Flag Raising

Open Letter to Senator Hagan

Health pitch a violation of basic American rights
Asheville Citizen-Times | November 28, 2009

Senator Hagan,

The health care reform legislation pending approval in Congress, H.R. 3950, contains mandates to obtain individual health insurance coverage. With this provision, Congress stands to violate my rights, rather than protect them, which, in point of fact, is Congress's constitutional mandate.

This provision is a clear violation of my right to voluntarily associate and contract with employers, health care professionals and insurance providers to our mutual benefit without the interference of a predatory third party.

It violates my right to economic freedom by forcing me to purchase health insurance services against my will. It violates my right to property by forcing me to pay penalties for declining to participate in a coercive program. It violates my right to liberty by forcing me to submit to incarceration for nonpayment of penalties or additional taxes.

It violates my right to self-determination. It violates my right to use my mind to make judgments regarding my own interests and actions.

In short, this legislation violates my right to peaceably live my life as I see fit.

I stand in opposition to this violation of my Constitutionally-protected individual rights. I say "No" to the coervice mandates contained in this proposal. And it is my hope and wish that you, Senator Hagan, will stand with me and say "No" to this rights-violating health care bill.

TIM PECK
ASHEVILLE NC

[Hand-delivered to Sen. Hagan's Asheville office and published in the Asheville Citizen-Times and the Asheville Daily Planet]

RELATED

Letters from Peck and Stoddard
By Paul Hsieh, MD | We Stand Firm | November 28, 2009
I especially liked these two recent letters and want to highlight them. The first was written by Tim Peck of Ashville, NC, and published in the November 28, 2009 Ashville Citizen-Times.

The Pretense of Knowledge
Walter E. Williams | December 02, 2009
You are a 22-year-old healthy person. Instead of spending $3,000 or $4,000 a year for health insurance, you'd prefer investing that money in equipment to start a landscaping business. Which is the best use of that $3,000 or $4,000 a year -- purchasing health insurance or starting up a landscaping business -- and who should decide that question

Why the Personal Mandate to Buy Health Insurance Is Unprecedented and Unconstitutional
by Randy Barnett, et.al. | Heritage Foundation
An individual mandate to enter into a contract with or buy a particular product from a private party is literally unprecedented, not just in scope but in kind, and unconstitutional either as a matter of first principles or under any reasonable reading of judicial precedents.

Market-Oriented Health Care Reform

1. Allow people to buy health insurance across state lines. Repeal the McCarran-Ferguson Act and enact the Health Care Choice Act to establish inter-state health insurance markets (for choice, competition, portability, affordability)
2. Implement tort reform (i.e., caps on punitive awards, loser pays, stronger contract enforcement)
3. Equalize tax benefits between employer-provided and individually-owned health insurance. Allow people to deduct the cost of their health insurance from their taxable income like employers can.
4. Expand Health Savings Accounts (HSA/HDHP)
5. Broaden availability of Medicare Advantage
6. Encourage independent medical co-ops for individuals and businesses. Allow people to form groups to buy large group policies.
7. Repeal state/federal insurance coverage mandates
8. Implement licensing reform for professionals and institutions.
9. Reform drug patent law (to increase market entry, competition)
10. Facilitate charitable giving on tax forms
11. Promote medical cost transparency
12. Reform Medicare (waste/fraud/abuse, vouchers, means-testing, HSA's)
13. Replace Medicaid and SCHIP with single block grant
14. Establish Health-Status Insurance programs and Time-Consistent Health Insurance (for pre-existing conditions, portability)
15. Reform U.S. Food and Drug Administration (i.e., testing only, no approvals)

Sarah Palin in Asheville

Sarah Palin visits Asheville for dinner with Billy Graham and family, November 22, 2009.





Gov. Sarah Palin greets a crowd at Joseph-Beth Booksellers in Cincinnati, OH, on Friday, November 20, 2009, upon her arrival at a “Going Rogue” book signing event.


Photo by Shealah Craighead. Copyright SarahPAC.

RELATED

Sarah Palin's Visit with Billy Graham
David Gibson | Politics Daily | November 28, 2009
Sarah Palin has been to the mountaintop -- that would be the mountaintop in western North Carolina

European Health Care Failures

Eline van den Broek explains that government interference is driving up healthcare costs in America and warns that European style health "reform" will make the situation even worse.

Rand Paul on Health Care

Rand Paul explains why expense, not access, is the real problem with American health care

Lady Liberty

"...and Justice for All"
Maquette size Bronze Sculpture by James Muir

H.R. 1207 Audit the Fed

November 19, 2009

Dear Friend of Liberty,

Thanks to your quick action in contacting Congress, the House Financial Services Committee earlier today rejected Representative Mel Watt's attempt to hijack Audit the Fed by voting 43-26 to pass Ron Paul's amendment to the financial regulatory reform bill.

