Tort Reform – Oklahoma Republicans Try to Sneak It In Again

A last minute dirty tactic by State Republicans for tort reform has predicatively occurred.  I guess the republicans are running low on campaign funds for next year as Representative Dan Sullivan admitted this bill is basically the same bill Governor Henry thankfully vetoed last year.  What’s funny, in hopes of stifling true discussion and a true compromise bill, Sullivan instead placed the 133-page measure into Senate Bill 156, a four-page bill that would have created the Small Hospitals Self-Help Act.   This was a last-minute tactic just before Wednesday’s deadline for House committees to hear Senate bills.

With the above stated, I must now ask this.  Senator James Williamson, head of the Senate Judiciary Committee stated in debating this same bill last year he knew it was a bad bill, but wanted to get the discussion started.  I must ask, are you once again going to sign off on a bad bill for discussion when it is presented to the Senate?  Let’s face it, that discussion your seeking is not for Oklahomans but for fund raising.  It’s to try to make the Governor to look bad by misrepresenting the effects of the bill.  Shame on all those who vote for this bill.

Representative Morrisette maybe stated it the best “this is about politics and politics only.  The governor vetoed this bill last year and I suspect he’ll do the same thing. This is an election year. This is a set-up bill.”  Ladies and gentlemen, the cold hard truth is this.  This is about fund raising. This is about republicans bringing this issue up, which most Oklahomans find as a non-issue, in order to raise funds from the rich Corporations and rich doctors.  They know they can’t win on the merits of such a bill, so they get their hired hand, Dan Sullivan, to attach this bill to a bill not even related in order to stifle debate and discussion.  Lets just be frank, Oklahoma Republicans value businesses more than they do people.  As a conservative in many areas myself, I’m ashamed that these neo-cons are labeling themselves as such.

Now back to tort reform in general.  The myth being propounded by these so called politicians (I prefer to call them employees of special interests) that “tort reform” is needed is the biggest fleecing of the American, and Oklahoma, public ever. Every individual in Oklahoma needs to realize that what the politicians in favor of this draconian tort legislation are trying to do is limit your right to recover if you are catastrophically injured or a family member is killed?

Do you want to know why politicians are proposing such legislation?  Its really quite simple.  The doctors and big business want the legislation. Why? So that if they injure or kill someone, it doesn’t cost them very much money.  Doctors falsely believe it will reduce their insurance rates.  As one doctor for Durant said last year, it’s costing him a “big boat.”   So wake up, don’t sell your rights where the doctor can buy a new corvette or a new “big boat.”

Now, what do the politicians want out of this you may ask?  They want two things: 1) money from corporations and doctors; and 2) a “business friendly” state so that more businesses and doctors come here which leads to more money from corporations and doctors.

Wake up, Oklahoma! Get active against such tyranny by politicians.