If you don’t already know, we are thoroughly Pro Life here at the The Conservative Reader. From the moment of conception, the rights of every American should extend to even those that are still in the womb, despite the inconvenience they may pose to their mother.
We are also opposed to the current effort in Congress to foist a complex, expensive, invasive and industry-busting piece of legislation in the name of saving lives and improving the health of Americans. We are not opposed to ensuring that all Americans have access to health-care, but this bill, in whatever form it has taken thus far, is not in the best interest America. More on that in the next few days.
Worse yet, is that such a bill, in the name of saving lives, may end up funneling more and more money to take lives… innocent lives at that.
There is a battle going on in the Congress over Health Care reform and they, meaning the U.S. Representatives and U.S. Senators, are under heavy pressure to strike a deal and get it done before the summer recess in August. Our concern is a “deal” that would allow for funding and mandates in the bill.
There are millions of dollars at stake, and the abortion industry is working hard to get their hands on what they see as a gold mine of tax funding. Their goal includes mandating abortion as health care and having their mandates funded. The good news is that there are many leaders in congress with a conscience that want health care reform, but do not agree with mandating or funding abortion with taxpayer’s money.
However, the pressure from President Obama and the Democrat leadership is mounting, as they want abortion as part of Health Care Reform. This is bad news since it comes down to heavy political pressures on each representative.
This is when your voice really counts. This is a perfect example of the saying, “the squeaky wheel gets the oil,” and we need every “squeak”, every pro-life voice to sound the alarm and call congress. Literally thousands of little lives, and the lives of the elderly are depending on us to take action to stop this evil.
I am not overstating my case. This is real and its happening very quickly.
The fact is, the Health Care Reform bill says nothing about abortion, which IS the problem. Language must be added to the bill to exclude all abortion mandates and abortion funding.
It’s all in the language. Call the Congress now. If you have already called, please call again. The anti-life powers to be are working diligently to expand abortion and their profit margin on our dime. They are motivated and they are calling.
We need you to call and pass this on to your friends and family.
Note: It is critical that they do not split the difference on abortion mandates OR abortion subsidies in some compromise or “deal”. We want to make sure they exclude both abortion “mandates” and “funding.”
Please call both U.S. Senators and your U.S. Representative. If you do not know who your U.S. Representative is, click here: http://www.legis.state.ia.us/FindLeg/
Here is a helpful hint on what to say:
“Hi, my name is……………….. I’m calling about the “Health Care Reform bill that they are working on, and I would like to ask ………………… to make sure that the bill EXCLUDES all abortion–both funding AND mandates. I do not think it is right that my taxes should be used to pay for abortion. Will you please give him my message? Thank you.”
Retired editor of the Des Moines Register, Richard Doak, is concerned about the welfare of the GOP. He says to restore the GOPs greatness don’t look to Reagan, instead look further in the past to Abraham Lincoln and Teddy Roosevelt.
Thanks for the history lesson Mr. Doak, upon reading your column I began to wonder if you think that today’s GOP wouldn’t care about slavery? While you don’t come right out and say it, that does seem to be implied.
Also implied is the same tired mantra that the GOP doesn’t care about “the common folk.â€Â What I fail to understand is how increasing taxes on businesses that employ “the common folk,†diminishing the quality of health care which “the common folk†benefit from, and seeing products and energy bills of “the common folk†increase somehow benefits “the common folkâ€?
You write at the end, and I swear the Democratic Party is feeding you its talking points, this:
It has no sense of caring for the common folk. It knows no problem that can’t be solved with another tax break for the rich. It knows no infrastructure projects that are better than tax cuts. It believes any curb on the rapaciousness of corporations is un-American.
It believes preserving the principle of private-sector health insurance is more important than letting people choose a cheaper, government-run option. It is hostile to public education, the one American invention that has done more for the common people than any other.
The philosophy of this modern Republican Party prevailed in America for the last quarter century – and it produced epic disaster.
Now the party is in the wilderness, and its partisans cry out that the only way out is to stick with the philosophy that produced the disaster.
Wouldn’t it be better to acknowledge failure and think again, start over again?
