From Congressman John Campbell’s Laptop to Yours… Today, Short Ramblings

Miscellaneous (short) Ramblings: A lot is going in DC right now and a lot has gone on since I sent you my first missive of the year yesterday. Here is a quick rundown of my thoughts on many things in no particular order:

• The way the Obama Administration has handled the so-called “underwear bomber” on Christmas Day is atrocious. This guy was a foreign national operating as part of an inter-connected worldwide organization with the intent to kill United States citizens and further a process of bringing down our government and destroying our way of life. He should have been immediately declared an enemy combatant, interrogated, and tried in a military tribunal, as has been done in similar incidents for more than a century. He was injured and his mission had failed. There was significant potential to garner intelligence about his network and connections in order to prevent future attacks, and save lives. Yet he has been treated as though he was caught smoking or tampering with the smoke detector in the airplane lavatory. He was read his Miranda rights, assigned an attorney, and told NOT to say anything. Unbelievable. This administration just fails to see that radical Islamic terrorism is a serious threat, unlike the rest of us, and therefore we are less safe.
• Because of their singular obsession with government-run health care, the Democrats punted a bunch of issues on deadline to the end of February. However, this new deadline is fast approaching. Among the issues that should have been taken up last year yet still remain unresolved include: new permanent death tax exemptions and rates; a 21% cut in the rates doctors are paid by Medicare; a proposed increase in the national debt limit of $1.6 trillion to cover the enormous deficits for one year; reauthorizations of the Department of Transportation and the FAA; and a host of other issues.
• The one place where I DO agree with the President is that Fed Chairman Bernanke should be confirmed for a second term. I don’t get to vote on this, but the Senate vote will be held Thursday or Friday. (This is the only thing I disagree with Congressman Campbell on here in his list of ramblings … so good he can’t vote on it!)
• Tomorrow night, the President apparently will call for a freeze in non-defense so-called discretionary spending. That is about 15% of the total federal budget. It also was increased by $140 billion last year. So he is freezing spending after he increased it by 25% in one year. It’s a little like the guy who robs your house and then returns your toaster-oven and expects you to be happy about it.
• Interestingly, Democrats on the Appropriations committee are already criticizing the President’s freeze as “too tough.” This says that at least some Congressional Democrats still do not understand how severe our fiscal problems are, and that they no longer feel compelled to support their President on all of his policies. The honeymoon ended rather quickly.
• Governor Schwarzenegger came calling to Capitol Hill last week looking for money for the state budget crisis. Federal formulas that disadvantage large states like California ought to be changed, but the state legislature has expanded many Federal programs to pay more people a greater amount money than the Feds require or than other states actually do. That’s a California problem, not a federal one. (Maybe he should have asked about getting the water turned back on in the Central Valley!!!)
• One of California’s problems is that we simply cannot continue to be a magnet for those on welfare because we pay more than other states, while simultaneously repelling the very people who pay for those services with the highest tax rates of any state (recently surpassing New Jersey). This results in welfare recipients moving into the state and taxpayers/job creators moving out. This cannot go on for long.
• In my view, the Supreme Court decision last week was the correct one. It merely allows corporations to spend general monies on political ads as unions have been able to do. If BOTH unions and corporations were required to get shareholder/member approval before using the money for politics, that would be fine. But the unfettered, unequal, and unfair spending by government unions in politics is the single biggest reason we have deficits at the state and federal level.

I remain respectfully,

Congressman John Campbell
Member of Congress

We never agree with anyone on everything, but Congressman John Campbell is a to be put on the “keeper list”. He is an honest politician who represents the majority of his constituents and always keep his door and computer open.~ (This is the second general communication we have received from him in two days.)

From Congressman John Campbell’s Laptop to Yours

Monday January 25, 2009

Quote of the Week: Don’t worry I didn’t forget a quote of the week this week, but it is really long…but it’s very good, so I decided to put it at the bottom on this missive, so scroll down!

We’re Baaaack: Last Wednesday, both Houses of Congress returned to Washington for the second session of the 111th Congress. So, your life, liberty, and property are once again in jeopardy. You haven’t heard from me for a while over the holidays, but I will make up for that soon. This is the first of 4 laptops I will send you over the course of the next week. Today I want to give you a little flavor of what people in California have been telling and asking me during the roughly 4 weeks that I was home. Tomorrow, I’ll do a quick review of where many pending issues are right now. On Wednesday, the President will give his first State of the Union address (although it is his 3rd address to a joint session of Congress in 12 months) and I’ll provide you with the insider’s view the next day. Then on Friday, Republican House members (including this one) will be at our annual retreat, which is in Baltimore, Maryland this year. The President has accepted an invitation to speak to us, and I have no idea what he is going to say. I will report to you on what he said and how it was received after the speech.

