Posted on 09/19/2009 7:50:52 AM PDT by cc2k
Yesterday, I received a fundraising plea from the Republican National Committee. It included a letter from Chairman Michale Steele, and this survey, which I found most curious. I thought I would share the survey, along with my replies. I will be faxing or mailing this back with a statement that at this time, I will support the candidates that I find most represent my views and values. I will choose these candidates myself, rather than funding them through some national committee.
The parts with a gray or black background are the from the RNC survey, and the parts with a white background are my responses. Here’s the survey:
| Republican National Committee 2009 OBAMA AGENDA SURVEY Questionnaire |
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| 1 | Do you agree with Barack Obama’s budget plan that will lead to a $23.1 trillion deficit over the next ten years? | o Yes o No o No opinion |
| If you had stopped and put the question mark after the words “budget plan” my answer would be a resounding NO. I do not agree with Barack Obama’s budget plan. Why you went on to overstate the Obama administration’s proposed budget deficits by more than a factor of two, I don’t understand. Were you including all of the debt we currently have, including the nearly $5 trillion that was accrued under our Republican president George W. Bush? Or are you assuming a Republican Congress after 2010, and a Republican President after 2012 or 2016 will further increase coming deficits by more than $10 trillion above current CBO estimates before 2020? |
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| 2 | Do you believe the federal government has gone too far in bailing out failing banks, insurance companies and the auto industry? | o Yes o No o No opinion |
| Yes, I do. But tell me, Chairman Steele, does the Republican party believe they went too far, just far enough, or not far enough when they voted on the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008. That legislation was proposed by a Republican Administration, a Republican Treasury Secretary appointed by a Republican President. Thirty four Republican Senators and ninety-one Republican Representatives in the House voted for that legislation. I personally feel that went too far as well. You won’t be receiving any donations from me if any of this money will be used to support those Representatives and Senators who voted for that bill. | ||
| 3 | Do you support amnesty for illegal immigrants? | o Yes o No o No opinion |
| No, I don’t. I support secure borders first and foremost. I also don’t support any “Guest Worker” program. As a currently unemployed American citizen, I would really like an opportunity at one of those “jobs Americans won’t do.” It might not be the best thing for me, but it is better than nothing. | ||
| 4 | Should English be the official language of the United States? | o Yes o No o No opinion |
| Yes. This is fairly obvious. | ||
| 5 | Are you in favor of granting retroactive Social Security eligibility to illigal immigrants who gain U.S. citizenship through an amnesty program? | o Yes o No o No opinion |
| Not only do I oppose what you asked about. I also oppose any amnesty program. With no amnesty program, there is no worry about Social Security eligibility. I guess that isn’t a choice the RNC is offering, though. | ||
| 6 | Are you in favor of the expanded welfare benefits and unlimited eligibility (no time, education or work requirements) that Democrats in Congress are pushing to pass? | o Yes o No o No opinion |
| No. | ||
| 7 | Do you believe that Barack Obama’s nominees for federal courts should be immediately and unquestionably approved for their lifetime appointments by the U.S. Senate? | o Yes o No o No opinion |
| No, it is my principled belief that all Presidential nominees should be vetted and investigated in a reasonable time frame. Then, after reasonable investigation and debate, they should get an up or down vote in the Senate. I expected this for President Bush. I expect it for President Obama. I might not agree with his picks, but I realize that elections have consequences. I thought the Democrats were a bunch of crybabies when they opposed and unreasonably delayed action on President Bush’s appointents. The key is a timely and reasonable investigation and vetting process. Having said that, I do think that some of President Obama’s non-judicial appointments might have needed further investigation and vetting before the final vote. |
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| 8 | Do you believe that the best way to increase the quality and effectiveness of public education in the U.S. is to rapidly expand federal funding while eliminating performance standards and accountability? | o Yes o No o No opinion |
| No, I believe that the best way to improve education in this country is to abolish the federal Department of Education. That was part of the 1994 Contract with America. I’ve been waiting for action on that item, and I’ve been disappointed by actions during the Bush administration to expand the Department of Education and give it further power and control over our schools. Besides the Presidency and control of both houses of Congress (your party had both from 2001 through 2006), what will it take for Republicans to accomplish this? | ||
| 9 | Do you support the creation of a national health insurance plan that would be administered by bureaucrats in Washington D.C.? | o Yes o No o No opinion |
| No. Further, I don’t support the Federal Government inserting itself in any way into health care and health insurance issues. There is no authority in the Constitution of the United States for the Congress to act in this area. Leave our doctors and our insurance alone! | ||
