Healthcare… Have the Dems Worn You Out?

Healthcare

By: Esther Petersen

I am afraid that we have been proven right.  I have attended five Tea Party type events this year and the theme, for most of the people I talked to was, “it all about control”.  At the very first Tea Party event on April 15^th, it was TARP and the Omnibus spending plan that were front and center in the targeted anger.  That is interesting to note as TARP was passed under the leadership of the GOP and Omnibus was under the leadership of the Democrats.  Healthcare reform (or take over) was still on the “far-off” drawing board with Cap and Trade.  Two big, bad, bills looming in, what we hoped, was a very distant future.  If only……..

 Fast forward to the end of September and look at where we are now.  Cap and Trade was rammed through the House of Representatives and the Healthcare legislation has at least four different bills floating around.  “We the People” did our job throughout the summer with our phones calls and emails, and we certainly made our position know loudly and clearly through our unprecedented town hall participation.  Oh yes, we read up on as much as we could, we made no pretences as to our positions, we fought hard all summer, and ended with a massive march on Capitol Hill.    And what has happened since?  Have our Representatives decided to actually listen to us and to do what we demanded of them?  No, they most certainly have not.  In fact, they are now putting a gag order on Humana, a private business, which prevents Humana from passing on information to its customers that is backed up by the CBO!  That is correct!  Humana is not lying to its customers, they are passing on information that has been verified by the Congressional Budget Office, yet the long and ever far reaching arm of the Federal Government has told them to “shut up”. 

 If only that were the only thing that was obscene about the moves made since the August recess.  Now, what is referred to as the Baucus bill will include not only a substantial fee, but possible JAIL TIME for people who do not purchase insurance.  Let us think about that for a moment.  It has been shown through interviews and speeches that President Obama, Representatives Pelosi and Frank, and Senators Bernie Sanders and Dennis Kucinich to name a few, are all supportive of a single payer health system.  The problem is, the American people do not agree.  The American people want healthcare reform not a “government takeover”.  So what is the solution?  Why that is simple, force the public into a single payer system over a period of time and do it by making the current system so obnoxious that people begin to think there is no other option.  Boom, there it is.  They gain full control and we are stuck with it.  If this is not the case then why would they be opposed to the options such as opening up state borders and tort reform that would cost the American public nothing?  Why would they be opposed to free market solutions?  Why would they be opposed to breaking the bill down into much smaller, less intrusive, easier to read bills?  The answer, I am afraid, is becoming more and more obvious.  They do not want to just reform healthcare; they want to completely transform it into something we in this country have never seen before.  They ultimately want to control it, therefore they will not listen to us and reform it slowly with common sense moves.

 What can we do, then?  Are we doomed to accept what they are about to force on us?  I say “NO”.  I say that we must insist that “if” they do what I think they are going to do and use reconciliation to pass this bill, we must demand that the new people we WILL elect in 2010 must immediately begin working to repeal anything that moves healthcare out of our hands and into the hands of the Federal Government.  My friends, I feel we are in for a long fight.  Are you up for it?

 

 

Steve Buyer learns about The Apollo Alliance

Who writes the bills? Who is the Apollo Alliance? A high school student asks Congressman Steve Buyer – if HR 3200 passes, and salaries for physicians are capped, what motivation does he have to enter med school?

 

Danville, IN, Town Hall with Rep. Steve Buyer (R), cont.

More questions:

Part 5:

Part 6 (SCHIP):

 

Danville, IN, Town Hall with Rep. Steve Buyer (R)

Part 1:

Part 2:

Part 3:

 

He tells it like it is

I, David William Hedrick, a member of the silent majority, decided that I was not going to be silent anymore. So, I let U.S. Congressman Brian Baird have it. I was one questioner out of 38, that was called at random from an audience that started at 3,000 earlier in the evening. Not expecting to be called on, I quickly scratched what I wanted to say on a borrowed piece of paper and with a pen that I borrowed from someone else in the audience minutes before I spoke. So much for the planned talking points of the right wing conspiracy.

 

Grass-roots vs. Astro-Turf

Read about the double standard in this article by Michelle Malkin.

