Individual liberty is about to take a huge hit in the form of the latest Health Care fiasco. The most appalling fact I have heard to date about the push to pass health care legislation is that our very own elected representatives were banned from participating in the writing of this voluminous document.  Banned!  Simply because they were members of the opposite political party, they were not allowed to give input.  They are thwarted by every turn.  And now this beast of a bill is stupendous in its stupidity — it penalizes those who don’t have health insurance with a fee, it penalizes those who the government thinks don’t have enough insurance with a fee, and it penalizes those who have what the government deems too much insurance with a tax.  Everybody is going to pay.

I believe health care reform is needed.  I am the poster child for that with all the trouble I’ve been through this past year.  But there are alternatives to this massive, teetering, tottering fiasco…smart alternatives.  But because they were held by those who aren’t Democrats, those alternatives were pushed aside.  Why the secrecy?  Why were the deliberations not shown on C-SPAN as promised numerous times by President Obama?  Why is there not transparency in this bill?  Why are our elected representatives not allowed to contribute to the solution, but high-paid lobbyists are?

I just read Patrick Henry’s speech urging his fellow countrymen to vote to go to war against the British regime.  Those men faced a brick wall.  The government ignored their requests and petitions.  It sent armies and navies to enforce penalizing taxes on citizens.  Facing that reality, Patrick Henry and his contemporaries rose up against the tyranny with arms, and the American Revolution begun.  Today, because of their bravery, blood, sweat and tears, we have an opportunity to peacefully rise up against tyranny in our own government.

It’s called VOTING.

If those in the Senate and the House keep throwing our country’s financial stability down the tubes with long, drawn out bills, secret behind-closed-doors meetings, and pay-offs behind the table by slick lobbyists…there will be a piper to pay.  That piper is you and me.

There is a provision in the current bill that sets up an Independent Medical Advisory Board (health care rationing board — the bill explicitly denies that it is a rationing board after it describes what it will do — ration health care) — but written in the bill is a curious provision that Senator Reid added.  It says that this board can not be changed or repealed without 2/3 of the Senate voting for that change.

Hmm.  Sounds like somebody is already worried about We the People overturning their power and turning this health care fiasco into confetti, beginning at the voting booth.

It isn’t politically correct for me to call a spade a spade: the health care bill should be tossed.  Even if it was a good bill, the secrecy behind its writing makes me suspicious that there are provisions there that are not in Joe Q. Public’s best interests.  But speaking out is my right, just as it was Patrick Henry’s right, so many years ago, when he spoke inVirginia about the need to stomp on political correctness and to be aware — with eyes wide open — of the actions of our leaders:

This is no time for ceremony. The question before the House is one of awful moment to this country. For my own part I consider it as nothing less than a question of freedom or slavery; and in proportion to the magnitude of the subject ought to be the freedom of the debate. It is only in this way that we can hope to arrive at truth, and fulfill the great responsibility which we hold to God and our country. Should I keep back my opinions at such a time, through fear of giving offense, I should consider myself as guilty of treason towards my country, and of an act of disloyalty towards the majesty of heaven, which I revere above all earthly kings.

Mr. President, it is natural to man to indulge in the illusions of hope. We are apt to shut our eyes against a painful truth, and listen to the song of that siren, till she transforms us into beasts. Is this the part of wise men, engaged in a great and arduous struggle for liberty? Are we disposed to be of the number of those who, having eyes, see not, and having ears, hear not, the things which so nearly concern their temporal salvation?

Governor Mike Huckabee recently spoke at a rally in Nebraska.  He summarized the stupidity of the health care bill much more eloquently than I could hope to.  I post it here in hopes that you will listen.  (The preliminary applause and introductions are over at the 7:30 mark on Part I.)

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Please don’t misunderstand.  I know there are rampant abuses in the health care realm — by doctors, by insurance companies, by the government, by those who commit fraud — but there is a more intelligent way to solve these problems, one step at a time.

Come November, I plan to join in the voting revolution.  All those incumbents who have made such a mess of our country better get the moving boxes ready.  It’s time to clean house!