Rep. Massa: I will vote against the interests of my district

Rep. Massa: I will vote against the interests of my district

www.washingtontimes.com< br />

Representative Eric Massa (D- NY) addressed an intimate group of Netroots activists during their annual Netroots Nation gathering in Pittsburgh this weekend. Mr. Massa reiterated his support for a single payer health care bill. He discussed the risks he takes for wanting to support such a measure in his "right wing Republican district."

(visit the link for the full news article)

Rep. Massa seems to forget that he works for the people and it's all about what the people in is district want not what he wants. This is unbelievable to me. They aren't even hiding the fact that they don't care about the people they represent. It proves to me that all the phone calls and emails just don't matter. They do what they want anyway.

The video says it all. He will vote for a single payer bill because that is what he wants and he doesn't care if the people he represents are against it. Pitch forks and torches anyone?

MASSA: I’m not going to vote for 3200 as it’s currently written. Step one, I will vote for a single payer option or a bill that does have a medicare coupled public option, which we don’t have right now. If my town hall meetings turn into the same media frenzies and ridiculousness, because every time that happens we lose. We lose another three million people in America. They see that happening and negate us.

PARTICIPANT: It changes America.

MASSA: Every time that occurs. So what happens in my town hall meetings frankly is important, because I am in one of the most right wing Republican districts in the country, and I’m not asking you guys to go back to wherever and send people to me. This is a generic statement of what can I do? Well that’s one thing we can do.

PARTICIPANT: So if we got your meetings to sixty forty, you’d vote…and there was single payer in a bill you would vote for it?

MASSA: Oh absolutely I would vote for single payer.

PARTICIPANT: If there was sixty forty sentiment in the room?

MASSA: Listen, I tell every audience I’m in favor of single payer.

PARTICIPANT: If there was eighty twenty in the room?

MASSA: If there was a single payer bill?

PARTICIPANT: And there was a single payer….

MASSA: I will vote for the single payer bill.

PARTICIPANT: Even if it meant you were being voted out of office?

MASSA: I will vote adamantly against the interests of my district if I actually think what I am doing is going to be helpful.

(inaudible participants' comments regarding the "interests" of the district statement from Mr. Massa)

Massa: I will vote against their opinion if I actually believe it will help them.

www.washingtontimes.com< br /> (visit the link for the full news article)

Sad part is that lots of politicians think this way.

They think they were elected to pass issues THAT THEY THINK will help Americans, not what Americans think.

The bailouts were a good example of this.

reply to post by Erasurehead


Further proof that robots should replace politicians.

taxation without representation in a new light.

It is also an example of why democrats are often accused of elitism. They feel (not think) that they have some higher knowledge that trumps whatever the people that elected them think (not feel) as demonstrated in poll after poll.

Well hopefully his tenure is going to be over in the near future. I highly doubt he'll be re-elected after those statements.

You're not elected to do what "you" think is right, you're elected to do what the people think is right. Even if it's wrong.

This picture sums up how I feel

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/e4447db31134.jpg[/atsimg]

Liberty is broken, our country is broken.

We know that our government is broken, when are we going to fix it? The emails and phone calls days are finished. It's time to throw these people out on there A@#es. We hired them we can fire them!



[edit on 17-8-2009 by lucentenigma]

What makes this azz think "his district" wants him making the decisions? Time to vote for him to GET FIRED!!

"Do As I Want, Not As I Say"

Ironically, the ability to act in a way that may not match popular sentiment is one of the very reasons the U.S. was set up as a representative democracy and not a pure democracy or some other form.

Because transient public sentiment has long been known to be fickle and often unfounded in fact, the architects of the Republic considered the selection of wise men to make decisions to be an effective method for, in the words of de Tocqueville, "conquering the passions and subduing the desires of the moment."

Thus if it is Representative Massa's best judgment to support a position that may not be popular with his constituents, he is very much entitled to do so.

However, should a majority of his constituents remain unswayed by his wisdom come the next election, the question of principled stands will pass to a suitable successor.