So, back to the present. I always see a lot of people when I’m home in Orange County. Whether it’s at some formal speaking engagement, at a party, or it may just be someone who comes up to me while I’m filling up at a gas station or getting a cup of coffee. These people will be reflective of the demographic makeup of the nation as a whole, in that most will be Republicans, but many are Independents, Democrats or Libertarians. There were two consistent themes that came from the vast majority of the people with whom I spoke, regardless of party affiliation.

First, almost everyone wanted to know what the prospects were for the Health care bill, and if there was still a chance that we could kill it. At the time, I responded that yes there was a chance because the House and Senate bills were quite different and the Senate bill could not pass in the House, and the House bill could not pass in the Senate, so there was still doubt as to what could pass both Houses. Not to mention, the public reception to both bills was growing more toxic by the day.

Little did I know just how toxic it was. Then last week, the election of Scott Brown in Massachusetts took what was a difficult task for Democrats and made it nearly impossible. It is not just that they lost the 60th vote in the Senate. The larger effect is that arguably the most liberal state in the union just sent a resounding message that they do not want more costly and inefficient government-run medicine. This has to make many Democrats, who thought they were “safe,” reconsider whether they want to oppose their constituency by voting for socialized medicine again.

Right now, it is unclear where this will go. Speaker Pelosi admitted on Thursday that she did not have the votes to pass the Senate health care bill in the House. Right now, Democrats are all over the place on what they should do now. Some want to drop healthcare altogether while others still want to try to put something together like the bills they had before. Still others want to use the “reconciliation process” which would mean that while only 51 votes would be required in the Senate, but that means that the whole process would have to be started from scratch again in the House. Yet another faction would like to pass a much less ambitious bill that leaves the current system intact and tries to make only those changes on which a bipartisan consensus exists. Take for example plan portability, and no termination for pre-existing conditions. We will see on Wednesday which path the President prefers.

The other comment I received from almost everyone was “why are things so partisan back there? Can’t you guys agree on anything?” This level of partisanship is not typical. This is the worst I have seen in my 10 years in public life. The reason is simple. Democrats won historic majorities in the 2008 elections and have a very liberal person in the White House. Neither party has had this kind of control since the 70s (Jimmy Carter) and neither is likely to see this kind of control again for some time. So, Democratic leadership believes that they have a small window in which to accomplish the things they have been unable to do for decades. Furthermore, they believe that the public gave them this mandate in the 2008 elections. Much of this feeling was reflected early last year when Republican Whip Eric Cantor (R-VA) was invited to the White House to present Republican ideas for a stimulus package. Congressman Cantor asked the President why he rejected all Republican ideas and was answered with the quip “I won.” So, on the whole, they have moved forward on almost all major policy initiatives this Congress without consultation with, input from, or any votes of any Republicans in either House, with few exceptions.

I do think this will begin to change now. Elections in Virginia, New Jersey, and Massachusetts have sent a clear message to Democrats that the public does not like their agenda. Not everyone here gets it, but many do. There are obvious places to go on many issues where broad bipartisan consensus can be achieved. But as with health care, Democrats are not of one mind on this, and many still want to push everything to the far left, even if they suffer consequences at the ballot box this November. As I mentioned earlier, we may get some clue by the tone and message coming from the President this week.

