Today, we took back Washington D.C. - #AFP #9-12

"Today, we took back Washington, D.C.," declared Tim Phillips, President of Americans for Prosperity, when assessing the impact of today's 9-12 March on Washington, D.C.:

Today, our freedom movement took back Washington, D.C. for an exhilarating day. Hundreds of thousands of freedom fighters descended on our nation's Capitol for a march that sends a crystal clear message to the Washington politicians: "We're not going to take it anymore."

Hopefully, you were one of the hundreds of thousands of grassroots activists marching down Pennsylvania Avenue and ending up on the steps of the United States Capitol building. If you could not make it, go to our ...

Today's Taxpayer March brought to Washington, D.C. the same energy, determination, and passion that has been sweeping our nation from coast to coast at tea parties, town hall meetings, bus tours and rallies.

We brought both of our "Hands Off My Health Care" buses off the road and to the March on Washington. I saw so many of the great local tea party organizers and grassroots activists that we've met on the road over the last year. And, I saw so many of our Americans for Prosperity activists who were awed by the day.

A special thank you is in order for the national tea party groups like Tea Party Patriots and the 9/12 rally leaders who worked so hard to make today a reality. And thanks to so many of you for coming to Washington or going to 9/12 rallies in your area. You're making a difference and we're going to win.

Earlier, I mentioned that we took Washington back for a day. The politicians have heard us. They know literally millions of Americans from all walks of life are mobilized like never before. President Obama, Speaker Pelosi and their friends have awakened a sleeping giant.

But, they don't believe we will stay the course. They believe if they are patient, if they talk of "consensus" and "compromise" and 'bi-partisan solutions" then they will get their way on the health care takeover, on the job killing cap-and-trade scheme and the rest of their liberal agenda.

Today was another huge step in letting these politicians know that we are not going away, not growing weary, not losing interest. In the weeks and months ahead, we're going to demonstrate that we're Americans -- and that means we're willing to stay the course to defend our freedoms. Much lies ahead.

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Tags: 9-12, AFP, Americans for Prosperity, D.C., George Washington To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!

Jail is not the Holiday Inn

Baxter County Sheriff John Montgomery

In the Arkansas Ozarks, the local Sheriff says his jail is not the Holiday Inn and tells inmates that if they don't like being in his jail then don't break the law and if you can't stop breaking the law, move someplace else. Sheriff John Montgomery (R-Baxter County, AR) released the following statement based in frequent request for information requiring the limitations on inmates and the Baxter County Detention Center (e.g., Jail):

This is not the Holiday Inn. I am frequently asked to comment about our Detention Center – how it is managed, how the inmates are housed and treated – and what ‘a day in the jail’ is like. I even receive comments (also known as grievances) from some of our inmates. Some of those comments come directly to my office; others find their way into the Letters to the Editor.

Even as our daily population has grown the past several years, we have made great strides in improving safety while finding opportunities to reduce the costs to the taxpayers.

Inmate Meals. We are meeting dietary guidelines while minimizing the food expense. The daily menu consists of oatmeal for breakfast, bologna sandwich for lunch, and beans and cornbread for dinner. There are occasions when food is provided by different organizations, such as for Thanksgiving or Christmas, but generally speaking if you are an inmate, expect oatmeal, bologna sandwiches and beans and cornbread each day.

Ways we are saving food expenses. Two years ago, we started a garden that is maintained by the inmates. Produce from the garden supplements our pantry. In addition, we occasionally receive generous donations from various food vendors and individuals for food items such as potatoes, bread and eggs. Several local civic groups will provide leftover food after their events. Pancake batter and chili are many times brought to us after their events are over.

Inmate Medical Care. In 2007, through some generous donations from the hospital, private physicians and working with our Quorum Court, we began an in-house medical clinic. As one of our top cost saving initiatives, we are now able to provide routine medical treatment to the inmate population. Prior to this clinic, we had to transport the inmate to Baxter Regional Medical Center (requiring a deputy to escort and guard) and absorb the costs of the emergency room visit. We estimate that the in-house clinic saves $75,000 per year in medical expenses.

Inmate Entertainment. There are no televisions or radios in the inmate areas. The inmates are not allowed to smoke inside or outside the Detention Center. The inmates are required to stay in their cells except for one hour of outdoor exercise per day.

Good Time. ‘Good Time’ is a way to reduce an inmate’s total sentence. In the past when there was an overcrowding problem, ‘Good Time’ was rewarded by just serving time in jail. At our detention facility, ‘Good Time’ has to be earned and is rewarded to those inmates who perform certain community services such as picking up trash, shoveling snow, mowing county properties, etc. Furloughs (which is permission to leave jail for a holiday or ‘day off’) are no longer granted to inmates by the Sheriff’s Office.

For those inmates who qualify and are granted work release, we require them to pay one-third of their check for their fines and restitution and one-third for their room and board. They are allowed to keep the remaining third. This not only saves taxpayer money, but forces those on work release to pay back fines and restitution to their victims. We use the funds received to offset our medical expenses.

Website-Inmate Roster. Everyone who is booked into the Baxter County Sheriff’s Detention Center has their picture and the charges posted to our website (Click here to see current jail roster). This system is automated and updates every 15 minutes. Hundreds of people sign up on our email alerts through our website to receive this update every morning. The answer to the ‘why can we post this information’ is very simple. The arrest, charges, photos, etc. are all public record. This simply means that anyone from the public can go to the law enforcement agency and obtain the information. Our website is automated so it updates the inmates automatically when they are booked in our jail. No exceptions. Everyone is treated the same.

Again, this is not the Holiday Inn. To those who complain, I offer a simple observation -- this is not the Holiday Inn, this is jail. It is not supposed to be pleasant. You are not supposed to enjoy your stay. You are in jail because you broke the law. It is time you took responsibility for your own actions. You are being treated fairly and humanely. If you do not care for the accommodations, do not come back to jail.

It is very simple -- If you wish to remain in Baxter County, obey the law or face punishment. If you do not like how you are treated in this County when you break the law, MOVE! And for those people who are habitual and can’t stop breaking the law, I suggest you do it in another county.

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Tags: Holiday Inn, inmates, jail, John Montgomery, Ozarks, sheriff To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!

Health Czar, Interrupted - Moolah for Medicine Video

Obama did his address to the nation, and the Sam Adams Alliance is hosting the Health Czar's latest address...or rather, radio personality Guy Benson as the Health Czar addressing the mainstream media in our new video! [Satire]

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Tags: health care, health czar, Obamacare, Sam Adams Alliance, satire, video To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!

Lone Silent 9-11 Protest in the Ozarks

Today in the Arkansas Ozark mountains, Allan Erickson got out of bed with a destiny for his day burning in his heart. He had already prepared a sign after reading the previous month an article by Matthew Vadum in The American Spectator about President Obama's planned effort to "erase the meaning of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks from the American psyche and convert Sept. 11 into a day of leftist celebration and statist idolatry."

