PoliticalAction.com Blog

Vote NO on Health Care Reform in the Senate —
Remember How We Stopped Amnesty in 2007

If you were upset by House passage of its health care reform bill, H.R. 3962, by 220-215 on November 7th, then contact your Senators immediately and tell them to vote NO on any version of health care being offered by Senate leadership. The Senate is expected to vote on its health care bill sometime between late November and mid-December. If the Senate passes its version of health care reform, then both House and Senate will need to vote still another time on a final conference committee version.

We know what’s at stake — an eventual complete government takeover of our health care system. Although it seems like we’re destined to lose our health care freedom, remember how an extraordinary grassroots firestorm stopped the Senate dead in its tracks and forced it to abandon the Bush-Kennedy-McCain amnesty bill in 2007. We need just such a firestorm of opposition again!

Bottom line, if the Senate leadership’s version of health care reform passes, then how each Senator votes on it will be a top issue in the congressional election campaigns of 2010 and 2012. This is a good time to let your Senators know what impact their votes on health care reform will have on your participation in the campaigns of 2010 and 2012. This is ultimately the only leverage you have on your Senators. Use it!

Contact your Senators in opposition to the Senate leadership’s health care reform bill via his DC and district offices by means of personal visits, phone calls, faxes, and emails. Click here to take immediate action to send an email to both of your Senators.

Thanks.

Your friends at The John Birch Society

Texas Straight Talk – A Weekly Column
Rep. Ron Paul (R) – TX 14

As Washington continues debating healthcare reform the rest of the country is primarily concerned about jobs and the economy. It is still uncertain what policies will be implemented, but I am certain about one thing: It will only further devastate our economy and our dollar.

The leadership has come up with a proposal they are confident will be what they consider fiscally responsible, only to have it scored as nearly twice as expensive by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. Estimates of past healthcare spending programs have been off by as much as 100 percent so there is no telling what the actual cost will be.

The past century should have taught us one thing: that government intervention is expensive. Government programs lend themselves so easily to waste, fraud and abuse. Combine that with overall inefficiency and it all adds up to a hefty price tag for the taxpayer, with not much leftover for actual services. An outright takeover of an entire sector of the economy, especially one as important as healthcare, is something that we just cannot afford for the government to do right now. Not to mention the fact that it is completely unconstitutional. But Washington insists on torturing the numbers and tinkering around the edges rather than facing this truth.

If healthcare reform does indeed pass, we should not be under the illusion that it will be free. The money to pay for it will have to come from somewhere. They say they will get the money from cutting waste, fraud and abuse, but all of that is seemingly intrinsic to government programs. Since they want to expand the government’s reach we have to assume we will be trading waste, fraud and abuse for waste, fraud and abuse with a bigger budget. The powers that be have insisted the money won’t come from higher taxes, it won’t come from rationing of care, and it won’t come from higher premiums. This can only then put more pressure on the Fed to print the money out of thin air. We already have a weakening dollar. They are accelerating everything that weakened it in the past. Adding this new, monumental pressure could very well be the straw that will break the dollar’s back.

Foreign creditors are already nervous about continuing to invest in the US because of our skyrocketing debt. The explosion of debt that is certain to accompany the enactment of this national health care bill can only add to that nervousness.

Ironically, enactment of the health care bill could help the cause of liberty by hastening the day when Congress is forced by economic circumstances to stop increasing the welfare-warfare state and return to the Constitution.

There are many problems with our current healthcare system, to be sure. There are many tragic stories to be told. However, we need to look at the root of our problems in order to address them properly. More government intervention and bureaucracy injected into healthcare will take a flawed system and make immeasurably worse.

