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The head of C-SPAN has implored Congress to open up the last leg of health care reform negotiations to the public, as top Democrats lay plans to hash out the final product among themselves.

C-SPAN CEO Brian Lamb wrote to leaders in the House and Senate Dec. 30 urging them to open “all important negotiations, including any conference committee meetings,” to televised coverage on his network.

“The C-SPAN networks will commit the necessary resources to covering all of the sessions LIVE and in their entirety,” he wrote.

In a Tuesday afternoon press conference on health legislation negotiations, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi appeared to object to the premise behind the request.

“There has never been a more open process for any legislation in anyone who’s served here’s experience,” she said.

However, Republican leaders sided with C-SPAN’s calls for transparency.

“As House Republican leader, I can confidently state that all House Republicans strongly endorse your proposal and stand ready to work with you to make it a reality,” Minority Leader John Boehner wrote in response to the letter. “Hard-working families won’t stand for having the future of their health care decided behind closed doors. These secret deliberations are a breeding ground for more of the kickbacks, shady deals and special-interest provisions that have become business as usual in Washington.”

Democratic leaders could bypass the traditional conference committee process, in which lawmakers from both parties and chambers meet to reconcile differences between the House and Senate versions of a bill. Top Democrats in the House, Senate and White House were meeting Tuesday evening to figure out the final product in three-way talks before sending it back to both chambers for a final vote.

“We don’t even know yet whether there’s going to be a conference,” Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chairman Chris Van Hollen said responding to a question about the C-SPAN request. “It’s not clear whether or not that’s going to happen yet.”

This format would seem ideal for closed-door meetings, which congressional Democrats have used many times to figure out sensitive provisions in the health care bill — though President Obama pledged during the campaign to open up health care talks to C-SPAN’s cameras.

“That’s what I will do in bringing all parties together, not negotiating behind closed doors, but bringing all parties together, and broadcasting those negotiations on C-SPAN so that the American people can see what the choices are,” Obama said at a debate against Hillary Clinton in Los Angeles on Jan. 31, 2008.

Asked about the request to Congress, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said he hadn’t seen the letter.

“I know the president is going to begin discussions today on health care to iron out differences between the House and Senate bills,” he said.

Lamb urged Congress in his letter to fling open the doors in the final stretch of the negotiations.

“President Obama, Senate and House leaders, many of your rank-and-file members, and the nation’s editorial pages have all talked about the value of transparent discussions on reforming the nation’s health care system,” he wrote. “Now that the process moves to the critical stage of reconciliation between the chambers, we respectfully request that you allow the public full access, through television, to legislation that will affect the lives of every single American.”

Lamb said his network would use “the latest technology” to be “as unobtrusive as possible” during the talks.

Call To Action

While the Senate has all but passed the health care takeover bill, do not despair for we have additional opportunities to stop the progression.

Remember that the House and the Senate need to come to terms on a compromise bill, but the rhetoric coming from the Senate is rather aggressive toward the House, so this is one opportunity for you to contact both Senators and your Representative. Once a compromise bill is agreed upon, both the House and Senate need to pass it before going to the President for his signature. Another opportunity!

There is time, so pour the heat on to your elected officials and tell them to stop the reform. Less government is the cure, not the disease!

Thank you,

Your friends at The John Birch Society

Click the link below to log in and send your message:
http://www.votervoice.net/link/target/jbs39442654.aspx

Texas Straight Talk – A weekly column
Rep. Ron Paul (R) – TX 14

Last week on Christmas Eve, after many backroom deals were made, the Senate passed the healthcare reform bill with a strictly partisan vote. I was pleased that my colleagues in the GOP are on the right side of this bill. Although this vote was a major step in healthcare reform becoming reality, they still have to reconcile the Senate bill with the House-passed version in conference committee. This could prove even more difficult and costly than the Senate vote.

There was a little bit of controversy surrounding one particular Senator who was initially against the bill, but then, coincidentally, a large amount of Medicare funding specifically for his state was tucked inside and he ended up voting for it. One wonders how much more of that will have to go on to achieve final passage.

But this is how politicians in Washington deal with problems: they throw your money at them. Healthcare reform is no different. The Senate version of the bill, at last count, will cost $871 billion. The House version tops $1 trillion. But they tell us this is for the health of Americans, and how dare we count the cost?

Such is the arrogance of politicians. There seems to be no end to the problems they feel capable and duty-bound to solve through legislative proclamation and plenty of your money. To hear them talk, one might think that a few words spoken on Capitol Hill would make problems just disappear. All it takes it good intentions.

But no good can come from 2400 pages of Washington’s good intentions.

I have observed quite the opposite throughout my political career in the House of Representatives, and fear that with this immense legislation, our healthcare problems are only just beginning. Over the last few decades, I have seen healthcare subjected to more and more creeping red tape that only creates bottlenecks and increases costs as new bureaucratic hurdles are put in place.

