Don't trust the president, White House says

The White House: Don’t Take Us Seriously

Friday, June 19, 2009

U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, made the following statement after the Associated Press reported that the White House said "the president's rhetoric shouldn't be taken literally" on health care.

"On Monday, the President ‘promised' the American people, ‘If you like your health care plan, you'll be able to keep your health care plan, period.' Today, the White House told the American people that they cannot, and should not, take President Obama at his word."

"A promise that can't be taken literally is not a promise at all. Americans with private health insurance want to keep it - they literally want to keep the insurance they have - and they should be able to do so. The American people like President Obama personally, and they want to be able to trust him. But when his own White House admits that the President's rhetoric is detached from reality, the President erodes that trust."

Congressman Michael McCaul on the Economy

The following is from the economy section of Michael McCaul's web page. He is the congressman representing the 10th District of Texas. Find out who your congressman is by using the link in the Tool Box of the sidebar for writing your congressman. Then, instead of writing him, just google his/her name to find his/her web page.

Quoting Michael McCaul's Web Page:

The economy continues to be our nation's primary challenge. There is no doubt that something needs to be done to rebuild our nation’s economic engines. But history has proven that we cannot spend, borrow, and tax our way to prosperity.

Giving away your hard-earned tax dollars to companies that made poor and often unethical business decisions, and spending your money on pork projects that don’t create jobs only serves to grow our national debt. Economists share my concern that we are headed toward hyperinflation: prices will go up, the value of the dollar will decline, and interest rates on credit cards and mortgages will skyrocket. If we continue down this path, it appears that our children will be worse off than we are or their grandparents were. It’s not supposed to be this way.

I support a budget plan that will move Americans toward prosperity without spending record amounts of taxpayer dollars and without increasing the tax burden on families and businesses. Especially during a recession, our priority should be to help businesses succeed by creating a business-friendly environment with reasonable tax burdens and responsible regulations that won’t stifle job creation. Minimizing the tax burden on families will allow them greater flexibility to make ends meet. Lowering the Capital Gains tax will encourage private investment in our financial markets.

At the beginning of 2008, I stopped requesting earmarks. Earmarks are valuable tools for our communities, but the system is susceptible to waste, fraud, and abuse. I have asked the Democratic leadership to make the earmark process transparent for every American to see. The system should be 100% transparent as to the sponsor and recipient and subject to an up or down vote in the House. Until that happens, I continue to ask my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to join me and not take part in the system.

I will continue to stand up for your tax dollars and cast my votes in favor of economic prosperity.

Health Care Reform

As House Democrats have begun to work with President Obama to bring the American people a Health Care Reform plan--a government option--socialized health care--freedom conscious citizens have expressed deep concern. If this forming plan becomes law, it will arguably represent the largest step toward socialism in United States history.

In a simple barter economy, two parties exchanges goods and/or services of equal value. In a (free) market, goods and services are brought to the market and exchanged for other goods and services of an equal value, although the trade is done indirectly by using "money" as an intermediate good. Health care is one of many goods and services available in our market. If health care is classified as a human right rather than as a service, then when health care is provided universally without regard for individual contributions to the market then the market is no longer free. When the distribution of goods and services is controlled centrally, rather than by the individual choices of the citizenry, the free market is lost being replaced with a communist-style centrally directed "market." The foundation of choice and accountability in a free market--such that you can get from the market something generally regarded as equal to what you bring to it-- is essential to the foundation for a prosperous economy and for human productivity.

Communist countries like The People's Republic of China and Vietnam have recognized the benefits of a free market and have "reduced state control of the economy in order to stimulate growth" (wikipedia). In our frenzied economic and manipulating political climate, President Obama and other politicians have increased political control over the economy, delaying a natural economic recovery from ails produced by previous government interventions in the economy (such as policies to increase home ownership beyond natural market levels, resulting in the excess demand and finally the housing price fallout of 2006-2009) as well as perhaps many other causes.

Finally, in order to preserve (and in some cases reclaim) our constitutional freedoms and to promote national prosperity, it is our opportunity to become aware of congressional proceedings and to become involved in learning for ourselves and then educating the public mind, awakening in every American a love for freedom, choice and accountability.

As we come to accept and act upon these values, we will strengthen home, family, state and country, preserving for future generations the freedoms and liberties won by our forefathers.