
The House of Representatives is expected to vote TOMORROW on H.R. 3962, the Affordable Health Care for America Act, Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Calif.) disastrous healthcare reform bill.
I urge you, if you haven’t already, to tell your U.S. Representative that you OPPOSE this absolutely unaffordable government takeover of healthcare!
As if the original House healthcare reform bill that sparked outrage at congressional town hall meetings in August weren’t bad enough, Speaker Pelosi has now crafted a 1,990-page regulatory and fiscal nightmare.
CCAGW Member, H.R. 3962 poses a fundamental threat not only to our nation’s and your own financial health and prosperity, but to every American’s individual liberties and right to free choice!
According to an initial estimate by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO), H.R. 3962 will cost our country a minimum of $894 billion over 10 years. Robert Pear of The New York Times reported on October 30, “By the most commonly used yardstick, the bill would cost $1.05 trillion over 10 years.” Historically, healthcare programs have cost more than predicted — in 1990 Medicare spending was nearly 10 times what was originally estimated in 1967 — and this is the biggest healthcare plan in history.
Quite frankly, America cannot afford even the minimum price tag for Speaker Pelosi’s healthcare scheme when the federal deficit stands at an all-time record and the national debt is projected to nearly double over the next 10 years.
What’s more, President Obama has said that his healthcare “reform” will cut costs in the long run, but CBO’s preliminary analysis of H.R. 3962 found that the bill would bend the federal cost curve for healthcare UP, not down.
H.R. 3962 would also inflict a whole host of new taxes and costly mandates on individuals and businesses as American families struggle to make ends meet and unemployment approaches double digits.
For example, the bill would impose an individual mandate tax of up to 2.5 percent of income on individuals earning as little as $9,350 who do not purchase “acceptable health care coverage.” The National Federation of Independent Business estimates that the employer mandate in H.R. 3962 will disproportionately affect small businesses, triggering up to 1.6 million lost jobs. The direct impact on families of all the new rules, regulations, and tax increases will be an additional $500 per year in the cost of insurance.
And I can’t believe I’m saying this, CCAGW Member, but the financial burden of this healthcare plan to our government and the costs to American businesses, taxpayers, and our economy aren’t even the worst of it.
The most dangerous part of Speaker Pelosi’s healthcare “reform” bill is that it paves the way to a complete government takeover of healthcare in this country that will dramatically expand the size of government; allow bureaucrats and politicians to dictate your choice of doctors, treatments, and medicines; and ration quality care to control costs.
H.R. 3962 creates 111 new federal boards, bureaucracies, commissions, and programs. It also expands Medicaid to all individuals with incomes below 150 percent of the federal poverty level, an estimated 10 million Americans.
President Obama has repeatedly vowed that “if you like your health plan, you can keep it,” but the so-called “public health insurance option” that Speaker Pelosi included in her bill at the urging of her pro-socialized medicine backers will quickly undermine private insurance by undercutting its costs. A study earlier this year by The Lewin Group, a respected economics consulting firm, projected that 83.4 million Americans would lose the private coverage they have today if a “public option” becomes law.
On top of everything else, Speaker Pelosi proposes to pay for this government takeover of healthcare with massive cuts to Medicare. Those include more than $170 billion in cuts to Medicare Advantage Plans that will gut the program, forcing the more than 10 million seniors who opt for it back into traditional fee-for-service Medicare, which has higher out-of-pocket expenses.
Make no mistake. With these cuts to Medicare coming as the Baby Boomers are retiring and the program is facing bankruptcy in just seven years, seniors will be the first to experience rationing and a decline in their quality of care!
CCAGW Member, that’s why it’s so vitally important that you tell your U.S. Representative vote NO on H.R. 3962 today!
If we don’t succeed in blocking this very dangerous government takeover of our healthcare, you and I and all Americans will have no choice but to live under the mandates, restrictions, and rationing that federal bureaucrats and politicians in Washington will impose to curb costs.
The goal of Speaker Pelosi and her pro-socialized medicine backers is clear: to put all Americans under a single-payer, government-run healthcare system, like those in Canada and Great Britain, that will dictate our choice of doctors, treatments, and medicines and ration the care we can receive.
Time is short! The House will vote TOMORROW, Saturday, November 7. Tell your U.S. Representative today to vote NO on this costly and dangerous government takeover of healthcare.
