11.30.09
It’s about JOBS!
Shocking visual of the results of Obanomics.
11.19.09
An Open Letter to Minnesota’s Senators
The Honorable Amy Klobuchar
The Honorable Al Franken
Senators:
I write you today on a matter of high concern to all citizens. As numerous public opinion polls and the great number of protests across the nation show, we do not support the actions of the Congress regarding health care. While no one would deny that reducing the cost of health care and making sure that people have access to quality care are important objectives, we strongly object to the way Congress has framed this issue.
There are many points in the proposed legislation to address, but first I want to address your obligation to us … the people you are supposed to represent. We didn’t send you to Congress to be our caretakers. We didn’t send you to do our thinking for us. We sent you to represent us. By definition, a representative is an agent of the one(s) sending them and has an obligation to faithfully present their point of view. For some time, Congress has failed to be representative of the people.
You, Senators, are in an enviable position. You have the opportunity to provide a shining example for your colleagues. You do not need to base your vote on getting a share of the money raised by the Democratic Campaign Committee for election. You are immune from the arm twisting that will be used against members standing for election in 2010. Further, neither of you can be threatened with losing committee chairmanships dependent on your vote. You should be under obligation only to the people who elected you. The question is: how will you respond to that?
I have read the text of HR 3200 and HR 3962 as well as that of the previously submitted Senate bill. I am now working my way through the Reid bill, although it is challenging and I do not expect to get through even 25% of it before your expected vote on Saturday. My first question to you is this: how can you maintain the public trust if you continue to vote on bills that you do not read? This legislation will make a seismic change in the way health care is delivered and paid for. It will put the federal government squarely between people and their health care providers. How can you possibly consider voting for any action on it until you have read it?
My first concern is the dishonesty of this legislation. Rather than introducing a bill and letting it go through the normal processes, the Senate leadership has produced this legislation as an amendment to a bill previously passed in the House. This is a clearly an end run around the legislative process. It may be business as usual in the Congress, but is it in the interests of the people?
While we are talking about dishonesty, let’s focus on another issue. Many provisions of this bill do not go into effect until 2013 … after your next election, Senator Klobuchar, after a presidential election and two rounds of House elections. Those provisions that go into effect immediately serve to glamorize the bill … making a silk purse out of a sow’s ear. It will allow politicians to use it as a credential while seeking re-election without the people experiencing what has been visited upon them. You owe us better than that.
The President and leaders of the House and Senate have been telling us for months about the hundreds of billions of dollars of waste and fraud in the Medicare system. So how have they determined to rectify that situation? By cutting benefits and using that money to pay for other aspects of their health care plan. How about doing an audit and discovering where the money is being wasted and making needed changes? How about discovering who is defrauding Medicare and going after them for restitution? If you truly know that hundreds of billions of dollars are being lost to fraud and waste, isn’t it part of the obligation you own your constituents to put a stop to it?
Secondly, let’s consider the cost of this legislation. Depending on who you believe, we have a projected cost in the neighborhood of One Trillion Dollars. Yes, I know that the CBO score is more like $849 billion and they claim a deficit reduction of $130 billion over the first ten years of the program. But let’s talk truth … that is an accounting fallacy because the bill provides to ten years of revenue stream against 5 to 6 years of cost. Further, it does not include the “doctor fix”. If we compare estimated costs for other spending programs against actual (Medicare, for example), it is entirely reasonable to expect the real cost of this bill to be Five to Seven Trillion Dollars, which would all serve to increase the deficit.
Simply put, we cannot afford this legislation. At a time when revenues are down and probably will be for the next two years at least, the federal government should be practicing a little fiscal belt tightening, not spending money we don’t have.
Thirdly, there are serious concerns about the constitutionality of this legislation. Congress has chosen to ignore these issues and has devoted untold hours to legislation that is not wanted by the people, which we cannot pay for and that may in fact not even be legal. Your saying it is doesn’t make it so, and your ignoring the issue doesn’t make it go away.
There are many, many things wrong with the approach to medical care defined in this bill. We are a nation of individuals and the one size fits all approach doesn’t work. In this case, a bloated giant of a bill that creates numerous new taxes, new agencies and new mandates will probably make the health care situation worse rather than better. We would do better to take some time to determine the most pressing needs and deal with them separately. A government takeover of health care serves no one.