| 10 | Do you believe that the quality and availability of healthcare will increase if the federal government dictates pricing to doctors and hospitals? | o Yes o No o No opinion |
| Absolutely not. I know that will lead to shortages and rationing. Either administrative rationing with someone (insurance company, government panel) deciding who is most important and gets the goods and services, or de facto rationing with long waiting lines. And it could lead to black markets for medical services as well. The only way to reduce prices in the marketplaces of the real world is to either increase supply or reduce demand (or both). I have seen no proposals from either party which actually propose to do either of these things. Many of the current proposals will do the opposite, leading to higher prices, or price controls and shortages. |
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| 11 | Are you confident that new medicines and medical treatments will continue to be developed if the federal government controls prescription drug prices and sets profit margins for research and pharmaceutical companies? | o Yes o No o No opinion |
| No. Again, price controls or controls on profit margins will lead to rationing of existing products, as well as serving as a disincentive for any further research and development. | ||
| 12 | Are you in favor of creating a government funded "Citizen Volunteer Corps" that would pay young people to do work now done by churches and charities, earning Corps Members the same pay and benefits given to military veterans? | o Yes o No o No opinion |
| No. There is so much wrong with that idea, I don’t know where to begin. Keep the government out of the charity business, please. | ||
| 13 | Are you in favor of re-instituting the military draft, as Democrats in Congress have proposed? | o Yes o No o No opinion |
| No, though I’m not aware of any current proposals to do this. | ||
| 14 | Do you believe that the federal government should allow the unionization of Department of Homeland Security employees who serve in positions critical to the safety and security of our nation? | o Yes o No o No opinion |
| Not sure on this. I absolutely believe that Homeland Security personnel should never be allowed to strike, or to carry out any other “work action” that might negatively affect our security. | ||
| 15 | Do you support Democrats’ drive to eliminate workers right to a private ballot when considering unionization of their place of employment? | o Yes o No o No opinion |
| No, absolutely not. That seems un-American. | ||
| One more thing, Mr. Steele, can you tell me the position of the Republican party on transparency and open governance. Specifically, the party position on voting on bills before there is time for legislators to read the bill? and before the bill has been published long enough for citizens of this country to see it and read it? You should know that I believe that pending bills should be published, and there should be adequate time for citizens to give informed feedback to their Representatives before a floor vote occurs. From the voting record of most Republican’s in the House of Representatives, I believe most members of your party disagree with me on this point. This is another reason why I won’t be supporting your party financially at this time. | ||
FWIW, my response to a similar mailing. And thank y’all for reading this. The RNC sure a hell didn’t.
July 23, 2009
Republican National Committee
310 First Street, S. E.
Washington, DC 20003
To whom it may concern:
Thank you for letting me participate in the census. Please bear with me as I cover a few items in detail.
Let me state right here, right up front, that I am a Conservative with a capital C. I’m not a Democrat or a Libertarian or a Progressive or an Independent or even a Republican. I am a Conservative. Period. When given a slate of candidates, I will always vote for the ones I feel are the most conservative, whatever their official party affiliation.
Having said that, I wonder what happened to the party of small government, low taxes, liberty and freedom? The Founding Fathers would be appalled and disheartened at what the Republican Party has become.
In my opinion, the Democrats and the Republicans are all moving to the left. And as you do, you leave me and other solid Conservatives in your dust. Clearly you must not care about this or else you would stop and head back to the conservative values listed in the previous paragraph.
I truly wish there was a political party rooted in consistent conservatism that stood half a chance of getting national candidates elected. I would join and monetarily support such a party in a second. Unfortunately, there is no such party.
On another subject, President Obama (I call him nobama) as done several things since being elected that I consider onerous. Such as: firing the CEO of General Motors, arranging special deals for the bankruptcies of GM and Chrysler (screwing secured bondholders while making sure his UAW buds get a great deal), appointing 25+ “czars” with no congressional vetting and no oversight authority, etc. Thus far, it appears to me you guys are letting nobama run roughshod over you and our precious country. What, specifically, (I DO NOT want just a bunch of words, we get that spew constantly from nobama) are y’all planning to do about this run away freight train?
Page 2
Regarding the census question closest to your heart, number 17: Before I donate money, would you be willing to give me a written promise that the RNC will give no support to the eight scumbag ‘Republicans’ that voted for cap & tax on June 26th?” I certainly do not want any of my money going to folks that obviously don’t care about the devastation cap and tax will cause here in South Carolina where about 80% of our electricity comes from that soon-to-be very scarce resource called coal.
