Voice For Voters

By Elois Zeanah

Tired of what’s going on in America?  Tired of feeling alienated?  I’m copying below an email forward.  I wish I knew who the writer “Robert A. Hall” is because he deserves recognition.  Enjoy!

I’M TIRED
By Robert A. Hall    

I’m 63.  Except for one semester in college when jobs were scarce and a six-month period when I was between jobs, but job-hunting every day, I’ve worked, hard, since I was 18. Despite some health challenges, I still put in 50-hour weeks, and haven’t called in sick in seven or eight years. I make a good salary, but I didn’t inherit my job or my income, and I worked to get where I am. Given the economy, there’s no retirement in sight, and I’m tired. Very tired.  

I’m tired of being told that I have to “spread the wealth” to people who don’t have my work ethic. I’m tired of being told the government will take the money I earned, by force if necessary, and give it to people too lazy to earn it.  

I’m tired of being told that I have to pay more taxes to “keep people in their homes.”  Sure, if they lost their jobs or got sick, I’m willing to help. But if they bought McMansions at three times the price of our paid-off, $250,000 condo, on one-third of my salary, then let the left-wing Congress-critters who passed Fannie and Freddie and the Community Reinvestment Act that created the bubble help them with their own money.  

I’m tired of being told how bad  America  is by left-wing millionaires like Michael Moore, George Soros and Hollywood Entertainers who live in luxury because of the opportunities  America offers. In thirty years, if they get their way, the United States will have the economy of  Zimbabwe , the freedom of the press of  China , the crime and violence of  Mexico , the tolerance for Christian people of   Iran  , and the freedom of speech of  Venezuela  .

I’m tired of being told that Islam is a “Religion of Peace,” when every day I can read dozens of stories of Muslim men killing their sisters, wives and daughters for their family “honor”; of Muslims rioting over some slight offense; of Muslims murdering Christian and Jews because they aren’t “believers”; of Muslims burning schools for girls; of Muslims stoning teenage rape victims to death for “adultery”; of Muslims mutilating the genitals of little girls; all in the name of Allah, because the Qur’an and Shari’a law tells them to.  

I’m tired of being told that “race doesn’t matter” in the post-racial world of Obama, when it’s all that matters in affirmative action jobs, lower college admission and graduation standards for minorities (harming them the most), government contract set-asides, tolerance for the ghetto culture of violence and fatherless children that hurts minorities more than anyone, and in the appointment of U.S. Senators from Illinois.  

I think it’s very cool that we have a black president and that a black child is doing her homework at the desk where Lincoln wrote the Emancipation Proclamation. I just wish the black president was Condi Rice, or someone who believes more in freedom and the individual and less arrogantly of an all-knowing government.  

I’m tired of a news media that thinks Bush’s fundraising and inaugural expenses were obscene, but that think Obama’s, at triple the cost, were wonderful; that thinks Bush exercising daily was a waste of presidential time, but Obama exercising is a great example for the public to control weight and stress; that picked over every line of Bush’s military records, but never demanded that Kerry release his; that slammed Palin, with two years as governor, for being too inexperienced for VP, but touted Obama with three years as senator as potentially the best president ever. Wonder why people are dropping their subscriptions or switching to Fox News?  Get a clue. I didn’t vote for Bush in 2000, but the media and Kerry drove me to his camp in 2004.  

I’m tired of being told that out of “tolerance for other cultures” we must let  Saudi Arabia  use our oil money to fund mosques and madrassa Islamic schools to preach hate in  America , while no American group is allowed to fund a church, synagogue or religious school in  Saudi Arabia to teach love and tolerance.  

I’m tired of being told I must lower my living standard to fight global warming, which no one is allowed to debate. My wife and I live in a two-bedroom apartment and carpool together five miles to our jobs. We also own a three-bedroom condo where our daughter and granddaughter live. Our carbon footprint is about 5% of Al Gore’s, and if you’re greener than Gore, you’re green enough.  

I’m tired of being told that drug addicts have a disease, and I must help support and treat them, and pay for the damage they do. Did a giant germ rush out of a dark alley, grab them, and stuff white powder up their noses while they tried to fight it off? I don’t think Gay people choose to be Gay, but I damn sure think druggies chose to take drugs. And I’m tired of harassment from cool people treating me like a freak when I tell them I never tried marijuana.  

I’m tired of illegal aliens being called “undocumented workers,” especially the ones who aren’t working, but are living on welfare or crime. What’s next?  Calling drug dealers, “Undocumented Pharmacists”?  And, no, I’m not against Hispanics. Most of them are Catholic, and it’s been a few hundred years since Catholics wanted to kill me for my religion.  I’m willing to fast track for citizenship any Hispanic person, who can speak English, doesn’t have a criminal record and who is self-supporting without family on welfare, or who serves honorably for three years in our military…. Those are the citizens we need.  