At a time when we are struggling to pay our bills and put food on the table and when we don’t know from one day to the next whether we will even have a job, shouldn’t your focus be on what you can do to encourage job creation and buttress the economy? Here are some suggestions that might make all the difference in our struggling job market:
- Extend the current individual tax cuts through 2012
- Reduce the corporate income tax
- Reduce or eliminate the capitol gains tax.
- Offer investment incentives for small business.
- Offer incentives for job creation by small business
- STOP wasteful government spending … no more money to TARP, the Stimulus or other porkulus projects.
Senators, I urge you to consider the needs of your constituents and devote your energies to programs that will serve our needs. Please vote no on Senator Reid’s proposed legislation. Perhaps if you come up with effective solutions such as some of the ones suggested above, we will be able to pay for a health care bill in the future. But that time is not now.
11.14.09
Review: The Hole in Our Gospel
You get a hint of where Richard Stearns is taking you from the question and answer posed on the jacket of the book. Stearns asks “What does God expect of us?” and says the book contains “the answer that changed my life and might just change the world”.
I seldom run across a book that I cannot read straight through, often in a matter of hours after getting it. This was one of those books. I started easily enough as Stearns took us through his early life, corporate achievement and the challenge to his faith that came through recruitment as the new President of World Vision. As he began talking about his early experiences with World Vision and how it changed his outlook, I found myself being convicted about how I have failed to care sufficiently for “the least of these”. Reading the rest of the book was slower going and it made me evaluate my calling in the church. If Stearns goal was to make us grow in our faith and faithfulness, he certainly did so in me.
The hole he describes in our gospel is often seen in our single mindedness as to how we go about fulfilling the Great Commission. We are called to go and make disciples, but we often have differing ideas about what that means. It is more than bringing people to saving faith. It is also helping to meet their immediate needs and teaching them so they can meet their own needs and those of others in the future. The whole gospel as advocated by Stearns saves lives materially in this world and eternally in the next.
The Hole in Our Gospel by Richard Stearns is published by Thomas Nelson and is available from a number of sources, including Christian Book Distributors.
11.11.09
HR 3962 – How Minnesota Reps Voted
Here’s how our Minnesota Representatives voted on HR 3962 – the Pelosi Health Industry Grab
Rep. Timothy Walz [D-MN1] – YES
Rep. John Kline [R-MN2] – NO
Rep. Erik Paulsen [R-MN3] – NO
Rep. Betty McCollum [D-MN4] – YES
Rep. Keith Ellison [D-MN5] – YES
Rep. Michele Bachmann [R-MN6] – NO
Rep. Collin Peterson [D-MN7] – NO
Rep. James Oberstar [D-MN8] -YES
Thanks to Collin Peterson of the 7th Minnesota Congressional District for standing up to Pelosi and voting for the interests of his district.
I’m disappointed in most of them, especially the rep for my area who indicated he would vote NO up to the time of the vote and then voted the party line. I am sure he will claim to have gotten some concession for his vote (as he has done in the past). It is not an argument that resonates with me. I always thought the word “representative” meant agent of the people. With the majority of the people being against this bill, his vote is a repudiation of his responsibility to us. What part of selling your vote is representative for the people of our district? Will you then pay us to vote for you? 
The only good news is that it’s not over yet. The Senate has to vote on a bill and then that bill will have to be reconciled with the House bill. Then both will have to approve the new bill. Lots of opportunity to make our voices heard. As you might guess, I am not sitting silently on the sidelines.
11.05.09
Blogger Conference Call: A Simple Christmas
This afternoon I participated in a blogger conference call with Governor Mike Huckabee from on the road, enroute to the next stop on the tour to promote his latest book, A Simple Christmas. We experienced some technical difficulties, but that may have made the call even better as Governor Huckabee spoke about the book, what prompted him to write it and his hopes about what people will take away from it.
A Simple Christmas tells twelve stories from Governor Huckabees life, each with a lesson that demonstrates to us the true meaning of Christmas. The link above allows you to read an excerpt from the book. I’m looking forward to getting my copy.
In addition, the publisher has released the Governors last book Do The Right Thing in paperback. What is notable about this is that the Governor has written an additional chapter which comments on actions subsequent to the elections of 2008 … a chapter entitled “Doing the WRONG Thing”. 
Based on his comments, I am going to have to get this book as well, because it seems I share a trait with Governor Mike and I have to know the whole story!
A full list of the cities on the book tour is available at Mike Huckabee.com