A month ago you sent me a similar census form and I filled it out, sans donation, enclosed a letter like this one and mailed it off. I did not hear from you. If you don’t think my vote is important enough to respond to my letters, how can you expect me to donate money to you? Most days I feel DeMint, Cornyn and Kyle are all you have going for you. Y’all best get your stuff together.
I am by nature a very optimistic person. However, it is my opinion that any person, what ever their political leanings, who watches the “news” on television, reads the papers and surfs the Internet a little cannot help but come to the conclusion that the Republicans and Democrats alike are completely drunk on arrogancy, incumbency and power. Further it is my opinion that with the current recession/depression our country is in, we ain’t seen nothing yet. And, for the most part, y’all are not helping. It would seem you are scared to death of the Democrats. I am not. Grow some cojones. I fear really, really bad and dystopian days are coming for our precious country. I pray they will be bloodless.
Cordially,
upchuck
The GOP sees a great deal of anger at democrats and makes the mistake of thinking all has been forgiven with the GOP.
They think they can now come to the rescue riding their majestic RINO steeds but are in for a big shock if they think they’ll get a red carpet welcome.
We are both very tired of giving money to republicans that vote against the core values of the party.
I was listen to Rush the other day when he was talking about the Tea Party on 9/12. He sounded scared that this would lead to an abandonment of the GOP for a new party. I hope the GOP leadership gets the point that we are not happy with their performance and we will be making changes 2010. I hope every RINO gets a real conservative challenger in a primary. Time to clean house and get in some fresh blood.
I received it yesterday and just tossed it. I’m not in the mood to be donating to the RNC this year at this time. When they start standing up and growing a “pair” then I might. For now, Michelle Bachmanb and Sarah Palin speak up more than the rest put together oh and Marsha Blackburn too.
I often wonder what they end up in their next life after being tossed in our recycle bin.
FYI Ping
Oh you spend far more time than I’d ever consider. My response usually consists of taking a red magic marker and saying “take me off the list you morons.” Particularly the one I received recently stamped “Past Due” on the envelope.
I do, however, get a little more explicit with the phone calls.
You have your grammar confused a bit. Without a check, the survey becomes tare and the mailing is discarded. Tare is either a certain kind of plant or the portion of a shipment paid for by weight that is non-payload and thus subject to refund.
Dutch Boy wrote:
I hope the GOP leadership gets the point that we are not happy with their performance and we will be making changes 2010. I hope every RINO gets a real conservative challenger in a primary. Time to clean house and get in some fresh blood.
I hope you and your neighbors are doing everything in your power to make this happen in your district and state. Don’t wait for party “leaders” to select these challengers, go find them for yourselves. And I don’t just mean for federal Congressional and Senate seats, but for state and local races as well.
I’m not certain whether the Republican party can be saved, but I am certain that the current leadership won’t save it. It will have to be saved from the grass roots up. And the national money machine could oppose the changes that are sorely needed.
Ultimately, the party membership, the rank and file get to decide what the party stands for. Or they get to choose an alternate party that stands in line with their own values and priorities. The question is, can the Republican party be saved now? Or is it time to move on to a new conservative party?
No matter which way it goes, the time to act is now, not later. The 2010 election cycle is an opportunity that won’t repeat itself any time soon. There is widespread discontent, and a “Throw all the bums out” attitude in the electorate that isn’t usually this strong.
| From the desk of cc2k: |
I received the survey yesterday and tore it open in the post office. I scanned down to see if it was a plea for money. It didn’t make it to my car. I deplore this marketing/fundraising technique and I doubt that anybody reads the survey responses. I think they open the envelope, subtract the check and trash the rest.
On reading the questions, they selected every conservative hot-button issue except national security. This is shameful exploitation of their electorate.
I think our number one issue should be term limits. Career employees have too much invested in their employer. If you’re a hammer, you tend to see the whole world as nails. If you’re a career government employee you tend to see every solution as bigger government; regardless of party. What this “survey” tells me is that the Republican party is willing to exploit our concerns and, as the author pointed out, they have repeatedly failed to act on them when they could have.
I attended the 912 protest in DC (at a cost of about $600.) I’m attending local political events searching for a candidate I can work for and give financial support to. Several of my friends are doing the same. I think a third party will only ensure we have more Democrats in office. So, how do we actually take control of the Republican party and re-center it (assuming it was once centered) on core philosophical values?