Quote of the Week: “I quit when medicine was placed under State control, some years ago,” said Dr. Hendricks. “Do you know what it takes to perform a brain operation? Do you know the kind of skill it demands, and the years of passionate, merciless, excruciating devotion that go to acquire that skill? That was what I would not place at the disposal of men whose sole qualification to rule me was their capacity to spout the fraudulent generalities that got them elected to the privilege of enforcing their wishes at the point of a gun. I would not let them dictate the purpose for which my years of study had been spent, or the conditions of my work, or my choice of patients, or the amount of my reward. I observed that in all the discussions that preceded the enslavement of medicine, men discussed everything - except the desires of the doctors. Men considered only the ‘welfare’ of the patients, with no thought for those who were to provide it. That a doctor should have any right, desire or choice in the matter was regarded as irrelevant selfishness; his is not to choose, they said, only ‘to serve.’ That a man who’s willing to work under compulsion is too dangerous a brute to entrust with a job in the stockyards - never occurred to those who proposed to help the sick by making life impossible for the healthy. I have often wondered at the smugness with which people assert their right to enslave me, to control my work, to force my will, to violate my conscience, to stifle my mind - yet what is it that they expect to depend on, when they lie on an operating table under my hands? Their moral code has taught them to believe that it is safe to rely on the virtue of their victims. Well, that is the virtue I have withdrawn. Let them discover the kind of doctors that their system will now produce. Let them discover, in their operating rooms and hospital wards, that it is not safe to place their lives in the hands of a man whose life they have throttled. It is not safe, if he is the sort of a man who resents it - and still less safe, if he is the sort who doesn’t.”

Atlas Shrugged
by Ayn Rand

Until tomorrow, I remain respectfully,

Congressman John Campbell
Member of Congress

From Congressman John Campbell’s Laptop to Yours

Quote of the week: “No man's life, liberty, or property is safe while Congress is in session” - Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain)

The House of Representatives adjourned for the year on Wednesday night. So, as Samuel Clemens so aptly stated, your property and freedom are safe until January 12th, 2010. You all know that the Senate is still wrestling with their Health Care Bill. Thus far, the absence of the government run part is a good thing, laregely because it is therefore unlikely to lead to full-blown socialized medicine. That's why Howard Dean and other unabashed socialized medicine advocates are now against the bill. But the bill still stinks because it will raise taxes and costs on every single American who currently has health insurance in order to create a new expensive bureaucracy in an attempt to insure the uninsured. If this bill were to pass, it would not surprise me if health insurance costs rise by about 30% on everyone because of the resulting taxes on insurance policies, new mandated coverage’s, and expanded costs. I just don't see how the President and the Democrats believe that this will help people or the economy.

But Congress' other Christmas present to you is truly a lump of coal. On the very last day of this first session of the 111th Congress, 4 bills were passed that together borrowed or spent $1.1 Trillion. Let me repeat that, on Wednesday, the House passed 4 bills spending or borrowing $1.1 TRILLION IN ONE SINGLE DAY! If you do the math, it means that the House spent or borrowed about $9,400 per household in one day. One more time, House Democrats spent or borrowed $9,400 of money from your family IN ONE DAY! This lunacy included borrowing $300 billion which will only get us through early February's deficit; $150 billion of entirely new spending for Stimulus II, and a huge Defense spending bill. This is part of the reason that the national debt, which stood at $8.671 trillion on January 4, 2007 when Nancy Pelosi took the gavel as Speaker of the House, is now $12.129 trillion (as of December 16, 2009). That's a nearly 40% increase since only 2007!

This is absolutely unsustainable. You can't raise taxes enough to cover it and everyone knows it. You can't keep borrowing this much money without ruining the credit of the U.S. Treasury and hurting the value of the dollar and everyone knows this as well. And of course, this disastrous, unsustainable spending doesn't yet include anything from the health care bill, global warming (where we supposedly are offering to give billions to underdeveloped countries where people don't have enough to eat so they can reduce their carbon footprint rather than feed their people), or the surge in Afghanistan. I obviously don 't agree with the President and the Democratic leadership on much these days. But they won't even talk about stopping this or work towards finding a solution. That's not just bad policy; it’s an abandonment of responsibility.

Congress temporarily extended a number of things until the end of February including the limit on how much can be borrowed, the Patriot Act, the FAA, Transportation funding, and various other things. They will also allow the death tax to temporarily end on January 1st as a result of their inaction. They basically punted on all of these issues because they are singularly obsessed with socializing medicine, and that obsession has used up the entire calendar. This, plus whatever happens to health care and the financial regulation bill will make for an interesting and busy February.

This all sounds pretty depressing, and I certainly get down myself at times. But this is STILL the greatest nation God ever put on earth. We are STILL the beacon of hope and liberty in the world. And we are STILL an exceptional nation, in spite of our President's views to the contrary. The fact that I can say what I just said is evidence of a freedom that most of the people in the world do not enjoy, even in today’s modern age. Winston Churchill once said that democracy was the worst form of government ever devised......except for all the others that have been tried from time to time. He was right. Democracy is far from perfect. Your representatives, including and especially this one, are far from perfect. We don't always do what the people want. But when we don't, the people will elect someone who will. Don't give up. Instead standup! Don't despair, instead, thank the Lord for the brilliance of our founders and the privilege we have to be Americans.