By Americans for Safe Access, Medical Marijuana Therapeutics/Research

HOUSTON — The American Medical Association (AMA) voted today to reverse its long-held position that marijuana be retained as a Schedule I substance with no medical value. The AMA adopted a report drafted by the AMA Council on Science and Public Health (CSAPH) entitled, “Use of Cannabis for Medicinal Purposes,” which affirmed the therapeutic benefits of marijuana and called for further research. The CSAPH report concluded that, “short term controlled trials indicate that smoked cannabis reduces neuropathic pain, improves appetite and caloric intake especially in patients with reduced muscle mass, and may relieve spasticity and pain in patients with multiple sclerosis.” Furthermore, the report urges that “the Schedule I status of marijuana be reviewed with the goal of facilitating clinical research and development of cannabinoid-based medicines, and alternate delivery methods.”

The change of position by the largest physician-based group in the country was precipitated in part by a resolution adopted in June of 2008 by the Medical Student Section (MSS) of the AMA in support of the reclassification of marijuana’s status as a Schedule I substance. In the past year, the AMA has considered three resolutions dealing with medical marijuana, which also helped to influence the report and its recommendations. The AMA vote on the report took place in Houston, Texas during the organization’s annual Interim Meeting of the House of Delegates. The last AMA position, adopted 8 years ago, called for maintaining marijuana as a Schedule I substance, with no medical value.

“It’s been 72 years since the AMA has officially recognized that marijuana has both already-demonstrated and future-promising medical utility,” said Sunil Aggarwal, Ph.D., the medical student who spearheaded both the passage of the June 2008 resolution by the MSS and one of the CSAPH report’s designated expert reviewers. “The AMA has written an extensive, well-documented, evidence-based report that they are seeking to publish in a peer-reviewed journal that will help to educate the medical community about the scientific basis of botanical cannabis-based medicines.” Aggarwal is also on the Medical & Scientific Advisory Board of Americans for Safe Access (ASA), the largest medical marijuana advocacy organization in the U.S.

The AMA’s about face on medical marijuana follows an announcement by the Obama Administration in October discouraging U.S. Attorneys from taking enforcement actions in medical marijuana states. In February 2008, a resolution was adopted by the American College of Physicians (ACP), the country’s second largest physician group and the largest organization of doctors of internal medicine. The ACP resolution called for an “evidence-based review of marijuana’s status as a Schedule I controlled substance to determine whether it should be reclassified to a different schedule. “The two largest physician groups in the U.S. have established medical marijuana as a health care issue that must be addressed,” said ASA Government Affairs Director Caren Woodson. “Both organizations have underscored the need for change by placing patients above politics.”

Though the CSAPH report has not been officially released to the public, AMA documentation indicates that it: “(1) provides a brief historical perspective on the use of cannabis as medicine; (2) examines the current federal and state-based legal envelope relevant to the medical use of cannabis; (3) provides a brief overview of our current understanding of the pharmacology and physiology of the endocannabinoid system; (4) reviews clinical trials on the relative safety and efficacy of smoked cannabis and botanical-based products; and (5) places this information in perspective with respect to the current drug regulatory framework.”

As part of our Operation Health Freedom series, Euro Pacific Capital President Peter Schiff talks about problems with the employer-based health care system and how costs would go down over time without government involvement in health care.

Mr. Schiff is running for United States Senate against Christopher Dodd in Connecticut in the 2010 election. SchiffforSenate.com

Pelosi Rams ObamaCare Down America’s Throat!

Higher Premium Costs And Taxes Are The ONLY Sure Thing!
Obama, Pelosi and the Democrats have shut Americans out of the Healthcare debate and ready or not THEY ARE PUSHING FOR A FINAL OBAMACARE VOTE THIS WEEK without debate.

The Final Bill Announced Monday November 2, 2009 is scheduled for a vote just 3 days later on Thursday November 5, 2009.

The 3 DAY LEGISLATION is calculated to buy off as many Congressmen as possible to win a bare majority of 218 votes. Pelosi is determined that she will Ram ObamaCare Down America’s Throat!

But the legislation leaves unanswered many of questions that will determine perhaps dozens of votes. The final timing and outcome of the vote is in question.

We must STOP Pelosi and her dangerous and destructive plan NOW!