I’m tired of latte liberals and journalists, who would never wear the uniform of the Republic themselves, or let their entitlement-handicapped kids near a recruiting station, trashing our military. They and their kids can sit at home, never having to make split-second decisions under life and death circumstances, and bad mouth better people than themselves. Do bad things happen in war?  You bet. Do our troops sometimes misbehave?  Sure. Does this compare with the atrocities that were the policy of our enemies for the last fifty years and still are?  Not even close.  So here’s the deal. I’ll let myself be subjected to all the humiliation and abuse that was heaped on terrorists at Abu Ghraib or Gitmo, and the critics can let themselves be subject to captivity by the Muslims, who tortured and beheaded Daniel Pearl in Pakistan, or the Muslims who tortured and murdered Marine Lt. Col. William Higgins in Lebanon, or the Muslims who ran the blood-spattered Al Qaeda torture rooms our troops found in Iraq, or the Muslims who cut off the heads of schoolgirls in Indonesia, because the girls were Christian. Then we’ll compare notes. British and American soldiers are the only troops in history that civilians came to for help and handouts, instead of hiding from in fear.  

I’m tired of people telling me that their party has a corner on virtue and the other party has a corner on corruption. Read the papers; bums are bipartisan. And I’m tired of people telling me we need bipartisanship. I live in  Illinois , where the “Illinois Combine” of Democrats has worked to loot the public for years. Not to mention the tax cheats in Obama’s cabinet.  

I’m tired of hearing wealthy athletes, entertainers and politicians of both parties talking about innocent mistakes, stupid mistakes or youthful mistakes, when we all know they think their only mistake was getting caught. I’m tired of people with a sense of entitlement, rich or poor.  

Speaking of poor, I’m tired of hearing people with air-conditioned homes, color TVs and two cars called poor. The majority of Americans didn’t have that in 1970, but we didn’t know we were “poor.” The poverty pimps have to keep changing the definition of poor to keep the dollars flowing.  

I’m real tired of people who don’t take responsibility for their lives and actions. I’m tired of hearing them blame the government, or discrimination or big-whatever for their problems.  

I’m so tired. But I’m also glad to be 63. Because, mostly, I’m not going to have to see the world these people are making. I’m just sorry for my granddaughter.

By Elois Zeanah

 As 2009 fades into a new year, we Americans find ourselves loaded with presents from rich ol’ Uncle Sam.  Gifts galore spoil us rotten.  Government lifts the burden of accountability from our shoulders and spares us the trials of personal responsibility.  Why worry?  Uncle Sam is there to take care of us.  Why do difficult tasks like work hard, build character, and fight for freedom and uphold principles that founded America?  Uncle Sam has more politicians than Santa has elves to make life easy.  So forget about doing what’s right.  Forget about being stigmatized by societal norms.  Get on the dole.  Taking gifts from government has a lure of its own and as government convinces more people to line up to take free gifts, the more acceptable and widespread the freeloading practice becomes.  

 Government gifts make former anti-social behaviour commonplace – to the detriment of society and the government’s fiscal purse.

 Government encourages teenagers to have children out of wedlock.  This was once frowned upon.  This is not good for children and it’s not good for society.  But government replaced personal responsibility with so-called compassion and charity and heaped gifts upon miscreant girls for wrongful actions.  Out-of-wedlock births gradually became socially acceptable and society’s responsibility.  Having a child out of wedlock has become a way for teenagers and high school dropouts to get on welfare and stay on welfare for life.  The result:  More illegitimate births.  More single-parent families. More poverty.  More crime.  More tax dollars funneled to enable this vicious cycle.  More government budget deficits.

Another result is that illegal alien teenagers have learned that they, too, will be rewarded for having children out of wedlock if born in the U.S.  They can also get on welfare immediately and stay on welfare for life.  And, as unbelievable as it is, illegal aliens can also avoid being deported and even attain citizenship by having a child born in the U.S. out of wedlock.  More gifts from government!  More government deficits.

Government condones illegal immigration and winks at citizens who aid and abet those who break the law.  This crime is considered compassion and charity to the extent that laws no longer rule.  The rule of law was once king.  Now laws are used as chips to broker something for personal advantage – usually cheap labor, more votes, or more church members.  Politicians use non-enforcement of immigration laws as gifts to campaign contributors.  Gifts from government weaken the fabric of society, strain public coffers, and spread the circle of corruption to engulf those who make the laws.

 Selling votes for favors no longer brings disgrace.  Just like having children out of wedlock and non-enforcement of immigration laws, vote-buying on the floors of legislatures  is commonplace.  Legislators sell their votes to buy gifts for their constitutents to buy re-election.  U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid recently stated in connection with the health care debate that if U.S. Representatives don’t get in on the spree of selling votes, then those representatives should be shamed.  This is not good for the country.  It encourages and enables corrupt government.  And this practice of pork costs taxpayers precious dollars and rings up trillions in deficits.