 

A Change We Can Believe In

A quick note on this… It was written at the end of April.. to help put the article in context. 

“A Change We Can Believe In” by Frank

 American citizens came together on April 15^th and participated at Tea Parties around the U.S. to tell our representatives to uphold the Constitution of the United States and the foundation on which our country was formed.  Our thoughts about what the Tea Parties represented to us are as follows:

 What began years ago, is continually changing America, and has accelerated during our lifetime are the following;  The Federal State and local governments, step by step, have taken over our lives becoming stronger and larger than anytime in U.S. history creating unsustainable debt and massive government programs catering to special interests.  Our representatives in Washington and at the State level have put the U.S. in a downward spiraling debt to which we may never recover unless we vote and replace those in our legislative body who are growing this debt.  Quoted from the “Principles of Liberty; The highest level of prosperity occurs when there is a free market economy and a minimum of government regulations.” America could easily plunge into a severe depression unless we limit government spending and taxation. Our liberties will be gone and our standard of living, the envy of the world, will be reduced to subsistence   Morality and a religious foundation that America was built on are no longer taught in the public schools. (Private and charter schools are the exception.) We now contend with a new world order and a real threat to American culture, the Constitution and our liberties.

 Why have millions of immigrants come to America?  Because they want to live in a country that was built on the “Principles of Liberty” which are written about in the book “A Miracle that Changed the World, the 5000 Year Leap”. Learn how adherence to these principles during the past 233 years has brought about more progress than was made in the previous 5,000 years.”  Please read the 28 “Principles of Liberty” listed at the end of these comments.  Also, a must read is “Liberty and Tyranny”, by Mark Levin.  Even President Obama’s mother knew to send her young son back to America to get a better education and standard of living than Indonesia could offer him.

 So if the Principles of Liberty, our Constitution and the foundation of America are such a blessing to the human race, why are we allowing our elected representatives to grow the government and subject us to intolerable debt that will put our generation and the next generations into economic slavery?  That is a question all of us must ask ourselves.  Who is to blame?  Probably most of us are to blame.  Is it too late to turn this ship around?  Our Constitution and the wisdom of our Founding Fathers gave us a system of checks and balances adopted to prevent the abuse of power. The Tea Parties were the first step. What we can do is contact our representatives and remind them about the Principles of Liberty and how our Constitution is not being upheld.   We can express our views and remind our representatives that they work for us, not that we work for them.   We can organize and educate each other, the American public (which includes the millions of recent American citizens and those waiting to become citizens) about what is occurring in our legislative process, those liberties that we are losing and the unsustainable debt we are facing. We need to act, to expose the abuses and put the pressure on our legislators to regain what is rightfully ours; life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.  We need all Americans to stand up and fight to help preserve this great country.

 95% of the citizens approached in our region of Indiana agreed with the Tea Party principals.  Some could not come to the Tea Parties for various reasons but they were there in spirit.  So Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the Tea Parties are not an “astroturf movement” as you so eloquently stated, they are a grassroots movement.  Newt Gingrich stated on Fox News that he thinks “30% of Americans want the massive growth of the new administrations government programs, 70% do not.”   I would think that the 30% who want this massive growth of government will not want it when they see the results 10 years down the road.   The debt is unsustainable and they and their descendents will suffer from the current administrations’ actions.

 We are the silent majority. Many of us have our ancestral roots with the founding fathers and the patriots that fought during the American Revolution, who framed the Constitution and helped bring this great nation into existence.  We also have in our families those that served and some who have died to preserve American freedom.  We are not cowards as the present administration would want the world to believe. So we say, don’t poke the bear.  

 Both political parties are at fault.  It was under both of their watches that the spending went out of control, government meddled too much in the market place and the laws already on the books were not being enforced.  