This effort to reshape the American psyche has nothing to do with healing the nation and everything to do with easing the nation along in the ongoing radical transformation of America that President Obama promised during last year's election campaign. The president signed into law a measure in April that designated Sept. 11 as a National Day of Service, but it's not likely many lawmakers thought this meant that day was going to be turned into a celebration of ethanol, carbon emission controls, and radical community organizing."

With the help of the Obama administration, the coalition is launching a public relations campaign under the radar of the mainstream media . . . to try to change 9/11 from a day of reflection and remembrance to a day of activism, food banks, and community gardens. . . .

Of course, the annual commemoration of the 2001 terrorist attacks belongs to the entire nation, but President Obama and the activist left don't see it that way. They view the nationwide remembrance of the murder of 3,000 Americans by Islamic totalitarians as an obstacle to winning over the hearts and minds of the American people. . . . They view Sept. 11 as a "Republican" day because it focuses the public on supposedly "Republican" issues like patriotism, national security, and terrorism. . . .

On Aug. 4, the White House offered a glimpse into its plans to desecrate 9/11 for political advantage. [Van] Jones [now resigned] appeared in a largely ignored 33-minute video posted on the official blog of the White House to discuss the administration's plan to flush 9/11 down the memory hole . . . Of this National Day of Service, Jones says little except that it will be a great opportunity "for people to connect, to find other people in your peer group who are also passionate about repowering America but also greening up America and cleaning up America."

On the same day, HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan, EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson, and DOE Under Secretary Kristina Johnson and activists held a low-key press conference. At it, [Lennox] Yearwood said the National Day of Service will be "the first milestone" of a larger effort called Green the Block that is attempting to convince Americans that the utopian fantasy of a so-called green economy is possible without turning the U.S. into a Third World country. . . .

At no time does anyone explain why this National Day of Service has to be held -- of all the 365 days in a year -- on Sept. 11.

Allan Erickson described his lone act of remembrance of 9-11: This Morning, 9/11/2009, I went over to the Mountain Home Memorial Square [Arkansas] with my protest sign. I was debating with myself right up until before I went if I should do this or not. I finally decided that someone had to speak out about this, and it seemed I was self elected to do so. Out of respect, I waited until the 9-11 memorial ceremony was over and almost everyone had left before I went and got my sign. [See inserted photo] I then stood at the curb for about 1&1/2 hours. One of the radio reporters who was still there came over and interviewed me. Almost everyone who drove by while I was standing there slowed down to read my sign. About a third of them either waved or honked their horns. I was surprised at how many police and sheriffs cars went by. Most of them also waved. I had about some pedestrians come by and talk to me and I gave them a copy of the American Spectator article.

Allan Erickson's sign: R E M E M B E R President Obama 9 - 11 - 2001 Was Carried Out By Islamic Terrorists And Is Still Celebrated World Wide By Islamists R E M E M B E R

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Tags: 9-11, Arkansas, Islamic terrorist, Mountain Home, National Day of Service, Obama administration, Ozarks, protest, terrorists To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!

ACORN Promoting Prostitution & Tax Evasion

Breaking Fox News (6:10 pm): Census Bureau Severs Ties With ACORN
Bill Smith, Editor: The following videos speak volumes about ACORN. But be sure to read the insights of James O'Keefe at BigGovernment.com where he describe his and Hannah Giles experience going in to a ACORN offices in Baltimore and posing as a pimp and a prostitute to ask for help which eventually opens to supporting a child prostitution ring. The "street wise" ACORN workers were more than willing to advise them on how to lie and defraud the U.S. taxpayers and to promote illegal child sex trafficking. See for yourself - Below are two videos of the event.

And while viewing the videos, consider a couple of points of interest relative to ACORN which are not mentioned in these videos or by the author. Consider who formerly trained ACORN workers (Barack Obama) and who was a former attorney for ACORN (Barack Obama) and who supports using ACORN provided workers in the U.S. Census (Barack Obama). Now Barack Obama is not the only supporter of ACORN, there are many others. ACORN receives millions of our tax dollars - some of which does go toward doing good things which mask the nefarious things done by ACORN. ACORN workers have been indicted for voter fraud. Other former ACORN workers have or are suing the National ACORN officials for ripping of ACORN money. ACORN has even made moves to change its name.

If I were counseling President Barack Obama, I be saying, you represent all the people of the Unites States and took an oath; you need to distance yourself from ACORN and call for an investigation. Your investigating the CIA when you should be investigating ACORN. But then again, maybe he cannot investigate ACORN. Maybe ACORN is a source for some of his ground troops needed to support his agenda. Or maybe ACORN has a proverbial "hidden record" of actions and transactions related to his association and activities with ACORN, its workers and its clients which, if made public, would bring an end to his time in office. He might even be getting a little nervous and showing anger toward those who do not trust him and see his actions as an infringement on their freedoms.

While getting angry at the actions displayed by the ACORN workers - who have already had their job rightly terminated - reflect on the creators of this web of corruption. These two ACORN women are not alone in their culpability; they are a product of ACORN's management and philosophy of operation.

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Tags: ACORN, Baltimore, big government, child sex, corruption, prostitution, sex, sex trafficking, Stop Acorn, videos, web of corruption To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!

A Tribute To 9-11 ....Never Forget - There She Stands

A patriotic photo montage set to Michael W. Smith's song "There She Stands", Dedicated to heroes of 9/11
H/T Wild Thing:

Here at Theodore's World we pay tribute to the thousands of lives murdered by the terrorists attacks on September 11, 2001. And we also remember their families and loved ones of the victims.

We will remember too how our country joined together as one. Flags flying everywhere, at homes, on vehicles, on buildings, in resort areas like Las Vegas turning their marques along the blvd. into massive American Flags with tributes of their own.

The unity embrassed us in our sorrow, in our shock, anger, hurt and pain. The final words of Todd Beamer "Let's Roll" seared into our hearts. Our resolve could not have been stronger, more determined.

We also pay Tribute to our troops that went to war to fight the terrorists and protect America. You will never be forgotten........NEVER.

Obama and his administration want to cheapen this day and use it for some kind of sick distorted propaganda telling people to join and work with Green the Block service events. To attempt to minimize what happened on 9-11 and in a betrayal to the lives lost, not only on 9-11 but to our troops as well that have served in the war fighting the terrorists as they seek out those that planned 9-11 and want future attacks on our country. He can pass all the bills he wants on this, make it a law and I will ignore each and every one of them.

WE WILL NEVER FORGET – WE WILL NEVER FORGIVE!

Let us NEVER forget those nearly 3,000 innocent Americans who were murdered by the Islamists. We must not let Obama desecrate the memory of those Americans who were murdered by his fellow Muslims.

Wild Thing

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Tags: 9-11, Michael W. Smith, tribute, video To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!

Today in Washington D. C. - Sept 11, 2009 - Remembering September 11, 2001

The Senate reconvened at 9:30 AM today and observed a moment of silence in commemoration of the 8th anniversary of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. The Senate will resume consideration of H.R. 3288, the fiscal 2010 Transportation-Housing and Urban Development appropriations bill. No votes are scheduled today.

