CONGRESS TO HUMANA "SIT DOWN AND SHUT UP"

By Ellen Sauerbrey

Excuse me. Is this the former Soviet Union or the United States of America? A blatant effort by the powerful in government to censor speech with which they disagree makes one wonder what country we live in today. Every day seems to raise another challenge to fundamental freedoms.

In an outrageous and un-American attack on dissent aimed at Humana Inc., a major health insurer is being investigated for the crime of communicating its concerns about health care legislation to its enrollees. The mailing sent to seniors subscribed to the Medicare Advantage Program warned that "millions of seniors and disabled individuals could lose many … important benefits and services that make Medicare advantage health plans so valuable." The letter urges enrollees to protest the proposed legislation to their members of Congress.

Insurance experts argue that the proposal to cut “$123 billion in payments to insurance companies that insure about 10 million Medicare recipients will result in cuts in benefits. Most would agree that is a likely outcome.

But Congressional Democrats say “shut up”. Unhappy that an insurer disagrees with the impact of their legislative proposal, they have directed the Administration bureaucracy, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to go after Humana and any other insurance company that sends out letters that might alarm the elderly.

CMS has obliged by sending a warning to Humana. “CMS is concerned that, among other things, this information is misleading and confusing to beneficiaries, represents information to beneficiaries as official communications about the Medicare Advantage program, and is potentially contrary to federal regulations and guidance for the MA and Part D programs and other federal law, including HIPAA. As we continue our research into this issue, we are instructing you to end immediately all such mailings to beneficiaries and to remove any related materials directed to Medicare enrollees from your website…. Please be advised that we take this matter very seriously and, based upon the findings of our investigation, will pursue compliance and enforcement actions. “

A similar letter also went to other Medicare Advantage insurers warning them not to follow Humana’s lead. There is no doubt that such communication from a federal regulatory agency with power over an industry’s destiny would have a very chilling impact on freedom of expression.

The American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) weighed in with its own attack on Humana. "The opponents of reform will stop at nothing to derail the process and protect their own vested interests, even if it means misleading older Americans." This from an organization experiencing membership flight by seniors who no longer feel that AARP represents their best interests.

Congressman John Boehner asked "would the Administration impose this sort of gag order if seniors were being given information promoting the Obama health care plan?" Great question! An amendment by Arizona Senator Jon Kyl aimed at protecting the First Amendment rights of insurers to criticize health care legislation was defeated on a strict party line vote with all Democrats in opposition.

Regardless of the merits of the Human letter, Senator Pat Roberts of Kansas said it best. “You have a right to be wrong.” At least in America we used to have that right.

SCUTTLING MISSILE DEFENSE IN A DANGEROUS WORLD

Ellen Sauerbrey

On September 17, 1939, Russia invaded Poland and ironically today, seventy years later, the Obama administration rewarded Russia by caving in to its demands regarding the European phase of our anti-ballistic missile defense program. The plan, negotiated by the Bush Administration with two loyal Eastern European allies, was expected to place a ground based interceptor site in Poland and tracking radar on a site in the Czech Republic.

Jan Firscher, Interim Czech Prime Minister told reporters that "Just after midnight I was informed in a telephone call by President Barack Obama that (his) administration had decided to pull out from the planned missile defense shield installations" . This is not only a blow to our comprehensive U.S. anti-ballistic missile program and to European security, but a major betrayal of two allies who took a significant political risk in their relationship with Russia. Once again, the U.S. is demonstrating to friends that we are a very undependable ally, and this time to two countries that have faithfully stood with us in the War on Terror.

Recognizing the importance of continuing to develop our missile defense program, The Heritage Foundation produced a powerful documentary called “33 MINUTES” and has held numerous showings around the country to educate Americans to the threat and the technical feasibility of missile defense. The title “33 minutes” refers to the length of time it takes from the launching of a ballistic missile from Iran or North Korea, possibly armed with nuclear or biological weapons, to reach a U.S city.

