Enough of high unemployment and slow economic growth.

Enough of high gas and food prices.

Enough of foreclosures and food stamps.

Enough of intrusive government and wasteful spending.

Enough of stifling regulations and union payoffs.

Enough of crony capitalism and corporate bailouts.

Enough of race-baiting and class warfare.

Enough of bowing to dictators and apologies for America.

Enough of trillion dollar deficits and debt ceiling increases.

Enough of vacations and golfing.

Enough of blaming and excuse-making.

Enough of “Hope and Change”.

Enough of President Obama.

Whatever the results of Super Tuesday are and whoever becomes the Republican Presidential Nominee, remember what the common goal is for all of us.

The Honorable Mark Warner and Jim Webb

United States Senate

On July 27th I took time off from work to go to your Capitol Hill office.  While there I left a message with your staff and they assured me that they read all messages received during the day.  My message was a hand-written note on the behalf of my six young boys, ages one to eleven, and it implored you to “un-table” and support the legislation called “Cut, Cap and Balance “, which had been referred to the Senate by the House.

I asked that you do this, as it was the only legislation that would meet the credit agencies’ (Standard & Poor’s, Moody’s, et al) guidance to reduce the Federal deficit by $4 trillion over 10 years to show that our nation was serious about getting its fiscal house in order.  Otherwise, we risked a credit downgrade on our nation’s debt.  You did not take this responsible course of action and as a direct result our nation’s credit rating was downgraded by Standard & Poor’s on August 5th.

Now as a direct result of your recklessness, my children will have to pay higher interest rates on student loans, car loans, mortgages and credit cards.  Undoubtedly, they will also have to pay higher taxes to support the higher interest rate local, state and Federal governments will now be paying to service their debts.  And to top all of that, they will endure slower economic growth and opportunity.  Your actions have, sadly, convinced me that the “American Dream” for my children is dead.  And that I will be the first generation to pass our country off in worse condition to my children.

I am not a career politician like yourself and do not have your access to a professional staff, committee hearings, and confidential government reports, but it was crystal clear to me what the actions that were needed to be taken in order not to have our credit rating downgraded, primarily because the rating agencies specifically told us!  However, you chose to ignore their warnings and instead raised the national debt by $2.1 trillion – nearly a 15% increase for just 16 months of spending – and could only commit to $2.4 trillion in unspecified cuts, well short of the $4 trillion called for to prevent a downgrade; this despite you having the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform (Simpson-Bowles) report at your disposal.

I am absolutely disgusted with your careless handling of the Federal Government’s finances; it has been well over 800 days since the Democrat-controlled Senate has passed a budget, in clear violation of the Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974.  You are part of the problem – not the solution.  For this reason, I ask for your immediate resignation from the United States Senate.  You have failed in your Constitutional and moral duties in serving the citizens of the Commonwealth of Virginia.  This would allow Governor McDonnell to appoint someone who is competent in their duties and an individual we could have confidence in.

I currently owe $143,000 on my existing mortgage and would like to take out a home equity line of credit of $28,000 (a 20% increase). 

For the next tax year I anticipate earning about $22,000 and spending $38,000 (borrowing 40% of what I spend). 

With a plan from my financial advisors (Boehner & Reid), I could reduce my spending by somewhere between $170 to $220 next year (less than 1% of total spending).

These advisors have also worked with me on a 10-year plan to get me out of this fiscal hole I am in — their plan will have me adding only $80,000 more to my debt, rather than the $100,000 I would have had done without their excellent services.

I should also let you know that for the past couple of years, I’ve had to trim back my working hours by 9.2%.

But I may be able to grow my income by 1.6% this year, if things work out exceedingly well for me.

Respectfully,

Uncle Sam

PS – I’ll be asking for the next credit increase around November 2012.

PPS – I have co-signers in Greece and Ireland if that helps.

Sadly, add seven (0,000,000) and you get an idea of the idiocy that is going on in Washington … and they have the nerve to call Tea Partyers crazy.

Congressman Anthony Weiner (D) — resigned over sex scandal

Congressman Christopher Lee (R) — resigned over sex scandal

Congressman Eric Massa (D) — resigned over sex scandal

Congressman Charlie Rangel (D) — censured for ethics violations

Congressman Gregory Meeks (D) — under investigation for ethics violations

BILL OF RIGHTS

1. Freedom of Religion/Free Speech
2. Right to Bear Arms
3. Freedom from Quartering
4. Freedom from Unreasonable Search & Seizure
5. Right to Due Process
6. Right to Speedy Trial
7. Right to Trial by Jury
8. Freedom from Cruel & Unusual Punishment
9. Enumeration of Rights
10. Powers Not Delegated

The Deem-o-crats will kill an least two and continue weakening and killing the other eight

Reply sent in response to my Congressman’s justification letter for voting to pass the health care bill.