I know you’d rather see the party look to dependence on government programs rather than personal responsibility and voluntary charity. You’d love to see a health care system like what Canada and the United Kingdom experience. I know you believe that public education is the salvation of mankind, but when will you recognize that it is hopelessly broken and needs competition?
With the wild spending going on at our statehouse and in Washington we won’t have to worry about “tax cuts for the rich,†as we’ll soon experience tax increases for everybody in order to pay for this spending spree government has going on. We’ll see how well increasing taxes on business will help increase employment as well. But, I know, privately created jobs won’t help “the common folk†nearly as much as a taxpayer-funded government program.
To you I’m sure that this would seem like it would restore the health of a two-party system, but it would destroy it. We would have instead Democrats and Democrat-Lite. What we need right now is fiscal discipline, smaller government, lower taxes… the people seem to get it right now even if you don’t.
My buddy Tim Albrecht at The Bean Walker sent out this exclusive update today:
In an exclusive Bean Walker interview, Senate Republican leader Paul McKinley says he will file the necessary paperwork to form a gubernatorial exploratory committee.
He says he will remain focused on his job as the Senate GOP leader, and expects to come to a decision “by early fall.”
McKinley will join Bob Vander Plaats, Rep. Chris Rants and Christian Fong, who have all filed the necessary paperwork in their potential runs for governor.
This is turning into a fairly respectable field, and not too awry from what I would have expected, although Christian Fong had only come to my attention a couple of weeks ago.
The candidates are still working through the initial “Who Am I, Really?” phase of their campaigns, from what I think I know about these candidates we can probably expect Vander Plaats to be more heavily focused on social issues than the rest of the field, while McKinley will be very focused on fiscal issues. I’ve met all of these gentlemen at least once with the exception of Fong (who my friend David Chung tried to introduce to me at the Night of The Rising Stars Iowa GOP event in June, but didn’t work out), and those that I’ve met seem to have a good personality for the job. Fact is, I still don’t know much about any of them.
Unfortunately, it’s going to be difficult to get a good read on where the candidates stand on the issues that Iowans will care about in 2010 just yet. Partly because we don’t know what those issues will be (although I strongly suspect it will be all about the state budget, spending and taxation). So, like most long campaigns (11 months to the June 8, 2010 primary), our perception of how well each of these men would serve will be formed and reformed until we get into the Spring of 2010.
A couple of comments:
I am please to see an ethnically diverse candidate (Fong) in the mix.  It is refreshing to see more and more people from diverse cultures step up and offer their skills as leaders in our communities, and we should do all we can to encourage folks like Christian to step out and lead.
I think it is time to see some women consider running for Governor.  For the past several years, I was represented in both the Iowa House and Senate by women (Libby Jacobs, who stepped down last year, and Pat Ward). I have know a number of other women legislators from around the state and they all provide strong leadership. While I am not advocating any specific person, it would be great to start seeing some of these women considering a run for Governor, and not to run because they are women, but because they have been gifted with the skills and vision to lead our state. I believe some of them have, and that should be reason enough.
Linda Lantor Fandel expressed similar thoughts about the presence of women on the Supreme Court yesterday in the Des Moines Register. I think, if I grasped her point correctly, that she and I both agree that the key issue in political diversity is not voting for someone or appointing someone because of their gender or ethnicity, but rather the grasping of opportunities by women and ethnically diverse individuals. No one should feel constrained or limited because they are not male or white.
And just think, before this is all over, we will be starting to look at candidates for President for 2012. We never get a break, do we?
More evidence that we need to put better controls on our government. And before you discard this discussion as “more of the same government stupidity” that we’ve become accustomed to writing off as just “how the system works”, stop and read through this. And really think about it.
I am loath to speculate on what specifically happened here, that is, how Rebuild Iowa managed to send $100,000 out to the towns of Dunkerton and Fairbank despite the lack of need or request for the money. The story makes it sound like they just, well, used National Weather Service information.Â
But I can’t wait to hear what the Governor’s office has to say about it. If anything.