Pelosi is giving the Rules Committee the bums rush and it has yet to meet to consider the structure for the healthcare bill debate, They call it a “manager’s amendment” and it will SERVE AS THE VEHICLE FOR THOSE LAST-MINUTE DEALS NEGOTIATED TO GUARANTEE ADDITIONAL VOTES.

It is all a big game to Pelosi to rollout the 1,900-page bill not even reviewed by the CBO that has produced even more questions about its costs and its ability to reduce the deficit. Initial REPORTS FROM CAPITAL HILL SHOW DISAPPOINTMENT FROM LIBERAL AND CONSERVATIVE DEMOCRATS alike about what is in the bill and what’s been left out.

FAX Congress NOW! STOP ObamaCare SELECT HERE!
https://secure.conservativedonations.com/ameripac_onoobamacare/?a=3173
The House Republican Conference has compiled the following list of 111 NEW BOARDS, bureaucracies, commissions, and programs created in H.R. 3962, Speaker Pelosi’s government takeover of health care:
* Retiree Reserve Trust Fund (Section 111(d), p. 61)
* Grant program for wellness programs to small employers (Section 112, p. 62)
* Grant program for State health access programs (Section 114, p. 72)
* Program of administrative simplification (Section 115, p. 76)
* Health Benefits Advisory Committee (Section 223, p. 111)
* Health Choices Administration (Section 241, p. 131)
* Qualified Health Benefits Plan Ombudsman (Section 244, p. 138)
* Health Insurance Exchange (Section 201, p. 155)
* Technical assistance to employees of small businesses buying Exchange coverage (Section 305(h), p. 191)
* Insurance risk pooling to be established by Health Choices Commissioner (Section 306(b), p. 194)
* Health Insurance Exchange Trust Fund (Section 307, p. 195)
* State-based Health Insurance Exchanges (Section 308, p. 197)
* Grant program for health insurance cooperatives (Section 310, p. 206)
* “Public Health Insurance Option” (Section 321, p. 211)
* Ombudsman for “Public Health Insurance Option” (Section 321(d), p. 213)
* Account for receipts and disbursements for “Public Health Insurance Option” (Section 322(b), p. 215)
* Tele health Advisory Committee (Section 1191 (b), p. 589)
* Demonstration program providing for “culturally and linguistically appropriate services” (Sec 1222, p. 617)
* Demonstration program for shared decision making using patient decision aids (Section 1236, p. 648)
* Accountable Care Organization pilot program under Medicare (Section 1301, p. 653)
* Independent patient-centered medical home pilot program under Medicare (Section 1302, p. 672)
* Community-based medical home pilot program under Medicare (Section 1302(d), p. 681)
* Independence at home demonstration program (Section 1312, p. 718)
* Center for Comparative Effectiveness Research (Section 1401(a), p. 734)
* Comparative Effectiveness Research Commission (Section 1401(a), p. 738)
* Patient ombudsman for comparative effectiveness research (Section 1401(a), p. 753)
* Q/A and performance improvement program for skilled nursing facilities (Section 1412 (b)(1), p. 784)
* Q/A and performance improvement program for nursing facilities (Section 1412 (b)(2), p. 786)
* Special focus facility program for skilled nursing facilities (Section 1413(a)(3), p. 796)
* Special focus facility program for nursing facilities (Section 1413(b)(3), p. 804)
* Independent monitor pilot program for skilled nursing facilities and nursing facilities (Section 1422, p. 859)
* Demonstration program for approved teaching health centers for Medicare GME (Section 1502(d), p. 933)
* Pilot program to develop anti-fraud compliance systems for Medicare providers (Section 1635, p. 978)
* Special Inspector General for the Health Insurance Exchange (Section 1647, p. 1000)
* Medical home pilot program under Medicaid (Section 1722, p. 1058)
* Accountable Care Organization pilot program under Medicaid (Section 1730A, p. 1073)
* Nursing facility supplemental payment program (Section 1745, p. 1106)
* Demonstration program for Medicaid medical conditions for mental diseases (Sec 1787, p. 1149)
* Comparative Effectiveness Research Trust Fund (Section 1802, p. 1162)
* “Identifiable office or program” for “coordination between Medicare and Medicaid” (Section 1905, p. 1191)
* Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (Section 1907, p. 1198)
* Public Health Investment Fund (Section 2002, p. 1214)
* Scholarships for service in health professional needs areas (Section 2211, p. 1224)
* Program for training medical residents in community-based settings (Section 2214, p. 1236)
* Grant program for training in dentistry programs (Section 2215, p. 1240)
* Public Health Workforce Corps (Section 2231, p. 1253)
* Public health workforce scholarship program (Section 2231, p. 1254)
* Public health workforce loan forgiveness program (Section 2231, p. 1258)
* Grant program for innovations in interdisciplinary care (Section 2252, p. 1272)
* Advisory Committee on Health Workforce Evaluation and Assessment (Section 2261, p. 1275)
* Prevention and Wellness Trust (Section 2301, p. 1286)
* Clinical Prevention Stakeholders Board (Section 2301, p. 1295)
