Georgia Congressman went in different directions on the important vote on the budget deal this morning at 1240 am (HR 253). Voting for the budget deal were Georgia physicians Phil Gingrey, MD, a Marietta Gynecologist and Tom Price, MD, a Roswell orthopedic surgeon. Republican Representatives Jack Kingston,Lynn Westmoreland and Robert Woodall all voted with Speaker Boehner. Freshman Republican Congressman and GaACS favorite Austin Scott also voted with the majority lining up with Democrats Sanford Bishop, John Barrow, and David Scott.
In contrast, Freshman Republican Tom Graves voted against the deal as did Rep Paul Broun, MD a Georgia family physician representing the Athens and Northeast Georgia area. Graves and Broun’s votes lined up with Georgia liberals Hank Johnson and John Lewis who also voted against the eleventh hour deal averting the looming government shut down.
In the final analysis I guess all politics are local but I think this deal pulled the first team in the at halftime rather than continuing to score. I know that Representative Graves voted his conscience in opposing the deal in that it did not cut enough from the budget. I would like to have seen all the conservative lawmakers line up against the deal on the grounds that it did not go far enough. For surgeons in private practice the long term result of deficit spending will be the destruction of private practice.
John T(Ted) Perry MD FACS
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