I write to you on behalf of scores of friends and family members who are utterly disgusted with the political thuggery and undeniable cynicism hurled against the American people by our elected House, Senate, and president. At issue is the most visible manifestation of this thuggery -- the forced legislation, against the will of the governed, in the form of nationalized health care. Nancy Pelosi's incantation of the bill is a monstrosity all its own. The 2074-page Senate version is no better. If you have had ANY ear attuned to the rank-and-file American citizen, who pays the bills including Capitol Hill salaries, you would know that this forced socialization of one-sixth of our economy is anti-freedom, and anti-American.
This glorious climate of "Hope & Change" is anything but hopeful. The latest Department of Labor statistics reported a 10.2% rate of unemployed Americans. Who knows how badly underreported this number actually is. This statistic reflects a commensurate number of Americans who have lost health care benefits. In a strong economy, the politician-generated outcry for uninsured Americans would be rendered largely irrelevant. Sadly, and by design, a strong economy is not the case. Therefore, the liberal anecdote for universal health insurance provision is to mandate it through federal law. Personally, I will choose to go without medical treatment, if necessary, rather than acquiesce to a government-dictated medical plan paid by confiscatory taxes taken from my fellow citizens. The Senate bill, as it is reported, promises to cost $849 billion. The alleged $130 billion of deficit reduction from the legislation is illusory, as taxes for the would-be law will be collected for five years prior to the implementation of the law. Research from the Heritage Foundation suggests that costs would soar to $2.2 trillion over the next twenty years. No one expects anyone on the Hill to actually reduce Medicare costs in the name of ‘deficit neutrality’ – if they were serious about good government, the costs would already have been trimmed. Furthermore, there are provisions throughout the bill that promise to spend monies wholly unrelated to medical care. This tells us the so-called ‘Health Care Bill’ is little more than another onerous redistribution of wealth mandated by the federal government. This onslaught against Americans is a stark example of the growing usurpation of economic and personal freedom this current president and congressional leadership are attempting. Cap & Tax legislation, Copenhagen treaties, capture of banking and financial institutions, seizure of manufacturing industries, and now socialized health care are major elements of the multi-pronged assault on our country. Rather than unleashing the creative and productive power of the American people through tax reduction and lessening ponderous regulations, the president and his congressional lackeys are destroying this once-mighty engine of prosperity with counterproductive “stimulus packages” and multi-trillion dollar deficits.
start on this. If we extrapolate these efforts for so-called “rights,” then the “right” to shelter should be established. While we’re at it, let us establish a “right” for a 2500-calorie per day diet. After all, are not shelter and food just as important as medical care? The much maligned, much ignored Founding Fathers were so brilliant in their composition of the Constitution. In just a handful of penned pages, they authored the most magnificent document dedicated to the protection of individual liberty ever devised by man. It is brilliant in large part because it is a set of negative liberties. These negative liberties succinctly detail the restrictions on government – not persons. They outline the many actions that government cannot perform against the citizenry. In essence, they prescribe a mode of living that guarantees the freest conduct of individual life consistent with law and order. Abominations, like the combined 4000 pages of House and Senate health care bills, are known as positive liberties. The name is a misnomer. Positive liberties, such as those advocated by these health care bills, prescribe what government will do for the citizenry, with all the incumbent restrictions on individual freedoms.
Senator Nelson, recent polling reports that a solid 86% of American taxpayers are satisfied with the health care plans and medical services they are already receiving. And, many Americans question the veracity of precursor reports stating that some 40 million citizens live without health care. Personally, I am without insurance at this time. However, I consider my situation to be temporary. If left alone by government, I can and will secure employment that is able to offer medical insurance as part of its compensation package, or I will secure private insurance on my own. Neither I, nor any of my family and friends, expect fellow taxpayers to provide us medical security. Where does it end, Mr. Nelson? Should we nationalize now the housing industry? Washington already has a good
government. The current hunger for power and control from Capitol Hill and the White House is unprecedented in our nation’s history.