* Community Prevention Stakeholders Board (Section 2301, p. 1301)
* Grant program for community prevention and wellness research (Section 2301, p. 1305)
* Grant program for research and demonstration projects for wellness incentives (Section 2301, p. 1305)
* Grant program for community prevention and wellness services (Section 2301, p. 1308)
* Grant program for public health infrastructure (Section 2301, p. 1313)
* Center for Quality Improvement (Section 2401, p. 1322)
* Assistant Secretary for Health Information (Section 2402, p. 1330)
* Grant program to support the operation of school-based health clinics (Section 2511, p. 1352)
* Grant program for nurse-managed health centers (Section 2512, p. 1361)
* Grants for labor-management programs for nursing training (Section 2521, p. 1372)
* Grant program for interdisciplinary mental and behavioral health training (Section 2522, p. 1382)
* “No Child Left Unimmunized Against Influenza” demonstration grant program (Section 2524, p. 1391)
* Healthy Teen Initiative grant program regarding teen pregnancy (Section 2526, p. 1398)
* Grant program for interdisciplinary training, education, and services for autism (Section 2527(a), p. 1402)
* University centers for excellence in developmental disabilities education (Section 2527(b), p. 1410)
* Grant program to implement medication therapy management services (Section 2528, p. 1412)
* Grant program to promote positive health behaviors in underserved communities (Section 2530, p. 1422)
* Grant program for State alternative medical liability laws (Section 2531, p. 1431)
* Grant program to develop infant mortality programs (Section 2532, p. 1433)
* Grant program to prepare secondary school students for health care training (Section 2533, p. 1437)
* Grant program for community-based collaborative care (Section 2534, p. 1440)
* Grant program for community-based overweight and obesity prevention (Section 2535, p. 1457)
* Grant program for reducing the student-to-school nurse ratio (Section 2536, p. 1462)
* Demonstration project of grants to medical-legal partnerships (Section 2537, p. 1464)
* Center for Emergency Care (Section 2552, p. 1478)
* Council for Emergency Care (Section 2552, p 1479)
* Grant program to support demonstration programs for regionalized emergency care (Section 2553, p. 1480)
* Grant program to assist veterans who wish to become EMT’s (Section 2554, p. 1487)
* Interagency Pain Research Coordinating Committee (Section 2562, p. 1494)
* National Medical Device Registry (Section 2571, p. 1501)
* CLASS Independence Fund (Section 2581, p. 1597)
* CLASS Independence Fund Board of Trustees (Section 2581, p. 1598)
* CLASS Independence Advisory Council (Section 2581, p. 1602)
* Health and Human Services Coordinating Committee on Women’s Health (Section 2588, p. 1610)
* National Women’s Health Information Center (Section 2588, p. 1611)
* Centers for Disease Control Office of Women’s Health (Section 2588, p. 1614)
* Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality Office of Women’s Health Research (Section 2588, p. 1617)
* Health Resources and Services Administration Office of Women’s Health (Section 2588, p. 1618)
* Food and Drug Administration Office of Women’s Health (Section 2588, p. 1621)
* Personal Care Attendant Workforce Advisory Panel (Section 2589(a)(2), p. 1624)
* Grant program for national health workforce online training (Section 2591, p. 1629)
* Grant program to disseminate best practices on implementing health workforce (Section 2591, p. 1632)
* Demonstration program for chronic shortages of health professionals (Section 3101, p. 1717)
* Demonstration program for substance abuse counselor educational curricula (Section 3101, p. 1719)
* Program of Indian community education on mental illness (Section 3101, p. 1722)
* Intergovernmental Task Force on Indian environmental and nuclear hazards (Section 3101, p. 1754)
* Office of Indian Men’s Health (Section 3101, p. 1765)
* Indian Health facilities appropriation advisory board (Section 3101, p. 1774)
* Indian Health facilities needs assessment workgroup (Section 3101, p. 1775)
* Indian Health Service tribal facilities joint venture demonstration projects (Section 3101, p. 1809)
* Urban youth treatment center demonstration project (Section 3101, p. 1873)
* Grants to Urban Indian Organizations for diabetes prevention (Section 3101, p. 1874)
* Grants to Urban Indian Organizations for health IT adoption (Section 3101, p. 1877)
* Mental health technician training program (Section 3101, p. 1898)
* Indian youth telemental health demonstration project (Section 3101, p. 1909)
* Program for treatment of child sexual abuse victims and perpetrators (Section 3101, p. 1925)
* Program for treatment of domestic violence and sexual abuse (Section 3101, p. 1927)
* Native American Health and Wellness Foundation (Section 3103, p. 1966)
* Committee for the Native American Health and Wellness Foundation (Section 3103, p. 1968)
Obamacare which does nothing to cut costs and improve care or even guarantees a reduction in premiums must be stopped just look at what it will do!

