Dear Congressman,
So far I have been pleased that you are my new congressman, but not entirely. I realize that you were not involved in politics before, so I don't think you're quite aware of the willingness some people, particularly those on the political left, to lie for their causes. I think you were deceived in the case of the S-CHIP extension, which was actually an expansion. You also did not seem to realize that the bill passed intentionally included pro-fraud provisions. I quote Michelle Malkin’s column of July 22th:
“But Obama lit the fuse in February when he signed the massive expansion of the State Children's Health Insurance Program. That law loosened eligibility requirements for legal immigrants and their children by watering down document and evidentiary standards -- making it easy for individuals to use fake Social Security cards to apply for benefits with little to no chance of getting caught. In addition, Obama's S-CHIP expansion revoked Medicaid application time limits that were part of the 1996 welfare reform law. Immigration activists see the provisions as first steps toward universal coverage for illegals.” (The whole column is available at http://townhall.com/columnists/MichelleMalkin/2009/07/22/obamacare_for_illegal_aliens, and I suggest strongly that you read it.)
The health care bill is another example of the dishonest way in which the Democrats are trying to advance their statist goals by dishonest means. One of the reasons they are trying to hurry these measures along is to keep too much knowledge of what’s really in these bills from getting out. Former New York Lieutenant Governor Betsy McCaughey has done a stellar job dissecting the House and Senate bills, just as she did in 1993-4 with “Hillarycare”. Please read the article she wrote for the New York Post (available at http://www.frontpagemag.com/readArticle.aspx?ARTID=35620), and then contact her. Please don’t compromise our health care system. The great problems in health care are due to too much government involvement and too many strictures to the free market. That’s where we must act.
Keep in mind that the health care system can scarcely be called broken when over 80% of Americans are happy with our health care. Work at the margins, and only help those who truly need it. Actually, it would be refreshing to hear at least one congressman inquire as to where in the Constitution the backers of these bills find the authority to even consider taking over (and it is a takeover) 20% of our economy. It is nowhere!
Could that be you, congressman?
I am unsettled by your occasional willingness to compromise from correct positions. The e-mail update I received from you re Waxman-Markey worried me. You expressed yourself “concerned” about climate change. Actually, there is strong evidence that increased carbon dioxide in the air (“carbon” has become a term of art) has no effect on the temperature or the climate. Note that atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide went up as temperatures went up in the 1990s, and still were going up as temperatures dropped from 1998 on. Those who blamed CO2 for higher temperatures are not partly right; they are entirely wrong. CO2 isn’t a pollutant, anyway. As Alan Caruba points out, it is the second most important gas for life on earth, behind only (obviously) oxygen. CO2 is a “greenhouse gas” not because it causes or traps warmth, but because it helps plants grow, and thus is a good thing to have in you greenhouse! The EPA’s ruling that CO2 is a pollutant was 0% science, and 100% politics. The fight against genuine air-pollution is essentially won, and should be celebrated.
When you compromise with the entirely wrong, you become partly wrong, and not as right as you might have been. Don’t go along with any bill that will hamper our already-staggering economy to fight an imaginary problem.
Stick to your guns, congressman. No health care bill that increases government’s role at all. What the health care market needs is more freedom, not more government.
Very sincerely,