May all the readers of this missive, liberal and conservative, independent and libertarian embrace one another for just a few days as we celebrate Christmas and Hanukkah. May we thank Him for His gifts to us. And may God bless us......each and every one of us.

Until we rejoin the fight next year (those liberal-conservative hugs can't last too long), Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, and the most prosperous of New Years.

I remain respectfully,

Congressman John Campbell
Member of Congress

From the Laptop of Rep John Campbell to Yours… On PelosiCare

Quote of the day: “In 2009, we need to redefine freedom, and freedom, in America, in 2009, means being healthy and having access to a healthcare system that isn’t just for the elite, but it’s for everybody.”

- Congressman Tim Ryan (D-OH) while speaking about the Pelosi Health Care Bill on the floor yesterday

I find the quote above quite instructive about those who supported this monstrosity of a bill. Many people in prison are healthy and they certainly have access to a government-run health care system. So, I guess they are free, at least according to the modern Pelosi-driven Democratic ethos. Yet, Pelosi style Health Care is not for everybody, because the bill expressly says that Members of Congress may join the government plan but are not required to do so. So, there is an elite, and it is government.

This is really what this and many other current debates are about. Are we going to be free, I mean really free, to live our lives as we want in the future? Or will we only be "free" in this new liberal sense where we are to be taken care of as long as we do what we are told? Will the "elite" be people who earn that ability due to their own self-driven accomplishments or will they be only those who hold the power of government?

As it was made clear yesterday, the bill requires everyone to buy a health insurance plan as determined by the new "Health Choices Czar." And if you don't, you will be fined with a tax of 2.5% on your gross income. If you neither buy the insurance they tell you to, nor pay the fine they assess on you, you will committed a felony deemed punishable by up to 5 years in prison and up to a $250,000 fine. So, if you don't buy the health insurance the government's Health Choices Czar tells you too regardless of its cost, you may go to jail.

That's freedom?

It has been interesting to listen to Democrat after Democrat rise to speak in support of 2,042 pages of government control. Most of them will mention that they are for it because people will get some form of medical attention under this bill for free. No medical care is free. If someone doesn't pay for it, either the doctor donates his time or someone else pays the doctor instead of the person getting treated. So, every time someone gets something for free under this bill, the value of that service was taken by the compulsion of government from someone else, often with threat of jail time. That is not freedom. That is the tyranny of socialism. That is Pelosi's and Obama's legacy.

Unfortunately, late last night, the Pelosi Socialized Medicine Bill was passed by the House by a vote of 220-215. Here is the organization chart of the new Pelosi care bill with all 111 new departments, commissions or agencies:

Click here to view full size

It was a terrible night for freedom loving Americans. But it is far from the end of the road. This bill is not law yet. In order to get the bare minimum votes she needed (plus 2) Pelosi had to agree to ban abortion funding in the bill, which is existing law. But, the relevant committee chairmen all indicated that they plan to take that prohibition out of the bill later. If that happens, a number of Democrats who voted for the bill have said they will oppose it. There were reportedly lots of other deals made to secure this one vote, but those deals may not stick for a future vote. Socialized medicine will still have to pass the Senate and the narrowness of this vote along with the clear public opposition to this madness has got to be spooking many Senators. Senate Majority Leader Reid (D-NV) has indicated that the Senate will not take up any Health Care bill until after the first of the year and they are unlikely to take up anything like this.

We have lost a battle, but the war for freedom goes on. Keep fighting. You can be sure I will.

I remain respectfully,

Congressman John Campbell
Member of Congress

Posted: Knowledge Creates Power – Cross-Posted: Daily Thought Pad – True Health Is True Wealth

Note Back From Congressman John Campbell on Healthcare - He Has Co-Sponsored H.R. 2520, the Patient's Choice Act

Thank you for contacting me to express your thoughts on our nation's healthcare policy. I appreciate hearing from you on this important matter.

Enhancing the quality of current healthcare and making affordable healthcare more accessible is one of the most pressing challenges facing our nation. I believe we must allow people to determine their own healthcare plan independent of their employer or the government. This will encourage an active, competitive marketplace that will in turn increase access and affordability.