Politicians cannot solve the problems created by ever-increasing intervention by exponentially increasing their intervention. Similarly, they cannot improve the quality of healthcare and expand access to it for all Americans simply by legislative decree. If only it were that simple! The reality is the free market, when allowed to function, naturally increases access and drives prices down through competition. The free market keeps service providers accountable by allowing people to take their business elsewhere.

This government intervention will eventually create a near monopoly of providers in health insurance as smaller companies are squeezed out and innovation comes to a grinding halt due to formidable barriers to entry. The government will determine prices and levels of service that will apply to everyone, regardless of want or individual circumstances. The true insurance model of healthcare cost management, meaning major medical coverage only, will basically become illegal. Opting out of the system will incur heavy tax penalties.

Expanding government reach so deeply into this very sensitive area of our personal lives and such a major part of our economy means more opportunities for waste, fraud and abuse of the system. One need only remember the recent bailouts for an example of how government handles systemic waste, fraud and abuse.

So while the Senate patted itself on the back last week for delivering a Christmas gift to Americans, time will prove it was instead a great big lump of coal.

December 22, 2009 – WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senators Jim DeMint (R-South Carolina) and John Ensign (R-Nevada), raised a Constitutional Point of Order on the Senate floor against the Democrat health care takeover bill on behalf of the Steering Committee, a caucus of conservative senators. The Senate will vote tomorrow on the bill’s constitutionality.

“I am incredibly concerned that the Democrats’ proposed individual mandate provision takes away too much freedom and choice from Americans across the country,” said Senator Ensign. “As an American, I felt the obligation to stand up for the individual freedom of every citizen to make their own decision on this issue. I don’t believe Congress has the legal authority to force this mandate on its citizens.”

“Forcing every American to purchase a product is absolutely inconsistent with our Constitution and the freedoms our Founding Fathers hoped to protect,” said Senator DeMint. “This is not at all like car insurance, you can choose not to drive but Americans will have no choice whether to buy government-approved insurance. This is nothing more than a bailout and takeover of insurance companies. We’re forcing Americans to buy insurance under penalty of law and then Washington bureaucrats will then dictate what these companies can sell to Americans. This is not liberty, it is tyranny of good intentions by elites in Washington who think they can plan our lives better than we can.”

Americans who fail to buy health insurance, according to the Democrats’ bill, would be subject to financial penalties. The senators believe the bill is unconstitutional because the insurance mandate is not authorized by any of the limited enumerated powers granted to the federal government. The individual mandate also likely violates the “takings” clause of the 5th Amendment.

The Democrats’ healthcare reform bill requires Americans to buy health insurance “whether or not they ever visit a doctor, get a prescription or have an operation.” If an American chooses not to buy health insurance coverage, they will face rapidly increasing taxes that will rise to $750 or 2% of their taxable income, whichever is greater.

The Congressional Budget Office once stated “A mandate requiring all individuals to purchase health insurance would be an unprecedented form of federal action. The government has never required people to buy any good or service as a condition of lawful residence in the United States.”

A legal study by scholars at the nonpartisan Heritage Foundation concluded: “An individual mandate to enter into a contract with or buy a particular product from a private party, with tax penalties to enforce it, is unprecedented– not just in scope but in kind–and unconstitutional as a matter of first principles and under any reasonable reading of judicial precedents.”

Texas Straight Talk – A weekly column
Rep. Ron Paul (R) – TX 14

Last Saturday many concerned Americans watched in horror as the House passed the healthcare reform bill. If this bill makes it through the Senate, it would massively overhaul the way healthcare is delivered in this country. Today, obviously, we don’t have a perfect system, but this legislation takes all the mistakes we are making with healthcare and makes them worse. Most of what is wrong with healthcare stems from decades of government intervention and the resulting unintended consequences.

But the government’s prescription for the ills caused by intervention is always more intervention. We see this not only in healthcare policy, but also in foreign policy, in economic policy, and in monetary policy – basically, in all areas of public policy. It was even claimed that the House bill would increase competition in healthcare, and thereby improve the private sector’s business model for insurance.

It is fascinating that politicians would use the language of the free market in this way to justify more corporatism. This demonstrates a couple of things. One, that politicians truly do not understand the very basic tenets of a free market. By definition, a free market is free from government intervention. But once a little intervention is accepted as legitimate, politicians will blame the problems created by their intervention on the free market and present themselves as saviors that must intervene even more.

It also demonstrates that politicians know that Americans still believe the free market is a good thing. People know and understand that competition among businesses is better for the consumer than a monopoly. However, competition between a private business and a government or government-favored entity is not real competition.

In real competition, your competitor can go bankrupt if they do a bad job. Everyone knows a government program is forever, no matter how poorly it performs. In real competition, efficiency is necessary for survival. In government programs, waste is rewarded as budgets are often determined by how much money a department is able to consume in a year. In real competition, one business does not have regulatory or taxation authority over its competitors. In real competition, businesses get sued and punished for breaking contracts and defrauding people, and are kept accountable in this way. But just try to sue the government when you are unjustly harmed by it!