 However, the present administration is creating potentially disastrous scenarios.  Many voters admit they made a mistake by voting for an administration that within 90 days: 

1. Voted in a far left socialist agenda;
2. Who is apologizing for America and saying we are an arrogant people and a nation of cowards;
3. Who is growing our debt and creating massive government programs that will spiral out of control;
4. Cutting defense spending to the bone and severely weakening our military defenses;
5. The new head of Homeland Security stating in a report “the return of military veterans facing significant challenges reintegrating into their community could lead to the potential emergence of terrorist groups or lone wolf extremists capable of carrying out violent attacks;
6. An administration that is unwilling to drill for oil here in America or build nuclear facilities to make us energy independent from foreign influences. They want us to depend on expensive solar panels, windmills that can be blown away in a tornado, grow corn for fuel which should be used for food, and to put air in our tires. Even though alternative energy sources can add to our energy needs, developing them exclusively will greatly weaken our economy.
7. Government taking over businesses, firing CEO’s, controls what someone in the private sector can earn.
8. Giving up Jefferson’s great American experiment.

Source: The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel) By Craig Gilbert, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Apr. 1–WASHINGTON — Many of the foreign leaders meeting with President Barack Obama at Thursday’s G-20 summit in London believe the global recession has discredited “U.S.-style” laissez-faire capitalism and want America to take a more activist and “European” approach to regulating financial markets.

But back home, conservatives have been making a different argument about the U.S. and European systems.

Rep. Paul Ryan of Janesville and other Republicans have assailed Obama’s budget as an effort to “Europeanize” America.

“This budget does propose to bring us toward a European-style form of government,” Ryan said Tuesday at a forum organized by the libertarian Cato Institute, as Congress began debate this week on the federal budget.

Ryan put the case more pointedly at a committee meeting last week, saying the Democratic budget plans could alter “the unique character of America and Americans” and trade “much of our freedom in exchange for Washington taking over much of our lives.”

Said Ryan: “If we accept this path and this agenda comes to pass, it will mark this period in our history as the moment where we begin to give up on Jefferson’s great American experiment, and transition to the European model will begin in earnest.”

 An administration whose health care reform is creating the largest government power grab in American History.  From the Heritage Foundation website, an article “Quoting from Learning from Vermont on health care” by Dennis G.  Smith  “President Obama’s health care budget proposal is large but surprisingly unimaginative. It depends on old-fashioned, populist, “soak the rich” tax hikes combined with technocratic tinkering with administrative payment and new software in anticipation of program savings. It does very little to change America’s flawed public and private third-party payment arrangements, where value is secured for “payers,” not individual patients. If the President wants to affect real change—and secure value for individual patients rather than third party payers—he should take concrete steps to transfer direct control over health care dollars and decisions to individuals and families.”  

 Etc, etc.  the list goes on and on.

 Whoever voted for this administration did not do their homework, nor did they understand what or who they were voting for; likewise for past administrations’ policies and leadership mistakes. In a year and half we can vote in economically fiscal conservatives, those that would govern by the constitution and begin to correct these mistakes; or at least slow down some of the damage that has been done.  But it will take much effort and sacrifice.  It may mean activities such as a nationwide march on Washington D.C.  Everyone needs to jump on board, for change is coming and together we can make it happen.

 A book called “A Miracle that Changed the World, the 5000 Year Leap: Principles of Freedom 101” author W. Cleon Skousen.   Ronald Reagan-President of the United States stated  “The National Center for Constitutional Studies.. is doing a fine public service in educating Americans about the principles of the Constitution.”

 In this book are emphasized 28 governing points that we should ponder as we participate in our Tax Tea Parties.

 “Principles of Liberty: Learn how adherence to these principles during the past 200 years has brought about more progress than was made in the previous 5,000 years. 

1.  The only reliable basis for sound government and just human relations is Natural     Law.

2.  Life and liberty are secure only so long as the right of property is secure.

3.  The burden of debt is as destructive to freedom as subjugation by conquest.

4.  The proper role of government is to protect equal rights, not provide equal things.

5.  A free people cannot survive under a republican constitution unless they remain virtuous and morally strong.

6 The most promising method of securing a virtuous and morally stable people is to elect virtuous leaders.

7. The highest level of prosperity occurs when there is a free market economy and a minimum of government regulations.

8. Only limited and carefully defined powers should be delegated to the government, all others being retained in the people.