This approach will resolve the fundamental flaw of our current system of healthcare - the disconnection that now exists between individuals and the price and quality of care. Today, an individual's capacity to get healthcare coverage is dependent upon a third party payee like an employer or the government. This system has, in many ways, reduced the power of the marketplace and forced Americans to become prisoners to health plans dictated upon them.

Congress needs to initiate policies that will encourage personal choice and increase competition, not enact socialized government medicine or price controls. Also, whatever Congress enacts must not bankrupt our country or cause individuals to lose their current health insurance - both which would happen under the current proposals being discussed.

Rather than supporting President Obama's and the Democrats' approach - a government run health care system - I have cosponsored the H.R. 2520, the Patient's Choice Act, introduced by Congressmen Paul Ryan and Devin Nunes and Senators Tom Coburn and Richard Burr. This legislation transforms health care in America by strengthening the relationship between the patient and the doctor; using choice and competition rather than rationing and restrictions to contain costs; and ensuring universal, affordable health care for all Americans. "The Patients' Choice Act" promotes innovative, State-based solutions, along with fundamental reforms in the tax code, to give every American, regardless of employment status, age, or health condition, the ability and the resources to purchase health insurance. The comprehensive legislation also includes concrete prevention and transparency initiatives, long overdue reforms to Medicare and Medicaid, investments in wellness programs and health IT, and more.

We also must work to expand the availability of Health Savings Accounts. Established by the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act of 2003, HSA's allow employees and individuals to accumulate tax-free savings for lifetime health care needs. Individuals are able to make pre-tax contributions towards their health plan deductible, with a maximum annual contribution. Rather than forcing people to pay monthly fees whether or not they use any medical services, this system allows you to save up tax-free funds for when the need for care is necessary. Today, over three million Americans are already taking advantage of this system, of which many were previously uninsured.

In addition, we need to address our nation's broken litigation system that has caused a rapid increase in liability insurance for doctors. The threat of frivolous litigation has caused doctors to begin practicing defensive medicine and is now endangering patient access to the best treatments. In 1975, California passed legislation to limit "pain and suffering damages" to $250,000, and today our access to quality health care is among the nation's best. This common sense policy should be applied nationwide and I have introduced such legislation (H.R. 2975) to do this.
As Congress continues to analyze and discuss this issue, I will be sure to follow it closely and seek to ensure a stronger and more accessible healthcare emerges. We must move towards a system that breaks down the stifling and cost raising barriers of a third party payee system.

Thank you again for taking the time to contact me. Having the benefit of your views is important, and I appreciate you sharing them with me.

I remain respectfully,

JOHN CAMPBELL
Member of Congress

Flexible Spending Accounts

5 Thoughts on the Baucus Bill

Senate Approves Baucus Bill With One GOP Vote: Snowe

Stop Paying the Crooks

The Healing of America

Catastrophe

“Real” HealthCare Reform – Options to ObamaCare

Health Care Reform I Support – Rep John Campbell

There is no question that our health care system needs reform. Unfortunately, President Obama, Speaker Pelosi, and Harry Reid have had no intention of working with Republicans towards health care reform we all can agree on. However, mycolleagues and I have put forth a proposal that we believe will effectively reform health care for all Americans. The reform measure that I think is best has been introduced by Congressmen Paul Ryan (R-WI) and Devin Nunes (R-CA) called the Patient's Choice Act. It is directionally opposite of the plan proposed by President Obama and his cohorts. Instead of putting government in charge of the system, this plan largely removes the failed portions of government involvement, and puts each individual in charge of their own health care plan and decisions. Here are some bullet points on this plan:

• The plan eliminates the employer deduction for health insurance and the system of direct payment of health costs under Medicare and Medicaid, and replaces them with a $2,300 refundable tax credit per individual which must be used for health care costs. Therefore, everyone, whether they are young, senior citizens, or indigent, will be covered under a private plan of their own choosing. And you no longer have to get the plan from your employer, but will have a number of options to keep the same plan as you move from job to job. Senior plans would be further subsidized by the Medicare system but still allowed to choose their own plan.

