12 In Congress Represent Will of the People?
At the beginning of this week, a majority of elected representatives in the U.S. House voted in favor of health care reform legislation, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. The same legislation had earlier been approved by a majority of democratically-elected members of the U.S. Senate. The legislation contained hundreds of Republican amendments along with Democrat-crafted language, and was the product of a year-long process of compromise.
Representative Michele Bachmann‘s interpretation of that process: “It’s no secret, President Obama and Democrat leaders have ignored the will of the people and have chosen to ram through their trillion-dollar health care bill despite the American people’s overwhelming objection to it.”
If a bill passed by majorities in both houses of Congress, and signed into law by a President who won with a strong mandate in most states, does not represent the will of the people, what would? According to Bachmann, the will of the people is better represented by her own bill, H.R. 4903, which would repeal the just-passed health care reform legislation.
The number of sponsors of Bachmann’s bill, including Bachmann herself: 12. That’s 2.8 percent of the membership of the House of Representatives.