Another thing I think we should concentrate on is “health care.” By that I mean something entirely different than what everyone else means. The “insurance” most of us have through our employer is government mandated private socialized medicine. Socialized anything increases the price and builds in market-bending new realities. There are two areas where the cost of medicine have dropped yearly since their introduction. Lasik surgery and plastic surgery. How is it possible that the cost of these services has declined? Increased efficiency due to competition. Why is it happening for these two and nothing else in medicine? Because Lasik surgery and plastic surgery are not covered by “health insurance.” The reason that health care has gone out of sight is not that there are uninsured people. It is because some people ARE insured.
The second problem is that government has decreed that no one can be declined treatment because they can’t pay for it. Despite the “freeness” of their treatment, somebody does pay. You and me and every taxpayer and insurance provider. That “free” service is spread unequally across everybody who does pay. Before the government got involved doctors and hospitals were expected to donate some time and materials to indigent cases. There were charity hospitals. I don’t know by what mechanism these charity hospitals were removed from the medical scene, but they seem to be long gone.
Would I advocate that we turn away the illegal alien who fell off a roof and broke his leg? No. But nothing says we have to pay to treat his diabetes or lung cancer he got from smoking two packs a day. That should be the job of charity hospitals. It should be illegal and immoral to force somebody, even an anonymous taxpayer, to pay for the medical care of whole classes of people they don’t even know. And, further, if those people are here illegally, they should be firmly shown the door.
But, back to the issue of the survey, shame on you Republican leadership.
I throw the junk surveys away. When I get a phone survey person I tell them the RINO-led RNC is a tool of the Demrat Party and hang up.
I am on the RINO mailing list. I get crap in the mail from McCain (gag), Newt and Romney.
“THey just don’t listen”
Yea, but I feel smug ‘cause I at least got ‘em for postage.
Absolutely agree!
I wouldn’t hold my breath either. I long ago figured out that responding to RNC surveys was a waste of my time and energy. The Rhino elite who run the Republican party and dole out campaign funds could care less about anything but their globalist agenda.
‘Another thing I think we should concentrate on is “health care.” By that I mean something entirely different than what everyone else means. The “insurance” most of us have through our employer is government mandated private socialized medicine. Socialized anything increases the price and builds in market-bending new realities. There are two areas where the cost of medicine have dropped yearly since their introduction. Lasik surgery and plastic surgery. How is it possible that the cost of these services has declined? Increased efficiency due to competition. Why is it happening for these two and nothing else in medicine? Because Lasik surgery and plastic surgery are not covered by “health insurance.” The reason that health care has gone out of sight is not that there are uninsured people. It is because some people ARE insured.’
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You are quite correct. Whether “private” (with massive legislatively mandated coverage terms) or “public”, comprehensive medical services insurace is a driver of costs, not a controller of costs. Medicare and Medicaid shift costs to private plans and individuals by strong arming the providers with mandated low fee schedules, and the larger private plans do the same through contract negotiations with their “in network” providers, and sharply limited benefits for subscribers who use “out of network” providers. After these two levels of “cost shifting” to smaller employer plans and individuals with negligible negotiating power, the cost shifts back “up to the top” (i.e., to taxpayers) when indigent individuals jam emergency rooms consuming huge amount of resources with zero cost to them (though their treatment in the ER’s is substandard by any reasonable standard - - “stabilize the patient, and then kick them out in the street” or if they can’t get away with that, then “move them to the ‘meat locker’ in-patient services until they croak”, several tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars later).
A largely third-party-payer funding system will do this every time because of the disconnect between cost to provide the service and the direct cost incurred by the user. Until this pernicious cost-shifting “food chain” is terminated (first step - eliminate the employer tax deduction for employer-sponsored medical services benefits), the cost spiral will continue, absent a severe and equally pernicious rationing scheme such as is on display in the British system.
There is a place for medical insurance, but it should be limited to catastrophic coverage, e.g., an extremely high deductible, and routine services should be provided the same way groceries and household goods are provided, through direct purchase by users, who will drive the prices back to a reasonable level. Tort reform would help too, but it’s not only the availability of “deep pockets” of insurers and medical service providers that is a problem, but the lack of serious sanctions against serially negligent and reckless medical service providers. If their professional associations won’t apply appropriate discipline, the legal system, with all its limitations, will have to do the job.
I got one and scribbled on it “Until there is a cosequence to voting against republican interests (snowe collins etc) you will get no money from me. I then let them pay for the return.
Until the Repubs grow somew balls, not one dime from me. The Libs tear-out the throats of their opponents; the Republicans ask them in for brandy and a polite discussion. How did this come to pass?
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