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Once More Unto the Breach

By: Congressman Tom Price (Diary)  |  March 3rd, 2010 at 09:25 AM  | 

RESIZE: AAA

As you read this, President Obama, Speaker Pelosi, and Senator Reid are lining up their troops to drag their government takeover of health care across the finish line. This is no easy task considering how strongly the American people have objected. Even so, they are absolutely determined to jam this through with an iron fist regardless of the electoral consequences.

Some of you may be worried by news reports that President Obama is again trying to appear bipartisan by giving lip service to ideas supported by Republicans. Don’t be. As long as the basis of his plan puts Washington in charge of Americans’ health care, there is nothing more to discuss. Don’t get me wrong. We’d love to see him support our ideas on their own merits. But the half measures he’s offered to toss on top of a trillion dollar bill are not a serious effort at bipartisanship.

While Republicans stand strong, however, the Associated Press reports that at least 10 House Democrats who voted against the Pelosi bill may be considering changing their vote if given the opportunity.

“In interviews with the AP, at least 10 of the 39 Democrats — or their spokesmen — either declined to state their positions or said they were undecided about the revised legislation, making them likely targets for intense wooing by Pelosi and Obama. Three of them — Brian Baird of Washington, Bart Gordon of Tennessee and John Tanner of Tennessee — are not seeking re-election this fall.

The others are Rick Boucher of Virginia, Suzanne Kosmas of Florida, Frank Kratovil of Maryland, Michael McMahon of New York, Walt Minnick of Idaho, Scott Murphy of New York and Glenn Nye of Virginia.”

So these are the stakes: We’re in the final throws of the battle for the future of American health care. Democrats have recognized they must get this done before they are forced to face their constituents again over the April recess. That means we have less than four weeks to engage once more in this fight. Let it be known what a terrible decision Members of Congress would be making by voting for a government takeover of health care. Let them know that you are still in this fight.

As Shakespeare wrote, “Once more into the breach, dear friends, once more.” The future of our health care, indeed the future of our country, will be decided in the next few weeks. Don’t let a day go by without making your voice heard.

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  • http://beaglescout.wordpress.com Beaglescout

    Use all your parliamentary maneuvers, use your ability to be interviewed by the democrat media, use your abilities to streamline and remove internal constituencies from the bureaucracy, and shore up your state against this assault. I know it is hard. Everything is hard when you are so badly outnumbered. But it is worth it. The freedoms of future Americans are the stakes. They are worth fighting to win, and fighting to defeat the socialist onslaught.

  • http://www.theprecinctproject.wordpress.com ColdWarrior

    Don’t be afraid to start with Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution. No authority exists for Congress to legislate with respect to my rights to obtain medical services. Start with the Constitution. It’s only the supreme law of the land, for heaven’s sake.

    Don’t be afraid to tell conservative Republicans that the best thing they can do, to scare those Debtocrats who care about getting re-elected into dropping their support for socialized medicine, is to become a foot-soldier in the Republican Party itself — a precinct committeeman — NOW!

    Thank you.
    ColdWarrior
    No More Scozzafavas!
    Become a Republican precinct committeeman. NOW!

  • ehud

    read my diary on March on Washington #2

    We need someone to organize this.

    http://www.redstate.com/ehud/2010/03/03/march-on-washington-2/

  • Repair_Man_Jack

    1) Remind the entire nationt hat when the COngress enacted Medicare and Medicaide they were slated to cost about 1/20th what they currently cost per year. (At least according to their totally non-partisan and fair CBO scorings.)

    2) Remind the entire nation that the government that gives you your healthcare can delay it or take it away if they find your demise or discomfort far more convenient than your actions or your point of view.

    3) Remind the nation and the entire dysfunctional (edit)ed-up world that they are not entitled to the labor of doctors and nurses any more that than The Snopeses and The Callabashes were ever entitled to the labor of their field hands in Ante-Bellum Mississippi.

    4) Remind the nation that a program that requires 10 years of revenue to support six years of payout in a budget-nuetral fashion is only budget nuetral in its initial decade. The next decades are guarunteed deficit and putting all ont he backs of our children.

    My little boy is 3 years old. He does not deserve to be sold down the river by these iniquitous, Progressive (family edit)s! Fight for him. I beg you.

    V/R

    RMJ

  • yoyo

    I, too have a 6 yr old, a 5 yr old, and a 2 yr old.

    Keep the Dems out of their piggy banks!

  • Praying

    Broke. Trying to cut services. And raise postage rates. How much more proof do you need? The government can’t run ANYthing efficiently!

  • tngal

    for taking the time to drop a line. And when you see Tanner and Gordon, tell them if they vote for that plan they’re not welcome back in the volunteer state.

  • rocstation

    As long as the left believes

    1. Government is the source of all that is good (i.e., liberty and benefits), and

    2. Government is the sole vehicle to do good (i.e., redistribution of wealth and benefits through class warfare, racial tension and a living Constitution) which

    3. Helps them achieve their desired ends (i.e., state rationed liberty, religious intolerance, cultural elitism, moral relativism, etc.)…

    Then fighting their methods and goals must continue to be high priority objectives for the rest of us. Neither the Constitution, our nation, or the world demands the transformation of which President Obama wants to bring. It would be a crushing blow to the Constitution and America.

    As President Washington said, “The Constitution is the guide which I never will abandon.” We cannot afford to abandon it; neither can we afford to allow our representatives to abandon it. The left already scoffs at it and mocks anyone who defends it; even while swearing an oath to uphold and defend it.

