than call about my opposition to the current health care legislation. I was talking with the gentleman behind the counter and was explaining to him why I am against the bill. Before I was finished voicing my concerns, Senator Johnson walked in. I said, “Well there he is !”

I asked him if he had a minute of time and he said that he did have a minute but had to go to his office first, and then he was going to be on his way to Rosebud.

As I was waiting to speak to Senator Johnson, his staff member said, “Boy, you got really lucky, nobody EVER gets to talk to him, even in Washington.” I was a little bit surprised by the comment because I thought that our elected officials should and did make time to visit with their constituents.

When Senator Johnson returned from his office, I voiced my concerns with the healthcare legislation. Of the questions that I asked him, he gave the same basic answers that you hear from Obama, Pelosi, and Reid. He mentioned the 47 million people that don’t have health coverage. I said that a large portion of that 47 million are illegal immigrants. He said “no, they won’t be covered”. I said, “well, doctors take the Hippocratic Oath and they HAVE to treat patients when they come into the ER. Johnson replied back, “they get treated but they don’t have health care insurance.“

I also mentioned to him that I agree that we need health reform, but we don’t need 2000 pages of government take-over of health care. He didn’t have a problem with 2074 pages of government bureaucracy. (my words, not his)

I also showed Senator Johnson a picture of my son, who is now eight. My son has been breathing with the help of a ventilator since he was three days old and uses a power wheelchair. He is a very bright young man, is a joy to be around, and goes to a local public school in the general classroom setting. I told Senator Johnson that there will be a bunch of bureaucrats in Washington that will deciding what kinds of treatments people can and can’t have. My fear is that a bureaucrat in Washington will take a look at my son’s medical records and not have a CLUE about him. They will just see his medical needs and costs, decide that he ‘obviously can’t be a contributor to society and the cost to sustain him isn’t worth it’ and deny his medical needs.

I expressed my concern about how badly we will be taxed under the new health bill being debated. He argued that there wouldn’t be any ‘taxes’ for middle class incomes. I then mentioned that if folks ‘refuse’ to purchase a ‘government approved’ insurance policy, they would be fined up to $250,000 and face jail time. He said that people who make over $250,000 will be taxed to help pay for this health care reform. I repeated my concern about the fine and jail time but he did not address this concern.

I then said to him, “When I called your office in Washington last Friday and asked what your position is on the current health care reform. I was told that you were against the current legislation. You were going to vote ‘yes’ to get it out of committee for debate, but are opposed to the current form of the bill. I asked, “What about the bill are you opposed to?” He replied, “That it doesn’t have a robust public option”.

My next question to Senator Johnson was, “Are you going to read the bill?” and he said “Yes.” I said “Really, your going to read a 2074 page bill?” and then he replied that he is going to read the essential parts of the bill. His staff will read the less essential parts of the bill and inform him as to what it says.

One of my other comments about the bill was that it will cost us trillions of dollars. He replied back that the bill will lower the deficit. I honestly had to hold back a laugh when he said that.

Some of the other things we talked about were the long waits and rationing of care, but he didn’t seem to think that any of that would be an issue. The Senator then had to leave for Rosebud and on walking past me said, “Good luck with your son.”

He was a gentleman during our conversion and we had a nice little debate and at the end, I think that we agreed to disagree. I was very fortunate to get to speak with him face to face, but I am also very disappointed that it didn’t seem like he could see the devastating effect this bill will have on our country and current health care system.