9.  Without religion the government of a free people cannot be maintained.

10. The majority of the people may alter or abolish a government which has become tyrannical.

11.  All things were created by God, therefore upon Him all mankind are equally dependent, and to Him they are equally responsible.

12.  All men are created equal.

13. Men are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights.

14.  To protect man’s rights, God has revealed certain principles of divine law.

15. The God-given right to govern is vested in the sovereign authority of the whole people.

16. The United States of America shall be a republic.

17. A constitution should be structured to permanently protect the people from the human fragilities of their rulers.

18. The government should be separated into three branches: legislative, executive, and judicial.

19. A system of checks and balances should be adopted to prevent the abuse of power.

20. The unalienable rights of the people are most likely to be preserved if the principles of government are set forth in a written constitution.

21. Efficiency and dispatch require government to operate according to the will of the majority, but constitutional provisions must be made to protect the rights of the minority.

22. Strong local self-government is the keystone to preserving human freedom.

23. A free people should be governed by law and not by the whims of men.

24. A free society cannot survive as a republic without a broad program of general education.

25. A free people will not survive unless they stay strong.

26. “Peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations: entangling alliances with none”.

27. The core unit which determines the strength of any society is the family; therefore, the government should foster and protect its integrity.

28. The United States has a manifest destiny to be an example and a blessing to the entire human race.”

 

Nurse Lori has a Recap of July 4 Tea Party

The following was submitted by one of the members tyof the Indy Tea Party.  Please visit their website at http://www.inteaparty.com/ .  They have a place to donate and/or purchase merchandise.  If you have a story of your own you would like published to my blog please submit it to me at jspetersen23@gmail.com …. Enjoy!

Hi Patriots,

 Always the optimist, Saturday morning July 4th, I filled thermoses with ice water and ice tea for the INdependence Day Tea Party. We planned for a day of sun, heat and humidity typical of an Indiana July 4th.  As the volunteer in charge of the Medical Response Team, I had planned for weeks for every possible medical emergency.  I had already packed the first aid kits and other supplies we might need the night before.  My husband had borrowed a tent from his employer for the event and had the first aid tent, the “patient” cot, and chairs in the car as well.  I prayed that we would not have rain despite the forecasts on the news and the increasingly dismal sky.  Mostly I prayed for a huge turn out to the event that many of us on the leadership team had prepared for since the minute after the 4/15 Tea Party was over.  I prayed that a great many would be determined to stand with us against what is happening in our government now and would attend despite the weather forecasts.

 As we drove downtown the drizzle started. By the time we parked and began to unload the supplies from our car it was clearly raining.  We checked in with the rest of the team, already setting up tents and supplies, and then my husband and I set up the first aid tent, cot and chairs.  It was a challenge to keep things dry in the 10’x10′ tent.  The blanket as well as the first aid kits had to be kept in bags to keep from being soaked.  Once the first aid tent was set up it was time for the meeting of all volunteers at 1pm.  Everyone was already soaked to the skin from the rain but we were all excited that all the months of preparation were coming together.  Richard and Laura, the eternal optimists, gave us a pep talk and last minute instructions then we all gathered for a lunch before returning to our tasks made ever more challenging by the constant rain. Umbrellas were useless as most things that needed done, needed done with two hands.

 Back at the first aid tent we were finishing preparations when a man wearing a USMC hat stepped up to me and said “Here, I thought you could use this.” He handed me a sturdy plastic, waterproof, tub the size of a shoebox.  I opened the tub and found it filled with neatly sorted sterile gauze pads and bandages.  I asked him if he wanted it back after the event and he said “No, keep it.”  After I said “Thank you!!!”  The Marine quietly walked off.  I had purchased first aid kits but if we didn’t have to open them they could be returned to the store and the money donated back to the IN Tea Party to help pay off the debt for the event. (I hope that Marine is reading this now because I wanted him to know that his supplies were used for an attendee’s eye injury shortly after the event started.  I used sterile gauze from the Marine’s box and didn’t have to open the kits from the store. Because of that we have $50 that can help pay for the event.)

