Contacting Your Senator: LB599 Medicaid Expansion, Illegals

Last evening we published the letter we sent to 48 of Nebraska’s Senators about LB599. We also wanted to share a letter from one of our readers who contacted his own Senator, Colby Coash (District 27), who voted for LB599 in the first two rounds.

Even IF you read this article after the third round vote today (we’re not sure what time it will occur), we still believe it’s important to contact your Senator, because, if enough of them still vote for the bill on the third round, the issue of LB599 is NOT likely over even with the promised Governor’s veto. Unfortunately, there were enough votes on the first round to over turn a veto.

Will constituent input be heeded? It’s hard to know.

The pressure on these Senators from an array of organizations to vote in support of this bill is tremendous. They are using a “pro-life” argument, which we’ve observed, is the one most persuasive to Nebraska Senators. In our letter to the Senators, we have refuted this argument, so if you need information on that point, please use the link, above to review.

Our reader’s letter…

Senator Coash,

I am a constituent who voted for you. I voted for you because I thought you were a small government fiscal conservative like I and the majority of the South Salt Creek Neighborhood are. Nebraska has a very liberal medicaid system as it is and I have yet to hear of someone visiting one of Nebraska’s emergency rooms and be denied medical care for any reason, this includes child birth. Who in their right mind would want to see that anyway right? I mean it is a living human after all. But to make it so people here illegally ( a criminal act mind you ) are given our tax dollars encourages breaking the law and doing so in Nebraska with a welcome mat.

This is not OK and it is not a conservative value. I know many of the people in our neighborhood association and many are Latino but they feel the same way any conservative does. Conservative is not race based, it is a way of life. The way you think and the way you live. The Americans from Latin countries are just as conservative as I am and want the laws to be abided by and to keep what they earn just the same as any conservative does. Thus, they too are disappointed. I implore you Senator to vote against LB599 which allows criminal access to services which they are not entitled to. If you persist in voting for it I will work hard to vote you out and replace you with a conservative that will not vote for bills that encourage breaking the laws. Ben Nelson voted against Nebraskans wishes and he will not be in office anymore. Nebraskans are tired of government grabs against the constitution.

Please do the constitutional thing. Thank you for the time you took to read this.

Sincerely,

Tony, a voting constituent

Tony checked in this evening to report that he is being ignored by his Senator, and noted the following:

“He will wish he had not on election day.”

Sometimes as constituents, this is the only option that remains. Senator Coash IS up for re-election in November.

Whether or not our Senators are up for re-election this year – seems like we need to make them think about what they are doing.