As you may know, Rebuild Iowa is a state project to coordinate spending the money allocated by the Legislature to help Iowa communities recover from the weather-related damage of 2008. From the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier story:
Tina Potthoff, a spokesperson for Rebuild Iowa, said the Iowa Legislature approved the funds with no application process and with Gov. Chet Culver’s blessing. The money came from the state’s general fund.
“Since it’s state money, it comes with less restrictions than federal money,” Potthoff said.Â
I am certainly glad that we were able to provide necessary funds to help the tornado and flood ravaged communities to recover, but there is an operational principle at work here that is a key to the gutting of our state’s financial resources:
If government money has been allocated, it needs to be spent on something, anything, quickly before someone decides to take it back.
After all, it’s free money, right?
The only problem is that it’s not free. We are getting a superb opportunity to see how the state government, from the Legislature to the Governor to the folks that have been carelessly given free reign to just spend a huge chunk of money as they see fit (and feel compelled to spend every bit of it), and the folks who are recipients of our state’s enourmous generosity.
I don’t blame the leaders in Fairbank and Dunkerton. The money is likely to be put to good use and may even help prevent loss of life in the future. They may, however, become unwitting villains in a story they had no hand in writing. I hope, for the sake of our state finances, that they decide to return the money to the state and await an appropriate opportunity to finance what things they truly need. But I also wouldn’t blame them one bit if they kept the money and used it as they saw fit.
The State of Iowa, however, needs better accountability. We already know that the current leadership of the General Assembly has become drunk with power and the unfettered ability to spend our state into oblivian. The Governor is the author of what can, at best, be described as a constitutionally unauthorized bond measure that will keep the state in debt for decades. And the Legislature puts no real constraints on the Governor appointed boards who are authorized to spend millions in tax dollars, in some cases for good cause, but in no case with appropriate public accountability.Â
The spending needs to stop, or we will pay for it, either through higher taxes or other increased costs.
We, as the citizens and taxpayers of Iowa, are the ultimate holders of accountability. We have lost the opportunity to address the legislation that led to this chaos. We must voice, and continue to voice, our objections to the feckless manner in which our Legislature and Governor have brought us here, and take whatever appropriate action we can, including writing, phoning, and emailing them to voice those objects. And then vote them out of office.
I would even advocate recall elections. At this point I have no idea what that involves or what it would cost the state. The question becomes whether the financial cost of such elections would be outweighed by the continued impact of another year with these folks in power.
Energy Tax Disaster:Â Congressmen Boswell, Braley, and Loebsack vote to raise energy costs on Iowans by about $400 a year for Iowa families and cost Iowa jobs.
ACTION ITEM:Â Call Senator Harkin, IMMEDIATELY, and tell him to vote
NOon cap and trade (HR 2454)!
You can reach his Washington, DC office at:Â 202.224.3254
Last Friday was a dark day for our country. Dark because the U.S. House of Representatives, with the support of Iowa’s three Democrat members, voted for energy legislation that will dramatically increase energy costs for Iowa consumers and turn the lights out on Iowa’s economy with staggering job losses.
Congressmen Boswell, Braley, and Loebsack all sided with California’s Nancy Pelosi and Henry Waxman in support of HR 2454, even though data from the Energy Information Administration and Congressional Budget Office show the bill will increase electricity costs in Iowa and most of the rest of the country (while actually lowering them in Pelosi’s and Waxman’s home state of California). Click here for the report.Â
In fact, with energy costs estimated to rise by $250 million a year in Iowa as a result of this legislation, that equates to nearly $400 annually for an Iowa family of four.Â
In addition, research from the Heritage Foundation shows Iowa will lose nearly 18,000 jobs by 2012 if HR 2454 becomes law (this is in addition to the more than 90,000 Iowans currently out of work). Click here for the report.
Higher energy costs for Iowa families and fewer jobs for Iowa workers. Reps. Boswell, Braley, and Loebsack have a lot to answer for when they come home to face Iowa voters.
THANK YOU to Republican Congressmen Steve King and Tom Latham. Thank you for standing up for Iowa families, Iowa farmers, and Iowa businesses in opposition to this economy-killing legislation.