 Government “gifts” have corrupted citizens and politicians

 Good government for one and for all was once the goal of the federal government. Today, the rules of the game are not to uphold and defend the U.S. Constitution and to base decisions on what is good for the general welfare.  Instead, a good politician is seen as one who can game the system and sell the public a lie as the truth and escape accountability. 

No more presents, please!

  All these gifts from Uncle Sam to buy our dependence and in return to overlook government corruption leads to an attitude similar to the Stockholm Syndrome.  But the corruption runs deeper.  Government deals in deceit:  Uncle Sam puts these so-called ”gifts” on our credit card.  We not only pay for them, we pay compound interest.  

Please, Uncle Sam, no more presents!  Let us stand on our own feet and fight for ourselves and each other and what’s good for our country!   And, Uncle Sam, it’s time that you understood that you are not the rich uncle you pretend, but a freeloading pauper who steals every dime you spend.  It’s time you took personal responsibility for your actions and stopped taking our treasure without our permission and bankrupting us.  That would usher 2010 in as a Happy New Year!

By Elois Zeanah

It’s par for candidates to use personal campaign funds to pay consultants to conjure visual images to persuade voters.  It’s unprecedented, though, for a presidential candidate, once elected, to use tax dollars to appoint a “behavioral science czar” to do the same thing to manipulate the masses.   Does Obama feel the mojo of his “cultist personality” and his “oratory prowess” is no longer sufficient to sell his health care reform message?  I’m offended that the leader of our nation uses our taxes to probe how we think and how to persuade us through mental telegraphing to follow him when he’s wrong.  The problem is not the message or how well he reads a teleprompter.  The problem is a matter of truth and trust.  His words don’t match his works.

Obama stated:  “This is not just about the 47 million Americans who don’t have any health insurance at all.  Reform is about…the fact that the biggest driving force behind our federal deficit is the skyrocketing cost of Medicare and Medicaid.”

The oratory touches me.  I’m persuaded.  But then why not fix the problems behind the skyrocketing costs of these two government-run health programs – instead of expanding and making them more expensive and increasing not reducing deficits?  (Independent consultants and the General Accounting Office, the Congressional watchdog, detail how his proposals will grow government, raise taxes, restrict American liberties, and overwhelm federal and state budgets, deficits and debt.) 

Medicare and Medicaid Fraud Consume Over $100 Billion Yearly

If the real reasons for health care reform are to reduce costs and make insurance affordable, shouldn’t government fix failures and cut costs before beating up on doctors, hospitals and insurance companies and demanding that they cut costs so government can have more to spend?  The truth is:  Fraud consumes 15% to 18% of total costs in government health care programs and only 1% in private health insurance programs.  Is there a disconnect here between our President’s words and works?

Obama Proposes to Expand Medicare and Medicaid

Obama cites Medicare as an example of how his health care plan will control costs. Undoubtedly the President is aware that Medicare and Medicaid pay only part of the bill to hospitals and doctors, creating a “hidden tax” for the rest of us.  Right now the average American worker pays $1800 more for health care per family because Medicare and Medicaid don’t cover costs of treatment.  I haven’t heard this addressed.  Expanding Medicare and Medicaid will only exacerbate the problems.  Surely our President knows that Medicare does not control costs, does not manage fraud, and does not balance its budget.  Medicare has a $38 trillion in unfunded liabilities!  How would expanding these two government-run programs reduce costs and make insurance affordable? 

Obama’s Conversion to Fix Health Care System is New

And what’s behind Obama’s sudden concern about the urgency to fix the health care system when he repeatedly fought past proposals to do so as a Senator?  This makes me suspicious about a possible hidden agenda.  Is health care reform really about coverage for “uninsured Americans”; or is the agenda about expanding government, seizing more of our liberties, making more of us dependent on government, and putting more control of our private lives in the hands of big government?  Sorry, but I have to ask:  Is the President trying to control our mind and our money?

By Elois Zeanah 

With the death of Senator Ted Kennedy, the White House will have one more reason to ram through compulsory health insurance that will seize more freedoms and skyrocket deficits. This likelihood is one more reason to make voices of citizens stronger.  One way to do this is to propose as an alternative straightforward solutions to health care reform that will improve health care, cut costs, and reduce the deficit.  My package of reforms follow: 

STOP PAYING THE CROOKS

• Reduce fraud in Medicare and Medicaid
• Amend EMTLA to give free health care to indigent Citizens only
• Pass TORT reform

($800B/yr. wasted on fraud, defensive medicine, paperwork)[1] 

Ø      These three MUST be done if costs are to be controlled 

GET GOVERNMENT OUT OF THE WAY

• Allow interstate competition among insurance carriers
• Eliminate government mandates of what insurance companies must cover
• Find ways to make policies portable

