Yearly Archives: 2009

Quote of the Day: “I have found strength where one does not look for it: in simple, mild, and pleasant people, without the least desire to rule—and, conversely, the desire to rule has often appeared to me a sign of inward weakness: they fear their own slave soul and shroud it in a royal cloak (in the end, they still become the slaves of their followers, their fame, etc.)” — Friedrich Nietzsche

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Subject: Two bills to support

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A Washington-Post/ABC poll says that public support for Obamacare has slipped below 50% for the first time.

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This is why Congressional leaders are in such a rush to pass the bill. They know things will only get worse for their dreams of government controlled health care. We have to keep pushing to stop a rushed vote, and the latest news indicates we may be succeeding.

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If we can win this victory now the prospects for true health care reform in a free market direction will become much better.

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Today, we can continue to say no to government controlled health care by saying yes to two bills introduced by Congressman Ron Paul (R-TX). . .

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Quote of the Day: “Yesterday Democrats in the House introduced a 1,000-page national health-care plan. To make sure at least some people read it, they named it ‘Harry Potter and the Half-Pound Proposal.'” – Conan O’Brien

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Subject: The Dirty Little Secret

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During the Presidential campaign, Barack Obama promised he’d do something Congress wouldn’t, post bills on the Internet for five days after passage before signing them into law. Yet he has failed to do this for any bill, and now has formally changed abandoned his promise.

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It’s easy to see why.

Quote of the Day: “Senators and representatives who vote on bills they haven’t read and don’t understand betray their constituents’ trust. It is no excuse to say that Congress would get much less done if every member took the time to read every bill. Fewer and shorter laws more carefully thought through would be a vast improvement over today’s massive bills, which are assembled in the dark and enacted in haste. (Rep.) Steny Hoyer chortles at the thought of asking members of Congress to do their job properly. It’s up to voters to wipe the grin off his face.”  — Jeff Jacoby in a Boston Globe column that mentions DownsizeDC.org’s Read the Bills Act

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:::Subject: Good news, plus, it’s time to tell the media about the “Read the Bills Act” and DownsizeDC.org

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We have a lot of good news to report. First, we reached 27,000 members/subscribers on Wednesday. It took us 176 days to go from 24,000 to 25,000, and then 59 days to go from 25,000 to 26,000. But it only took us 16 days to to go from 26,000 to 27,000!

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And the growth hasn’t stopped . . .

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MEDIA ALERT: Downsize DC President Jim Babka will be on two national radio shows, one today (Friday), and one Sunday night. See the post script for details.

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Quote of the Day: “At the end of the day, we’ll have significant cost controls,” — presidential adviser David Axelrod

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Subject: We were overwhelmed yesterday

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When we tell DC Downsizers something is urgent, you folks really respond! Our site was overwhelmed yesterday. For a few hours many Downsizers found it almost impossible to load the site to send a letter to Congress. Others hit a brick wall trying to log in. Even so, a lot of letters were sent, and we’re now back on track to reach our “letters to Congress” goal for the month.

Quote of the Day: “If every member pledged to not vote for it (the health care bill) if they hadn’t read it in its entirety, I think we would have very few votes.” — Senator Steny Hoyer, House Majority Leader

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Subject: URGENT correction

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Yesterday we told you it appeared unlikely Congress would pass a health care bill before the August recess. Things have changed in the last 24 hours. Congressional leaders are once again pressing to rush the bill through.

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This is very dangerous. We must resist this with everything we’ve got. Not only will it be bad for the government to expand its involvement in health care, RUSHING to do so will be even worse.

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If they pass a bill containing nearly 1,000 pages you can be sure that almost no one voting for it will really understand it.

Quote of the Day: “Beware the greedy hand of government, thrusting itself into every corner and crevice of industry.” — Thomas Paine (1737-1809)

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Subject: Partial victory in health care fight

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The Democratic leadership wanted to ram through their health care bill before their August recess. They figured the faster they got the bill passed the less time there would be for opposition to build. That’s why it was a major goal for us to delay a vote on the bill until after the recess. Well…

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MEDIA ALERT: DownsizeDC.org President Jim Babka will be a guest on Free Talk Live TONIGHT beginning at 7:06 pm Eastern. You can listen at http://freetalklive.com/tunein.php

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Quote of the Day: “If a bill for which there is no copy were to actually pass this body, could the bill without a copy be sent to the Senate for its consideration?” — Rep. Joe Barton

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Subject: The Real Deal

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Last week we told you about a proposed new ruling that would adversely affect the pocketknife industry. The proposal from Customs is 63 pages long. Opponents rightly complained that the 30-day window for public comments wasn’t long enough.

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However, compared to Congress, unelected bureaucrats are models of transparency. Consider how the House passed the Cap & Trade bill . . .

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• The House started debating the bill before even one copy of it was available, and while clerks were inserting another 300-page, last-minute amendment.

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• The final House version is 1,428 pages

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Quote of the Day: “Today, the animating principles of the American idea are entirely absent from public discourse. To the new Administration, American exceptionalism means an exceptional effort to harness an exceptionally big government in the cause of exceptionally massive spending. The can-do spirit means … A high-school student in Dillon, South Carolina (writing) to the President to ask him to do something about the peeling paint in her classroom. He read the letter out approvingly in a televised address to Congress. Imagine if … the national bureaucracy in Washington becomes responsible for grade- school paint jobs from Maine to Hawaii. What size of government would be required for such a project? And is it compatible with a constitutional republic?” — Mark Steyn

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Subject: The FEC brief, our accelerating growth, and the latest insanity from the politicians

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We got a fabulous response to our funding request for a Supreme Court brief about the campaign finance laws. We’re writing a check to our attorneys, and work will begin. Thank you, thank you, thank you. In other good news…

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We’re growing so fast that we feel compelled to share the latest numbers with you in the main body of the Dispatch, instead of in the Keeping Score section below my signature, as we usually do. Look at these numbers…-

Quote of the Day: “But does ‘the press’ mean the media….? You think in 1791 there were … people running around with fedoras that had … little press tickets in (them)? Is that what ‘press’ means? Doesn’t it cover the Xerox machine? Doesn’t it cover the … right of any individual to … write, to publish?” — Justice Anton Scalia

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Subject: Supreme Court invites us to make our case

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Do you have a right to Freedom of the Press, or do only the New York Times and the major broadcasters have that right? As it stands now…

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• The major established corporate media companies can spend unlimited amounts of money influencing federal elections, but you cannot.

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• You are subject to the limitations of the campaign finance laws, but media companies are not.

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• The media companies have Freedom of the Press, but you do not.

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Quote of the Day: “Security is mostly superstition.” — Helen Keller

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Subject: Don’t let them pass the PASS Act

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The American people have rejected the REAL ID Act, and the national ID card it would create. The politicians claim they can fix REAL ID by replacing it with something called the PASS ID, to be enacted by the PASS Act, S. 1261.

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The PASS Act is a fraud. PASS ID is REAL ID by another name.