PoliticalAction.com Blog

The latest battle in the healthcare war is being waged using a new strategy — the circumvention of the intent, spirit, and true definition of the legislative process by supplementing the already-passed Senate health care bill with a second bill to modify the Senate bill as per President Obama’s most recent health care proposal. Congressional Democrats propose that the House pass the Senate bill, then have both houses pass this second bill by means of the budget reconciliation process. The 1974 reconciliation method is the perfect vehicle to navigate around certain obstacles like a Republican filibuster. Besides, the budget reconciliation process only requires a 51-vote majority in the Senate and limits debate to 20 hours.

The President’s Proposal has had no official cost analysis completed but the White House estimates that the plan would cost about $950 billion over 10 years. The plan would extend coverage to more than 31 million Americans by 2019. And the excise tax to help pay for this latest unconstitutional, healthcare budget buster would be delayed for insurers and employers until 2018.

The role of federal regulators, czars and overseers would be expanded in order to review and block premium increases by private companies. The federal government would be able to supersede the authority of the states if it so chooses, which is another intrusion into what has historically and constitutionally been reserved to the states.

The broad language pertaining to abortion funding in the Senate version remains in the president’s version as government officials “believe they cannot make changes to the Senate language on abortion” when using budget reconciliation.

Nonetheless, passage of Obama’s personal plan for the nation’s health care may not be achieved as easily as originally planned, given the political climate and the resurgence of constitutional awareness.

This is a crucial issue at a crucial time and it is up to each and every one of us to relentlessly persevere in contacting our elected representatives to insist they vote “no” on any unconstitutional, government-run healthcare plan, no matter how many times it is presented and re-presented to us.

Send an email opposing Obama’s health care plan to your senators and representative. Click here for contact information for visiting, phoning, and faxing them. (Click here for how your senators voted on their health care bill on December 24. Click here for how your representative voted on the House health care bill on November 7.)

Thank you,

Your friends at The John Birch Society

Judicial Watch, the public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption, today released its 2009 list of Washington’s “Ten Most Wanted Corrupt Politicians.” The list, in alphabetical order, includes:

1. Senator Christopher Dodd (D-CT)
2. Senator John Ensign (R-NV)
3. Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA)
4. Secretary of Treasury Timothy Geithner
5. Attorney General Eric Holder
6. Rep. Jesse Jackson, Jr. (D-IL)/ Senator Roland Burris (D-IL)
7. President Barack Obama
8. Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA)
9. Rep. John Murtha (D-PA)
10. Rep. Charles Rangel (D-NY)

Read the gory details…

phew!!!!!

this is getting serious…

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

Last week marked the one year anniversary of the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act, or the stimulus bill, passing into law. While the debate over its success has been focused on whether or not it is stimulating the economy and on various questionable uses of funds, in my estimation this legislation is accomplishing exactly what it was intended to accomplish – grow the government.

Those of us concerned about the ever increasing level of government debt gasped at the astonishing $787 billion cost estimates for this bill. True to form it has actually cost 10 percent more at $862 billion. We heard over and over that government could not sit around and do nothing while people lost their jobs and houses. The administration claimed that unemployment would not go above 8 percent if the stimulus bill passed. Now, a year later, the government estimates that unemployment is over 10 percent. The real number is closer to 20 percent. It appears that those promises were total fabrications in order to close the deal.

In any case, the American people know that more government spending obviously equals more government. If the goal was to strengthen the private sector, Congress would have allowed businesses and individuals to keep more of their own money through meaningful tax cuts. Outrageously, the administration claims that they did “cut taxes” by reducing withholding, and that they have stimulated the private economy by increasing the amount of money in every worker’s paycheck. What they fail to mention is they did not change the total amount of taxes due. This means that all that money not withheld from paychecks will add up to a big unpleasant surprise when returns are filed this year. Many tax preparers are already seeing shocked taxpayers having to come up with big checks to the government when they normally expect a refund. Stimulus, indeed!

The administration also claims that thousands of jobs have been created or saved by this massive spending bill, but these are just more government jobs, and counterproductive in the long run. Funding for the public sector necessarily comes at the expense of an overtaxed private economy. But, it makes sense that government would seek to expand its payroll since every new bureaucrat becomes a likely advocate for big government, when an increasing number of Americans are demanding the opposite. But the more the burden, the closer the government parasite comes to killing its host.

Rather than learning the lessons of the past year, the administration is moving full-speed ahead to do even more economic damage. With the stimulus bill set as a precedent and victory declared, another “jobs” bill is in the works. And, in order to address the unavoidable issues of our massive deficit, the administration has named a bi-partisan commission to find ways to decrease it. Tax increases on the middle class are notoriously back “on the table”, exposing that campaign promise as another instance of merely saying what the people wanted to hear. If the obvious solution to our spending problems was seriously put forth, that is, getting back to the constitutional limitations of government, I would be shocked. More likely, this will be a tactic to increase taxes and spending in a way that passes the political buck.

It’s the Patriot Act déjà vu. Extended last December until February 28, the day of Patriot Act provisions reauthorization reckoning is upon us.

Given the present direction in the political wind, members of Congress would rather not have to debate and vote on a long-term reauthorization of the Patriot Act before the November elections. So the plan is to shift that responsibility on to others after those pesky midterm elections and use the short-term reauthorization route all over again.

