My deepest apologies for posting about the Democrats’ evil plot to socialize medicine on Christmas, but I didn’t want to delay this post.

On December 24th, I received the following letter from Colorado Senator Michael Bennet:

Dear Friend,

Today I voted for a health care reform bill that will bring meaningful change to Coloradans. Reform that provides coverage to 840,000 uninsured Coloradans, extends and protects Medicare for our seniors and provides free preventive care for everyone. Reform that provides tax cuts to small businesses and eliminates exclusions based on pre-existing conditions. And, as promised, I voted for health care reform that doesn’t add a dime to the deficit.

This bill will make a substantial difference in the lives of Coloradans who are doing jobs much harder than those in Washington, working late into the night, and taking an extra shift before Christmas so they can afford that extra gift beneath the tree. It is for those Americans who are unemployed in this savage economy and still trying to make sure the kids know they are remembered during this holiday season.

For Colorado, this bill will help over 68,000 small businesses provide health care coverage for their employees as they have always tried to do. It makes health care more accessible and more affordable in rural areas by making sure doctors receive a fair rate of return for the quality care they provide. And for the nearly 500,000 seniors in Colorado, it strengthens and protects Medicare while ensuring seniors don’t see a single cut to their guaranteed benefits.

I do not support the special deals in this bill. I continue to believe we should include a public option. And I have been disappointed by weeks of delay tactics that have done nothing but expose a broken Washington.

However, this bill is about the Coloradans and all Americans who just want a decent shot at the American dream. It’s about lowering skyrocketing health care costs and reducing the deficit by nearly $1.3 trillion over the next 20 years. It’s about ensuring the strength of Medicare for years to come and bringing much-needed, improved and affordable care to working families.

After decades of trying, we finally passed a bill that saves money, saves lives and gives families a fighting chance against relentless insurance company abuses.

I will continue to push for improvements in this bill as we move toward the conference report and a final bill.

As always, I would love to hear from you. You can send me a message or find contact information at my web site. I encourage you to reach out.

Sincerely,

Michael F. Bennet
U.S. Senator for Colorado

I was so angry that I immediately sent the following letter to him:

Dear Senator Bennet —

I am thoroughly disgusted with your vote in favor of the health care bill.

The lives and health of Americans depend on freedom in medicine. We need politicians willing to see that government controls, regulations, and welfare are the source of today’s high-cost, bureaucratic medicine — and brave enough to advocate for repeal.

Instead, we have you and your pork-loving, vote-buying, economic-illiterate, moral-degenerate, freedom-destroying colleagues in the Senate.

Shame on you. You all deserve to be voted out of office as soon as possible.

In Utter Disgust,

Dr. Diana Hsieh

Since Colorado’s other senator — Mark Udall — voted the same way, I sent him the same letter. (Note: If you live outside Colorado, you’re more than welcome to copy and/or modify my letter to send to your own Senators.)

Undoubtedly, Senators Bennet and Udall deserve to be voted out of office pronto. The problem is that the Republicans don’t deserved to be voted into office. Yet I think that’s what needs to happen in 2010, if only to buy us a bit more time with gridlock. We are traveling down the road to hell at breakneck speed right now. (Update: I explained a bit more about my views on this point in Comment #4.)

Notably, ObamaCare is not yet a done deal: the Democrats have some major political infighting ahead. Paul posted the following message to OActivists yesterday:

One final pre-Christmas message for my fellow OActivists.

Just as a small ray of hope, I read this interesting analysis which indicates that the health care battle is not yet lost.

Ironically enough, it depends on whether the far liberal Congressman will find the current bill so unpalatable that they’re willing to vote “no”, rather than rubber stamp the Senate version.

I’ll send out more after Christmas. But those of you who live in Congressional districts with very liberal legislators, you may be able to help bolster their desire to kill the current ObamaCare bill.

In particular, there are a couple of arguments you can make that are true that would also resonate with them.

1) That you oppose a mandate to buy insurance from a company where you can’t negotiate freely. It would be as if the government forced you to buy a new GM car every 2 year as a form of a government bailout.

2) You oppose any further government restrictions on a woman’s ability to get an abortion.

And of course, you can make your usual arguments. I believe it’s possible to make arguments that they might heed without compromising our core principles.

Hence, we should not give up yet and despair. More later.

Please… Do not give up yet! We simply must fight to the death on this issue. Your life and health will depend on it.