Posted by
novelator on Friday, July 17, 2009 6:10:16 PM
I wrote an email to my two Senators, Baucus and Tester, registering my opposition to the so-called healthcare reform. Then I forwarded said email to my lengthy list of friends, most of whom are now in the process of sending this email to their Senators, or an edited version of the email (with my compliments) or writing their own emails to their respective Senators. Here's a link to the Senators if you wish to contact them yourself (and I hope you let 'em have it):
http://senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm
I received an "answer" from Baucus a little while ago, which would be funny, if the issues weren't so serious and it wasn't our tax dollars paying some staffer to reply on his behalf. The stump speech he sent me I put in italics so you can scroll down to my reply to his so-called "reply."
But first, the original email I sent to my Senators and forwarded to my friends (and, again, feel free to copy and paste, edit, or write your own):
Dear Senator (insert name here):
I don't know why you and your fellow senators, plus our so-called Congressional representatives think you can legislate healthcare reform when Congress is unable to balance the nation's budget or refrain from ludicrous legislation such as Cap and Trade, which is really another tax on all of us and nothing more.
Forcing people to acquire a healthcare plan according to your whims or face a fine is also just another form of taxation.
Before you try to legislate my health insurance or lack thereof, before you impinge on my right to acquire the healthcare insurance I choose or not, I suggest you and the rest of Congress round up the twenty million plus illegal aliens in this country and send them home and see what kind of savings are realized in doing so. California's budget problems might actually get closer to being solved. I also suggest you and Congress get off your lazy assets and close the loophole in the immigration laws that allows an illegal alien to "pop" over the border at the last minute and give birth, thus enabling the immediate family to be eligible for the many free services this country offers to our poorer, yet LEGAL citizens. See what kind of money can be saved by doing this, not only in healthcare but also in educational service, etc., before you and Congress think of taxing the American People yet again with your "healthcare reform."
Another thing I think you and Congress ought to do is make English the national language and thus do away with any state's need to post signage in up to six different languages. Again, California might save some money by not having to print so much signage. Why not stick up for your own country once instead of buying into the "hate America" rhetoric spewing from the White House. I am not ashamed of my country, not in the least. But I am ashamed of its leaders.
I will also tell you I am sick and tired of taxes labeled as something else in the hopes the American People are dumb enough not to see past the subterfuge. I am sick of the games Congress is playing with our money and the wasted time in salaries we and our hard work provide for you. My ROI (return on investment) in Congress and the White House appears to be nil.
I suggest the whole of Congress, and the White House, get its fiscal house in order before attempting yet again to stick its hands in my pockets or legislate my or any other American's behavior through taxation.
You are shooting yourselves in the foot by ignoring the hue and cry of the American People. The Sleeping Giant is waking from its American Dream to this ongoing National Nightmare that Congress is allowing to happen and there will be consequences for you and your Congressional buddies should you persist in taxing and spending our children and their children's futures.
Mari L. Bushman
Here's Baucus's reply (feel free to scroll down to my reply to his reply--I think he's given this speech already, ad nauseam):
Dear Mari:
Thank you for contacting me about health care reform. I appreciate
hearing from you on this very important issue.
There is little disagreement about the state of America's health care
system. It's broken. Today, 47 million Americans, including thousands of
Montanans, find themselves without health insurance either because
they're denied coverage by insurance companies or because they can't
afford it. Millions more Americans are finding that health insurance
doesn't cover sky-high medical costs. The link between health care and
the financial security of working families is undeniable. Just last
year, the average household spent more than a quarter of its income on
health insurance premiums. This trend is unsustainable.
Reforming a health care system as complicated as ours requires us to
work together. In my over 30 years of serving Montanans, I've faced no
greater challenge. We can't afford to ignore the serious issues facing
our health system any longer. I understand we won't agree on every
detail of comprehensive health care reform. There are trade-offs with
any proposal. Radically changing American health care by adopting a
single-payer system, for example, is not a solution that could pass in
either the House or Senate. We are not Canada or Great Britain. America
needs a uniquely American solution with both private and public funding.
Last November, I released my plan, "A Call to Action," that offers a
starting point for reforming America's health system. My plan has three
primary goals: (1) make health care more affordable, (2) increase the
quality and value of the care that's provided and (3) ensure coverage
for all Americans. To accomplish any one of these goals, we must succeed
on all three. For starters, we need health coverage for all Americans.