Yesterday, the Senate voted 57-40 to confirm Cass Sunstein as OMB’s Administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs. Also, Sen. George LeMieux was sworn in as the junior senator from Florida following the resignation of Sen. Mel Martinez.

U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell made the following remarks on Wednesday in honor of the heroes of Flight 93 and in remembrance of September 11, 2001:

It is an honor to be here today with family members of the brave heroes of Flight 93, whose important place in history will now be forever memorialized here. We will never forget their sacrifice, nor the sacrifices of so many others on that sad day.

In the life of a nation, some moments are worth remembering. Others are impossible to forget. September 11, 2001, is both. With each passing year, the day becomes more distant, but the memories do not. Some remember a warm smile, a last goodbye, a wave from the departure gate, the color of a dress or a tie. Others remember hearing about a friend, or the friend of a friend, and contemplating the horrible details. And all of us remember exactly where we were the moment we realized what had happened, and exactly what we did on that day eight years ago.

For many of us here, we did the same thing we’re doing now. We stood together here at the Capitol to show our solidarity with one another, with the victims, and with the rest of a nation stunned but not silenced by the face of evil. Our hearts were broken, but our spirits were not. And united in purpose, we resolved to confront those who had done these things, even as we comforted the families and friends of those to whom they were done.

Eight years later, that confrontation continues. In far-off places, brave Americans are still inspired by the sacrifices of the victims of 9/11. Today, we also honor them. We will never forget those who died on September 11th, 2001, — those whose lives ended in a flash, or those who gave their lives that day so that others might live.

All of these people hold a permanent place in our hearts, and in the story of our nation. That story is still unfolding. But we know the theme. It’s the same today as it always was: ordinary men and women pursuing their dreams, coming together in moments of crisis with the kind of heroism and sacrifice that people will speak of for centuries. Today we remember the men and women of 9/11 knowing that they will never be forgotten.

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Tags: 9-11, Mitch McConnell, US Congress, US House, US Senate, Washington D.C. To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!

The Rest of the Story - America's Heart

Paul Harvey's "The Rest of the Story" featuring Yakov Smirnoff and his mural, "America's Heart".

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Tags: 9-11, America's Heart, NY Post, Russian, Yakov Smirnoff To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!

Pull the Trigger

by William Warren: 

"If President Obama's repackaged vision continues to press Americans for reforms they don’t want, his speech is not likely to settle the health care debate. Regardless, Democrats will press the will of their leaders and we should expect backdoor triggers to implement everything objectionable in all future legislation." - Dr. Bill Smith

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Tags: health care, Obamacare, political cartoon, trigger option, William Warren To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!

Must be Obama and Democrat Logic!

A vehicle at 15 mpg and 12,000 miles per year uses 800 gallons a year of gasoline.

A vehicle at 25 mpg and 12,000 miles per year uses 480 gallons a year.

So, the average clunker transaction will reduce US gasoline consumption by 320 gallons per year.

The government claims there are 700,000 such vehicles – so that's 224 million gallons / year.

A barrel of oil contains 42 gallons of oil. After refining, it makes about 19.5 gallons of gasoline.

That 224 million gallons of gasoline requires about 11.5 million barrels of oil we will save.

11 million barrels of oil is about 1/2 of one day's US consumption.

And, 11.5 million barrels of oil costs about $862 million dollars at $75/bbl.

So, all of us tax payers contributed $3 BILLION to save $862 million.

How good a deal was that ???  And we should trust them with ObamaCare???

Must be Obama and Democrat Logic!
[H/T Dave Ellibee]

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Tags: automobile, cash for clunkers, gasoline, oil, political satire, truth To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!

Listening to a Liar: Part II

by Thomas Sowell, Townhall.com: "Hubris-laden charlatans" was the way a recent e-mail from a reader characterized the Obama administration. That phrase seems especially appropriate for the Charlatan-in-Chief, Barack Obama, whose speech to a joint session of Congress was both a masterpiece of rhetoric and a shameless fraud. To tell us, with a straight face, that he can insure millions more people without adding to the already skyrocketing deficit, is world-class chutzpa and an insult to anyone's intelligence. To do so after an analysis by the Congressional Budget Office has already showed this to be impossible reveals the depths of moral bankruptcy behind the glittering words.

Did we really need CBO experts to tell us that there is no free lunch? Some people probably did and the true believers in the Obama cult may still believe the President, instead of believing either common sense or budget experts. Even those who can believe that Obama can conjure up the money through eliminating "waste, fraud and abuse" should ask themselves where he is going to conjure up the additional doctors, nurses, and hospitals needed to take care of millions more patients. If he can't pull off that miracle, then government-run medical care in the United States can be expected to produce what government-run medical care in Canada, Britain, and other countries has produced-- delays of weeks or months to get many treatments, not to mention arbitrary rationing decisions by bureaucrats.

Obama can deny it in words but what matters are deeds -- and no one's words have been more repeatedly the direct opposite of his deeds -- whether talking about how his election campaign would be financed, how he would not rush legislation through Congress, or how his administration was not going to go after CIA agents for their past efforts to extract information from captured terrorists. President Obama has also declared emphatically that he will not interfere in the internal affairs of other nations -- while telling the Israelis where they can and cannot build settlements and telling the Hondurans whom they should and should not choose to be their president.

One of the secrets of being a glib talker is not getting hung up over whether what you are saying is true, and instead giving your full attention to what is required by the audience and the circumstances of the moment, without letting facts get in your way and cramp your style. Obama has mastered that art. Con men understand that their job is not to use facts to convince skeptics but to use words to help the gullible to believe what they want to believe. No message has been more welcomed by the gullible, in countries around the world, than the promise of something for nothing. That is the core of Barack Obama's medical care plan.

President Obama tells us that he will impose various mandates on insurance companies but will not interfere with our free choice between being insured by these companies or by the government. But if he can drive up the cost of private insurance with mandates and subsidize government insurance with the taxpayers' money, how long do you think it will be before we have the "single payer" system has he has advocated in the past?

Mandates by politicians are what have driven up the cost of insurance already. Politicians love to play Santa Claus and leave it to others to raise prices to cover the inevitable costs. Politicians have driven privately owned municipal transit systems out of business in many cities, by simply imposing costs and restricting the fare increases needed to cover those costs. The federal government can drive out private insurance the same way that local politicians have driven out private municipal transit and replaced it with government-run transit systems.

Barack Obama's insistence that various dangerous policies are not in the legislation he proposes sounds good but means nothing. Unbridled power is a blank check, no matter what its rationale may be. No law gave the President of the United States the power to fire the head of General Motors, but TARP money did. When there are "advisory" panels on what treatments to approve and the White House's existing medical advisor has complained of Americans' "over-utilization" of medical care, what does it take to connect the dots?
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Thomas Sowell is an American economist, social commentator, and author of dozens of books. He has a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Chicago and degrees from Columbia University and Harvard University. He is a retired professor of Economic and presently is a Rose and Milton Friedman Senior Fellow, The Hoover Institution, Stanford University. See also: Thomas Sowell's "Listening to a Liar" (9/8/09)

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Tags: Barack Obama, health care, liar, Thomas Sowell, Townhall To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!