Dear Representative Connolly,

Thank you for your letter dated, December 4, 2009, explaining why you supported the Affordable Health Care for America Act (H.R. 3962). In the letter you state you voted for H.R. 3962 because it met your tests of “Lower Costs, Increased Choice, Higher Quality, and Peace of Mind”, and for each of your tests you highlighted several examples of provisions within the Act that exemplified the meeting of these tests. This letter will address the first of the tests, “Lower Costs”, that you claim to have met your test. I’ll do this by examining the provisions you presented as the basis of your support of the Act.

Before going into detail in each provision, I have to question the test of “Lower Costs”. Whom does it lower cost for? Is it the patient/beneficiary, the taxpayer, the Government, employers, insurers, or the entire health care system? This is an ambiguous platitude as the analysis will show. I believe the proper test should be to lower total health care system costs; which per the CMS report dated November 13, 2009, it does not. Rather with this Act, “The [National Health Expenditures] share of GDP is projected to be 21.1 percent in 2019, compared to 20.8 percent under current law” (http://www.cms.hhs.gov/ActuarialStudies/Downloads/HR3962_2009-11-13.pdf).

Your first provision was “Eliminates co-pays and deductibles for preventive care”. This will lower costs for Medicare beneficiaries only and raise costs for the taxpayers/Government. This is called cost-shifting and does nothing to lower total system costs. In fact the impact of this provision may actually increase overall system costs due to simple supply and demand. Without the cost share, Medicare beneficiaries may increase their use of these services and if supply constrained, these prices will go up; potentially resulting in increased health premiums for the non-Medicare population. Or perhaps your logic was that the use of preventive services will lower overall spending. I do hope not, as the CBO analysis (http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/104xx/doc10492/08-07-Prevention.pdf) provided to Congressman Deal on August 7, 2009, stated “… the evidence suggests that for most preventive services, expanded utilization leads to higher, not lower, medical spending overall.”

Clearly, your belief H.R. 3962′s provision to “Eliminate co-pays and deductibles for preventive care” helps to “Lower Costs” is demonstrably false, and that should have been obvious to you, with the CBO report available to you and anyone familiar with the basic concept of the law of supply and demand.

Your second provision to “Lower Costs” was “Strengthens Medicare by closing the prescription drug donut hole for seniors”. This is another example of only lowering the costs for some Medicare beneficiaries, those that fall into the donut hole, and raises costs for the rest of the Medicare Part D participants and for the taxpayers/Government. A CBO analysis provided to Congressman Camp, dated August 28, 2009 (http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/105xx/doc10543/08-28-MedicarePartD.pdf), states the following, “…enacting those changes would lead to an average increase in premiums for Part D beneficiaries of about 5 percent in 2011, rising to 20 percent in 2019. However, beneficiaries’ spending on prescription drugs apart from those premiums would fall, on average, as would their overall prescription drug spending …”, as well as “Another example of cost-shifting that does not lower total system costs.

Your claim the Act’s provision that “Strengthens Medicare by closing the prescription drug donut hole for seniors” will “Lower Costs” is true only for some Medicare beneficiaries, other beneficiaries will have higher premiums, and the costs are shifted to the taxpayer/Government. At best overall system costs are unaffected.

Your third provision to “Lower Costs” was “Provides tax credits to help small business provide insurance”. Again I must ask for whom? The government is foregoing tax revenue, taxpayers will have to make up that lost revenue, employers will have to buy health insurance for their employees, and the employees will have to contribute to their health insurance; so everyone is paying more. I assume your theory is an employed worker with health insurance is less costly than an employed worker without health insurance.

Your claim that H.R. 3692′s provision “Provides tax credits to help small business provide insurance” will “Lower Costs” is an improbable claim; certainly in the short-run all involved will have higher costs.

Your fourth provision to “Lower Costs” was “Reduces the federal deficit by more than $100 billion”. That sounds more like the outcome of lowering costs rather than a mechanism to actually lower costs. But let’s examine the assertion. I assume you are using the CBO’s analysis dated November 6, 2009 (http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/107xx/doc10710/hr3962Dingell_mgr_amendment_update.pdf). With a basic reading of the CBO’s analysis, you will find that its cost saving is done by “… substantially reduce the growth of Medicare’s payment rates for most services …”. Additionally, if you took the time to examine the Medicare’s 2009 Trustees Report (http://www.cms.hhs.gov/reportstrustfunds/downloads/tr2009.pdf), you would find skepticism about Congress’ ability to actually execute planned Medicare cuts. This report, signed by both Secretary of the Treasury Geithner and Secretary of Health and Human Services Sebelius states “… further Congressional overrides of scheduled physician fee reductions … could jeopardize Part B solvency …” and “If Congress continues to override these reductions, as they have for 2003 through 2009 …”. There is also the budget gimmickry. Apparently, CBO scoring doesn’t use accrual accounting in its analysis, so ten years of program tax revenues are applied to seven years of program outlays. Estimates past ten years show the program going into deficits.