Seniors lose $500 Billion from Medicare – O NO ObamaCare!

You pay TAXES on Employer health care plans – O NO ObamaCare!

Uninsured forced to spend 20% of income to be insured – O NO ObamaCare!

Retired Union Members healthcare benefits get TAXED – O NO ObamaCare!

NEW TAXES on Americans earning less than $250,000/yr – O NO ObamaCare!

Americans PAY an additional estimated $3500/yr for coverage – O NO ObamaCare!

Cancer patient care rationing – O NO ObamaCare!

FAX Congress NOW! STOP ObamaCare
Get 10 O NO ObamaCare Stickers For Yourself, Family And Friends
SELECT HERE!
What will STOP “ObamaCare”… is the ObamaCare CHART.

House Minority Leader John Boehner and other Republicans asked the Joint Economic Committee to draw up another chart the ObamaCare Chart.

To the average American, it looks like a maze that they’ll have to navigate before receiving medical care. AND IT IS — the parts in white already exist, and the colored boxes are the new entities, offices, requirements, reports, and subsidies the Democrats’ bill would create.

Don’t hold your breath. Once again, the Democrats are using their majority power like they’re dictators, trying to keep the TRUTH from the American people and their Representatives in Congress. We MUST not let them succeed! That’s why we’ve set up our site to enable you to send “blast faxes” to every single Senator and Representative on Capitol Hill, demanding that they read every line of the ObamaCare bill, look at every single detail exposed by this new chart, and KILL this new attempt at a government takeover of American healthcare!

Please don’t delay — Congress is in session right now, and if we don’t stand up and FIGHT against the radical Left, there might be nothing left of the America we know and love for our children! Take action now!

Sincerely,

Alan M. Gottlieb
Chairman, AmeriPA

By Rep. Thaddeus G. McCotter (R-Mich.)