Related Reading:
Sharing the Balance of Power: An Examination of Shared Power in the Michigan House of Representatives, 1993-1994Like national politicians, state legislators all too often focus on partisanship instead of policy making, engaging themselves in rancorous debate that achieves little beyond gridlock. However, during one short period in Michigan's history, legislators stopped bickering and focused on forging compromise. Daniel Loepp's Sharing the Balance of Power chronicles the 87th Michigan Legislature (1993-1994), in which Republicans and Democrats successfully shared power.
In 1992, Michigan voters elected exactly fifty-five Republicans and fifty-five Democrats to the state house. As a result, the two parties each elected a co-speaker, and a shared power agreement was forged. Given the history of intense partisanship in the state house, political pundits predicted that any plan for shared power would disintegrate within months. What resulted instead was one of the most productive legislatures in Michigan history.
Author Daniel Loepp, chief of staff to Democratic Co-Speaker Curtis Hertel at the time, skillfully takes the reader "inside" the State Capitol, examining the key policy debates (including school finance reform), important personalities, and difficult negotiations. Loepp's balanced presentation is testimony to the two years of bi-partisan cooperation in which he took part.
In an age of public cynicism about the legislative process, Daniel Loepp offers the reader a refreshing story about two co-speakers and their 108 colleagues who came together in the spirit of bi-partisan representation to successfully serve their constituents, the people of Michigan.
Daniel Loepp is a partner in the firm of Karoub Associates, Michigan's oldest multi-client lobbying firm.
From the supplier: J. Peter Grace divides his time between being CEO of W.R. Grace and Co and co-chairman of the non-profit group Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW). The head of the successful specialty chemicals company began his campaign against wasteful government spending when he was appointed by President Reagan to chair the President's Private Sector Survey on Cost Control in 1982. Grace was able to recommend 2,478 dollar-saving measures that were expected to reduce government spending by $424.4 billion over a three-year period. The 79-year old CEO continues to monitor inefficiency, mismanagement and waste in the federal government as part of the CAGW, which he co-chairs with columnist Jack Anderson. The CAGW estimates that wasteful spending in 1992 alone will reach $166.6 billion and may rise to $921 billion over a five-year period. Grace urges the public to voice out their objection.
Citation Details
Title: Peter Grace. (CEO of W.R. Grace and Co.) (N.B.)
Author: Paul Helou
Publication: Chief Executive (U.S.) (Magazine/Journal)
Date: June 1, 1992
Publisher: Chief Executive Publishing
Issue: n77 Page: p19(2)
Distributed by Thomson Gale
H.R. 3401, H.R. 3954, and H.R. 3962: legislative hearing before the Subcommittee on Forests and Forest Health of the Committee on ResourcesOriginal publisher: Washington : U.S. G.P.O. : For sale by the Supt. of Docs., U.S. G.P.O. [Congressional Sales Office], 2002. LC Number: KF27 .R3848 2002dq OCLC Number: (OCoLC)51802911 Subject: Land titles -- Registration and transfer -- California. Excerpt: ... 11 and the Forest Service will continue if title to the Five Mile Regional Learning Cen-ter conveys to our school district. The Regional Learning Center is located on approximately 27.1 acres in the Miwok Ranger District of the Stanislaus National Forest at approximately 4,100 feet in elevation. The nearest city to the Regional Learning Center is the City of Sonora. The 27.1-acre site was initially developed during the early 1960 ' s by the Forest Service and consists of several barracks, a cafeteria / kitchen building, class-rooms, and gymnasium and shop buildings. In 1999 Clovis Unified and the Forest Service amended the Special Use Permit to add approximately 93 acres adjacent to the Regional Learning Center for use for outdoor educational purposes. The Regional Learning Center is used as an Outdoor Environmental Educational School for students in fourth through twelfth grade. During the 2000 - 01 school year, the Regional Learning Center served more than 14,000 students from 140 schools and 60 school districts from throughout the State of California. Since CUSD assumed management of the Center, more than 160,000 students have benefited from the Center's programs. Classes range from forest to raptor studies with an em-phasis on natural resource conservation. In addition to our environmental education program, classes are also offered on character development, team building and indi-vidual challenge activities such as high rope climbing. A more thorough description of educational programs offered to students at the Regional Learning Center is in-cluded in our written testimony as an exhibit. The Regional Learning Center is also used for conferences, workshops and athletic camps for both our youth an...