• Currently as a Californian, you can only buy a health insurance plan approved by the state of California. Under the Patient's Choice Act, you would be free to pick from any of the over 1,300 medical insurance plans offered around the country. State based insurance exchanges will make sure that you cannot be cancelled for illness, and that pre-existing conditions will not interfere with our choices, in the same way that fire insurance is available to those who live in high fire risk areas today.

• Basically this legislation will allow unlimited contributions to a health savings account so that Americans can save for their own health care costs on a pre-tax basis.

• Litigation costs are a huge driver of medical costs. This bill would replace the court system with state based dispute resolution mechanisms for most claims, thereby saving a great deal of money in the system.

• Creates transparency through a public/private partnership to disclose cost, quality, and outcomes of various plans and providers.

• It also instills accountability into existing federal wellness and prevention programs to encourage more disease prevention activities and thereby lower costs.

• This bill will cost a grand total of $0 and will increase taxes by $0. It is revenue and cost neutral to the current system.

Click Here for the text of the legislation

Below are some of my links regarding health care:

A Right to Health Care? - OCRegister Editorial

From Congressman John Campbell's Laptop to Yours - Monday July 20, 2009

President Obama has Mislead us on Healthcare - The Greeneyeshade Blog

From Congressman John Campbell's Laptop to Yours - Monday July 27, 2009

Community Commentary - Health Plan Won't Help Americans - Daily Pilot

Confounding America's Ideals - Washington Times Editorial

President Obama's Socialized Medicine Package

The proposals we have seen from President Obama, Speaker Pelosi, and Harry Reid on healthcare reform represent some of the worst public policy I have seen in my entire public career. Socialized health care that raises taxes, rations care and increases costs isn't what most Americans have in mind. I stand in firm opposition to the current government-run healthcare proposal and will work diligently to ensure that Americans are not saddled with a system that will ultimately reduce the quality of your healthcare, raises taxes, and hamper the relationship between doctors and their patients.

On the whole, we will have government-only medicine with the compassion of the IRS and the efficiency of the DMV. Below I have included a graph which doesn't need any explanation, except for that this socialized health care plan will be a mess.

Here is a quick run-down of some of the most frightening provisions:

• It makes it illegal to purchase your own private health insurance after the bill is enacted and will in effect, transition virtually everyone to government care within 5 years. See Section 102, on Page 16 of H.R. 3200

• The bill raises taxes on "the rich" but also creates new taxes on small businesses and individuals who do not have health insurance. After the tax increase, the top tax rate for a resident of California will be over 57%, which makes it the highest income tax rate in the industrialized world (Sweden is 56%).

• It will increase the overall cost of health care in the country by trillions of dollars. Even the Democrat appointed head of the Congressional Budget Office had to admit that there is no evidence that the plan will lower the cost of health care as the President has asserted.

• Current estimates project that there will be nearly 5 million additional jobs that will disappear nationwide, as a result of the plan.

• As many as 114 million Americans could lose their current coverage under the bill, according to non-partisan actuaries at the Lewin Group.

• Doctors, hospitals, and other medical providers will be paid even less than they are currently being paid by Medicare or Medicaid, which will bankrupt many.

• A government bureaucracy will determine whether you are allowed to receive treatments or medicines, and sometimes, as happens in other socialized countries, whether you are allowed to live or die.

• It does not deal with the bankruptcy of the Medicare system or Social Security so those problems continue, but the taxes said to balance them will have been spent on this.

• And, it will not even cover everybody with insurance, so it won't even fix what it is supposed to fix.

Rep John Campbell

Additional Facts:

• We are being told over and over again by the administration that the GOP and moderate democrats have no alternative plans or input. If you watched the president’s joint session speech, at least half of the Republicans and Blue Dogs were holding up copies of alternate healthcare plans or at least needed amendments to HR 3200 that Nancy Pelosi and her liberal cronies are trying to push down our throats.
• Before the recess Obama said that he would glad to sit with anyone/group (Rep or Senator) who wanted to and go over the bills or portions of the bills being proposed, line by line. He said again during the joint session speech that his door was open to anyone with viable alternative suggestions and input to the plans being shoved down our throats. UNTRUE!!! He has not met with or invited a single Republican to the White House since last April and refuses to return their calls. (Congressmen Paul Ryan (R-WI) and Devin Nunes (R-CA & former physician) authors of the Patient's Choice Act have called and written the White House several times for a meeting (as well as many other Re;publicans) and the WH has not even acknowledged their request to meet with the president let alone set an appointment.)
• Universal Health = less docs - A new Investor’s Business Daily Poll revealed that if the healthcare bill passes, 45% of doctors will quit. Wow, what overwhelming support from the medical community. It's probably just because those greedy, evil doctors know the gig is up on their amputations for cash scheme. Another poll by Fox News/Health shows that 65% of all doctors oppose ObamaCare and another 15% are on the fence against or just not talking.
• Journalist and author T.R. Reid set out on a global tour of hospitals and doctors' offices, all in the hopes of understanding how other industrialized nations provide affordable, effective universal health care. The result: his book The Healing of America: A Global Quest for Better, Cheaper, and Fairer Health Care. Reid is a foreign correspondent for The Washington Post — in whose pages he recently addressed five major myths about other countries' health-care systems — and the former chief of the paper's London and Tokyo bureaus. He was the lead correspondent for Frontline’s Sick Around the World.
  1. Germany offer’s healthcare to everyone for half our cost (approximately $770 per month and employers pay half), using “private insurance companies” of their choice that are heavily regulated… but no government-run healthcare, public option or co-ops. Their Healthcare is portable and they can change carriers at any time.
  2. Insurance companies in the U.S. charge more for services for less than in any other country in the world. 20% compared to an average of 5 to 5.5%, as low as 4% in some countries.
  3. In Switzerland, if you insurance company does not pay our bills within 5-days, your next month’s premium is free.
• The Baucus Bill is the same old same old…
  1. A government-run Co-op which is just another name for a Public Option
  2. Half a trillion in cuts to Medicare and Medicaid. Baby-boomers (born between 1946 to 1964) are retiring in record numbers. The need is going up; it won’t drop. No major provisions for clean up of fraud and waste within those systems. Medicaid costs will be pushed onto the states. And the results cannot end up any other way than rationing care for seniors.
  3. The 8 trillion dollar cost (average estimate) is a fantasy. Huge amounts of the cost estimates are just that: estimates of possible savings over the next 10-yrs. Again, estimates without a plan and a track record of just the opposite, while Medicaid costs will be transferred to broke states and Also, many of the programs in the Baucus bill and others won’t start until 2013. If they did the cost would be 1.5 Trillion+, and you know that everything the government runs costs twice their estimates.
  4. Everyone (people who can’t afford healthcare now) will be forced to purchase healthcare of pay the government a penalty of $3,800 to $4,000. Right now the average estimates of the monthly healthcare costs will be $1,300 (rent payment for many in the U.S.).
  5. Many employers will drop their employees’ HC, forcing them into the government-run co-op which will ultimately equal a strong public option and ultimately total government-run “sub-standard” healthcare (just look at Veteran’s Benefits, the Reservation System, the Financial state of Medicare and Medicaid… and everything else the government runs (Social Security, the Post Office, Fanny and Freddie, etc etc Employers will be fined if they do not offer their employees HC, but the fine will still be less than the cost or providing the coverage. Especially in an economic climate like we have today no good businessman or small business owner will be able to choose covering their employees for long.
  6. And the list goes on…
• CBO – Doug Holz-Eaken (former CBO Director) says that the Baucus Bill was written (engineered) in a way that is favorable to the parameters or method used to score bills. Also… does anyone wonder why after the White House invited the present CBO Director for a small group visit or chat that they have received favorable scorings after the original thumbs down on HR 3200.
• If there is not “serious” focus and specifics in the bill addressing “Tort Reform”, and there isn’t, this is not a legitimate offer… Charles Krauthammer.
• There are many hidden taxes in the bill which will be used to payoff insurance companies.

WE REALLY MUST BEGIN TO BE HONEST WITH OURSELVES BY LOOKING AT THE FACTS: THE GOAL OF OBAMACARE (ALL BILLS PRESENTLY BEING CONSIDERED) IS PUSHING THIS COUNTRY INTO A SYSTEM OF GOVERNMNT-RUN HEALTHCARE (SOCIALIZED MEDICINE) AND A POWER GRAB ON THE PART OF THE GOVERNMENT AND THE PEOPLE AND ORGANIZATIONS WHO ARE REALLY PULLING OBAMA’S STRINGS!!!!!

These fears (or realities) are starting to be voiced from all directions: the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Doctors themselves,

Senator Orin Hatch said today... the only way we can pay for the Baucus Bill or HR 3200 is with huge tax increases!

