Wednesday, December 23, 2009

Please--Write Your Senator TODAY

I'd much rather be quietly celebrating the holidays with my family--but this issue is much to important to let slip by through Congress. My heart sinks at the thought that the Senate will pass the health care reform bill, over the objection of the majority of the people in the United States. What hubris motivates the Democrats in the Senate? Their strident support seems only to increase as the polls show plummeting support for this bill. Like children, unable to admit a mistake, they plunge us headlong toward fiscal and political disaster.


Please take time TODAY to write to your senators and express revulsion at the health care bill in general, and the individual mandate in particular.


Below is from an email I received from AAPS, followed by email I sent to my Senators. Feel free to use it.


Other talking points are available through AAPS (especially their series on health care myths) or from FIRM.


From AAPS:

There are two more chances to kill the healthcare bill in the Senate tomorrow, so more action is needed.


First, there will be a vote on the constitutionality.


Second, will be the final cloture vote around 2 pm before proceeding to the final vote on the bill, which is now scheduled for 8 am Christmas Eve. Votes needed for cloture are 60. Today, Sen. Barrasso, M.D. (R-WY) talked about John F. Kennedy’s book, “Profiles in Courage” and said that we need one Democrat to exhibit courage and stand up and say that this is a bad bill, and that these sweetheart deals are unfair. Maybe we can convince Ben Nelson (D-NE) to go back to his previous courageous stand against the bill.

TWO ACTIONS BEFORE WED NOON EST:


1. Write a letter to Sen. Ben Nelson expressing your position on his flip-flop. If you intend to help any opponent he may have in his re-election, you might mention that in your letter.


We will deliver the letters to Sen. Nelson’s office before the vote tomorrow.


An easy form is posted on www.TakeBackMedicine.com


2. Contact your Senators to tell them to vote that the bill is unconstitutional, largely due to the individual mandate. You can find your Senators' contact information at http://www.contactingthecongress.org/


SOMETHING FOR EVERYONE TO DESPISE


Two big announcements from groups on the left today grabbed our attention.



The self-acknowledged government single-payer doctors from Physicians for a National Health Plan wrote to Senators:

"We have concluded that the Senate bill's passage would bring more harm than good."



The negatives, the group says, “include the individual mandate requiring that people buy private insurance policies, large government subsidies to private insurers, the unfair taxing of high-cost health plans, and cuts of $43 billion in Medicare payments to safety-net hospitals.”



And MoveOn.org put out a list of “5 Critical Flaws in the Senate Healthcare Bill” including: #4: Tax American workers' health coverage to pay for reform.


CONSTITUTIONALITY


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.


Further, during our “Virtual Vigil” webcast Sunday night, national radio talk show host, Mike Siegel, who is an attorney, explained that the bill violates a basic legal concept of “breadth.”


PROCEDURAL ARROGANCE


Once again, the Senate leadership is ignoring its own rules.


It’s complex, but the net effect is that Sen. Harry Reid inserted language into the health care legislation changing the Senate rules so that internally the Senate must have two-thirds of the Senate in agreement to consider any future amendments to Obamacare on the floor. Oh, the Senate is actually supposed to vote on rules changes.


Dear Senator,

Please consider carefully before you vote on the current health care reform bill.

An individual mandate is a disaster to our freedom and will not make medical care more available or more affordable.

The experience in Massachusetts should make clear that mandating insurance coverage only serves to increase public debt and decrease the actual availability of medical care. Health insurance coverage is not the same as medical care. This bill will force the use of price controls and rationing--the antithesis of freedom and the end to quality medical care.

I know you have worked very hard to try and construct a health care reform bill---but this bill will not solve the problems that you hope it will and IT DOES NOT HAVE THE SUPPORT OF THE POPULACE!

Please vote NO.


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