They Just Don't Get It

I have been communicating with my Senators and Congressional Representative more than ever over the last year. The most common subject has been health care reform. It has been very interesting to see how little their responses have changed even as the opinion of the American people has changed dramatically over the course of the debate. As the American people have learned more and more about the health care reform proposed by the Democrat majority, the more they know they do not want it. Sure, we all know we need reform. But it is not a health care problem. We have the best health care in the world. The problem is access. We need to lower the cost and make health care more accessible to all Americans. But neither the House, nor the Senate bill address this. They are attempting to use a chain saw to fix what needs a scalpel.

Here is what I wrote to my Senators today. Since I live in Virginia, I wrote to Senators Webb and Warner. But you can substitute the name of any Democrat Senator, and virtually any Democrat Congressional Representative and the fit is perfect. If every American who believes the "leadership" in Washington is going the wrong direction communicates with their representatives two things can happen. They will listen and say no to the mess they call reform, or they will not listen and we will say no to them when they ask for our vote.

Senator Virgina Senator,

Thank you for your reply regarding the health care debate that is continuing on Capitol Hill. I understand you support the Senate plan rather than the House plan. However, you should know that the majority of your constituents, and the majority of Americans across the nation, do not support either plan. The reason is simple. Both plans are variants on a theme and the theme is an unashamed power grab by the elitists in Washington who believe that only they, and not the American people, have the intelligence, the common sense, and the right to decide how our nation is run.

Virginia Senator, you are wrong. You work for the people of Virginia. We are not unintelligent. We balance our check books and pay our bills, which is more than can be said about the Federal Government. And we are watching.

You need to do what is right for America. Congress needs to hit the reset button and take the health care debate back to square one. The President has continued to say that the Republican party is the party of NO and that the GOP has no ideas or vision. You know that is not true. What you do not seem to recognize is that the ideas proposed by the GOP have much greater chance of success than anything proposed by the Democrat majority.

What we need in health care reform is inter-state competition, true tort reform (tough one because the Democrats are beholden to the defense lawyers of America), a move away from employer based (legislated by big government) insurance by providing tax breaks for individuals so they can afford to purchase their own insurance (in the free marketplace with interstate competition) and tax incentives for health savings accounts so that individuals can save money for their basic health care and only need insurance for catastrophic care.

Analogies have been made between auto insurance and health insurance. Most of these to not hold up under close scrutiny. But as healthy competition between automobile insurers continues to bring down the cost and improve the coverage, so too could healthy competition between health insurers.

Virginia Senator, the Senate and House both have it all wrong. What we need is not Universal Health Care. What we need is not more big government intervention into our lives. What we need is a free market based system free from government intervention. This is what has made America the most prosperous country in the world over the last two hundred plus years, and it is the model being employed by the most successful emerging economies today. Failure to recognize this will not only doom your future in the Senate, it will also doom our great nation once and for all.

Wake up! Do the right thing! Stand up to the President and the Senate majority leader! Vote no on any health care plan currently under consideration! Hit the RESET button! Go back to square one! Our nation depends upon it.