Now, it is not too late to stop this terrible legislation from becoming a reality. We need EVERY Iowan to contact Senator Harkin’s office, IMMEDIATELY, and ask him to vote NO on HR 2454 (the cap and trade bill).
You can reach his Washington, DC office at:Â 202.224.3254
Below please find talking points on this legislation from the Republican National Committee:
Â
The so-called “cap and trade” plan proposed by President Obama and Congressional Democrats is nothing more than a huge multi-billion dollar national energy tax that will hit almost every American family, small business and family farm.
President Obama and Congressional Democrats will tax our lights out — families and businesses will face higher energy costs every time they flip on a light switch, start a car or delivery truck, or manufacture a product.
Various studies also show that between 1.8 million to 7 million jobs could be lost.
Those hardest hit by this massive tax will be the poor and middle-class who are already struggling to make ends meet in today’s recession.
President Obama himself said on the campaign trial that if “cap and tax” were to pass families’ utility bills would “necessarily skyrocket.”
The American people want energy independence and a cleaner environment without a national energy tax.
Republicans have a better way – an “all of the above” approach that would lead to lower energy costs, more jobs, a cleaner environment and greater energy independence.
Republicans want to increase the use of all energy sources that will reduce carbon emissions, especially nuclear, clean-coal and renewable energy technologies.
Republicans want to increase environmentally-safe energy production to take advantage of abundant supplies of energy right here in America on remote lands and far off our shores.
Republicans would do all this while reducing frivolous lawsuits and encouraging Americans to conserve energy to preserve and protect our natural resources.
Members of the president’s own party oppose his national energy tax scheme.
John Dingell (D-MI): “Nobody in this country realizes that cap and trade is a tax, and it’s a great big one.” (Rep. John Dingell, Subcommittee On Energy And Environment, Energy And Commerce Committee, Hearing, 4/24/09)
Sen. Evan Bayh (D-IN): “And you also run the risk of taking jobs away and not actually solving global warming.” (MSNBC’s “Hardball,” 3/25/09)
Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA): “I just don’t think an economy-wide cap and trade works.” (Gerard Shields, “La. Democrats key figures in federal emissions debate,” The Advocate, 5/2/09)
Rep. Charlie Melancon (D-LA): “I believe this bill would create an undue burden on families who are already paying too much in energy bills…” (Gerard Shields, “La. Democrats key figures in federal emissions debate,” The Advocate, 5/2/09)
•Rep. Jason Altmire (D-PA): “Any way you do it, it hurts Pennsylvania, especially western Pennsylvania. I think cap and trade is bad policy.” (Alex Isenstadt, “Cap and trade hits speed bumps,” Politico, 4/27/09)
CALL Senator Harkin, TODAY, and help stop this legislation from becoming a reality. YOUR voice can make a difference, so call Senator Harkin, NOW! Â
You can reach his Washington, DC office at:Â 202.224.3254
Tired of Democrats taking our country in the wrong direction? Donate, NOW, to the Iowa GOP and help us continue the fight to take back our state and nation.
I voiced my concerns to Senator Harkin about this. Here’s my email:
Dear Senator Harkin:Â
Please vote “no” on the Senate version of HR2454. I am convinced that this bill is bad for both Iowans and all Americans. While I agree that we have a need to gain better control over how we manage the Earth and its resources, including the environment as a whole, this bill appears to do nothing more than tax Americans, through energy industries, to death.
I’m sure you’ve seen the information from the Heritage Foundation, and the analysis they’ve conducted has yielded compelling information. Thousands of Iowans will lose their jobs. Average Americans will see hundreds of dollars of added energy expense each year. Gross Production will be negatively impacted.
I believe that you care about Iowans and Americans, and the needs of people, and I can’t see how you could support this bill. I hope you will vote against it and vigorously oppose its passing.
Thank you for your efforts on our behalf in the US Senate.
Regards,
Art Smith
More of a national view on this at TCR’s Main Web Site, including automated updates on the bill in the sidebar!
If you don’t already know, we are thoroughly Pro Life here at the The Conservative Reader. From the moment of conception, the rights of every American should extend to even those that are still in the womb, despite the inconvenience they may pose to their mother.
