Hitting the Road

The air was charged this morning. It felt more like anticipating Christmas than the hot and sultry New Orleans summer Sunday it was. Today wasn't a typical day in the Big Easy-- it was a day filled with packing belongings, saying goodbye to friends and family, and preparing for a historic trip through the great state of Louisiana.

Why you ask? Well the reason is as necessary as it is exciting. I, David Huguenel, and Devin Johnson were to hit the road, working with Louisiana citizens to determine, "What is responsible health reform?"

Devin, a tried and true democrat and I, a Republican, decided to hit the road on behalf of the Campaign for Responsible Health Reform. The debate over health reform has taken many twists and turns during the past few months; between beltway Democrats crying for politically expedient bills passed prematurely and Republican activists trying to drown out opposition in what can only be explained as a crude and crass manner. The conflicting ideologies between right and left had dissolved dialogue to the point of, "Now, Now, Now," vs, "No, No, No."

It was out of this tense and stagnant context we realized the need of bi-partisanship in the health care debate. Thus our campaign for truly responsible health reform.

We have one goal: To offer a moderate voice and allow the citizens of Louisiana to posit ideas and solutions to lower the costs of health care and find inventive ways to provide coverage to the uninsured.

So for the next week we will be traveling through the state -- hitting cites, towns, and villages -- to talk about the issues and listen to the citizens. We're starting in Lafayette, which will be followed by Lake Charles, Alexandria, Monroe, Shreveport, and New Orleans. Throughout the process we'll be posting videos of testimonials of every day Louisianians telling us what responsible reform means to them. We may end up including some travelogues and interviews as well. Who knows what the final product will look like? There's a long road ahead!