Today in Washington D. C. - Sept 10, 2009 - Nation Recoils at Obama Speech

Update(4:40 pm): Fox News - Senate Confirms Obama's Pick for Regulatory 'Czar' - "Senators voted 57-40 to approve Harvard professor Cass Sunstein as the administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs at the Office of Budget and Management. As regulatory czar, Sunstein will review and provide guidance for draft federal regulations at different federal agencies. It is a wide-ranging and largely unrestrained position in the executive branch." Note: Sens. Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.) and James Webb (D-Va.) voted against Sunstein.
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Yesterday, the Senate voted 79-19 to pass S. 1023, the travel promotion bill. Senators also voted 63-35 to invoke cloture on the Sunstein nomination. At 12:30 PM, the Senate will resume post-cloture consideration of nomination of Cass Sunstein to be OMB’s Administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs. A final vote on his nomination could come today.

George LeMieux will be sworn in as the junior senator from Florida.  He is replacing Sen. Mel Martinez (R-FL) who resigned. Sen. Reid has indicated that the Senate is likely to take up the Transportation appropriations bill at some point this week.

The Hill offers a pithy take on President Obama’s address to a joint session of Congress last night: “Obama’s 45-minute address, the second of his short tenure, was long on emotion and short on specifics even though White House officials have said for days that the address would clear up whatever confusion the debate had created.” Asked by a reporter this week if “the president [was] going to give new specifics in the speech . . . that he has never publicly stated before,” White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs responded, “Yes.” But much of the news coverage of Obama’s speech echoed a criticism from The Hill, writing today that “he did not offer the specifics that both Democrats and Republicans have been clamoring for.” In fact, The Wall Street Journal observes, “Most of the proposals the president outlined in his speech were the same changes he has championed since he launched his effort to fix the health system in March.”

Other news reports were critical of the president for not attempting to give any clear direction on a number of contentious issues. In an analysis piece, the Los Angeles Times explains Obama “avoided making concrete commitments on some of the most contentious issues, reflecting a guiding principle of his legislative strategy: to put off the most controversial decisions until the very last moment.” The Washington Post editors responded: “he chose again to duck the biggest dispute of all: whether the new insurance exchange must contain a government-run ‘public option.’ Mr. Obama once again outlined the arguments for a public plan and once again said it was not essential.”

Beyond the lack of specifics and failure to defuse some of the major divisions even within his own party, there were a number of questionable assertions made by the president last night. Though President Obama said, “Nothing in this plan will require you or your employer to change the coverage or the doctor you have,” USA Today notes, “the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office predicts some employers may change coverage options, which means some employees would indirectly be forced out of their current plans.” An AP fact check piece explained that even this position was a walkback from Obama’s previous assurances: “In the past Obama repeatedly said, ‘If you like your health care plan, you’ll be able to keep your health care plan, period.’ Now he’s stopping short of that unconditional guarantee by saying nothing in the plan ‘requires’ any change.”

Press reports were even more critical of Obama’s claims about how the country will pay for his health care proposals. The Washington Post editorial notes, “the president’s suggestion for a ‘fiscal trigger’ strikes us as contrived. Mr. Obama announced a mechanism by which the president would have to certify, before the measure goes into effect in 2013, that the planned expansion of coverage remains fully paid for. If not, additional savings would have to be found, or spending scaled back. This doesn’t seem like a major means of restraint -- especially when the president’s Office of Management and Budget would do the calculating.”

The New York Times recounts a telling moment last night was when “the president drew laughter [from lawmakers] when he said, ‘there remain some significant details to be ironed out.’” Yesterday, Republican Leader Sen. Mitch McConnell pointed to some of those “significant details”: “Americans don’t understand how a massive expansion of government will lower costs, as the administration claims. They don’t understand how $500 billion in cuts to Medicare won’t affect the millions of seniors who depend on it. Americans don’t understand how they’ll be able to keep the health plans they have if government is allowed to undermine the private market. And they don’t understand why the administration doesn’t seem to be listening to these and many other concerns.” These were specifics that Americans were looking for last night, and the president didn’t provide the answers.

The Heritage Foundation responded that "The President Learned Nothing from August" and noted this was Obama's 29th speech devoted to health care in nine months in office. They said, "Mr. Obama ducked behind the English language—or, more charitable observers would say, used it to its fullest extent." Heritage noted that the president had "no clear response" to the question that all of America wanted him to answer. "To wit, is the President abandoning his stubborn attachment to a public plan . . . Or maybe he did. He appeared to draw a line on the sand at one point by saying, 'I will not back down from the idea that, if Americans cannot find affordable coverage, we will provide you with a choice.' Maybe that was the clearest indication of the night that Barack Obama is still sticking to the public plan, to be introduced by whatever means."

A citizen source from Obama's home state of Illinois shared his own fact check list on the speech. He represent many of informed citizens of today. In focus on Obama' speech last night, he writes:

Obama: “And every day, 14,000 Americans lose their coverage. In other words, it can happen to anyone.”
Fact: The major coverage expansions in all the legislation being considered would not begin until January 2013—so according to the President’s own methodology, Democrat bills will allow more than 15 million additional Americans to become uninsured. So in one week over 100,000 people lose insurance REALY?

Obama: “And it’s why those of us with health insurance are also paying a hidden and growing tax for those without it—about $1000 per year that pays for somebody else’s emergency room and charitable care.”
Fact: An even larger tax—of nearly $1,800 per year—is paid by individuals with private coverage who are forced to subsidize lower payments made by government-run health plans like Medicare and Medicaid, according to a study conducted by independent actuaries at the consulting firm Milliman.

Obama: “Nothing in this plan will require you or your employer to change the coverage or the doctor you have. Let me repeat this: nothing in our plan requires you to change what you have.“
Fact: Independent experts all agree that the legislation proposed would result in millions of Americans losing the coverage they have—the Congressional Budget Office believes several million, the Urban Institute 47 million, and the Lewin Group as many as 114 million.

Obama: “Under my plan, individuals will be required to carry basic health insurance – just as most states require you to carry auto insurance.”
Fact: Senior Obama Administration official Sherry Glied has previously written that a mandate “is in many respects analogous to a tax”—and furthermore has the potential to be a “very regressive tax, penalizing uninsured people who genuinely cannot afford to buy coverage.” Thus this policy stance breaks the signal promise of the Obama campaign: “I can make a firm pledge. Under my plan, no family making less than $250,000 a year will see any form of tax increase. Not your income tax, not your payroll tax, not your capital gains taxes, not any of your taxes.”

Obama: “There are also those who claim that our reform effort will insure illegal immigrants. This, too, is false—the reforms I’m proposing would not apply to those who are here illegally.”
Fact: Nothing in any of the Democrat bills would require individuals to verify their citizenship or identity prior to receiving taxpayer-subsidized benefits—making the President’s promise one that the legislation itself does not keep.

