“If the government becomes the lawbreaker, it breeds contempt for law; it invites every man to become a law unto himself; it invites anarchy.”

Louis Brandeis, U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice

I knew that the health care bill would pass the House. There wouldn’t have been a vote today if the democrats didn’t have the votes.  Nancy Pelosi and her gang have shown their arrogance.  This vote shows that the house leaders don’t listen to their constituents or to the American public in general.  I am happy to say that my representative, Jim Matheson (D-Utah) did vote no on the bill.  He did listen to his constituents.  There is no argument that there is a need for health care reform, however, this bill that will likely be signed by President Obama on Tuesday will hurt this country.  It will bankrupt this country.  I thought it was ironic that this morning as Nancy Pelosi and other House leaders came to the Capitol building with the gavel that was used when Medicare was passed.  Now Medicare is broke.  It is insolvent.  The health care bill passed tonight will cut  Medicare to pay for all of the new enrollments on Medicaid.  They are robbing Peter to pay Paul.  The White House, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid think that the American people will eventually warm to this bill, but I think they may have a rude awakening come election time in November.  They may think we are stupid and are sheep, but when all of the details of this bill are brought to light there will be an even bigger uprising.  As I have said before get involved. Let your representatives know how you feel on the issues and use your power at the ballot box.   This fight is not over!

I just tried to call my representative in the House of Representatives.  Jim Matheson (D-Utah) voted no in November, but now has not said which way he will vote.  This really irritates me.  Nothing has changed from the bill in November to the one that will be voted on Sunday.  I tried calling his office, but the phone lines are busy.  If I still lived in the DC area, I would be downtown at his office.  But I no longer live there so I did the next best thing and that is send an email to let him know that if he votes yes on the health care bill, I will not vote for him in November.  Jim Matheson is in a tricky spot. He is a lone Democrat in a very red state.  The majority of Americans, 55%, do not support this bill.  We the people need our voices to be heard.  We cannot sit back and let Washington make choices for us and our families.  There is no doubt that our health care system needs reform, however, this bill is not the way to go.  We are already over $12 trillion dollars in debt and it goes up everyday.  We cannot afford this bill.  Let your voice be heard.  You can send a message to your elected representatives through Citizens Against Government Waste at  http://www.cagw.org

Some facts about the health care bill:

Myth: This legislation won’t cut Medicare.

Reductions in Medicare outlays finance about half of the legislation’s $1 trillion in new entitlement spending. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office verifies that the legislation would reduce Medicare benefits. President Obama’s top Medicare actuary verifies that it would reduce access to care for Medicare beneficiaries.

Of course, Congress needs to restrain Medicare spending. Otherwise, income-tax rates would have to double by midcentury. But the solution is to make Medicare more efficient, not to use price controls and bureaucratic rationing.

Myth: The legislation would contain health care costs.

The Obama plan would increase health care costs for the simple reason that it would put millions more patients, plus doctors and insurers, in a position where they are spending the taxpayers’ money. That never produces frugality.

Its command-and-control approaches to cost containment have failed over and over in Medicare and Medicaid because they don’t change the incentives that encourage cost growth.

The only provision that would change incentives is the president’s proposed tax on the sick and others with high-cost health plans. But he appears ready to abandon that, anyway.

Stanford health economist Alain Enthoven writes, “The American people are being deceived.” The Senate bill would “do little or nothing to curb [health care] expenditures.”

Myth: This legislation is a moral imperative.

The Obama plan would impose additional taxes on the sick — in part, to subsidize abortions — and would threaten people with jail time if they do not purchase health insurance. Where’s the morality in that?

Myth: This legislation is about saving lives.

Congress could save more lives with less money by creating smaller programs that fight high blood pressure, diabetes and other specific ailments.

By expanding health insurance instead, Democrats are implicitly showing that saving lives isn’t the primary goal.

Myth: This legislation would stop abusive insurance practices.

The Obama plan would encourage abusive insurance practices. Research by Obama adviser David Cutler shows that the plan’s price controls would force insurers who provide quality care for the sick into bankruptcy. Insurers would therefore use countless and covert means to deny care and avoid, mistreat and dump the sick.

Along the way, the legislation would shower private insurance companies with half a trillion dollars in government subsidies.

Myth: The public wants this legislation.

Polls that ask whether respondents like the legislation’s supposed benefits (e.g., reduced insurance premiums for the sick) without asking about the corresponding costs (higher premiums for the healthy, insurers denying care to the sick) are meaningless.

The public has consistently expressed its intense opposition to the Obama plan for eight solid months. Democratic pollsters Pat Caddell and Doug Schoen note that “four-fifths of those who oppose the plan strongly oppose it … while only half of those who support the plan do so strongly.” A small, radical, left-wing minority is foisting this legislation on an unwilling public.

Myth: This isn’t a government takeover of health care.

This legislation would force all Americans to purchase health insurance coverage. Government would control what kind of insurance you purchase, where you purchase it, how much you pay and what kind of medical care you receive. Our health care sector would be “private” in name only.

Once government controls those decisions, there will be nothing left to socialize. Make no mistake — this is a vote on socialized medicine.

Michael F. Cannon is director of health policy studies at the Cato Institute and coauthor of Healthy Competition: What’s Holding Back Health Care and How to Free It.

When Barack Obama was running for president, he was the ultimate campaigner.  Now that he is president, he continues to campaign. I don’t think he really knows anything else.  He was a college professor, worked as a community organizer, served in the state legislature in Illinois and then in as a senator in the US Senate and now he is president.  He seemed to have a made himself a plan long ago and he made his goal of becoming president, but now that he is in the Oval Office he has no idea what he is doing.  He is a smart man, but I think he is arrogant.  Take for instance the health care debate.  The majority of Americans do not want this bill to pass and are against the democrats using reconciliation to do so.  Does anyone in Washington listen to the American people?  There are some members of congress that appear to want to do the right thing, but will it happen?  Will they let the campaigner in chief persuade them or will they listen to their constituents and do what is right.  There is a need for health care reform, but this bill is not the way to do it.  The health care summit was just a bunch of hot air.  Nothing was accomplished and the democrats are determined to do something, anything to get this bill passed.  As the president continues to campaign on health care maybe he will start listening and find out what the American people really want.  That’s probably just wishful thinking.