The reason real competition is a good thing is because good businesses get bad ones out of the consumer’s way. Can the government put someone out of business? Most certainly! But it will have the opposite effect: an otherwise good business will be replaced by a poorly performing government agency, or a government-favored monolithic business that behaves almost like a government agency.

If Washington really wanted to give consumers more choices they would remove legislative and regulatory barriers to competition across state lines for health insurers. They would remove barriers for new and innovative models of healthcare and tort reform. They wouldn’t have run so many church and charitable hospitals out of business. Washington is keenly interested in healthcare reform, but it is certainly not going to increase competition or to expand your options for healthcare.

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.

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

Rep. Matthew E. Baker (R) introduced legislation (HB 2053) yesterday with 37 other house members which will ‘Providing for the rights of individuals to purchase private health care insurance; and prohibiting certain governmental action. The bill known as Freedom of Choice in Health Care Act.

Its three pages long and my favorite Section is 5:

23 Section 5. Participation in related laws.

24 Neither the Governor nor the Department of Health, the

25 Department of Public Welfare or any other Commonwealth agency

26 shall participate in the compliance with any Federal law,

27 regulation or policy that would compromise the freedom of choice

28 in health care of any resident of this Commonwealth.

You can read the bill here: http://www.legis.state.pa.us/CFDOCS/Legis/PN/Public/btCheck.cfm?txtType=HTM&sessYr=2009&sessInd=0&billBody=H&billTyp=B&billNbr=2053&pn=2829

HOUSE CO-SPONSORS:

Cutler
Watson
Clymer
Barrar
Benninghoff
Boyd
Causer
Creighton
Everett
Gabler
Geist
Gingrich
Grell
Grove
Hess
Hutchinson
Kauffman
M. Keller
Krieger
Maher
Major
Marshall
Metzgar
Miller
Moul
Murt
Pickett
Quinn
Rapp
Rock
Rohrer
Saylor
Stern
Stevenson
Swanger
Tallman
True

Texas Straight Talk – A weekly column
Rep. Ron Paul (R) – TX 14

With a faltering economy, multiple wars, and the approaching demise of the dollar’s reserve status, there are more than enough problems to keep politicians in Washington working day and night. In between handing out cash for clunkers and nationalizing healthcare, the administration is busy sending more troops overseas, escalating existing wars, and seeking out excuses to start new wars. Congress is working on “urgent” legislation to address crises like healthcare reform and climate change. The reforms are so very urgent that legislation must pass swiftly with no time to read the bills even though the new laws wouldn’t take effect for several years! Meanwhile, the Federal Reserve is busy dealing with our dollar crisis by printing up more dollars.

Yes, there certainly is a lot for Washington to do these days. Most, if not all, of what Washington is doing however, is more of what created the problems in the first place. Capitol Hill is filled with politicians running around putting out fires – but with gasoline. The truth is that all these fires keep so many powerful people employed and wealthy that it is not truly in many decision makers’ interests to be very effective problem-solvers. If Washington ran out of problems, think how many lobbyists would be out of a job, and how many special interest groups would just disband? Sadly, whatever is bad for the greater economy is good for the economy and job market in DC.

Of course, no form of government, not even one that respected its Constitutional restraints, would magically create a problem-free society. The question is: how should a society deal with its problems? The form of government that our founders envisioned, in which the federal government was strictly constrained by the Constitution, allows private citizens and communities to solve their own problems. The role of the government should be to protect contracts, punish fraud and violence through appropriate laws, law enforcement and the courts. Not a whole lot of laws or bureaucrats are really necessary to work on just that. Instead, new laws are constantly needed to fix the problems that previous unconstitutional laws created. We have ended up with an incomprehensible maze of laws and regulations that severely constrains the people and expands the government – the exact opposite of what our founders intended.

This is all because the Constitution is treated like a suggestion manual instead of the supreme law of the land. Under the Constitution, politicians’ hands are supposed to be tied in most of the areas they involve themselves in today. But somewhere along the line, politicians stepped out of Constitutional bounds and started pretending to solve our problems for us. All we have to show for it is more problems.

Today, Washington politicians can busily “solve” one problem, knowing that unintended consequences from that “solution” will keep them and their friends all very busy tomorrow. The people are ultimately left suffocating under the burden of Washington’s helping hands. It is coming to a point where our economy, our dollar, and indeed, the rest of the world have had about all the help from Washington that they can stand. The United States is headed the way of Rome and the Soviet Union, for the same reasons, unless we reverse the trend.

I continue to hope that enough Americans will realize that the true strength of our country doesn’t come from Washington, but rather the limitations placed on government in the Constitution. We must resolve to reverse the destructive course that we are on and then never again let big government problem-solving take over our lives and our country.