By Andi Elliott, Tea party Patriots Idaho State Coordinator

Hey! Mr. Congressman…
Remember me? I’m “We The People”… your boss…the one that voted for you and pays taxes to support the programs that you pass. Aren’t you suspose to represent me?

What’s going on in Congress now? I surely don’t like what I am hearing back here at home. How come you don’t have time to return my calls and letters except for that “form letter” you keep sending me? There are a lot of us that are angry and are looking for answers. Your office tells me that you aren’t available for questions. WHAT??? REALLY???

I want to know also why I don’t see and hear you on the media pointing out the flaws in the legislation being passed by Congress. Yes, I know we are in the minority in Congress BUT why aren’t you standing up leading us? I don’t mind doing my part here at home as a Tea Party organizer but darn, I expect you to do your part in Washington. You should be on TV and radio at least as often as Obama…remember, following his lead, we must push “twice” as hard.

Speaking of Obama…I don’t think you did your job in making sure that he is qualified to be POTUS. How come he’s spent a million dollars sealing his records? Sure leaves a lot of questions unanswered, doesn’t it? What a mess!

And another thing…I’m tired of being called un-American and a right-wing extremist by Congressmen…who does Pelosi think she is and why aren’t you standing up to her? Why is it that Obama is hailed as the “great community organizer” and yet, when I organize my community, I’m called a wing-nut?

Oh, and this “snitch” website…that’s got to be illegal or something. Find out for me, will you? From what I’m told, Obama has been reported disseminating “false information” about his Socialized medicine plan. I’ve seen him stating that he wants a single-payer health care plan BUT now that “We The People” have turned up the heat…he’s backtracking. Who in the heck can believe a word he says? Why is anyone even listening to him?

But getting back to us…where have you been? I see your voting record but I want to hear your voice and see you standing up for America as our forefathers intended and as “We the People” are doing here at home.

As Hiliary Clinton says (for once I have to agree with her) … we are AMERICANS and we have the right to debate and disagree with this administration…or did she mean just the Republican administration? Can you check that out for me?

Hope to hear from you soon. I’ll keep calling and hanging around your offices hoping you’ll have a few minutes to meet with your “boss”.

Thanks for your time here. I’ll be waiting!
Andi

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By Richard Larsen

We do not have a health care crisis. Our health-care in this country is outstanding, and particularly here in Eastern Idaho. Portneuf Medical Center and their incredible staff provide superb care, as my family was reminded of just recently.

We can’t even truly say we have a health-care insurance crisis. I’ve not seen any better breakdown of the numbers than what Investor’s Business Daily printed a couple weeks ago. They pointed out that 85% of the population, or 258 million people, have health insurance. Of those, 89% are happy with the coverage their insurer provides, according to an ABC News poll.

They examined the most reliable figures of an estimated forty-seven million people who lack health care insurance. Of those, 20 million can afford to buy it, according to former CBO Director June O’Neill. About a third of the other 27 million are illegal aliens, while most of the rest are single and under 35 and choose not to have health insurance.

IBD completes the math and points out, “When it’s all whittled down, as few as 12 million are unable to buy insurance — less than 4% of a population of 305 million. For this we need to nationalize 17% of our nation’s $14 trillion economy and change the current care that 89% like?”

Yes, there are some that lack insurance, but that hardly means that they don’t get acceptable or adequate health care. Law dictates that all who enter an emergency room must be treated. We currently have about 37 million Americans living below the poverty level, but Medicaid covers 55 million. We pay $350 billion a year to cover them. And as many as 11 million of the uninsured qualify for other government run programs, like Medicaid and SCHIP, and programs for the indigent. Many don’t bother to sign up for the programs even though they are eligible.

We can’t believe what the politicians are saying about current proposals congress is considering, for they either haven’t read them or don’t understand them. There are numerous cases cited recently of congressmen meeting with constituents where the constituents know more about the bill than the congressmen do. And the current bills “contradict the President’s assurances” that we will not be sacrificing our choices and freedom in health care, according to CNN Money. CNN proved it by analyzing the actual verbiage of the bills and identified five key freedoms we lose if either plan is passed.