Obama: “And one more misunderstanding I want to clear up—under our plan, no federal dollars will be used to fund abortions, and federal conscience laws will remain in place.”
Fact: The National Right to Life Committee, among other independent pro-life groups, have confirmed that the legislation will result in federal funds being used to pay for abortions—both through the government-run health plan, and through federal subsidies provided through the Exchange, despite various accounting gimmicks created in an Energy and Commerce Committee “compromise.”

Obama: “I will not sign a plan that adds one dime to our deficits—either now or in the future. Period.”
Fact: The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office has found that H.R. 3200 would increase deficits by $239 billion over ten years—and “would probably generate substantial increases in federal budget deficits” thereafter. The Peter G. Peterson Foundation released a study today which found that in its second decade, H.R. 3200 would increase federal deficits by more than $1 trillion.

Obama: “Not a dollar of the Medicare trust fund will be used to pay for this plan.”
Fact: Among more than $500 billion in proposed savings from Medicare, the Democrat bills also propose re-directing $23 billion from the Medicare Improvement Fund to fund new health care entitlements. According to current law, the Medicare Improvement Fund is designated specifically “to make improvements under the original Medicare fee-for-service program.”

>Obama: “Reducing the waste and inefficiency in Medicare and Medicaid will pay for most of this plan. Much of the rest would be paid for with revenues from the very same drug and insurance companies that stand to benefit from tens of millions of new customers.”
Fact: The Congressional Budget Office has previously found that the cuts to Medicare Advantage plans included in the Democrat legislation would result in millions of seniors losing their current plan—a direct contradiction of the President’s assertion that “nothing in this plan requires you to change what you have.”

Obama: “This reform will charge insurance companies a fee for their most expensive policies, which will encourage them to provide greater value for the money – an idea which has the support of Democratic and Republican experts. And according to these same experts, this modest change could help hold down the cost of health care for all of us in the long-run.”
Fact: While some Republicans support addressing the current employee exclusion for health insurance in the context of overall tax reform, the President’s proposal would raise “fees” in order to finance new federal spending—a tax increase of hundreds of billions of dollars, and one that many Republicans may not support.

Obama: “Add it all up, and the plan I’m proposing will cost around $900 billion over ten years.”
Fact: The Congressional Budget Office, in its score of H.R. 3200 as introduced, found that the legislation would spend approximately $1.6 trillion over ten years—nearly double the President’s estimate.

Obama: “I will continue to seek common ground in the weeks ahead. If you come to me with a serious set of proposals, I will be there to listen. My door is always open.”
Fact: On May 13, House Republican leaders all wrote the President a letter reading in part: “We write to you today to express our sincere desire to work with you and find common ground on the issue of health care reform….We respectfully request a meeting with you to discuss areas for potential common ground on health care reform.” Nearly four months later, that meeting has yet to take place.

So much for the uninformed electorate! Several people across the country are putting forth their opinion. And a  majority of citizens did not like being dressed down by the President of the United States for taking public stands at Tea Parties, town halls and freedom rides. On 9-12, many of these same people will arrive in Washington D.C. to "demonstrate" their commitment that our elected officials and their staffs in the Federal Government are failing our country by forcing us further into debt, invading our private lives with government programs, taxing us beyond reasonable bounds and and stripping us of our freedoms and rights as Americans. Each person that is able to make it to Washington represents 1000 more who had to stay at home working, raising kids or taking care of responsibilities. These people are not the vocal minority; they represent the heart beat of America. Washington politicians had better wake-up or prepare their resumes for new employment.

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Tags: Barack Obama, health care, US Congress, US House, US Senate, Washington D.C. To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!

Palin Responds to Obama Speech

Sarah Palin response via FaceBook to President Obama's speech last night:

After all the rhetoric is put aside, one principle ran through President Obama’s speech tonight: that increased government involvement in health care can solve its problems.

Many Americans fundamentally disagree with this idea. We know from long experience that the creation of a massive new bureaucracy will not provide us with “more stability and security,” but just the opposite. It's hard to believe the President when he says that this time he and his team of bureaucrats have finally figured out how to do things right if only we’ll take them at their word.

Our objections to the Democrats’ health care proposals are not mere “bickering” or “games.” They are not an attempt to “score short term political points.” And it’s hard to listen to the President lecture us not to use “scare tactics” when in the next breath he says that “more will die” if his proposals do not pass.

In his speech the President directly responded to concerns I’ve raised about unelected bureaucrats being given power to make decisions affecting life or death health care matters. He called these concerns “bogus,” “irresponsible,” and “a lie” -- so much for civility. After all the name-calling, though, what he did not do is respond to the arguments we’ve made, arguments even some of his own supporters have agreed have merit.

In fact, after promising to “make sure that no government bureaucrat .... gets between you and the health care you need,” the President repeated his call for an Independent Medicare Advisory Council -- an unelected, largely unaccountable group of bureaucrats charged with containing Medicare costs. He did not disavow his own statement that such a group, working outside of “normal political channels,” should guide decisions regarding that “huge driver of cost ... the chronically ill and those toward the end of their lives....” He did not disavow the statements of his health care advisor, Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, and continuing to pay his salary with taxpayer dollars proves a commitment to his beliefs. The President can keep making unsupported assertions, but until he directly responds to the arguments I’ve made, I’m going to call him out too.

It was heartening to hear the President finally recognize that tort reform is an important part of any solution. But this concession shouldn’t lead us to take our eye off the ball: the Democrats’ proposals will not reduce costs, and they will not deliver better health care. It’s this kind of “healthy skepticism of government” that truly reflects a “concern and regard for the plight of others.” We can’t wait to hear the details on that; we look forward to working with you on tort reform.

Finally, President Obama delivered an offhand applause line tonight about the cost of the War on Terror. As we approach the anniversary of the September 11th attacks and honor those who died that day and those who have died since in the War on Terror, in order to secure our freedoms, we need to remember their sacrifices and not demonize them as having had too high a price tag.

Remember, Mr. President, elected officials work for the people. Forcing a conclusion in order to claim a “victory” is not healthy for our country. We hear you say government isn’t always the answer; now hear us -- that’s what we’ve been saying all along.
- Sarah Palin

Hat tip to Noel Sheppard

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Tags: Barack Obama, health care, Sarah Palin, speech To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!

Boozman Wins "True Blue” Award for Unwavering Support of the Family

Family Research Council Action: U.S. Representative John Boozman (AR-03) has been recognized as a “True Blue” Member of Congress by FRC Action and Focus Action for unwavering commitment and consistent support in defense of the family.

The award honors Members of Congress who have exhibited extraordinary leadership and commitment to the defense of family, faith, and freedom, according to FRC Action’s scorecard covering the votes of the 110th Congress. Recipients of the “True Blue” Award voted consistently for pro-life and pro-family issues.

These votes included:
• Prohibition on Funding Human Cloning
• Federal Hate Crimes Act
• Maintain Mexico City Policy on International Abortion Funding
• Employment Non-Discrimination Act
• Restrict Funding to Planned Parenthood
• Prevent DC Same-sex “Marriage”
• Prohibit Funding for Washington DC Needle Exchange Program

“The defense of life and family are important to me, and my constituents in the Third District,” Boozman said. “I am proud to be a part of this large bipartisan group that holds traditional family values and the lives of unborn children in such high regard.”