 I thought I would faint when the State Police officer assigned to our event stepped into the tent and told us that they had arranged for AED’s to be available to us if needed.  I had asked him earlier if he carried one in his State Police car and when he said “no” I thought “well, I expected we wouldn’t have one available so this is not a huge set back”. Clearly the rain was going to discourage about anyone from attending so chances were slim we would need an AED anyway.  Now we would have access to an AED after all!  The team was given the number to call if we needed the AED. We were now as prepared as we possibly could be.  Our Medical Response team was comprised of Dr Blank (the ER doc who spoke) and 4 other R.N.’s Wes, Kesa, Julie, and Dot, all volunteers.

 As the event was nearing its start the Committee volunteers met once more about 4:30pm to discuss the last minute changes brought about by the ceaseless rain.  Silent questions about whether the Wright Bros. would be able to perform at all were met with the obvious answer given by the rain.  We looked about the soggy grounds and saw that there were very few people gathered besides the volunteers and the event was due to start in less than a half an hour.  We all remembered how people arrived for the Tax Day Tea Party hours before the event and now only a handful of people stood in the rain waiting for the show.  We had a prayer lead by one of the event speakers.  It was a great prayer but honestly, my spirits were getting lower by the minute and I personally had trouble mustering the same optimism as the Behney’s and other volunteers.  Once the prayer and meeting ended we all scurried back to our assigned places to greet the people we still hoped would come to the event…

 I returned to the first aid tent.  I felt I needed to remain there even though Kesa another volunteer R.N. was there.  I really wanted to attend the March from Monument Circle but I felt my first responsibility as leader of the Medical Response Team was to remain at the tent as much as possible.  A phone call came in to one of the volunteers nearby and the message was relayed to us…there were a couple hundred people assembled at the Monument for the march!  I thought well at least we’ll have a couple hundred people attend but in reality that news didn’t do much to lift my damp spirits. We’d hoped for thousands of people, a couple hundred didn’t compare. The committee members had been working 3 months, so very hard, to make this day a huge success only to see it washed down the drain with the rain that was coming down harder and harder as the time of the event approached.  About 5pm I began to hear the distant beats of the drum from the march.  It pulled me from my post in the first aid tent toward the part of the park where they would arrive.  Even though I was already soaked from the rain, as I left shelter of the tent, I began to feel even soggier and now cold too.  My mind thought back to all the sacrifices I had made to help with planning this event, time not spent with my husband and granddaughter, time not spent on my business, time not spent just to relax.  I thought of all the things that had not gotten done while I focused every shred of time I could on the Tea Party events.  I thought about how I would rather be at home now, warm and dry, maybe catching up on some sleep on the sofa…   Then, the beats of the drum got louder and I looked up to see the front rows of marchers coming toward me.  I began to cheer them on, I figured it was the least I could do since they had come out in the rain to participate in our event.  Then the first row of marchers turned the corner and behind them…more marchers!  I put my hand to my mouth in amazement, now too stunned to chant or cheer.  People really did care enough about this cause to march in a downpour!  But then the marchers just kept coming and as they turned the corner they revealed more marchers.  I felt like an idiot, here I was the Medical Response Team leader, wearing a Committee Leader security badge and I was crying.  Crying tears of JOY!  All the hours were NOT wasted!  People really did still care about the Tea Party movement!  They cared so much that they were not going to let the rain wash away their determination!  I started shouting “We’ve had enough!”  with the marchers while tears ran down my face. Like the others have written…the emotion was OVERWHELMING!

 To any of you who attended, I want to thank you from the very bottom of my heart for your determination and your PRESENCE at the INdependence Day Tea Party.  Every single one of you made every sacrifice we committee members make worth it!  I think I can safely speak for all the volunteers when I say that.  Your presence among MANY hundreds of others standing, resolute, in pouring rain CAN NOT be ignored by the media or more importantly our elected officials!  It is my hope and prayers that you will continue to make your voices heard and your presence seen as we go forward with future events including the flash rally this Wednesday at the GOP fundraiser.  We cannot relent!  We WILL NOT relent!