We live in a very dangerous world in which rogue nations like North Korea and Iran are not only developing dangerous weapon systems but may supply them to non-state terrorist networks. Iranian President Mahmoud Adhadinejad has frequently told us of his “desirable and achievable” goal to bring about “a world without America”. In August, it was reported that intelligence sources believe that Iran has the technology to build and detonate a nuclear weapon and within six months could assemble and deliver one on Iran’s existing ballistic missile.

Another threat comes from the capability of this technology being provided to a terrorist to launch a nuclear armed missile into space high above America from a fishing boat off our coast. This would inflict catastrophic damage on this country through an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) attack. The result of this little discussed danger would be to virtually fry the U.S. electric grid and every piece of electronic equipment, disrupting telecommunications, water, food, sanitation and virtually all basic human needs. Yet a naïve Administration in Washington is putting the country at greater risk by slashing our defenses.

Missile defense technology has proven very effective but the entire system is far from completed. The $8 billion dollars budgeted for the program this year, just a tiny part of the defense budget, has been cut by $1.4 billion, with additional cuts down the road a real possibility.

Many Americans are suffering shock and stress over the decimation of our free market economy. Too few are focused on the catastrophic danger we face by neglecting or decimating our missile defense systems.

The nuclear club continues to grow and many countries now have both nuclear and ballistic missile capability. In 33 minutes, life as we know it could end. All it takes is one missile launched from thousands of miles away at an American city and President Obama will either have the capability to destroy it or to issue apologies to the families of the dead.

SUPPRESSING DISSENT IS UN-AMERICAN

Ellen Sauerbrey:

Webster defines dissent as: to differ in opinion… to disagree. This implies that one has an opinion. Dissent can be effectively stifled by keeping people too ignorant to form opinions, frightening them into silence or shutting down the means to express dissent.

The mass media that should keep the public informed is instead keeping the public ignorant. It acts as a gate keeper deciding what we should know. If facts about a controversial person or policy are never revealed, opinions go unformed and there is no dissent. Thomas Jefferson recognized the importance of educating the public when he stated, "If a nation expects to be ignorant -- and free -- it expects what never was and never will be."

As the 2008 election was nearing, I had occasion to ask many friends if they weren’t troubled by the association of Barack Obama and Weatherman Underground founder and bomber Bill Ayers. Without exception, no one I spoke with had heard of Bill Ayers. No opinion…. no dissent.

When Van Jones, the White House “Green Jobs” Czar stepped down in the dark of night, it was generally reported that he had called Republicans a nasty name and signed the “9/11 truther's petition” suggesting the Bush administration was responsible for the 9/11attacks. If not for Glenn Beck and Fox News, no one would know that Van Jones was a self avowed communist advising the President. That is rather significant information that was withheld from the public and ensured there would be no public outcry.

Then there is demonization of those who voice dissent. It began with the characterization of the tea party and town hall goers as un-American, Nazis, brown shirts, teabaggers, mobsters, and most recently domestic terrorists. But the ugliest technique of all is the race card. Being branded a “racist” is a direct assault on character that makes the average person want to run for cover.

Congressman Joe Wilson was the initial target. His two word outburst on the floor of the House was a breach of decorum, but quickly his very legitimate policy concern was branded “racist” by the likes of New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd.

Next came the race baiting irresponsible former President Jimmie Carter charging that "There is an inherent feeling among many people in this country that an African-American ought not to be president, and ought not to be given the same respect as if he were white."

Charges of racism effectively squelch dissent when people are afraid to express policy differences for fear of being branded a racist.

The April 7^th Homeland Security document profiling, as potential rightwing extremists and domestic terrorists, American citizens concerned about “gun rights” and the "current economic and political climate" was another intimidating event. It led to a policeman detaining an individual by a Louisiana roadside for half an hour to determine if he belonged to an extremist group. His crime was an expression of opinion. He had a “Don’t Tread on Me” bumper sticker on his car.

It caused an uproar when the White House asked people to squeal on their neighbors if they heard some “fishy” ideas about Obamacare. But some individuals are now afraid to sign petitions or express their ideas on Face book for fear of being “flagged” on a White House enemies list.