First: the freedom to choose what coverage we have. The government will mandate what the plans cover. Second: the freedom for being rewarded for healthy living, as the Obama plan enshrines into federal law one of the worst features of state legislation, community rating where everyone’s accepted but higher premiums are charged. Third: the freedom to choose high-deductible coverage, as everyone is forced into a “one size fits all” plan. Fourth: the freedom to keep our existing plan. Private plans are grandfathered for five years, but if anything changes, they are forced into the government model. Fifth: freedom to choose your doctors. The government plan mandates we go through something called “medical home,” which functions like an HMO. You’re assigned a primary care doctor, and the doctor controls your access to specialists, directly contradicting what the President is saying.

The CNN analysis concludes, “In short, the Obama platform would mandate extremely full, expensive, and highly subsidized coverage — including a lot of benefits people would never pay for with their own money — but deliver it through a highly restrictive, HMO-style plan that will determine what care and tests you can and can’t have. It’s a revolution, all right, but in the wrong direction.”

We have more of a health-care cost crisis than anything. If Washington was serious about reducing costs they could start with true tort reform which would cap claims amounts, and pass a “loser pay” law that requires the loser in a suit to pay the legal costs. That has a tendency to sift out a lot of spurious claims. And they could allow health-insurance competition across state lines.

Doctors take the Hippocratic Oath to “do no harm.” Our politicians should do the same. Their diagnosis is flawed, and their prescription will maim, not cure, the patient.

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By Andi Elliott, Tea Party Patriots Idaho State Coordinator (email: StraightTalkIdaho@yahoo.com)

Thank you, President Obama…I truly want to thank you. For years I’ve tried to tell people that they must take an active part in their government and be an informed electorate…you’ve been able to accomplish this feat in a few short months! People are reading and learning about the Constitution and their rights. For this, I am very grateful to you.

With your appointment of the forty plus czars, people are now taking an interest in history and are learning about the power and corruption associated with them.

Your candid comments about the Professor Gates situation, lets us know that it is OK to be a racist in America. Thank you for setting such a fine example!

As we watch Congressmen meet with their constituents and tell us that Obamacare will not raise taxes and the next day, hear from Congress that taxes WILL indeed have to be raised…we learn that we must very carefully monitor the crooks in Washington.

We have also learned that what you want us to focus on is just a cover for the real issue that is being “sold to us” by the media…so we have learned to be suspect and to search for true motives.

Many of us are learning about Socialism and Communism and radical Islam. We have allowed ourselves to behave like “cooked frogs”. YOU, and you alone, have spurred us into activism…which is a great thing for a free republic! Thank you.

When idiotic legislation such as “Cash for Clunkers” is passed…it highlights the “stupiditiy” that “We the People” have allowed to run amuck in Washington and incites us to action.

We are becoming “critical thinkers” because we are told by Washington that “spending our way out of debt” will work… but yet, our first hand experience has taught us otherwise.

We’re told that the people who participate in the Tea Party Movement are crackpots. Yet, I see my friends and my neighbors there and I know how much they love their country.

So, thank you, President Obama, and Happy Birthday. By the way, where was it that you were born?

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By Richard Larsen

Those who lived behind the “Iron Curtain,” or even in Nazi Germany, were fearful of expressing their true opinions about their government policies. Such reticence was necessary for they lived in fear that something they said might be reported to the authorities, leading to them being whisked away to the Gulag or the concentration camps.

Could such a thing happen in America? While I would certainly hope that it couldn’t, there are ominous indicators that truly make one wonder.

We started to see the signs last fall in the heat of the campaign when a Missouri paper reported, “Missouri top prosecutors announced this week that they will threaten and prosecute critics of Barack Obama. St. Louis City Circuit Attorney Jennifer Joyce and St. Louis County Circuit Attorney Bob McCulloch are threatening to bring libel charges against those who speak out against Barack Obama.”

Then in March Congress passed “The Give Act,” which among other things, established a Universal Voluntary Public Service corps of 250,000 “volunteers,” modeled after the Public Allies program, a group Obama led in Chicago which was organized to “agitate for justice and equality.” It seems to be the foundation for his “National Civilian Security Force” which he referenced in a speech last year in which he advocated creating a domestic service corps as “big and well-funded as the U.S. military.”

Then there was the leaked Agency Assessment from Janet Napolitano, Secretary of Homeland Security, which identified all those who oppose Obama’s policies as potential domestic terrorists. The Assessment was distributed to law enforcement agencies across the land including what law enforcement should watch for, like anti-abortion and Ron Paul bumper stickers, “Don’t Tread On Me” flags, and pickup gun racks.