“Members of the 110th Congress who receive this award have shown themselves to be consistent defenders of faith, family, and freedom, “said FRC Action President Tony Perkins. “I applaud these Members for upholding the institutions of marriage and family even in the face of hostile opposition from the hostile liberal leadership.”

“Voters should be encouraged by the commitment these True Blue Members have shown,” concluded Perkins.

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Tags: Arkansas, awards, Family Research Council, FRC, John Boozman, Tony Perkins To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!

If you think health care is expensive now . . .

Bill Smith, Editor: Folks, I like the art work by Patriot Depot. Seems only appropriate to give them a free plug for the above bumper sticker which is currently available for less than a $1 each to cover the postage, envelope, and credit card/PayPal transaction fees. And it is even cheaper for 100 ea. We don't make a dime of this promo - we are doing it free - Patriot Depot loves love liberty and so do we and this sticker summarizes the expected result if American follows the Pied Piper down the road to Obamacare.

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Tags: bumper sticker, health care, Obamacare, Patriot Depot To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!

Obama Speech: Words . . . Just Words

Today, Rush Limbaugh previewed President Obama planned speech for this evening by stating: "Tonight's Speech is All About Obama's Political Fortunes."

President Obama tonight with a speech, not about health care, it's about his political future, about his political fortunes, and we're going to get into a great bit of analysis of this as the program unfolds before your very eyes and ears today. Just out, an Associated Press-GfK and I don't know who GfK is, I couldn't care less, all I know is it's an Associated Press poll that "says that public disapproval of President Barack Obama's handling of health care has jumped to 52 percent." Fifty-two percent disapprove, but this is the second or third poll that the number is over 50% of people that disapprove of this, which makes this speech even more remarkable tonight because the president is going to try to convince members of Congress to vote against the will of the American people. That's what's on tap tonight, and it's all about him, it's all about saving his bacon. . . . [Full Comments]

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Tags: acceptance speech, Barack Obama, Rush Limbaugh, Words To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!

ObamaCare: The Death Story

A parody of the consequences of ObamaCare presented by FortHardKnox.com.

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Tags: comedy, Democrats, Fort Hard Knox, government, health care, Obamacare, parody, satire, taxes To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!

Today in Washington D. C. - Sept 9, 2009 - Vote on Radical Cass Sunstein & Obama Speaks Tonight

Update on Cass Sustein:  The Senate broke the filibuster against Cass Sunstein (referenced in the below post) by a vote of 63-35. The Senate will hold an up-or-down vote on the nomination later this week. Republicans voting for cloture: Sen. Robert Bennett (R-UT), Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), Sen. Judd Gregg (R-NH), Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT), Sen. Richard Lugar (R-IN), Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-ME). Democrats voting against: Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-AR), Sen. James Webb (D-VA).

The Senate reconvened at 10 AM today. The Senate will resume consideration of the tourism promotion bill, S. 1023. Later in the day, the Senate may vote on final passage of the bill. Following completion of work on the travel bill, a vote is expected on cloture on the nomination of Cass Sunstein to head the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs at OMB.  Since 1990, Cass Sunstein has written 35 books which advocate changes to U.S. law in the following issue areas:

• Expanding radical animal rights, specifically granting the right to legally sue to animals and banning hunting.
• Rationing medical care for the elderly as a major component of health care reform legislation.
• Increasing gun control legislation because he views "almost all gun control legislation as constitutionally fine."
• Advocating federal law to provide for 'presumed consent' rather than 'explicit consent' for human organ donation to science after death.
• Censoring freedom of speech, particularly on the internet to crack down on "falsehoods" and "rumors."

Of course, these are just the tip of the iceberg!  Cass Sunstein is yet another radically left-wing Obama "Czar" who will be in a powerful position to make decisions about how Obama's loosely-defined health care policies are "regulated" from within the White House!

Around 12:15 today, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell and House Republican Leader John Boehner will hold a news conference on health care reform.

At 8 PM, the Senate and the House will hold a joint session of Congress to listen to the President Obama’s message on health care reform. Obama is preparing to give a speech on his repackaged vision for health care reform to a joint session of Congress tonight, the first speech by a president to a joint session outside of a State of the Union address since President Bush’s speech in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks. Appears all the Tea Party protests and town hall meeting, have forced Obama to "re-package his vision." Regardless, of the following press comments, it is doubtful that freedom loving Americans are going to like his re-packaged vision of Obamacare.

Given the rarity of such an event, one might expect this to be the culmination of the White House’s efforts to sell Democrats’ health care reform plans, but it appears that the administration can’t even agree on what the takeaway from the speech is supposed to be. Various administration officials have been saying that Obama will lay out specifics about his vision for reform. Asked by a reporter yesterday if “the president [is] going to give new specifics in the speech tomorrow night that he has never publicly stated before,” White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said, “Yes.” According to The Washington Post, “Vice President Biden, in an appearance in Washington on Thursday, said the speech will map out ‘in understandable, clear terms what our administration wants to happen with regard to health care, and what we are going to push for specifically.’” But “a top official guiding speech preparation” told Politico the next day, “[Obama] has not made any final decisions about the ultimate form of his package . . . . Anyone that tells you that he has is misinformed . . .”

Other administration officials seemed to be saying different things about Obama’s message on a government-run insurance plan, often referred to as a “public option.” One aide said to Politico last week, “We have been saying all along that the most important part of this debate is not the public option, but rather ensuring choice and competition. . . . There are lots of different ways to get there.” But The Wall Street Journal reports today that Obama “will press for a government-run insurance option in a proposed overhaul of the U.S. health-care system that has divided lawmakers and voters for months.”

Based on the rhetoric from fellow Democrats and Obama’s speech to union members on Monday it’s possible that tonight’s speech will feature the same arguments and the same exhortations that the president has been using since June. Yet we have a surfeit of polls showing that those arguments have been either ineffective or outright rejected by Americans. Consider yesterday’s Gallup poll, showing a 19 point drop in support for Congress passing “a major healthcare reform bill this year.” The latest poll shows only 37% want their member of Congress to vote for a health care reform bill, while the July poll showed 56% wanted a bill passed. Two weeks ago, an ABC News/Washington Post poll found that a third of respondents said the Democrats’ health care proposals would make their own health worse, while only 19% believed it would make it better. Forty percent thought their insurance coverage would get worse under these proposals while only 14% thought it would improve. A plurality, 41%, thought their health care costs would get worse under these proposals while only 19% thought they would get better.

As Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell explained yesterday, “[T]hese past few weeks have given all of us something valuable. They’ve given us real clarity about the direction Americans want us to take — and just as importantly, the direction they don’t want us to take.” If President Obama's repackaged vision continues to press Americans for reforms they don’t want, his speech is not likely to settle the health care debate. Regardless, Democrats will press the will of their leaders and we should expect backdoor triggers to implement everything objectionable in all future legislation.