Unfortunately, the following dangerous provisions will be extended by this move: (1) the Records provision gives federal investigators access to all business, hospital and library records to search for “any tangible thing” of a terrorist suspect, sometimes labeled a “sneak and peek” method, if there is a court order provided by a special federal court; (2) the Roving Wiretaps provision authorizes government tracking capabilities in the form of wiretapping without a name or specific target as a focus; and (3) the Lone Wolf provision allows the use of secret surveillance for spying on non-Americans if they are suspected of terrorist activities not tied to any specific organization.

The national security letters provision is not set to expire, so the FBI can continue to obtain private financial and communication records of Americans, a most extraordinary search procedure and clearly an abuse of the Fourth Amendment.

No matter how the Patriot Act reauthorization is presented, whether as a standalone bill, or buried in any one of a number of bills, it is imperative that all senators and representatives are urged to oppose the reauthorization of any aspects of, or amendments to, the Patriot Act.

Wouldn’t it be great to know that your representatives in Washington voted “No” on the continued or expanded use of the provisions of the Patriot Act mentioned above, helping to preserve the freedom and liberty given to us by our Founding Fathers? And wouldn’t it be even better to know that because you sent a message to your representatives, they are getting the hang of a truly representational form of government while also using the Constitution as their guide?

Click here to send your message of opposition to reauthorization of these unconstitutional provisions of the Patriot Act.

Thanks for participating,

Your friends at The John Birch Society,

From the Congressional Budget Office Director

This morning the Obama Administration released a description of its health care proposal, and CBO has already received several requests to provide a cost estimate for that proposal. We had not previously received the proposal, and we have just begun the process of reviewing it?a process that will take some time, given the complexity of the issues involved. Although the proposal reflects many elements that were included in the health care bills passed by the House and the Senate last year, it modifies many of those elements and also includes new ones. Moreover, preparing a cost estimate requires very detailed specifications of numerous provisions, and the materials that were released this morning do not provide sufficient detail on all of the provisions. Therefore, CBO cannot provide a cost estimate for the proposal without additional detail, and, even if such detail were provided, analyzing the proposal would be a time-consuming process that could not be completed this week.

Ron Paul on CNBC’s Squwak Box Part 1 – Feb 22

Run, Ron, Run!

Part 1

Part 2

Schiff for Senate

Dear Supporter,

One year ago today President Obama signed the “American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009,” popularly known as the Stimulus Act, into law. The President and Democrats in Congress promised that this economic stimulus program would create jobs and strengthen the U.S. economy. But a year later we still haven’t seen the results.

Obama insists that the stimulus is working, but we just haven’t seen proof of that in the economic data. But we have seen signs that the stimulus money is being spent… that is, large green highway signs proclaiming that funding for whatever construction project has you sitting in traffic was secured by the federal stimulus package.

The stimulus package was an egregious waste of our tax dollars, and now Democrats in Congress want to pass another jobs bill! I can only imagine how much of our tax dollars will be wasted in this bill, and that, my friend, is why I’m running for the U.S. Senate.

It’s time to get our country’s fiscal house in order, and I’m ready to lead the charge. Our government cannot borrow and spend our way to economic prosperity. The past year has been challenging for all of us. We’ve had to tighten our purse strings, and it’s time for Washington to do the same.

I’m turning to you as one of my strongest supporters, because I need your financial assistance to get my message of fiscal responsibility out to voters. Will you follow this link and make a contribution of $25, $50, $100, $250 or more today? Your immediate contribution will bring me closer to Washington where I’ll fight for the conservative economic principles that have brought Americans prosperity for so many generations.

Government is the least efficient and most expensive means of job creation. In fact, we’re paying $160,000 for each job created. Can you believe it? Just imagine all the jobs that were destroyed or that never were created because $160,000 that otherwise would have been invested by the private sector was spent by the government instead. In addition, Americans continue to lose jobs everyday despite the Obama Administration’s failed efforts. We cannot afford to waste another several hundred billion dollars on a job killing “jobs bill” with our national debt nearly $12.4 trillion and Congress’ recent decision to raise the debt ceiling by another $1.9 trillion. It’s time to force Washington to play a limited role in governing, but we can only do that by electing leaders who will absolutely fight for fiscally conservative values.

As Senator, I will make sure that the government is spending your tax dollars wisely. I will not vote for a bill that funds frivolous projects like highway signs promoting the stimulus bill – New York alone has spent a million dollars on these signs – and I will not support another government bailout of a business, a bank, or an entire industry.

I need your immediate support to get to Washington to fight for our shared values. That’s why I hope I can count on you to follow this link today and make the most generous contribution you can to my campaign.

Thank you in advance for your support. Please stay tuned for updates from the campaign trail.

Sincerely,

Peter Schiff
Republican US Senate Candidate

P.S. Today is the anniversary of President Obama and his fellow Democrats’ failed economic stimulus plan. Instead of allowing the Democrats to pass a jobs bill that will cost hundreds of billions more of our tax dollars, we must act to elect leaders who will fight for economic responsibility and fiscal conservative principles. That’s why I’m running for the U.S. Senate and I hope I can count on you to follow this link and make a generous contribution to support my campaign. Thank you.