Dr. Paul called me right after the vote to personally express his thanks to C4L members for all of your efforts!

It is an incredible testament to the growing power of the liberty movement that we were able to get such an audit passed by a major House committee, but this is by no means the end of our fight.

Financial Services leadership has seemed determined for several months that if an audit of the Fed were to get out of Committee, it should be attached to an overall regulatory reform package that would actually increase the powers of the Fed to interfere in our economy.

Congressman Paul's amendment gives the Government Accountability Office power to conduct a thorough audit of the Fed's entire $2 trillion balance sheet and replaces the Watt language that would have further restricted GAO audits of the Federal Reserve.

While this is a victory over an attempted hijacking of our cause, the audit authority is still being rolled into the Financial Stability Improvement Act, a bill that Campaign for Liberty will oppose.

This Act will be voted on as soon as the Committee returns from its Thanksgiving break, and we will then know if it will move to the floor.

And it's already becoming clear that Ron Paul's amendment may face challenges on the House floor.

Now is the time to turn up the pressure!

Keep contacting Congress and tell your representative that before Congress debates over giving the Fed any new powers, we need to know what they're doing with the ones they already have!

Urge your representative to support a standalone, up or down vote on Audit the Fed, H.R. 1207.

We've put too much work into this effort to see an audit bogged down in yet another Washington bureaucratic nightmare.

Make no mistake, though, the victory today proved we can get the votes to pass the thorough, historic audit we've been fighting for this past year. We have put the Federal Reserve on notice that the freedom movement is serious about reclaiming our country and that it is here to stay.

Thanks for all you do for the cause of freedom. Now, let's finish this fight!


In Liberty,

John Tate

President

Forced Insurance

RELATED

Mafia-style health insurance
Dr. Paul Hsieh | Washington Examiner | November 16, 2009
Suppose the mafia came to your town and forced everyone to purchase all their meals at mob-approved restaurants. The mafia would also select the menu items.

AP Poll: Fine print in health care prompts worries
Americans are worried about the fine print in the health care overhaul, an Associated Press poll says, and those concerns are creating new challenges for President Barack Obama as he tries to overcome doubts in Congress.

Health Coverage Not Gov’t. Responsibility

Cancer Survival Rates

RELATED

Punishing health-care innovation – part 1
by Jeff Scialabba | November 13, 2009
America is the world leader in medical device innovation, producing more new medical devices annually than any other nation.

Amazing and Aggressive

Police Sgt. Kimberly Munley

"The hero cop who ended the bloody rampage at Fort Hood had been directing traffic moments before she confronted the gunman and pumped four bullets into him despite being shot herself.

'It was an amazing and an aggressive performance by this police officer,' Lt. Gen. Bob Cone said Friday."

Tea Party on Health Care

PHOTOS: Asheville Tea Party on Health Care 110509

Here are the comments I gave at the Asheville Tea Party to Protest Healthcare Overhaul Thursday, November 5, 2009, at Rep. Shuler's Asheville Office

I want to read Congresswoman Michele Bachmann's call to action:

“The American people spoke loud and clear at town hall meetings all across the country throughout August. But, it would appear that Congress didn’t hear a word they had to say. The Democrats’ latest health care proposal unveiled late last week may be packaged a little differently, but it’s the same old bad bill as before.

“This bill is a trillion-dollar, budget-busting, government takeover of our health care system. It will put bureaucrats between people and their health care. It will lead to rationed care, hurting the most vulnerable amongst us first. It will break the bank, leaving our children to pay the bill with diminished freedoms and dwindling prosperity.

“The American people need to stand up again and make sure that Congress hears them this time. Speaker Pelosi is putting her bill on fast track to a vote – and it remains to be seen if the House will even get a chance to vote on the commonsense Republican alternatives. The people need to make a House Call on Washington this week and tell their Representatives to vote no to a government take-over of one-fifth of our economy. This is gangster government at its worst.

“I urge all Americans to come to Washington this Thursday. Come and meet up with your Representative and tell them that you want to control your health care.”

And that's why we're here today.

I want to ask you: Who does your Representative represent?

First, the party leadership;
Second, special interests;
Third, the lobbyists;
And last: You

We are here today to say, "You got it backwards. You got it wrong. We won't forget. And we won't forgive you and we won't give you another chance. This is your last chance!"

No Public Option!

The future of America is not socialism. We are here today to urge Rep. Shuler to get on the right side of history and vote down this monstrous insult to our Founding Fathers.