The major outlets for both information and dissent today are talk radio and the internet. Mark Lloyd, the Federal Communications Commission’s new “Diversity Czar” is a disciple of “Rules for Radicals” Saul Alinski and an admirer of Hugo Chavez. Lloyd describes freedom of speech and the press as a “distraction”. He proposes whipping private radio companies into line by threats to their license renewal or by taxing them so heavily that they would be driven out of existence.

If that doesn’t worry you, consider Senate Bill 773 which would permit the president to seize temporary control of private-sector non-governmental computer networks during a so-called cyber security emergency, however that may be defined.

Dissent is not un-American, but trying to intimidate and, squelch free speech is. As the editor of the Morning Journal wrote in an August 9 column, “You had better keep a close eye on this White House. Because the Obama White House apparently has its eyes and ears out on the streets watching, listening and ready to 'flag' anyone who doesn't sing their tune.”

THE SPARK THAT TRIGGERED REBELLION

By Ellen Sauerbrey

'I'm as Mad as Hell, and I'm Not Gonna Take This Anymore!' This sentiment is being voiced by protesters turning out for Tea Parties and Health Care Town Hall Meetings around the country. People are angry and frightened by the prospect of government running their health care system, but their anger goes far beyond a 1000 page health bill.

Health care reform is merely the spark that has touched off a prairie fire of grassroots rebellion among a people who believe their representatives do not represent them, do not listen to them and do not care what they think. Many Americans feel that they are losing control of their financial well being, their values and their culture. Shell shock set in as they tried to absorb the rapidity of drastic change.

The first stirring of protest came with the Tea Parties in the spring. These gatherings were completely misread by a media that ignored them and dismissed the attendees as right wing kooks. The Tea Parties were about taxes, yes. But far more they were about the rapid intrusion of the federal government into private affairs, about deficit spending, and a growing understanding that America was heading down a very dangerous road.

People see a government in Washington that is in the process of destroying the constitutional principles of limited government and maximum personal freedom that made America the freest and most prosperous country the world has ever known.

James Madison, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson must be turning over in their graves at what is being done to the Republic they founded. At the close of Constitutional Convention in 1787, Benjamin Franklin said we gave you "a republic if you can keep it." At the moment, keeping it does not look promising.

Our founding fathers had an incredible understanding of human nature, and of the natural tendency of governments to become oppressive. They gave us a unique Constitution that attempted to limit the power of government and ensure the rights of individuals. In 1798 Thomas Jefferson wrote, "In questions of power, then let no more be heard of confidence in man, but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the Constitution."

Yet today one must ask "where does the Constitution give President Obama the right to fire the CEOs of General Motors or to force the Chrysler Corporation to merge with Fiat, a foreign Corporation?" Where is it written in the Constitution that the government has the right to use my tax dollars and yours to prop up businesses that should either declare bankruptcy or simply dissolve and close their doors?

Tragically, our schools no longer teach our children why America is the freest most prosperous country in history. If the uniqueness of the United States Constitution is no longer celebrated how can we expect the next generation to understand the need to protect and defend it?

For 60 known centuries, people on this earth toiled from dawn to dusk, barely able to feed themselves. Famine was the rule, not the exception. Then suddenly here in America, the course of history reversed and food became so abundant that much is wasted. Our country, unlike much of the world even today, has never experienced famine. Is this just some kind of fluke?

In one century, an economic miracle occurred that provided Americans more wealth, more comfort and leisure than had ever been dreamed of. America rose from a wilderness to become a leading world power. How did that happen?

The answer was the unique guarantee of individual freedom and the absence of government meddling and control. Americans were free to save and invest, to go into business, free to own property, free to compete, to work, to prosper... and free to fail and try again. Every ounce of freedom produced a pound of progress. This great experiment called America proved that freedom and initiative work.

But today, freedom and initiative are being replaced by ever higher taxation, regulation and centralization of power in Washington. Our economy is now stagnant and our standard of living is declining. Each year government takes a bigger share of our earnings, employs more and more of our people, enacts more rules that strangle our economy and controls more and more of our lives.