The latest ominous sign is the mobilization of the President’s forces to stave off criticism of “Obamacare,” the legislation pending in Congress which would essentially take over the health-care industry. This effort is similar to what Hugo Chavez did without legislation in Venezuela when he took over the oil industry and put the media under government control. Parenthetically, Obama doesn’t need to do that with the media, as they essentially function as the official state-run propaganda machine already.

Then earlier this week the White House website had this entry added by Linda Douglas, formerly of ABC News, “There is a lot of disinformation about health insurance reform out there, spanning from control of personal finances to end of life care. These rumors often travel just below the surface via chain emails or through casual conversation. Since we can’t keep track of all of them here at the White House, we’re asking for your help. If you get an email or see something on the web about health insurance reform that seems fishy, send it to flag@whitehouse.gov.”

It seems the Obama White House is taking “domestic spying” to a whole new level by encouraging his disciples to report fellow citizens who have a different perspective on his effort to socialize the health-care system.

Senator John Cornyn issued a statement condemning the domestic spying program and requested a response from the President what his intentions were with those reported to the White House. Cornyn said, “I am not aware of any precedent for a President asking American citizens to report their fellow citizens to the White House for pure political speech that is deemed ‘fishy’ or otherwise inimical to the White House’s political interests.” Senator, we’re seeing a lot of things done by the White House without precedence in the land of the free and the home of the brave.

This week the Organizer in Chief sent out emails to 13 million of his followers urging them, “We’ve got to get out there…I want you to argue with them, and get in their face.”Dutifully responding to their Organizer’s beckon, labor unions sent out memos to their members answering the call to political arms. In a memo sent out by AFL-CIO President John Sweeney: “We want your help to organize major union participation to counter the right-wing ‘Tea-Party Patriots’ who will try to disrupt those meetings, as they’ve been trying to do to meetings for the last month…”

Organizing and encouraging your followers is one thing. But the White House setting up “snitch” websites for domestic spying and creating a political “brown shirt” corps across the nation is quite another. Somehow all this seems so un-American.

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Andi Elliott is the Tea Party Patriots Idaho State Coordinator of the Great American Tea Party. She asks all Tea Party Patriots
to fly the American or the “Don’t Tread on Me” flags on the 15th of each month.

Please invite your fellow patriots to do likewise.

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By Thomas Kime

Here we go again with the “amnesty for illegals” argument in Congress. The American people let it be known the last time that they were not in favor of this stupid (one of Obama’s favorite words) idea. Obama says he will make it fair. Just pay a fine and we will let the people, who ignored our laws, stay here. The truth of the matter is…is he willing to sell what is probably the most valuable item on earth for a paltry sum which no one believes can ever be collected…that being “American citizenship”!If we’re going to do this, let’s just auction off citizenships on the international market. We could pay off Obama’s enormous debt.

It has been stated by Corey Taule of the Post Register that entering this country without permission is not a crime. I believe he has stated that he is a graduate of the Montana University in Missoula. This is a place known to all of us long-time Montana residents as “Berkley East”. I assume that they use Bill Clinton’s dictionary there. If you perform an illegal act, it is a crime, therefore you are a criminal…Webster’s edition.

Mr. Taule has also stated that Obama is an American citizen. (The Constitution requires that he be a “natural born” citizen in order to be President of the United States.) He cannot prove that he is and I cannot prove that he isn’t. Obama could provide a birth certificate (the long form) and put that to rest. You and I would have to do that if applying for a government job. Obama could not even obtain a security clearance.

I have heard that both of Obama’s grandmothers said that he was born in Kenya…they should know. One of them supposedly witnessed his birth in Kenya. Like I said, I don’t know. Obama could end all the controversy with a valid birth certificate instead of spending nearly a million dollars to have his records sealed.

Thomas KimeHowe, Idaho

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By Andy Richardson of Richmond, VA

We have all heard the quote from Benjamin Franklin at one time or
another that, “Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain
a little security will deserve neither and lose both.” Few, however,
take the time to sit down and think how, or why, this is true.
I find it helpful to think of Liberty as a motorcycle and security as a
tent.

Every child, as they are growing up knows that on their 18th birthday
they will get their very own motorcycle (liberty). In their teenage
years they start dreaming about that day – imagining the things they
will do when they finally get it. So, when that day finally comes and
the keys are handed over the excitement can scarcely be contained.
The first thing you do with your new liberty (motorcycle) is take it
out and find out how fast it can go… and then, you encounter one of
the many catches that comes with your freedom. You find a speed limit.
As the officer writes the ticket, you hear that this is something that
politicians enacted “for your own good” so that you won’t hurt or kill
yourself.

