Posted on 09/13/2009 5:53:37 AM PDT by Patriot1259
Being on the Tricare military healthcare, I know firsthand what health care rationing is. I know how much the government uses mid-level providers to fill physician positions. I know they will deny coverage for certain treatments and medications when they are needed but considered too costly. I have seen the lines for prescription medicine taking hours to fill a prescription that cannot be filled over the phone. I feel I have a different perspective on the HR 3200 bill and I can offer a different insight on the future of health care if this bill passes. This is why I paid my way to Washington D.C.
I am in my mid-twenties and looking towards the next 10, 20, 30 years down the road, much further than the next presidential election. I fear the short and long term ramifications of this bill, such as health care rationing, end of life counseling, the future of cancer treatment facilities, nurses taking over the physicians' jobs, research and development of new drugs and procedures.
I am less concerned about the next 10 years and more concerned about the findings from The Lewin Group which states the program will essentially pay for itself the next ten years, but after such time the plan would add $1 trillion to the deficit. The latest figure was each person shares $38,000 of the government debt. How will the money be paid?
(Excerpt) Read more at thecypresstimes.com ...
Some will not want to write their names I understand, they can use a pseudonym. Some might want to write a joint letter if they went as a group, and have several signatures.
The idea is to PERSONALIZE this, localize this across the land, grassroots it further, make it seem familiar to people in cities and towns all across the USA, that their fellow neighbors, workers, etc. are going all the way to D.C. for this, especially if they were never known to be involved in any kind of politics or government what-not to date, and prevent it from being some far away thing. This might inspire others who never took up civic duties.
We can keep the fire alive of the DC Tea Party well after it is over, returning like a 1000 different lights to each town and locality. We are going to need this firepower on the local level as we move into mid September and October what with Obama out on the campaign trail again, and his LIES.
“We believe a man should be concerned about public as well as private affairs, for we regard the person who takes no part in politics not as merely uninterested but as useless.” Pericles (Citizen of Athens)
I LOVE Glenn Beck – and the symbolism of 9/12/09 was exciting — but for GOD’S sake and your grandkids’, FORGET THE MARCHES ON WASHINGTON! Unless we can put a few MILLION irate citizens on the Mall, the political hacks up there ignore them and the only folks who profit are the airlines, restaurants and motel owners.
While THIS TIME it MIGHT be different, a distressing number of these “marches” by folks who have never been active in civic affairs end with these folks returning home broke and tired but with an overwhelming sense that “I REALLY DID SOMETHING!” Feeling that they have done their “civic duty,”… they are never heard from or seen again. Cynical? No, REALISTIC!
“ALL POLITICS IS LOCAL” (Tip O’Neill!)
LET’S KEEP IT THAT WAY!!
Back around 1980, Georgia Congressman and doctor Lawrence Patton McDonald worked late in his Capitol Hill office when an old college friend knocked on his door. Larry rose and greeted his guest and, after exchanging the usual pleasantries, his friend, looking weary and a bit dejected, slumped into a chair. (YES, Larry wore the Democrat label only because it was the only way he could get elected at the time in that part of the south. Recall that this was when some Democrats still loved America, the IDEA! When he started voting the Constitution up there, the “powers that be” moved his desk into the cloakroom!)!
Larry asked him what was wrong.
With a long sigh, his friend began.
“Every few years, a group of us have to take time away from our jobs and come all the way up here to meet with our representatives and senators to try to head off some new effort to trash the Constitution. And I often get the feeling that these guys up here have never read the Constitution and just aren’t listening to the voters.”
Laughing, Larry offered, “Most of them don’t listen” then added, “You do know, don’t you, that there’s a better way?”
“What’s that, Larry?”
Larry, whose cousin was General George S. Patton, smiled at his old friend. “When you come HERE, you’re already at a strategic disadvantage: You’re on THEIR turf. You and your friends ought to get together at home and find House candidates who share your values and get behind them with support and resources and REPLACE the guys who aren’t listening. And if there is no candidate with those qualifications, go out and CREATE one – maybe even run yourself! And if, down the road, the new guy stops listening to you, work to replace HIM. The beauty of the House of Representatives is that the Founding Fathers designed it so that these folks have to come home every 24 months to get their tickets punched by the voters. And as we both know, the Constitution gave the taxing and spending power to the House. If the House refused to fund some liberty destroying or unconstitutional agency or program, it just won’t happen. There was a reason the Founders established Congress in Article ONE and the presidency in Article TWO!”