It is time to forget bipartisanship. Forget the pork or what you think you need to do to get money for your constituents. It is time for conservatives in Congress to stand against socialized health care in any form or function. It is time to stand against cap and trade. It is time to vote against confirming the radicals put forward by President Obama. It is time to stand against all effort limiting or controlling any freedom or right of American citizens including efforts to limiting free speech on the airways and by individuals, the right to assemble, the right to bear without fear arms and to acquire and possess ammo without being tracked.

Failure to do so will not be seen as acting in a bipartisan way or working to get the best deal in a bad situation. It will be seen as cowardly. And in 2010, cowards need not apply but will be swept from our minds and hearts as useless. It is time to represent your constituents and not the constituents of someone else. And although representing does not mean having to be in agreement with all you constituents, it does mean preserving and protecting the constitutional rights of all citizens and not "stealing from some of them to give to others." Nor does it mean supporting the President of the United States. You represent your geographic constituents and no one else!

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Tags: Cass Sunstein, nationalized health care, US Congress, US House, US Senate, Washington D.C. To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!

Today in Washington D. C. - Sept 8, 2009 - Congress Back in Session - Lord Help Us!

Congress returns from its August recess today. Its members will plunge right back in to a debate over a massive health care overhaul that has seen little change legislatively from July but has seen public support steadily drop. The Senate reconvene at 2 PM. At 4:30, the Senate will resume consideration of the tourism promotion bill, S. 1023. At 5:30 the Senate will vote on cloture on the Dorgan substitute amendment. If cloture is agreed to, there will then be a vote on final passage of the bill.

Tomorrow night the Senate will join the House for a joint session of Congress to listen to President Obama’s (AGAIN) speak on health care reform. Later this week, the Senate is expected to consider cloture on the nomination of radical Cass Sunstein [articles referenced below ]to head the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs at OMB.

In their Road Map section this week, Roll Call looks at what is likely to be on Congress’ agenda through the fall, including health care, appropriations, and an extension of the highway bill. Also possible is cap-and-trade legislation.

In respect to the drop in public support for nationalized health care, a new Gallup poll out today sums up the August recess and the situation Democrats find themselves in: only 37% want their member of Congress to vote for a health care reform bill, while 39% want their member to vote against one. Thus the remaining 24% are not asking for a vote for based on skepticism and concern. Importantly, 44% of independents oppose such a bill, while only 29% support.

It’s also important to note that the Gallup poll used the most popular term for their question, a “healthcare reform bill,” and listed no negatives about the bill. Yet even with this phrasing dropped 19 points since mid-July when 56% favored passing similarly-described legislation. Gallup noted that 64% of Americans say their representative's position on health care reform will be a major factor in their vote in the next 2010 congressional elections; 82% of opponents of reform who want their member of Congress to vote against health care reform say the issue will be a major factor in their vote in 2010.

The polling and passionate opposition to government-run health care many members of Congress encountered at home certainly explains the continued divisions among Democrats on the subject. The Washington Post writes today, “After a nearly 40-day recess that was anything but restful, House Democrats are returning to work Tuesday still unsettled over pending health-care legislation. . . They are in almost the exact position they were in when they left the Capitol in late July. Conservatives are still leery of supporting a government-funded, or public, insurance option. . . . And progressives, who are demanding the most far-reaching reform since the Great Depression, are still threatening to bring down the legislation if it does not contain a robust version of the public option.” And The Hill notes, “At least 23 House Democrats already have told constituents or hometown media that they oppose the massive healthcare overhaul touted by President Barack Obama.”

In the Senate, many Democrats have expressed their unease or outright opposition to a government-run health care plan. Sen. Blanche Lincoln told constituents, “[I] certainly would not support a public government-funded plan,” Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) said, “I don't favor a public option,” and Sen. Kent Conrad (D-ND) called its pursuit “just a wasted effort.”

While President Obama may seek to reassure nervous Democrats during his address to a joint session of Congress tomorrow night by removing a government-run health care plan from the discussion, experience to date leaves little room for trust. Even better would be signaling an interest in truly bipartisan reforms that could address Americans’ health care concerns without inserting the government into Americans’ health care plans and taking our country further into additions trillions of dollars of debt.
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Referenced articles on Cass Sunstein:
Senate to Vote on Anti-gun Kook for "Regulatory Czar"
Obama Regulation Czar Advocated Removing People’s Organs Without Explicit Consent
Farmers and Cattlemen Need to Stand Against Sunstein

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Tags: Cass Sunstein, Gallup Poll, government healthcare, US Congress, US House, US Senate, Washington D.C. To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!

Congress Returns - Review of Obama's Plan for Single-Payer Nationalized Healthcare

H/T Pull the Plug on Obamacare:

Here is Obama describing how he wants to move to a single payer health care system. Why isn't this all over every news channel? Well, we think you're sharp enough to know the answer to that.

Here's the lengthier clip of Obama's speech to the AFL-CIO. Even more frightening than the soundbites above.

Obama claims that the public option for health insurance would simply provide competition for private health insurance companies, like the U.S. Post Office competes with FedEx and UPS. Nothing to be concerned about. Don't buy it. It's a transitional vehicle to a single payer system. Not convinced? Watch Obama's foot soldiers lay out the strategy.

Here's Obama, the candidate, trying to dodge the hypocracy by claiming to not be able to hear the speech excerpt. Give me a break!

This is the full clip of Barney Frank admitting that the public health insurance option is simply a vehicle for getting to a single payer system. At least he's honest about it.

Here's Barney Frank talking down to a room full of constituents whom he is above. Can you spell E-L-I-T-I-S-T?

How do you insure 50 million more people for less than it costs today? A) Take money out of the Medicare system, leaving senior citizens with less care, fewer options, and a government panel deciding their fates. B) It can't be done. C) Both A and B. [DING DING DING! Correct answer.]

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Tags: Barack Obama, economic cost, nationalized health care, Obamacare, Single payer plan, single-payer To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!

Welcome back, Democrats. Did you miss DC?

Welcome back, Democrats. Did you miss DC?

The above is the latest NRCC Web Ad welcoming Democrats back to Washington. This anger from constituents is a direct response to the reckless behavior by Congressional Democrats in their support of Nancy Pelosi’s destructive agenda. We could be seeing just the tip of the iceberg, and how House Democrats vote on the Pelosi / Obama Healthcare bill may further stoke the fire back in Congressional Districts.

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Tags: Carney, Democrats, Dingell, Green, health care, Hoyer, Kagen, Kirkpatrick, NRCC, Pelosi, Town Hall, US Congress To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!

Obama Regulation Czar Advocated Removing People’s Organs Without Explicit Consent

By Matt Cover, CNSNews.com: Cass Sunstein, President Barack Obama’s nominee to head the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA), has advocated a policy under which the government would “presume” someone has consented to having his or her organs removed for transplantation into someone else when they die unless that person has explicitly indicated that his or her organs should not be taken.