“HANDS OFF MY HEALTH CARE” PRIVATE INITIATIVES

• Electronic information-sharing (records, wikis, etc.)
• Collaborative Care (e.g.:  Theda Care in Appleton, Wisconsin)
• Incentivize good behavior (e.g.: Safeway:  obesity, exercise, smoking)

Ø     ALL can be accomplished WITHOUT government takeover 

And let’s not stop with health care!  Once the waste and fraud are cut from health care, let’s insist that Washington start purging costs from other wasteful and inefficient government programs listed in my previous article to stop the financial hemorrhaging.  Only then will be finally get deficits down and rein in government spending.  Our children and those yet unborn deserve no less.

[1] Senator Tom Coburn, M.D.

By Elois Zeanah

In a guarded town hall meeting in early August, open to union members only, President Obama angrily denounced dissenters who dared disagree with his plans to take over and control our health care.  He emphasized that that he “doesn’t want to hear a lot of talking” from dissenters.  He intimated that as the duly elected president of the United States, he has the right to make decisions for us.

Americans Are Ruled By Laws, Not By Men

According to Obama, he has the right to implement his campaign promises as the elected president of the United States.  I realize President Obama is a constitutional lawyer, but apparently he needs to be reminded that in America, voters are ruled not by men but by laws.  Perhaps the President also needs reminding of his statement mere weeks ago that the health care debate is not about him, it’s about getting the best health care possible for all Americans.  

FREEDOM:  It’s an American Thing!

The President wants new laws that will touch our personal lives like never before, laws that will rule our lives and take away our freedoms.  America does not have a totalitarian government and Americans have the right and duty to participate in our democratic process to protect our rights and freedoms, even in the health care debate. 

I’m weary of Obama and his spokesmen repeating the mantra that Obama was elected by the voters and, by extension, Obama therefore has the right to do what he wants.  Voters did not elect a ruler and President Obama has no right to lecture Americans to be silent when voters refuse even the hint of totalitarianism.

By Elois Zeanah 

There’s a new political game in Washington.  The goal is to make absurd attacks and squash dissent!  The rules are to target anyone across the nation who disagrees with the President’s plans for a health care overhaul.  Players are Democrats at all levels.   

·        Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid called those who disagree with Democrats on health care reform “saboteurs” who disrupt the democratic process.  

·         The Democratic National Committee called town hall protesters “a mob”, and asked ACORN and SEIU to challenge “mob” protesters.  TV ads blare this name-calling.  The next day four thug union members beat up a black man who was quietly and peacefully distributing “Don’t Tread On Me” flags.

  ·        Health and and Human Services head Kathleen Sebelius, the same day, placed a conference call to SEIU members, whom she hailed as “brothers and sisters,” and urged more to show up at town hall meetings.  There was no mention of the four-on-one violence against a black conservative protester nor a request to remain civil.  Instead, a White House operative made a vague reference about doubling the punch.

  ·        SEIU boss Dennis Rivera railed against “right-wingers” on the “radical fringe” and urged union members to “step up the ‘purple army’ presence at Congressional town hall meetings this month.”[1]  Again, there was no request to refrain from violence.

 ·        The White House blog asks Americans to snitch on their friends, acquaintances and others who write “fishy” emails or blogs critical of Obama’s health care reforms and turn them in @facts.whitehouse.gov since the White House can’t track all dissenters.

 ·        President Obama is also a personal player. .[2] He sent an email to his millions of campaign supporters and asked them to organize, build support for the president’s plan, and to attend town hall meetings to protest other protesters.  Wait a minute:  It’s okay for supporters of the President to organize, but it’s not okay for the opposition? 

   White House is Snooping into our Personal Lives 

This new political game targets political speech, our right under the First Amendment, and the basic freedom that is necessary to protect other freedoms guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution.  This deserves a special protest in itself!  How dare the Chief Law Officer of our land ask liberal Americans to snitch on conservative Americans and turn in their names, emails, blogs and other dissenting comments.  This snooping by the White House is what’s “fishy”.  

The White House should be less worried about criticism and concentrate more on doing the people’s business instead of snooping into our personal lives.  The White House’s fishin’ for “fishy” statements on ObamaCare deserves in-kind treatment.  A future article will focus on false statements by Obama and his foot soldiers about plans Congress is brewing.  The First Amendment still rules!

[1] http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/blogs/beltway-confidential/SEIU-Head-denounces-terrorist-tactics-of-the-Right-day-after-alleged-SEIU-assault-on-conservative-52683602.html

[2] Accuracy in Media:  “Obama E-mail Urges Effort to Fight Lies on Healthcare, August 6, 2009.  http://www.aim.org/don-irvine-blog/obama-e-mail-urges-effort-to-fight-lies-on-healthcare/