  Humbly submitted,

 Lori

 P.S.  We had only one other “patient” in the First Aid Tent and he only required 2 antiseptic wipes and 2 band aids.  A safe event was a big bonus!

 

One of My Heroes

‘Here’s my strategy on the Cold War:
We win, they lose.’
– Ronald Reagan

‘The most terrifying words
in the English language are:
I’m from the government
and I’m here to help.’
– Ronald Reagan

‘The trouble with our liberal friends
is not that they’re ignorant;
it’s just that they know so much
that isn’t so.’
– Ronald Reagan

‘Of the four wars in my lifetime,
none came about because
the U.S. was too strong.’
– Ronald Reagan

‘I have wondered at times about what the Ten Commandments would have looked like if Moses had run them through the U.S. Congress.’
– Ronald Reagan

‘The taxpayer: That’s someone who works for the federal government but doesn’t have to take the civil service examination.’
– Ronald Reagan

‘Government is like a baby: An alimentary canal with a big appetite at one end and no sense of responsibility at the other.’
– Ronald Reagan

‘The nearest thing to eternal life we will ever see on this earth is
a government program.’
– Ronald Reagan

‘It has been said that politics
is the second oldest profession.
I have learned that it bears a striking resemblance to the first.’
– Ronald Reagan

‘Government’s view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it.
And if it stops moving, subsidize it.’
– Ronald Reagan

‘Politics is not a bad profession. If you succeed, there are many rewards; if you disgrace yourself, you can always write a book.’
– Ronald Reagan

‘No arsenal, or no weapon in the arsenals of the world, is as formidable as the will and moral courage of free men and women.’
– Ronald Reagan

‘If we ever forget
that we’re one nation under God,
then we will be a nation gone under.’
– Ronald Reagan

 

Ask not what your country can do for you…

Remember that famous quote from John F. Kennedy in his inaugural address? That famous line, “Ask not what your country can do for you, but ask what you can do for your country,” has been repeated by many different people over the past 48 years in a variety of contexts and for a variety of purposes. But it seems that we have forgotten it, and are only asking what our country or our government can do for us.

During this past election cycle, I got in a conversation with someone who was planning on voting for Obama and basically an entire Democrat and/or liberal ticket. She asked me why I was going to vote Republican, because “what have the Republicans ever given you?” I’ve thought about that question a lot in the past several months, and found it to give insight into the reason why government is so big, why they take so much from us in taxes, and why they are elected into office again and again, despite their massive failures. [Massive failures? Yes! Pres. Johnson declared “War on Poverty” in the 60s, and it’s only gotten worse. Yet we continue to throw good money after bad, in the apparent insane hopes that maybe this time history won’t repeat itself. And that’s just one example.]

This woman didn’t realize it, but she was selling her vote to the highest bidder — to whomever was able to convince her that s/he was going to give her the most. In one way, that’s not too different from what everyone does — everyone votes for the person that s/he thinks is the best. The difference comes in the way someone determines who will be the best candidate for the job. It’s an easy thing to vote for someone who promises you to “give” you what you want (even if, like so many campaign promises, the promise is forgotten the day after the election). It’s much harder — requires more discipline, more maturity, more circumspection, more thought — to vote for someone who does not promise you the moon.

But it is important to remember, that “the government” cannot give unless it first takes. They take our money in the form of taxes, then they take a percentage of our money off the top for bureaucracy, then they give us back a smaller portion of our money in the form of “benefits” and services. Some taxation is necessary, and some benefits and services are needful; but it’s time to say enough already!!!

We have to step up and let our voice be heard. A reader named Craig sent the link to this news story about various Representatives and Senators going apoplectic about proposed budget cuts, because the cuts were going to affect their districts. One of the items was a Presidential helicopter that Obama says is not necessary. Although $800,000,000 is a drop in the bucket, compared to the monstrosity of the “stimulus” package, it is still eight hundred million dollars of your money and my money that will be spent unnecessarily unless it is ultimately cut. And it will be spent because people voted, not for what they could do for their country, but what their country could do for them. Unfortunately, that comes at a very steep price, because as I said before, the government cannot give anything that it does not first take away.