Larry continued.
“And voter opinions in those district elections are pretty much NOT controlled by the New York Times, Time, ABC, CBS, NBC and the rest of the leftist so-called main stream media. And THAT’S an advantage if you’re trying to get good people elected to this place.” (And 218 honest, decent America-loving representatives could – on Day 1 – pull all that power previous congresses have shipped down to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue back up Capitol Hill where the Founders intended it to repose.)
“But, Larry, how do we convince the rest of the voters that the incumbent needs to be replaced?”
“That used to be a real challenge since poll after poll asking folks what they thought of congress usually got very negative answers. But when asked how they thought THEIR guys were doing up here got responses indicating that THEIR guys were doing a good job. (NOTE: Check at http://www.gradegov.com/ to see how YOUR GUY is REALLY DOING!)
“Does the local approach really work, Larry?”
“Absolutely. One of my favorite stories about that is the 16 year-old paper boy out in the Midwest. Every quarter, out of his earnings, he paid to print up 10,000 flyers listing how HIS representative was voting and threw them on his route and in another 9,500 lawns in his district – FROM HIS BIKE! After 3 quarters of that, the incumbent was ousted for someone who more closely represented the views of the voters. On election night, the red-faced loser was interviewed on TV and, waving one of the flyers, sputtered that it was a right-wing plot to “get him.” It was GREAT TV.”
“A ‘plot’ by a 16 year-old paperboy.” Larry and his guest laughed.
“And it’s happening all over the country – even in my state, Georgia. My supporters down there are keeping the voters in the 7th informed about my votes up here. Since my only standard is the Constitution, they keep sending me back. So it works both ways: The good guys get reelected and the bad guys get sent home – but far too many of them move over to K Street and hang around as lobbyists.” Another wry chuckle.
“But what about the presidential election?”
“While important, if we had 300 or so decent representatives up here on the Hill, they’d take back much of the power they’ve shipped down to 1600 over the past years and the 4 year beauty contest would become far less important than it now is. A metaphor for these elections for president, representatives and senate is a 3 card Monte game: While everyone is focused on the card marked with the “P,” the “R” and “S” cards are largely ignored.”
Larry’s friend returned home, got his friends and neighbors working to educate those around them – and within a year, had a new and improved representative.
****************
A personal story about how that process works.
Around 6 am on a dark morning in the early 80s, 4 of us piled into a car in Atlanta with a few hundred flyers detailing how then Georgia Representative Ed Jenkins and Senator Sam Nunn were voting on issues important to all citizens. Our destination was Hartwell, Georgia and an “Eggs and Issues Breakfast” hosted by a large Hartwell church.
We arrived at the church about an hour early and deployed. As folks arrived for the buffet line, each was handed some of this highly informative literature. As they waited in line, they read and chatted as new information came to their attention. Just before the invited dignitaries were to make their 20 minute speeches (aka, pitches for re-election), we made certain a supply of these flyers made it to the head table. Ed and Sam ate precious little of the fine southern breakfast cuisine before them as they periodically glanced menacingly at the table we occupied. In unison, the 4 of us smiled sweetly and waved.
When Ed and Sam each rose to speak, each devoted 16 or 17 minutes of the allotted 20 minutes TRYING TO DEFEND their DOCUMENTED VOTING RECORDS to an increasingly hostile gathering as we returned Ed and Sam’s constant withering glares with more sweet smiles and waves. It was truly one of the highlights of my early years as a political bomb-thrower. YOU should try it!
After a bit more bomb-throwing in other parts of his district, Ed Jenkins was defeated in the next election. Because he ran state-wide and we lacked the resources and manpower to cover the entire state (and he did begin to clean up his act) Sam hung on for another term or two. (And those 2 year House terms — where the power to tax and spend repose — is where the effort must be concentrated.
And here’s ANOTHER flash:
Friends, THIS IS WHAT IT TAKES: DOGGED, PERSISTENT EFFORT OVER TIME. It’s the only acceptable, non-violent way a system such as ours can be made to operate in any meaningful way.
Next time you feel like marching, march to those pre-election town hall meetings your representative holds, meet others who are unhappy with him, organize them — and REPLACE HIM!
Dick Bachert
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