Horrified that anyone could tell you how you can and can’t use your
own freedom – and now with a ticket to pay for, you take your freedom
out again. You find that you think you can live within these seemingly
arbitrary rules and drive off into the sunset… and after a while, you
run out of gas.

This introduces a second truth to you. Not only can you only exercise
your freedom within the bounds of law, you must put effort into
maintaining it. This effort comes in the form of fuel and care for
your motorcycle.

Suddenly, you are finding out that this freedom thing is a lot of
work. Even so, it seems all worth it when you see something in the
distance that you want to get to and ride off, getting there quickly,
with the wind whipping through your hair as the scenery blurs by.
You enjoy your freedom, getting used to the care it requires and then
it happens. Out of the blue a thunderstorm hits (an emergency) and you
are drenched in rain and pull over under an overpass to wait for it to
pass.

While you are waiting for it to pass someone is there also – selling
something. You look at it and see that he seems dry – which makes you
envious. Seeing you looking at him, the salesman approaches.
“That is a fine motorcycle you have there.” He begins. You nod, and
say it is great most of the time, but when the weather is like this it
is kind of a hassle. He responds with a knowing smile and says, “Well,
you know you could trade it in for something that would keep you nice
and dry no matter what the weather is like.”

Curious, you ask him what that might be.

He waves you over to his sales booth and shows you something you have
never seen before – a tent. Amazed, you ask him how it works.
In a few short steps he shows you how to transform what looks like a
simple bundle of fabric into something like a house.

“The best part is, you can fold it up and take it with you! All you
are really giving up is the need to provide fuel – and you don’t like
having to do that anyway, do you?”

You answer that of course having to fuel up the motorcycle is hassle and it would be nice not to have to worry about it anymore.

He nods and says that since you are such a nice kid, he will even
accept the motorcycle in trade for the tent – to help you out. After
all, you have a right to be dry from storms and should not have to
suffer.

You aren’t sure this is such a good idea, but as you peer out into the
driving rain you begin to think that perhaps it will never end and you
won’t get to use your motorcycle anyway. Even though you aren’t
entirely sure about it, you make the trade.

Almost as soon as the trade is made and you fasten the tent to your
back the rain stops.

You tell yourself that this is OK, because you have the tent and it
will keep you dry.

Now, you see a place on the horizon that you want to go, a destination
and hope of a better place.

Suddenly, you realize you are without your motorcycle… you must now walk.
You rationalize that you have been walking for years and it is not
really all that bad, so you begin.

Soon, night falls and you pitch your tent. It is every bit as cozy as
you were told it was and you are soon fast asleep in the dry shelter
you have been carrying on your back.

You wake up the next morning sooner than you had hoped for, and find
that you are sore from carrying the tent all day, but you still see
your destination on the horizon and begin to pack up the tent. As you
pack it up you notice a small tear in the fabric that hadn’t been
there the night before. Looking through your pockets, and around you
on the ground you find something to patch the hole, but find that now
the tent is just a little heavier. Not enough so that you think it
will make a difference, but it nags at you in the back of your mind.

For days you walk, always heading toward your destination and you are
slowly drawing closer – but you notice something else that you had not
noticed before. Ahead of you there seems to be some kind of a town –
it is in horrible shape and looks like it is some kind of a shanty
town and that your path will take you through it.

Concerned, but sure that you still want to head to your destination
beyond, you plod toward the town.

For weeks you walk, your tent becoming heavier and heavier, and your
pace slows. By the time you get to the town you can barely stand, let alone walk. Exhausted, you collapse in the town to rest – and beginning to notice details about the town. Here and there you see
pieces of tent fabric built into the crude huts that make up the town.
Slowly, you begin to realize that these huts aren’t really huts, or
rather, that they didn’t begin as huts. They are tents, tents patched
to the point of being unrecognizable – and most of them are empty. The
people who constructed them having long since moved on. On each of the
tent-huts is a name plate and one of the few people still inhabiting
what passes for a town explains that each person is guaranteed a hut
under the law. Baffled as to why so few huts were inhabited the person
looks at you blankly and asks, “Have you seen these huts? They are
horrible, they are built in this mud pit of a town, they leak, there is no food nearby – why would anyone want to live here? If I still had my motorcycle I would have left years ago.”