    The votes of Brian Baird, Bart Gordon, and John Tanner and others are important because once they leave, they’re probably not going to be held accountable for their votes unless they decide to run at a later date. They don’t have to listen to constituents if they’re done with public office so I urge our representatives to step up and do what the leadership is incapable of doing: listen to the overwhelming majority of Americans who don’t want this, do the right thing and end it forever by voting it down.

  • earlgrey

    4 year old born on the 4th of July, and 1 yr old little girl. They are why I keep contributing to league of American voters, senate conservatives fund, rubio, brown. I would have a much better wardrobe if it wasn’t for Obama.

  • jplfly

    Being a Democrat Senator/Representative from Anywheresville, I will be proud to vote for the utter destruction of the United States of America. If only those rubes who voted for me understood how just being within the Beltway automatically give me so much more ability to discern what I need to survive they would understand why I vote as I do.

    But it really doesn’t matter whether they understand.

    You know, things could be worse. Let’s see, if I do get tossed out I have a lifetime pension that amounts to more than most people see in two lifetimes; I have the most unbelievable health benefits for the rest of my life; I have millions in my campaign coffers to use after I leave office; and OH, THE BEST….I have my choice of career lifetime appointments; cush jobs with consulting firms; or judgeships that will add to my retirement.

    Life will not really be that bad if I don’t get re-elected.

  • nancylee

    Ranging in age from 12 years to 4 months. I don’t want the Socialist dream of nationalized health care for them. I keep contributing to the League of American Voters too. I have written a number of protesting letters to Barbara Boxer (probably with no effect) and I have called my congressman, who is a Republican. I wish I could do more, because this is the greatest threat to my country and my grandkids that has come along in my lifetime.

  • redneck_hippie
  • redneck_hippie

    If the leftists really hated torture, they would stop this insane bill.

    NO unconstitutional mandates.

  • gman2008

    Public knowledge of Byrd?s strong feelings against using reconciliation for healthcare (as outlined in the links below) can kill the meme that reconciliation is a harmless little fuzzy bunny that has been used before by Republicans and therefore it is perfectly acceptable to use it to overhaul 1/6 of the U.S. economy. Obama needs to be called out on this, as if the public become widely aware the architect of reconciliation is against using it to pass ObamaCare, vulnerable House members would be even more skittish to trust both the process and the end result in terms of the response by their constituents and Pelosi would find it even harder to garner support for her bill.

    In short, we would be using the Senate?s procedure to scare away votes in the House. I think this will work if the talking heads in the GOP start talking and talking a great deal. Wide exposure on Fox News, MSNBC, CNN, talk radio, and in the blogosphere will only aid our cause and the goal to kill ObamaCare for good. There will be an argument that reconciliation will only be used to pass ?fixes? to the bill. However, if the bill will not pass without reconciliation, then it is clear that reconciliation is the means by which the entire healthcare system will be overhauled. The argument falls apart and reconciliation is once again front-and-center as the means by which ObamaCare will be passed.

    Make reconciliation look even worse by educating the GOP talking heads about Byrd?s position and the need to repeat it like a mantra and we should see Pelosi?s job become that much harder. I don?t think she has the votes, but I want to make sure of it using every means possible. Right now the Democrats are controlling the reconciliation PR messaging within some of their ranks and it?s the fence sitters I am worried about. The public knows it?s a bad thing, but let them know the architect of the process is against it and watch public opinion push them into the correct field of opinion. We need to control the narrative about the process and make it very painful for any Senator, Representative, or the President to even bring up the subject without serious blowback.

    We need the birth of a new meme, one so powerful that it cannot be countered without looking ridiculous, partisan, contemptuous, and thoroughly out of touch.

    Words have meaning and memes can carry far and wide. Tie in Senator Byrd?s statement?s on reconciliation with the idea of rule by tyranny. The GOP talking heads should be screaming Byrd?s views from the mountaintops and I have yet to hear a single reference to Byrd?s feelings on the matter of using reconciliation to shove healthcare down our throats. So powerful are his words and the the fact that they come from him that this is PR gold.

    The two links are:

    http://tinyurl.com/yjv67cy and http://www.c-spanarchives.org/congress/?q=node/77531&id=8983071

  • chabsentia

    I told people in 2008 what would happen if Obama was elected especially if the Democrats were the majority party. They are not afraid of you. 90% of the incumbents have been re- elected for the last twenty years. Why should it be any different in November? They want to get it done now so you will have eight months to forget and re-elect 90% of them again. So Health care is a done deal. If you really want to know what happened then read “Americas bubble economy” byWiedemer Phd who predicted this economy two years before it happened and get a glimpse of more pain down the road in “Aftershock”. by the same people down the road especially with the passage of Obama care, The majority of the voters elected these people in spite of the warning signs. Obama said at least once in the Senate and twice on the campaign trail that there would be no Reconciliation,A simple background check would have shown that he was not above lies. People need to stop their whining, and accept their fate. A lot of damage can be done by Novemeber and even then they are in office until January 20, 2011. Just accept your fate.

  • chabsentia

    You are correct. We are seeing the result of twenty years of Apathy. I have seen movements before to take back the government and they have all fizzled out. I would add to the lifetime pensions and the judgeships as well as being a lobbyist and access to millions in my campaign coffers to use as they want because they passed a golden parachute plan for the very same thing. I would only add that they dont think it will happen anyway because yhe voters have returned 90% of the incumbents for the last twenty years and many were to stupid to realize that the Democrats have been the majority party in both houses since January 20 2007 and they were still able to convince many in the “herd” that the Republicans had been there for the last eight years,It is done deal and there is plenty of damage to be don by January 20 2011 even if the voters wake up.

  • Achance

    take over and start getting the perks for themselves. That’s essentially what happened to the ’94 Revolution; they became what they’d run against – tax and spenders.