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July 28th, 2009Dear Liberty Activist,
A slight correction from yesterday's Liberty Action Report: The House will be on vacation at the end of this week, and the Senate next week. On the House side, with the bill still languishing in the Energy and Commerce committee, Nancy Pelosi and Henry Waxman have less than four days to decide whether or not to follow through on their threats to go over the Blue Dog Democrats' heads on the Energy and Commerce committee. But really they have less time than even that, because once on the floor, time must be allotted for debate, amendments, and votes. The fact is: Pelosi does not have the
votes. And alienating Blue Dog concerns over the cost of this
legislation is a sure way to wrecking ObamaCare's chances. It's time to tell Congress to slow down this half-baked, ill-conceived, government-run health care proposal that is certain to result in rationing, higher prices, and lower quality care. The American people have barely had their say yet, and representatives must go home to hear from their constituents just how destructive ObamaCare will be to the standard of medical treatment Americans now depend on. Because once Congress hears the legitimate alarm and concern of the American people over this government takeover of health care, the bill will go the way of the Dodo. Blue Dog Democrat Congressman Parker Griffith (AL-CD5) put it best recently when he stated, "The (House) bill being presented, with a poorly defined public option, is a Trojan horse leading to government-controlled health care, and it is not in the best interests of the public." Click here for a list of 40 Blue Dogs who signed a letter against ObamaCare earlier this month, promising not to support a proposal that was not deficit-neutral. They need to know that, in the words Mark Levin, if they stand with us, we'll stand with them in this critical battle. Please keep calling your own representatives in the Housein the Senate, too. Tell them that they should return home and listen to opposition to this radical, hasty plan to take private health options away from the American people. The switchboard number is (202) 224-3121. In today's Liberty
Action Report, Barack Obama has contracted the Carter
Syndrome, he is acting "stupidly," the first edition of brand-new The
Clews-Todd Report is here, and another edition of Appointment Watch
analyzing John Holden and Ron Sims. Plus, the Las Vegas Review
Journal points out that no matter how much Republicans spent, the
Democrats are even worse. Please send your letters to the editor at Robert@getliberty.org. We
publish all points of view! Today, Shannon Elmore writes, "As
our government gains power, we lose rights. It's only a matter of time
before Americans push back. I am proud of the Blue Dogs. Keep up the
fight, Blue Dogs! We are behind you! Stand up for what is right. I know
my vote as well as hundreds around me will not be putting anyone that
votes for Obama's cap and trade or health care package back in office.
If they are looking to please the president, they need to be ready to
be unemployed. American citizens will take back their country if they
need too. Congress needs to be reminded of this." For Liberty, Robert Romano P.S. Loving liberty? Help us out with a small donation today!
Open Source & Copyright Free The
Carter Syndrome Give
It A Rest ALG
Research Appointment Watch The
Clews - Todd Report Too
Hot Not To Note: Time to 'throttle back' The Carter SyndromeBy Robert Romano On July 15th, 1979, in the dying days of his Administration, Jimmy Carter famously uttered that the American people faced a "crisis of confidence" characterized by the "growing doubt about the meaning of our own lives and in the loss of a unity of purpose for our nation." Real inspiring stuff, that was. So much so that it was termed his "malaise" speech. Faced with hyperinflation that year at 13.3 percent, energy shortages, escalating unemployment at 5.7 percent that would rise to 7.8 percent in July the following year, and a dismal public approval rating at 25 percent, Carter sought to frame the problem as being the people's attitude towards government, and not with the government itself that had so completely failed. "Often you see paralysis and stagnation and drift," he said, proposing "faith in our ability to govern ourselves," higher taxes, import quotas on energy, and generally more government to deal with problems created by more government. All together, Carter mentioned the word "crisis" ten times. And now, some thirty years later, Jimmy Carter has met his match as the most depressing president ever. Enter Barack Obama, the man for whom "never let a crisis go to waste" has become a daily mantra. Already under the Obama Administration, high inflation is projected as all but inevitable due to an uncontrolled monetary expansion and record-setting deficit spending. Unemployment is ready to top 10 percent. And the public approval rating of Obama is sinking like a millstone in still waters. According to the latest Rasmussen Reports survey of likely voters, although Obama is only half a year into his term of office, already fifty percent of Americans disapprove of his frenzied, fear-mongering performance. Forty percent strongly disapprove, while only thirty percent strongly approve, showing an increasingly negative trend. And like his gloomy predecessor, Obama is not inspiring any