I assume you have had access to the heavily researched information from the Congressional Budget Office and independent organizations that suggest the costs of federalized health care will be unsustainable. Medicare, as we know it, will be eviscerated. Government control will create the same rationing, reduction in quality, and increase in taxes that we are witnessing in Western European countries. Against the direct will of most Americans, the Senate bill provides funding for abortions. Only a naïve person would believe that the omnibus bill would not contain funding for it in one form or another. There are many more grievously unpalatable provisions in the Senate and House bills. Does this mean our current system is excelling in all parameters? Of course not. Transferring insurance administration from individuals to employers has created a host of intractable problems. Employer-provided medical plans are little more than a microcosm of a federally-administered plan. There are few, if any, incentives to control costs, because there are too many impediments to market forces. Allowing medical insurance providers to cross state lines will provide
Senator Nelson: You have an opportunity to legislate according to the will of the People, and in accordance with the Constitution. Or, you can with cowardly obeisance to your party, vote against liberty. It's your choice.
Senator Charles "Chucky" Schumer (D) - NY. It was Schumer's irresponsible remarks in July 2009 that created a panic for IndyMac Bancorp, thereby further exacerbating an already teetering housing finance industry. Now, Schumer wants to bring his renowned expertise to the health care sector. You go, Chucky!
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This letter to you is not the venue for providing statistical data supporting the efficacy of privately owned health care. These notions should be self-evident. Free market solutions work every time and place they are employed. If you are sincere in your pronouncements of support for free markets and the associated personal liberties that accompany them, then let it be reflected in your legislation. President Ronald Reagan understood these principles intuitively. His reduction of tax rates, which was coupled with at least a slowing of the growth rate of government, generated the greatest American economic expansion in generations. The template is there, if only our elected officials can toss aside their pedestrian interests and courageously embrace the truth. I began this letter to specifically entreat you to vote against this Senate bill targeted at America. However, I also wanted to let you know that we view this hostile attempt to seize American health care as symptomatic of an overall, blatant hubris in our Federal
dozens of choices, instead of just two or three, and create a competitive atmosphere that will naturally reduce costs. Serious efforts towards tort reform will exact additional cost reductions. Now, I realize that tort reform will ruffle the preened feathers of the trial lawyer lobbies – a major source of Democratic Party PAC and personal donations. Well, that is just a small price for doing the right thing. Reducing the adversarial relationship that has formed between physician and patient will go a long way in reducing malpractice costs – and medical costs by extension. Mr. Nelson, the American health care system in its current form is flawed – but it is still the best in the world. There is no need to mold it into some appellation of a socialized European bureaucracy. Yes, the system indeed needs repair, but those repairs should be left to the ingenuity of free Americans in a free market, not bureaucrats without incentive for profit. Profit is not an ugly word, Mr. Nelson. Profit is what motivated the creation of the greatest living standards the world has ever known. Americans are reawakening to the notion that government is a necessary evil at best – and that freedoms once ceded to government
may never be regained. Vote against this monstrosity, Mr. Nelson, and vote for freedom. You might be surprised. A bold move on behalf of freedom instead of government could serve you quite well with the voters. We are watching you, and the salt of the earth, taxpaying American voter is becoming angered by an imperially disconnected government like at no time in our Republic's history. The contempt shown for us by our own elected officials and the diminution of our liberties will not be tolerated much longer.
Oh, one more thing. Mr. Nelson, if you choose to respond to this letter, please do so personally. Do not slough it off to one of your senatorial aides or interns, who typically respond with form letters thanking us for our concern and for contacting you. Those responses are stale, patronizing, and insulting. Thank you.
Lee A. Heilig
Meet the "mastermind" of the Senate's effort to hijack America's medical system. Senator "Dingy" Harry Reid (D) - NV is the Senate's counterpart to Madam Pelosi in the House, though with far less testosterone than Pelosi. Like those in the executive branch and House of Representatives, the Senate Majority Leader shows no propensity to listen to the voice of the American people. Reid's senate seat in Nevada is in serious political jeopardy in 2010, yet his maniacal drive to force-feed socialized health care on Americans shows no abatement. Behind the bookish, grandfatherly exterior is a raging statist who will stop at nothing to nationalize one-sixth of America's economy. Mendacity, thy name is Reid... and Obama, and Pelosi, and Schumer, and Dingle, and Frank, and...
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