Since the $100B savings relies on over $400B in Medicare cuts to be executed by Congress, it is a dubious claim that this Act will result in any deficit reduction, it actually is more than likely to result in increased federal deficits; not even accounting for the budget gimmickry — gimmickry you would not have stood for in Fairfax County.

All in all, had you used reports readily available to you and applied some common sense, you simply could not have come to the conclusion that H.R. 3962′s provisions would “Lower Costs”. In fact, the provisions you cite will more than likely increase overall health care costs. True overall cost reductions are possible by Tort Reform (CBO Report to Senator Hatch dated October 9, 2009 (http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/106xx/doc10641/10-09-Tort_Reform.pdf)) and by increasing health insurer competition by allowing them to compete over state borders.

I am disappointed that you chose to send me this generic explanation letter rather than answering specific questions I’ve asked in previous correspondence — How can you cut Medicare when it is has unfunded liabilities going forward? How can you cut Medicare to pay for new program that is not directly related?

Clearly, using your own referenced provisions, H.R. 3962 does not meet your test of “Lower Costs”. For that reason I don’t see any point in reviewing your other “Tests” and their supporting provisions. I can only believe your vote was cast for one of three reasons: blind partisanship, laziness, or incompetence. For you to cast your vote the way you did means either you were told to by Speaker Pelosi, you didn’t do any basic research on what is perhaps the most important piece of legislation in decades, or you saw these reports and simply ignored them. Whichever it is, you have lost my confidence and I will work to ensure you do not return to the next Congress.

//Signed//

cc:
Senator Mark Warner
Senator Jim Webb
Fimian for Congress (with contribution enclosed)

Time for our Senators to “Man Up” and kill the health care reform bill

Republican Senators:

Sixty-five years ago this month, against all odds a group of determined Americans held out against an onslaught of an army of tyranny and changed history. This is your moment in history.

In December of 1944, the German Army mounted a huge counter-offensive to capture the port of Antwerp, Belgium; this was to become known as the Battle of the Bulge. In defense of this counter-offensive, brave soldiers of the 101st Airborne Division were given the mission of holding the key crossroads at the Belgian city of Bastogne.

This heroic “band of brothers” fought with everything in them. They were light infantry against armor. They did not have winter uniforms. They ran short of ammunition and food. Due to the weather, the Air Force could not help them. Cooks, typists, engineers all fought. Yet outnumbered, outgunned and cutoff, they sustained the fight, they endured, they persevered, and they held that crossroads until relief came. Because of their great courage, they proudly earned the title of the “battered bastards of Bastogne”.

The current health care reform bill is a legislative assault of tyranny on our great country and must be defeated by you.

Just as the 101st had to fight in the fog, cold, and snow, so too shall you have to fight in the midst of an antagonistic Washington Press Corps and Mainstream Media, that will provide you with no rest or cover. You too must overcome in your environment.

Just as the Third Army, led by General Patton, brought much needed relief to the 101st and helped save the day, so too shall the American people bring relief to you on November 2nd, 2010 – just look at the polls, the Tea Party movement, and remember what they did in the elections in Virginia and New Jersey. But you must fight and persist until then – you must hold this crossroads.

This bill is not a piece of rawhide that can be tooled into fine leather; rather it is a steaming, stinking pile of warm manure. It cannot be improved with any number of amendments – there is just too much wrong with it. Its individual mandates, higher taxes, higher deficits, and bigger government are all counter to Republican, really American, core principles. You must fight this bill with all your might, grit, and cunning and use every delay tactic, parliamentary procedure, legislative maneuver, and only offer amendments that serve to divide the Democrat Caucus and delay the bill’s progress.

I can only hope and pray that you are willing to fight for and earn the moniker of the “battered bastards of the 111th Congress” for holding this crossroads. This crossroads in American history is between liberty and tyranny, free-markets and socialism, the individual and the government. This is a decisive battle and if the Republican Party is truly interested in regaining the faith, trust, and confidence of the American people, then you must make your stand now and fight.

May God bless you and the United States of America.