Voters Reject Government-Controlled Health Care

The outrage against nationalized health care has reached the voting booth -- and in dramatic fashion. Last week, Massachusetts voters stunned the nation by electing Republican Scott Brown to the Senate seat held for nearly 47 years by Ted Kennedy. This bluest of blue states voted overwhelmingly for President Obama in 2008 and had not elected a Republican to the Senate in decades. With Tuesday's election, they're not only sending a Republican to Washington; they're sending a message.

Since the health care debate began, Americans have tried in every possible way to tell the Democrats that we don't want government-run health care. In spirited town hall meetings, mass protest rallies, and countless phone calls and letters, citizens have stood up for their rights and made it clear that socialized medicine is not acceptable in this country.

Will the Democrats finally listen? Despite months of protests, President Obama and his liberal allies in Congress have ignored Americans' wishes and arrogantly pressed forward with their plans. Adding insult to injury, they insisted on conducting negotiations over the final health care bill in secret, refusing to allow cameras to cover deliberations.

Massachusetts voters forcefully rejected this approach. Opposition to the health care bill was a centerpiece of Senator-elect Brown's campaign, essentially making the election a referendum on the Obama administration's policies. Even in liberal Massachusetts, the vote wasn't even close.

The Massachusetts election may be the most obvious repudiation of the liberal agenda, but it is not the first. Democrats have been voted out of office in every major statewide election since Obama's inauguration. Democrat-leaning New Jersey and Virginia both elected Republican governors in the past few months, further affirming that Americans in every part of the country are fed up with big spending and big government.

The choice for the Democrats and President Obama is clear: Double down or reach out? Republican ideas have been shut out of the health care reform debate, and the result is a bill that only 38 percent of Americans support. Democrat proposals would raise costs, limit health care choices and have drastic effects on the national deficit. Voters understand what Democrat politicians do not: that increasing taxes and massively expanding the government during a recession is reckless both for the economy and our health care system.

Scott Brown opposes President Obama's plan because it would impose a national system regardless of individual states' diverse needs. Government-controlled health care would indeed mandate the same policies from Oklahoma to Massachusetts -- two states that have little in common other than our opposition to nationalized health care. The last thing Oklahomans need is for our health care choices to be dictated by Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid.

Democrats now must decide whether to adjust course or ram health care legislation through Congress. As for the American people, we've already made our decision.

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