Washington, DC — Throughout the health care debate, the majority of Americans have expressed their opposition and frustration with the president and his Democratic Congress’ radical proposals. The public is opposed to the scheme’s practical harm; frustrated by the Democrats’ arrogant refusal to listen; and justified in its concern that willful Washington politicians will impose these unhelpful proposals despite the American people’s objections.

This is not how the sovereign citizens’ servant government is supposed to enact laws in our free republic. Especially when there is a far more sensible, affordable and contemporary path: patient-centered wellness for our people powered world.

Emulating the failure of their trillion dollar stimulus bill’s “wealth redistribution” that they assured Americans would stop unemployment from rising over 8.5%, the Democrats’ radical, nearly trillion dollar “health redistribution” will not work. For months, the case has been made and the public has concurred: government-run medicine’s cost, higher taxes, surcharges on employer provided benefits, Medicare cuts, rationing boards (such as the stimulus bill’s already appointed Federal Coordinating Council for Comparative Effectiveness Research) and personal mandates, will only increase the costs, decrease the quality and reduce the choices of Americans’ health care. Given such overwhelming and intense public opposition, why do the Democrats insist on imposing this scheme on the American people?

Ideologically, the Democrats are bent on governmentally reducing the supply of health care to “control” costs. This is patently absurd. According to the time-tested law of supply and demand, if the government reduces the supply of health care while the demand for it increases from demographic pressures and medical advances, the costs will spiral upward; and the government will increasingly intrude into your personal decisions and savings.

Believing their complete control of Washington provides a “once in a generational chance” to pass their radical health care scheme, Democrats bull ahead regardless of Americans’ opposition. Cynically, the Democrats feel the law, once passed, will prove immune to repeal. Accordingly, affronted Americans understand the Democrats’ health redistribution scheme is a threat to their wellness, prosperity and liberty.

Consequently, Americans have tirelessly sought to be heard and heeded by the president and his Congress. The response has been worse than silence. Confronted with public dissent, the administration and Democrats have sought to silence opposition by establishing a taxpayer-funded White House cyber “snitch site”; attacks on the messengers of unwelcome facts and statistics; smears against citizens peaceably assembling to petition this government for the redress of grievances; demonizing and investigating private sector entities; and assaults against a cable television network (and, thereby, the First Amendment). No wonder the American people’s disapproval of the president, his Democratic Congress and their health redistribution scheme is plummeting.

We live in a people-powered world, one which is finally catching up to America’s revolutionary experiment in human freedom and self-government. Therefore, in opposing the Democrats’ fossilized model of government-run health care that usurps self-government, the public and Republicans embrace the communications revolution and a globalized marketplace that disdains and decentralizes massive, bureaucratic entities and empowers people as citizens and consumers. Consequently, we understand health care reform must match – not resist – these economic and communications advances by decentralizing government to provide the sensible, affordable reforms that foster patient-centered wellness, which empowers American citizens to be consumers of health care through transparency and free market forces.

The heart of patient-centered wellness for our people-powered world is prudent, targeted, multi-track reforms that reduces costs by leveraging the communications revolution and market forces to increase the supply of health care amid rising demand. Immediate, obvious measures include reforming medical liability laws; ending exclusions for pre-existing conditions; expanding health savings accounts; providing tax credits for purchasing private health insurance; allowing association health plans; permitting health insurance purchases across state lines; encouraging individuals to insure against changes in health status; incentivizing preventative health care; and applying information technology to enhance transparency and increase efficiencies. All this can be achieved without trillions in new spending, taxes and government-dictated, radical changes to Americans’ current health care.

For the less fortunate and most vulnerable amongst us, there must be an expansion of Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs), which will provide patients with preventive and routine treatment; and end underserved people’s use of emergency rooms for primary health-care treatments. Doctors and other health care professionals can be incentivized to provide their services at these clinics for either immediate or future considerations; and a “Patient Navigator” program attached to each FQHC can assist the underserved in accessing the health care system. This approach will build true, community-based health care and increase the power of economically disadvantaged patients to control their own health care. Finally, people suffering from “orphan diseases” – rare afflictions requiring a lifetime of special care – should be compassionately assisted through our nation’s social safety net.