Covering every American will help make insurance more affordable by
preventing costs from shifting to those who have insurance.
Expanding insurance coverage doesn't mean we are going to limit people's
options. Under my plan, if you are happy with the insurance you have,
you can keep it. But if you're uninsured or you lose your health
insurance coverage, you will be able to purchase affordable coverage
through a "health insurance exchange," a one-stop shopping place for
affordable insurance. If your income is too low to afford coverage, you
can get a subsidy to help pay premiums. Small businesses will be offered
a new tax credit for offering health insurance to their employees.
We also need to improve the quality of health care delivered in our
system. The United States spends twice as much per person on health care
as any other nation in the world. Yet we rank 19th out of 19
industrialized countries in terms of preventable deaths. Clearly, more
care doesn't always mean better care. Too often, patients are subjected
to unnecessary tests and treatments simply because their doctors don't
know their full medical history. My plan rewards care that works, rather
than wasteful and ineffective treatments. In doing so, it takes steps to
reestablish primary care as the backbone of the health care system by
paying primary care doctors more and providing incentives for medical
students to choose a career in primary care. We also need a delivery
system that helps physicians coordinate and manage medical care, and one
that focuses more on prevention and wellness rather than treating a
condition or illness that could have been avoided.
There are other things we can do to reduce costs as well. We need to
invest in health information technology and comparative effectiveness
research to better understand what treatments work best so that doctors
and patients can make better decisions.
Funding health care reform and making the system more efficient and fair
overall depends on our ability to make targeted reforms. For example,
one way to invest in reform is to limit the exclusion of employee health
benefits from tax. Such a limit would not affect the employer's tax
benefit and incentive for providing health care to employees, but rather
would serve to constrain spending. The limit would also be specially
designed to protect low-income tax payers. Rest assured any changes to
the tax code will be designed to make health care more -- not less --
affordable for all Americans.
Many of my colleagues in the Senate share my ideas on health care
reform. My plan is also generally consistent with President Obama's
vision for health care reform. In instances where our plans diverge, I'm
committed to achieving consensus. I understand that there are many
different opinions out there, but most can agree that reforming our
broken health care system is necessary. Thanks again for getting in
touch. Please don't hesitate to contact me in the future.
Senator Max Baucus
Are you still awake? Or did you just scroll past?
Here is my reply to his reply, sent minutes ago:
Dear Senator Baucus,
Thanks for the stump speech in reply to my email today. Now, take that 47
million people you claim are uninsured and minus the 20 million or more illegal
aliens currently riding free on the taxpayer's dime, not only in medical care,
but in education, food stamps, TANF, etc. Please tell me what kind of savings
for the States as well as the Federal Government will be realized once these
freeloaders are sent home.
Then, estimate the future savings in closing the loophole that allows an
illegal immigrant to pop over the border and give birth on our soil and, by
doing so, immediately qualify her extended alien family for all sorts of free
services offered to LEGAL IMMIGRANTS and our poorer American citizens.
Finally, estimate the savings in signage and printing costs by making
English the national language, thus foregoing any need to print any kind of
application, any kind of directions, any kind of any government form, et al, in
languages other than English.
I eagerly await your replies. Oh? You don't have these figures? Never
commissioned a single study in these areas prior to formulating your plan to tax
me for healthcare? Perhaps you should get the answers to these questions first
before you and Congress and the White House make any further concerted attempt
to wipe out my personal budget--against my will I might add--to support your
wasteful spending by pretending a reform that, bottom line, is simply another
tax as well as another attempt to restrict my freedom of choice. Just like cap
and trade, or as a growing majority of we working Americans like to call
it--Crap and Tax.
Again, I remind you that unless my ROI (return on investment) in your
salary, your Congressional buddies' salaries, even the President's salary,
starts to pay me and other Americans like me some dividends in the form of less
government, less taxation, less interference with our individual lives, and more
freedom, plus greater adherence to the Constitution, your actions will have
serious consequences. And you won't like it, not one bit. You might even have to
work for a living like the rest of us for a change.
I am an American and I vote. And I am not alone. Keep that in mind when
considering what you ought to be doing to serve the interests of the American
People versus crafting reams of nearly unreadable legislation in order to force
the American People to serve you and Congress and the White House.
Mari L. Bushman
Again, feel free to send this, or your edited version, or your own thoughts to your Senators, your friends, your fellow Patriots, etc. and so forth.
From the minute we're born, we are running out of life--make yours count for something.