Letter to Editor – Michael Yancey – 1 Sep 09

Recently a letter to the editor was published refuting statements made in a mailer sent to Wells County residents by the local organization "Constitutional Patriots”.  As a leader in that organization I could rebut his assertions and similarly cite sources in support of our statements, but what's the point?

Arguing over which sources are valid and which aren't does nothing to fix the problem, and that problem is not reforming health care.  It is the ludicrous notion that more government can fix anything.  More government means only one thing, less personal liberty, less personal freedom.

I am not a wealthy man; I am as common as the “great-unwashed” can produce. I currently have no health insurance, and that is my problem, not any of yours, and certainly not Government’s. I don’t need a public option near as much as I need my private choice.

I need to be not interfered with while I attempt to start, yes start, my business in these troubling economic times. Yes, after years of working for others and being unemployed by their choices. I decided to remove myself from the ranks of the unemployed and create my own job. I may well fail, but if I do I want to fail because of choices I make –not-- because of ones made for me.

HR 3200 is a one thousand page behemoth.  For heaven's sakes, we built the Interstates with 32 pages.  HR3200 is filled with legalese and lawyer-speak so daunting that the members of Congress--the majority of whom I believe are themselves attorneys--have not read, let alone understand it.

And that is just the House Resolution. The United States Senate has five additional health care proposals at last count.  Which begs the question: When President Obama was out answering questions about health care, which bill was he talking about?

I find it a bit amusing that congressional advocates of these types of proposals like to chastise banks and lending institutions for the "difficult to understand language” used in credit agreements.  They don't seem to take issue with it when it comes in the form of their own legislation, which incidentally, we have an even greater right to understand.

We can't "Just say NO" to a law, opt out, close our account, or stop paying taxes…. Well that is, if you aren’t the Secretary of the Treasury or Leader of the House Ways and Means Committee.

Am I the only one that has a problem with 1000 plus pages of legislation being shoveled at us in regular intervals accompanied by words like crisis, emergency or disaster?  If this reform is such an act of crisis intervention why, if passed, would the majority of it not go into effect until 2013?

Also maybe it's just me, but I'd like to know and understand what the President is going to sign into law before he does, especially when it's going to directly impact my family and friend's life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness.  I don't mean to imply that I distrust politicians; no one has any reason to do that, right?

So what "facts" are we really arguing about?  We don't even know what will make it to the floor.  But I can tell you this much.  If there is a bill--no matter the wording, no matter how many pages are added to it at 3 a.m. the morning of the vote, one thing can be certain.  It will mean more government and less individual choice.

Less we forget, more government means more bureaucrats we will have to spend hours on the phone talking to; more regulation to intrude into our lives; more promises that won't be kept; and, worst of all,  another rip in the United States Constitution that's already been shredded by years of "progressive" thinking. WE have to do better than this.  But we won't; after all, why do for yourself when you can steal from someone else, and I'm not talking about the "wealthy."

No - the rich man will be fine.  It's the generations of Americans (if they can still call themselves that) to come that will foot the bill, our children and grandchildren. Yep, just tack another trillion or two onto the budget. Then watch and wonder as the nation begins to convulse when hit with this near maniacal level of irresponsibility.  Besides, if we're lucky, most of us will be dead before the resulting fiscal tsunami hits.

Why can't we all just cut the crap and see what is really at stake here?  We continue to let political ideologues divide us as they have done for decades. And who wins in that deal? Certainly not us!  And the politicians--well, they seem to do just fine--and maybe even prosper.

The REAL issue is about personal liberties, the right to choose for yourself and your family.  Health care reform is just the latest attempt to hobble our freedom of choice. This erosion of freedom goes back far, far before Presidents Obama and Bush's administrations.  However, the rate, strength, and variety of attacks on our freedoms have grown rapidly in these past few years.

Be honest!  Do we really want yet another massive government bureaucracy? Especially when we know in our hearts the chance of it fixing a single thing is about as likely as Government Motors turning a 4^th quarter profit.  Check that, it will fix one thing -- the unemployment rate in Washington D.C., which in my opinion needs to go higher not lower.

Why do the only options we hear about involve government intervention? There have to be much better solutions then what we are being offered.  Did our government build every hospital, educate every doctor or nurse, and develop every drug? I guess you could say in some form or another it did.... perhaps that's what's wrong.

This country was founded on principles of personal liberty and personal freedom and personal responsibility.  Lincoln said we are "A nation of the people, for the people and by the people."  However, if we continue to abdicate responsibility to hold ourselves and our governments accountable, none of these systemic issues will ever be settled.

And worst of all, if we continue to ignore the Constitution, we will find our national body in the throes of an illness no health care reform can ever fix.

The choice is still ours, for now, we can embrace the vision of our Founders, stop crying, roll up our sleeves, make hard intelligent decisions and put in the work together that’s required in order to be the Republic of our Constitution—or—Keep fighting each other while the elitist ruling class of this country, plunder our wealth, destroy our few remaining liberties, and leave our ship of state wrecked upon the same nanny-statist rocks that’s destroying the dead faith-barren democracies of Europe.

By the way, to the gentleman who wrote the letter I referenced, we missed you the other night; I was looking forward to meeting you.  You and anyone else interested in learning more about our organization are most welcome to join us at our next meeting on September 14. I’d like to tell you where, but we don’t know just yet, we out grew our last facility and are currently looking for a larger venue.

Michael L. Yancey

6th District Constitutional Patriots