sort of hope with his policies. Or his words. After all, this is the president who has told Americans they will have to learn to live on "rationed" health care. He's told Americans to drive smaller cars. And, of course, just like Jimmy Carter, he has advised us all to lower our thermostats. In fact, the more he touts his plans to ration health care, limit it to the elderly, and take away private health options, the more the American people learn about his actual agenda. And the less they like his ideas. Obama cannot even win over those in his own party to a proposal that promises to forever put a government bureaucrat between Americans and their doctors. Things have gotten so bad on Capitol Hill that Nancy Pelosi and Henry Waxman are considering bypassing entirely the House Energy and Commerce committee where seven Blue Dog Democrats along with Republicans are blocking the sickly legislation from reaching the floor. "The health care bill is unfortunately in trouble," said Congressman John Conyers (D-MI) on July 24th as the wheels fall off the Obama train. Which is what happens when politicians peddle fear and attempt to ransom the future prosperity of all Americans. Barack Obama could have avoided the mistakes of Jimmy Carter's past. Instead he is repeating them—leaving much "malaise" in his wake. Better stock up on Prozac. And somewhere out in the hinterlands is a bright-eyed, self-assured politician with a penchant for espousing "faith triumphant over fear" who is about to show Barack Obama what happens when, once again, it's "morning in America." Robert Romano is the Senior Editor of ALG News Bureau. http://blog.getliberty.org/default.asp?Display=1410 Give It A Rest
ALG Editor's Note: William Warren's award-winning cartoons published at GetLiberty.org are a free service of ALG News Bureau. They may be reused and redistributed free of charge. http://blog.getliberty.org/default.asp?Display=1409 Appointment Watch: Holdren and SimsThe mainstream media continue to ignore President Obama's appointment of bizarre personnel to run the government. Personnel is policy. That being the case the American people need to know about these appointments. This week we look another couple of Obama appointees. These are not isolated incidents or an occasional bad apple. These folks are representative of the appointments he is making with little or no push back from the Senate during the confirmation process. John P. Holdren, Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (Science Czar)
Ron Sims, Deputy Secretary of Housing and Urban Development
These are just a sample of the people President Obama is placing in positions of power within his Administration. If you want more information on these three and many others, please visit: http://www.getliberty.org/content.asp?pl=187&contentid=187
http://blog.getliberty.org/default.asp?Display=1408 The Clews - Todd Report
ALG Editor's Note: The following is a new weekly ALG News video featuring politicial veterans Executive Director Carter Clews and Research Director Don Todd. http://blog.getliberty.org/default.asp?Display=1407
EDITORIAL: Time to 'throttle back'But that day never comes Democrats love to criticize Republicans for being hypocrites when it comes to spending restraint. "Why, look at the big deficits run up by the Bush administration," they shout. "Those Republicans are really the big spenders." It's a good point. Problem is, the Democrats are even worse. As Barack Obama spends us into oblivion, he has plenty of eager enablers in Congress. Under the dozen non- defense spending bills produced so far this year, expenditures will increase an average of 11 percent -- and all this during an economic downturn. As the private sector contracts out of necessity, the federal bureaucracy flourishes. "For Democrats, the increases represent catch-up after years of suffering under Bush, who for years tried to essentially freeze many domestic accounts," notes The Associated Press. The winners, of course, are programs involving government handouts. For example, a measure designed to dole out subsidies for heating bills will receive almost twice as much money under the current budget than it did in Mr. Bush's final year. The losers, of course, are defense and the taxpayers. Spender in chief David Obey, the Wisconsin Democrat who chairs the House Appropriations Committee, argues the ramp up in spending is necessary to kick start the economy. In fact, precisely the opposite is true. Without some voices of fiscal sanity in charge, the nation is fast heading for a financial calamity, all the while as Democrats whistle a happy tune. Even Rep. Obey acknowledges the problem. "What we have to do ... is to figure out how to transition from the stimulus period to the time when you have to start throttling back," he said. But Democrats have never shown any inclination to "throttle back" on domestic spending -- and never will. Consider that this spending spree takes place at a time when auto-pilot entitlement spending -- Medicare, Social Security -- continues to soar, with no serious reform efforts on the table. We lope closer and closer to a budget calamity. Precisely when, Rep. Obey, will the Democrats actually decide to "throttle back"? |
It's now or never in the House of
Representatives for Nancy Pelosi to shove ObamaCare down the throats of
the American people by the August recess. Which means this is where the
rubber meets the road for us.