In the enjoyment of plenty have Americans lost the memory of freedom? When citizens are willing to sacrifice their liberty for security they will have neither liberty nor security and will soon find themselves living under tyranny. But sleeping giant of everyday America is stirring.

The September 12^th National Tea Party will bring hundreds of thousands of people to Washington. They are coming by the busload and they are coming because they fear the avalanche of policies coming out of Washington DC that are destroying the foundations of our free society.

They are coming to protest the most fiscally reckless and irresponsible White House and Congress in our history. They understand that the U.S. is on the road to fiscal ruin with massive spending - soaring deficits and mountains of debt that can never be paid off except by running the printing press, generating phony money, creating inflation that ruins lives, and allowing government bills to be paid with worthless dollars.

They are protesting Congress and the White House crafting new ways to bankrupt America -- through Cap and Trade, nationalized health insurance, pork barrel earmarks, and new across-the-board regulations on the financial industry.

They are protesting that people, who have never even run a candy store, are taking over the running of our auto industry, our banks, and other financial institutions. And they are protesting the massive shadow government of unaccountable czars layered on top of the existing government bureaucracy.

Most of all, they are protesting because they see the capitalist system being dismantled day by day and the nation heading pell-mell down the road to socialism

Thomas Jefferson in his First Inaugural address in1801 described what he called the sum of good government as, "a wise and frugal Government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned." But Jefferson also warned, "The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground."

Generations of Americans worked to build, fought to protect and died to preserve the liberty the Founders gave us. Despite their sacrifice, freedom is under assault today, as never before in America. But there is increasing reason to believe that a growing army of patriots will refuse to stand by and allow this great country to be destroyed.

WORDS OF WISDOM

---Adrian Rogers , 1931

You cannot legislate the poor into prosperity by legislating the wealthy out of prosperity. What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else.

When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that my dear friend, is the beginning of the end of any nation. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it."

Republicans Have Offered Three Alternative Health Care Reform Bills

Monday, August 24, 2009 - Penny Starr, Senior Staff Writer

(CNSNews.com) – President Barack Obama and Democrats in Congress -- while pushing their own health care overhauls -- have criticized Republicans as offering only opposition and no ideas for reform, but the GOP, despite the lack of media attention, has introduced three health care bills.

The three Republican bills total almost 400 pages and have been on the table since May and June. In May, Republicans in the House and the Senate formed a bicameral coalition to produce the130-page “Patients Choice Act of 2009.” In June, Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) introduced the “Health Care Freedom Plan,” a 41-page proposal. And in July, the Republican Study Committee, under the leadership of Rep. Tom Price (R-Ga.), unveiled the “Empowering Patients First Act,” a 130-page plan.

Some of the provisions included in one or more of the bills include: investing in preventive medicine, an overhaul of Medicaid, reduction of abuse and fraud in the Medicare program, supplemental health insurance for low-income families, tax credits for health insurance, and a ban on federal funds being used for abortions...(You can access all of these proposals by clicking on the links. )

"To be prepared for war, is one of the most effectual means of preserving peace." --George Washington

"The U.S. has abandoned plans to install a missile defense system in Europe, according to a report. If true, this is a major strategic error that will have serious consequences for our allies in Europe and for us. Quoting a U.S. source, the Polish daily Gazeta Wyborcza says the Obama administration has decided against building a missile shield to protect Poland and the Czech Republic. The reason? Russian opposition. Now, if we want to build a defense system for friends in Europe, we'll have to place it in the Balkans, Israel or somewhere else. That is, if Russia approves. This is a stark reversal of past policy and reneges on promises made by the current administration. Worse, it shows weakness. We got into a staredown with the Russian bear and we blinked. ... We've just weakened America's standing in a critical region of the world -- Eastern Europe -- and let our allies down. We've made them vulnerable, in ways that only we could, to Russia's growing military menace. Polish and Czech friends who had relied on us to stand firm and keep our word no doubt feel betrayed. This diminishes our global influence. What smallish country will now take our word at face value when we promise to protect them? ... Given the threat to millions of American lives -- not to mention millions of our allies -- reducing missile defense is both dangerous and irresponsible." --Investor's Business Daily