Then you remember it – your motorcycle. It seems like a dream, riding
the roads the wind blowing through your hair. You realize that you
could have been at your destination years ago if you still had it.
Setting down the tent you realize how much easier it is to move
without it – but you worry about being wet when a storm comes next.

Thinking that you can take some time here to repair your tent to the
point where you can carry it again you find a place to pitch it… Years go by and then, in a moment of clarity you realize that you have not been dry in ages and that the whole purpose of having the tent was
to avoid the storms from which you seemingly can no longer escape.

You have all but forgotten about the motorcycle you traded away so
long ago or the freedom it represented. You do, however, remember the destination – and leaving your tent behind you – begin to plod, in the rain, towards that destination on the horizon. As you leave the shantytown for the last time you think to yourself, “If only I had a motorcycle…”

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Idaho Chooses Life

We have repeatedly written about the tremendous financial and moral threats posed by the Democrat’s plan to nationalize health care. A wide range of analysis is available online for American patriots committed to protecting our nation from a certain and unfixable disaster.

There is, for example, an article on the Weekly Standard website – “ObamaCare: It’s Worse Than You Think”. Authors James Capretta and Yuval Levin point out that public opposition is building because of the cost and certainty of government’s rationing of services. But they believe that these two critical flaws are much worse than critics have grasped. Their analysis is that the Obama-Pelosi Plan contains massive hidden costs through its premium subsidy program. Over time, this black fiscal hole is almost guaranteed to swallow federal and state budgets.

Chuck Colson offers another analysis. His recent column, “Quality Control: Who Lives, Who Dies?” is a chilling read. One of America’s darkest thinkers, Princeton philosopher Peter Singer argues in a New York Times essay that it is important for America to accept a more utilitarian view of health care management. In his world, it is obvious that society should be prepared to spend more money on an 18 year old than on a person in their 80’s. He advocates a system called, “quality-adjusted-life-year”, in which handicaps and health conditions can be taken into account to determine the “objective” value of a person’s life. A person with quadriplegia, for example, has a life worth half of someone without that disability. He expressly forbids taking into account life issues like whether a person has children because that could cause the mischief of “subjectivity” in evaluating whether resources should be expended in caring for a person.

Colson correctly points out that the only antidote to such utilitarian logic is a belief in the value of human life because we are made in God’s image. No God – no barrier to the reemergence of a Nazi value system here and elsewhere.

This is but a brief discussion of the dire threat posed to our great nation by President Obama’s deadly prescription. Republican politicians are beginning to rally to the opposition created by sane, grassroots Americans. That is fine. But we ought not let them off the hook just because they see a political advantage in attacking Pelosi’s socialism.

Sen. John McCain did an interview last night with Sean Hannity. He astutely listed many of the dangerous problems present in ObamaCare. McCain observed that America does not have a problem with quality – the health care crisis is one of cost. It was nice to hear a note of sanity – but then the political dribble overwhelmed his insight. McCain claimed that Republicans “have a plan” for bringing down those costs through “reform”, particularly by protecting doctors from frivolous lawsuits.

With all due respect – that is just hooey.

Republicans had years under President Bush to deal with outrageous price gouging by the health care and insurance industries. For decades, the costs of insurance inflation have exceeded the rate of inflation by 3, 4, 5 times. According to a 2008 Statesman article, the cost of medical insurance for Idaho families increased by some 73% over just 5 years (2000-2005). Not a single Idaho or national political leader has offered a coherent justification for this kind of staggering rise in insurance costs – which offer diminishing financial protections for working families.

The tired Republican blather has been to point at the Bogey Man – those evil Trial Lawyers.

More hooey.

We are not here to defend trial lawyers (especially their politics). The point is simply this: American families are hurting because of the patent greed of the Medical-Insurance Cabal which has us by the throat. You don’t have to be a rocket scientist or Harvard Business School graduate to understand that somebody (a lot of somebodies, actually) is making a ton of money. We are simply losing our ability to keep feeding the insatiable beast.

Pain and panic drove many Americans to support Obama last fall – and the dynamic is still fueling Congressional action. If Pelosi and Company succeed at destroying America through their horrible health care prescription, Republicans like McCain will deserve a great deal of the blame. They have failed for years to produce rational and effective reform of the health care financing system; and it may just be too late now.

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