President Obama signed into law the Obama/Pelosi/Reid health care takeover legislation. It was a bitter, tough defeat but looking back it was also a turning point for the Tea Party movement and our nation.
Most Americans watched the debate and the grassroots activity. They heard our message:
- A government takeover of one-sixth of our economy would mean higher costs, bigger deficits, and more waste.
- Government-run health care would mean federal bureaucrats making health care decisions instead of patients and their doctors.
- Government health care would stifle medical innovation, limit health care choices, and raise insurance premiums.
Our fellow citizens made their voices heard - pouring into town hall meetings by the thousands, attending rallies like Americans for Prosperity's Hands off My Health Care bus tour events, calling and emailing their members of Congress, reaching out to their friends and neighbors to ask them to get involved.
In one of its first acts, the new House of Representatives voted for a full REPEAL of the health care takeover. Americans for Prosperity continues to push for repeal in the Senate and we will be urging the House to strip from the 2011/2012 federal budget funds for Obama/Pelosi care.
During 2009 and 2010 we had in some ways a simpler task - to stop the big government, big spending excesses coming out of Washington, D.C. Together we said "NO" to and stopped the job-killing energy tax known as cap-and-trade. Together, with a broad coalition we said "NO" to and stopped card check which would have made labor unions even more powerful while harming our economic freedoms more deeply. We came so close to stopping the health care takeover.
Now we possess a greater opportunity but a more challenging political proposition. We will be saying "YES" to and pushing for a federal budget that will dramatically cut government spending and bureaucracy that kills jobs, piles on debt for our children and that is endangering the American Dream.
Saying "YES," actually passing legislation to cut spending, to roll back big government and rein in the out-of-control Environmental Protection Agency is exciting but it will be more difficult. We're taking on entrenched special interests whose very identities are wrapped up in pet government programs. We'll be savaged by a national media who will accuse us of being uncaring, heartless and the like. We'll be demagogued by liberals in Congress and by President Obama who want to keep their massive government bureaucracy in place for their own political and ideological reasons.
But, here's the exciting part.
We've been on defense for a long time and simply preventing bad things from happening is no way to actually turn our great nation in a new direction.
Now, we're on offense in Congress. The House repeal of Obama/Pelosi health care was a good start. With the 2011/2012 federal budget we have the opportunity to set a new course. That's why we're going to ask you to join us in insisting, encouraging, and holding accountable the Republican-controlled House of Representatives when it comes to producing a budget that dramatically cuts spending while bringing badly needed budget reforms.
We'll have more on this effort in coming days and weeks. But trust me, it's going to be a big fight!
And, it's one we can and will win.
