A funny thing happened on the way to a resignation.

Eric Massa angry town hall meeting

Eric Massa informs he intends to un-resign.


Eric Massa has come out in front of the cameras yesterday to tell the world that he resigned because he was being forced out by his own party due to his intentions to vote “no” on the health care bill.

Hmmmmmmm

The press conference was interesting on many levels and I decided to investigate his claims a little further (you know, I just don’t trust them Democrats at their word).

The decision of mine is based on a couple of reasons:

1.  Eric Massa had prior announcements that his decision to retire/resign was due to health reasons (he stated he has end stage cancer). If this is true and you couple it with his statement that he now intends to vote NO it could be because the bill would be a death sentence for those in similar circumstances.

2.  I wanted to piece together the framework of how the Democrats “eat one of their own before they threw him under the bus”.

The first thing I did was research his vote on HR3200 (House version of Health Care bill that passed on 11/9/09 by a margin of 5 votes 220-215). Eric Massa voted YES.

So, now we are to believe that he will vote NO. There is some plausibility to this as the House is being asked to pass the Senate version, which differed from the House version so I drilled down some of the differences between the two. Here are the differences:

Abortion: The Senate bill has the provision that funds abortion from tax payer money, the House version did not. Eric Massa is for abortion.

Public Option: Per ABC news – “The House health care bill, however, includes a public option in what becomes one of the biggest health care policy differences between the two bills. Under the House's public option plan, the government would negotiate rates with insurance companies instead of setting fees, as it does in Medicare.

At least 50 Democrats in the House are on the record as saying they will not vote for a bill without this option while Nelson and Lieberman have refused to support a bill that does include a public option.”

Eric Massa is for the Public Option.

Cadillac Tax Plan: The Senate version has a “curb to cost” by imposing a 40 percent tax increase on “Cadillac Health Care Insurance Plans”. The House did not have this provision.

Note: This tax was universally opposed by the Unions as most of the plans for their workers would fall into the “Cadillac” category.

As a result of the Union opposition to the Senate version the White House struck a deal with Unions to “carve out” their plans from the bill and delay their taxation until 2018. So, the question is, is Massa for the taxation of the Union plans or against it. If he is against it, the President has covered this opposition by the “carve out”. If Massa is for the 40% increase and against the “carve out” the Unions received then perhaps Massa has some credibility for his reversed decision on his resignation.

Analysis: Since the House version did not have the “Cadillac” provision and the White House “carved” it out of the Senate version then Massa has no reason to vote NO on this issue.

In the end, all information/fact on the record has Massa wanting to impose government run health care for all Americans and his YES vote bears this out. Massa wants us to believe that he resigned due to pressure from Democrat leadership insiders who were about to “throw him under the bus” because he always intended to vote NO.

Massa is a disgrace to his family, his party and as a public official who has always shown to be a “progressive Socialist” intent on imposing oppressive government over the people. The town hall meeting shown above is enough proof that his own constituents loath his stance on this particular issue, which by the way is the complete opposite of the majority of all Americans.