Under such a policy, hospitals would harvest organs from people who never gave permission for this to be done. Outlined in the 2008 book “Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness,” Sunstein and co-author Richard H. Thaler argued that the main reason that more people do not donate their organs is because they are required to choose donation.

Sunstein and Thaler pointed out that doctors often must ask the deceased’s family members whether or not their dead relative would have wanted to donate his organs. These family members usually err on the side of caution and refuse to donate their loved one’s organs. “The major obstacle to increasing [organ] donations is the need to get the consent of surviving family members,” said Sunstein and Thaler. This problem could be remedied if governments changed the laws for organ donation, they said. . . . They argued that this could be remedied if government turned the law around and assumed that, unless people explicitly choose not to, then they want to donate their organs – a doctrine they call “presumed consent.” . . .

Mandated choice is a process where government forces you to make a decision – in this case, whether to opt out of being an organ donor to get something you need, such as a driver’s license. “With mandated choice, renewal of your driver’s license would be accompanied by a requirement that you check a box stating your organ donation preferences,” the authors stated. “Your application would not be accepted unless you had checked one of the boxes.”

To ensure that people’s decisions align with the government policy of more organ donors, Sunstein and Thaler . . . reminded policymakers that people will generally do what they think others are doing and what they believe others think is right. These presumptions, which almost everyone has, act as powerful factors as policymakers seek to design choices. “Recall that people like to do what most people think is right to do; recall too that people like to do what most people actually do,” they wrote. “The state is enlisting existing norms in the direction of lifestyle choices.”

Thaler and Sunstein believed that this and other policies are necessary because people don’t really make the best decisions. “The false assumption is that almost all people, almost all of the time, make choices that are in their best interest or at the very least are better than the choices that would be made [for them] by someone else,” they said. This means that government “incentives and nudges” should replace “requirements and bans,” they argued. . . . “We think that it's time for institutions, including government, to become much more user-friendly by enlisting the science of choice to make life easier for people and by gently nudging them in directions that will make their lives better,” they wrote. . . [Full Story]

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Tags: Cass Sunstein, Czar, donors, organs, Regulatory Czar, Sunstein To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!

Networks censor health care debate

The Washington Times Editorial: The major TV networks don't even let revenue get in the way of their biased coverage in favor of President Obama's agenda. ABC and NBC in particular seem afraid of a simple 30-second advertisement. Both networks have refused to run an ad proposed for national telecast by the League of American Voters, a nonprofit group with 15,000 members. The supposedly offensive ad makes the simple claim that the proposed government-run health care program would ration medical care. . . . So what does the script of this horribly troublesome ad say? Here it is:

"How can Obama's plan cover 50 million new patients without any new doctors? It can't. It will hurt our seniors, end Medicare as we know it, ration coverage and care, limit life-saving medicines, impose long delays on cancer treatment and other vital surgery. It's happening in England and in Canada. Don't let it happen here. Tell Congress to protect American health care."

. . . ABC and NBC are losing credibility and viewers. One major cause of the networks' demise is their willingness to put objectivity aside to carry water for Mr. Obama and his big-government policies. [Read Complete Editorial]

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Tags: ABC, ad, censorship, editorial, nationalized health care, NBC, The Washington Times To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!

Free speech in Canada - America take note!

The Canadian Human Rights Tribunal has ruled that Section 13, Canada's much maligned human rights hate speech law, is an unconstitutional violation of the Charter right to free expression because of its penalty provisions.

The decision released this morning by Tribunal chair Athanasios Hadjis appears to strip the Canadian Human Rights Commission of its controversial legal mandate to pursue hate on the Internet, which it has strenuously defended against complaints of censorship.

It also marks the first major failure of Section 13(1) of the Canadian Human Rights Act, an anti-hate law that was conceived in the 1960s to target racist telephone hotlines, then expanded in 2001 to the include the entire Internet, and for the last decade used almost exclusively by one complainant, activist Ottawa lawyer Richard Warman.

Sources: American Thinker: Free Speech in Canada
The International Free Press Society: Ezra Levant: A great day for freedom of Speech (In Canada) -
Video clip of Ezra at the HRC answering a rather central question to this debate.

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Tags: Canada, free speech, hate speech, human rights To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!

On this Labor Day

Ironically, work is probably the last thing the American people want to think about on Labor Day. They'd much rather devote their time and energy to the backyard barbecue, the last beach trip of 2009, or, perhaps a pickup football game in the local school yard.

As well they should. But now might be the best time to for all of us across the fruited plains to remind ourselves anew of just why "a fair day's pay for a good day's work" is so important for our future and our past—and how it's being undermined at the highest levels of government.

Work, quite simply, is the ability to get up and make a life for yourself. As an American, you have the right to work for yourself and for the ones you love. And no one else has the right to "wring their bread from the sweat of your brow." It was that fierce individualism, the "can-do" pull-yourself-up-by-your-own-bootstraps attitude that built America out of nothing and catapulted the nation and its citizens to a level of wellbeing never before thought possible.

As American history has proven time and again, to build a prosperous and fruitful life, all one needs is a healthy dose of self-motivation and a free nation in which to exercise that motivation.

The current administration, however, begs to differ. In their eyes, nothing can—or should—happen without government's consent or even ordination. This is, perhaps, most evident when they speak about their ostensible solution or the recession and unemployment. They believe government alone can create jobs out of thin air—like a magician pulling a rabbit out of its hat. But the truth is: government doesn't "create jobs." And it never will. Small business owners create jobs. Large business owners create jobs. Individuals create their own jobs. Government simply "makes work."

Moreover, . Yet, as American's for Limited Government Chairman Howard Rich points out a recent column, there is a shocking disconnect between public sector pay and private sector pay in the United States. As he says:

"According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics' recently published study for 2007, in California, which is still trying to climb out of its oppressive $26 billion deficit, average annual income for state employees was $56,777 versus $49,935 for the private sector, a 14 percent gap. In Illinois, a similar story emerges: $53,925 for state workers, and $48,006 for the private sector, an 11 percent split. New Jersey: $57,845 average state salary, $53,590 for private sector workers, at an 8 percent difference…

"Nationally, the story is even worse. Federal workers made on average $64,871 in 2007, with private sector workers making a meager $44,362, so public sector wages in the federal system are 46 percent higher."

Something is amiss when those in government (individuals who produce nothing more than rules, regulation, red tape, and higher taxes) are "rewarded" more than those in private enterprise who truly produce the wealth of the nation. It is a sign of the times—and the leadership.

So on this Labor Day, take a minute to remember what makes America unique—and, yes, exceptional. It is the hard worker, not the bureaucrat. It is the taxpayer, not the tax collector. And it is the people, not the government. It has never been government. It has never been bureaucracy. And it has not been the halls of America's Congress but rather the shelves of America's stores, the fields of America's farms, and the students of America's schools that have made America great.

As summer comes to a close, America's workers—men, women, the old, and young—ought to pat themselves on the back and appreciate the fact that they are the backbone of this strong—and still magnificent—nation. May their numbers multiply.

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Tags: Americans for Limited Government, editorial, labor day To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!