Please keep up the pressure on Congress!!

Call, Write, Email and Fax your Congressman & Senators and all the lefties and teeterers….!!!! Consistently.

From Rep John Campbell’s Laptop to Yours – Aug 12 & 25 2009 & Daniel Hannan – There Will Be No Going Back

Source: Daily Thought Pad – Cross Posted: Knowledge Creates Power

Update From Congressman John Campbell

The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with their own money.  ~ Alexis de Tocqueville (1805 - 1859)

Three Liners: OK, so ‘one-liner’ is the term we all know and are accustomed to hearing, well I can't tell you much in one line, but here's a group of three-liners on various subjects which may give you some information you didn't know:

House Cafeteria: Prices in the government-run cafeterias in the basement of the House Office Buildings have gone up recently, at the alarming rate of 31% between 2007 and the end of 2008.  According to House Chief Administrative Officer Dan Beard, who oversees the House cafeterias; since Democrats took control of the House they have instituted requirements for organically grown food and required all workers to be union members in order to serve or cook in the cafeterias, and these steps have in turn caused the price increase. But, House staffers do not like paying for all this, so your tax dollars are being considered to subsidize this too!

Cuts: The President announced, with great fanfare, his proposals to cut $17 billion of spending from 121 programs in the upcoming fiscal year. This is after he increased spending by over $1 trillion dollars in just two bills in his first couple months in office. So, he is proposing to cut an amount that is less than 2% of what he just increased, and his proposal is half of what President Bush had proposed to cut from the same programs last year, but Congress summarily rejected.

War Spending: This week, we will vote on President Obama's $92 billion proposal for new and additional spending not included in the stimulus bill, or the omnibus bill, or the budget, or any of the already passed additional spending bills. $81.6 billion of this amount is more funding for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the balance is a grab-bag of unrelated spending items such as swine flu response, and $665 million for the West bank and Gaza.  This madness must stop and as such I intend to oppose this bill.

Guantanamo: Not long after he was sworn in as President of the United States, Mr. Obama fulfilled a campaign pledge to close the military base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. That was the easy part, now the administration has to figure out where to house the terrorists who are currently being detained there, of whom are required to be held at a military installation. Many of the same Members of Congress who supported closing this facility are now fervently arguing that the prisoners should not be moved to their state (including Camp Pendleton in Oceanside, California) and many European countries are rejecting them too.

This year: The government will borrow 46 cents of every dollar it spends.  I don't even need to say another word, or use up my alotted 3 lines on this one.

Cars and dealers: After unilaterally deciding to subvert contract law, equity, and any sense of fairness in requiring bondholders and stockholders of GM and Chrysler to take huge losses and give all benefit and upside to the United Auto Workers, the Obama Auto Task Force is at it again. They now have decided to unilaterally cancel the agreements of 3,600 GM and Chrysler dealers without the compensation called for in those agreements with the task force picking who stays and who goes. In an effort to supposedly save jobs, this will result in the loss of a job for about 190,000 employees of these dealerships.

Robots: Some of you may have received automated phone calls a few weeks back telling you to call my office and instruct me to vote for the President's budget. When people did call my office my staff would ask the callers why they would want me to vote to add more to the national debt in just over 5 years than all the previous 43 presidents combined had done prior, and to have deficits more than double the biggest deficit under President Bush. They frequently got the response, "Ahhh, well, I don't know about that but just tell him he should support the President because he is President."

Health Care: The President announced this week, with more fanfare and flourish, his "agreement" with "health care providers" to reduce the annual increase in health care costs by 1.5%. Never mind that this agreement has no specific method of how this will be achieved. The greater deception here is that the President's health care plan will cost an extra $600 billion or so, at the very least, so we are again "saving" a tiny amount of a greatly increased cost. Which means we are saving nothing.

Ok, you got me, that last one was 4 lines.

The survey that we did here a few weeks back was very popular with you all. So, next week, I will use that same survey mechanism to allow you all to be a Member of Congress for a week. Next week's Laptop Report will give you the opportunity to vote on every bill I vote on that week. I'm going to skip the arcane procedural votes because they often require understanding of all the rules which is not a skill set that any of you probably want to have. The week after that, I will tell you how you all voted on each bill; how the House of Representatives voted on each bill, and how I voted on each as well.
That should be fun!

Until next week, I remain respectfully,

Congressman John Campbell