Unfortunately, trapped in the past of a big government ideology and purblind to the people-empowering wonders of our globalized world, the president and his Democratic majority cavalierly dismiss such sensible, affordable approaches and determinedly toil behind closed doors to impose their radical health redistribution scheme on unwilling Americans. If they prevail, their health redistribution will impel higher costs, lower quality, fewer choices and – yes – lost jobs during this painful recession. There is a better way – patient-centered wellness for our people powered world.

Texas Straight Talk – A Weekly Column
Rep. Ron Paul (R) – TX 14

Last Wednesday the nation was riveted to the President’s speech on healthcare reform before Congress. While the President’s concern for the uninsured is no doubt sincere, his plan amounts to a magnanimous gift to the health insurance industry, despite any implications to the contrary.

For decades the insurance industry has been lobbying for mandated coverage for everyone. Imagine if the cell phone industry or the cable TV industry received such a gift from government? If government were to fine individuals simply for not buying a corporation’s product, it would be an incredible and completely unfair boon to that industry, at the expense of freedom and the free market. Yet this is what the current healthcare reform plans intend to do for the very powerful health insurance industry.

The stipulation that pre-existing conditions would have to be covered seems a small price to pay for increasing their client pool to 100% of the American people. A big red flag, however, is that they would also have immunity from lawsuits, should they fail to actually cover what they are supposedly required to cover, so these requirements on them are probably meaningless. Mandates on all citizens to be customers of theirs, however, are enforceable with fines and taxes.

Insurance providers seem to have successfully equated health insurance with health care but this is a relatively new concept. There were doctors and medicine long before there was health insurance. Health insurance is not a bad thing, but it is not the only conceivable way to get health care. Instead, we seem to still rely on the creativity and competence of politicians to solve problems, which always somehow seem to be tied in with which lobby is the strongest in Washington.

It is sad to think of the many creative, free market solutions that government prohibits with all its interference. What if instead of joining a health insurance plan, you could buy a membership directly from a hospital or doctor? What if a doctor wanted to have a cash-only practice, or make house calls, or determine his or her own patient load, or otherwise practice medicine outside the constraints of the current bureaucratic system? Alternative healthcare delivery models will be at an even stronger competitive disadvantage if families are forced to buy into the insurance model. And yet, the reforms are sold to us as increasing competition.

What if just once Washington got out of the way and allowed the ingenuity of the American people to come up with a whole spectrum of alternatives to our broken system? Then the free market, not lobbyists and politicians, would decide which models work and which did not.

Unfortunately, the most broken aspect of our system is that Washington sees the need to act on every problem in society, rather than staying out of the way, or getting out of the way. The only tools the government has are force and favors. These are tools that many unscrupulous and lazy corporations would like to wield to their own advantage, rather than simply providing a better product that people will willingly buy. It seems the health insurance industry will get more of those advantages very soon.

Let’s be realistic. We know that President Obama and the Democratic majority in Congress want to bring about a government takeover of health care. We know that a majority of Americans don’t want this. And, many of us already know that a deceptive bipartisan compromise bill is being prepared by the Senate Finance Committee that would appear to prevent a government takeover by replacing Obama’s “public option” with “health care cooperatives,” but would actually provide a Trojan horse for a government takeover.

In this environment of deception and power politics, voters must not encourage members of Congress to work on a compromise health care reform bill, no matter what President Obama proposes in his next address to the public after Labor Day. All that President Obama needs is a bill with an embryo of a public option. He could take it from there to develop a completely government-run health care system over time.

What we need is for Congress to just drop health care reform!

This would provide the time to get many constitutionalists nominated and elected to Congress in 2010 and 2012. Once we have a majority of fiscally responsible constitutionalists in Congress, that would be the time to consider health care reform.

