Dear Congressman Schauer,
Thank you for your form letter response to my personal letter to you regarding the prospective health care legislation that is creating such a stir throughout the nation.
Before I respond to the details of your letter allow me to register one small disappointment. I was most disappointed that you refused to have a town hall meeting in your district during the August recess. Certainly, Congressman, you can’t actually believe that those district wide phone calls were a legitimate replacement for a town hall meeting. The conference call methodology, which was characterized by canned questions chosen in advance, was successful only at distancing yourself from your constituency by muting your opposition. Do not think for a second that your district is any less volatile than the thousands of other congressional districts across the nation on the issue of Democratic attempts to force fascism upon this country all because you manipulated the process in your district.
Now allow me to turn to your letter.
First, you note that over a million residents of Michigan are living without health insurance. You do not tell me how many of those over one million do not want health insurance. Many young people choose to go without insurance, preferring instead to spend their dollars on other interests. Congressman, the fact that you assert, in a unsubstantiated fashion, that over 1,000,000 Michigan citizens do not have health insurance means very little unless you break that number down between those who do not have health insurance because they don’t want it and those who do not have health insurance because they can’t get it.
Secondly, you do not tell me where in the Constitution you find the authority for the Federal government to socialize health care. As a US Congressman who has taken an oath that you, “will bear true faith and allegiance to the Constitution,” surely you have justified in your mind how a Federal takeover of health care is Constitutional. I would dearly love to see your reasoning on this.
Next you tell me that you desire a “uniquely American solution” to our health care situation. I am suspicious that you must have tested this phrase in a focus group setting because I notice that you use it several times in this letter and you used it several times in your “town-hall” phone conferences. Allow me to suggest that it is not possible to find a uniquely American solution to our health care woes by doing anything that has either the Federal Government taking over health care or that puts the Federal Government in the position of eventually taking over health care. That sir, as you know, is socialism and it is a contradiction of the worst variety to embrace any form of socialism (i.e. – Fascism, Cultural Marxism, Communism) as a “uniquely American solution.”
Congressman Schauer, if you really desire a “uniquely American solution” to our health care woes you will pursue policies that will allow the market to do its work. You will allow insurance companies to compete across state lines. You will introduce tort reform. You will reconnect the consumer with his medical dollars spent. You will create tax free medical savings programs. You will decrease the government regulation upon the health care industry which has created our problems to begin with. You will create legislation that will allow small businesses to ban together in order to access the same cost advantage from Insurance companies that large companies get due to their size. So, you can see, I am in favor of doing many things that will help the citizens of Michigan.
Your letter to me implies that you support the public option. Please understand that at least some of your constituent understand that if a public option is crafted into this bill that means the eventual end of choice, which you say you support. Such language also means the end of private insurance options, which you also say you support. Keep in mind Congressman, we are not all blind to the slippery way that people like you use language.
As you consider your vote keep the following things in mind.
* Is the bill Constitutional? Where does the Constitution allow the Federal government to believe that all citizens have a “right” to health care?
* You say you want a bill that promotes personal responsibility. Will any bill that “promotes personal responsibility” also at the same time disallow health care or lessen the opportunity for health care by those who don’t follow the personal responsibilities guidelines as set by the Federal Government and its legislation?
* Does the plan you support shift control from insurance companies to the Federal Government? As bad as insurance companies are Congressman, I would rather deal with their bureaucrats then Government bureaucrats.
* In your desire to vote for a bill that does not raise the Federal deficit do you realize the impossibility of that without either a sweeping tax increase or severe restrictions as to who can receive health care or both?
In closing Congressman, I realize how much pressure the Democratic leadership must be bringing upon you to vote for socialized health care. Allow me to remind you Congressman how narrow your victory margin was in the 2008 Congressional race. I can say, with almost certainty Congressman, that should you vote for a Marxist health care plan that will be produced by a Democratic majority your 2010 race will be more of an uphill battle than your previous one.
Sincerely,
Bret L. McAtee
Pastor — Charlotte Christian Reformed Church
What a wonderful waste of prose on a dullard. He will ignore, just as the bailout was ignored. Lock and load, it’s gonna be a bumpy ride.