What has McIntyre spinning - not the hurricane

Rep. Mike McIntyre NC-7 has been spinning around like a wind vane in the hurricane lately but the source of the wind must be the Liberal side of his Democrat party that has him spinning. A supposedly conservative “Blue Dog” he originally voted against the over reaching expansion of the SCHIP program. That program, originally a GOP plan, has been selected by the Socialized Medicine arm of the Democrat Party as one prong of their attack on free market health care in the US.

This program is intended to help insure children in families too well off to qualify for taxpayer paid Medicaid but not well enough off to afford private insurance. Some states had used the federal funds of SCHIP to create a sliding scale of subsidization that helped families above the poverty level but certainly below “middle class”. Other states had been including adults and were attempting to extend it well into middle class income ranges. The Democrat controlled Congress drafted a change that adds tens of billions more in tax payer money than is required to keep the program operating for the intended purpose. They also sought to tie it to an increase in cigarette taxes.

McIntyre citing the increased tax on tobacco voted against the bill. However when President Bush vetoed the bill, Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she was using all the pressure she could generate to change votes of the Democrats and Republicans who opposed it and over ride the veto.

Buckling to this pressure McIntyre publicly changed his position and then voted to over ride the bill. But the story does not end there. The supposedly conservative McIntyre not only voted for the same Democrat bill last week but he avoided voting at all on the Republican alternative.

The question is, does Mike fear Pelosi, the radical Liberal Left or the voters? His original vote against the bill could make it seem it was the voters in the district who earn their living from tobacco that he feared. But when he flipped and voted to over ride the veto, it certainly seemed he was afraid of Pelosi. However voting for the resurrected bill but not voting at all on the Republican alternative seems to be a fear of the far Left Liberals who have been calling him a “Bush Dog” and even calling for a primary opponent to oppose him.