Click here to take immediate action to email your representative and senators to “just drop health care reform.”

Be sure to keep the heat on your representative and senators with phone calls, personal visits, attendance at town halls, and partaking in other public meetings and rallies.

Thanks.

Your friends at The John Birch Society

By Barry Goldwater, Jr. on 8.26.09 @ 6:08AM

Nowhere in the debate regarding health care has anyone asked if the government is able and qualified to run such a system. Before we ask the government to manage universal health care, let’s check them out.

How successful has the federal government been in managing agencies, programs and businesses?

Let’s look at Medicare. The president and Congress propose to extend Medicare to cover the 47 million people who lack health care coverage. Did anyone remind Congress that Medicare is broke? It’s rampant with fraud and abuse. It is estimated that Medicare and Medicaid fraud cost taxpayers $60 billion per year.

Medicare is required by law to pay full retail prices for drugs that could be obtained for far less in a competitive-bidding system.

Health insurance companies are required by state regulators to maintain a reserve for future liabilities. Every working stiff in this country is required to pay premium taxes into Medicare, which has no reserve. The federal government has been running the largest Ponzi scheme ever created, and it is on the hook for $36 trillion in unfunded liabilities. And you, Mr. President, want the federal government to run health care?

On Aug. 4, 1977, Jimmy Carter declared war on energy dependence and created the U.S. Department of Energy. Every president since has done the same. Today, 31 years later, the Department of Energy’s budget is $26 billion. It employs 16,000 people and 100,000 contract employees. We are no closer to energy independence than we were in 1977. And you want the federal government to run health care?

The U.S. Postal Service lost $7 billion last year and is talking about closing hundreds of offices. And you want the federal government to run health care?

The Federal Reserve was created by the Federal Reserve Act of 1913 to maintain a stable financial system. The Federal Reserve gets failing marks for its direct complicity in the economic meltdown and subsequent recession. The Federal Reserve has failed us. And you want the federal government to run health care?

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were created by Congress as government-sponsored enterprises to provide low-interest funding for the mortgage industry. These government-run mortgage banks were created to provide competition and cheap loans to those who could not afford normal market rates.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac own more than $5 trillion in mortgage paper. On Sept. 7, 2008, they were declared insolvent and were taken over by the Federal Housing Finance Agency and bailed out with more than $400 billion — another government-run mess. And you, Mr. President, want the federal government to run health care?

Amtrak was created by an act of Congress in October 1970 to run the nation’s railroad system. Amtrak was supposed to reverse over two decades of continuous operating deficits. With a congressional mandate to become profitable, it was given $40 million in initial funding, along with $100 million in loan guarantees. After 38 years, Amtrak has never made a profit and receives a federal subsidy, with no prospect in sight of breaking even. And you want the federal government to run health care?

The war on drugs was started by President Richard Nixon in 1969. The United States has been spending $69 billion a year worldwide for the past 40 years, for a total of $2.5 trillion, on drug prohibition — with little to show for it. Today, there are more drugs on our streets at cheaper prices than ever before. It is easier for young people to obtain illegal drugs than a six-pack of beer. Why? Because sellers of illegal drugs don’t ask kids for IDs. And you want the federal government to run health care?

The list of government failures is long and telling. I can’t wait for “Government Motors'” new car. Are you waiting anxiously? Are you holding your breath? That car will be on recall for many years. And you, Mr. President, want the federal government to run health care?

The government has failed for 30 years to achieve energy independence. The government has bankrupted the Medicare program. The Postal Service is broke. The Federal Reserve was the primary cause of this economic meltdown and recession. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have been taken over and bailed out. We have lost the war on drugs.

Mr. President, our government can’t even run a railroad. How the hell do you think the government will ever manage a universal health care system?

Einstein once said, “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”

Obama camp plants fake doctor at Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-18) first in a series of town hall meetings yesterday in the heart of the Fifth Ward. As is typical for a Jackson Lee event, there were a lot of local politicians there, community leaders and seniors.

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