-- Ohio Health Care Compact Web Site Launched -- Help Secure Health Care Freedom in Ohio

Introduced into the Ohio Senate earlier this year, efforts by Tea Party Patriot groups in Ohio to enact a Health Care Compact were put on hold so as not to confuse or undermine efforts to pass Issue 3, the Ohio Health Care Freedom Amendment.

Now that Issue 3 has passed with a mandate in all 88 counties, and the voters of our state have clearly stated their support for health care freedom in Ohio, it is time to take the second step in securing true health care freedom for Ohio -- with the Ohio Health Care Compact.

As part of a 50 state initiative between the Health Care Compact Alliance and the Tea Party Patriots, Health Care Compacts have already been passed in 4 states (TX, MO, GA & OK ) and have been introduced in 11 other states, including the Ohio Health Care Compact.

To learn more about the Ohio Health Care Compact and how you can help fight to secure a true health care freedom in Ohio go to www.ohiohealthcarecompact.com.  

Health Care Policy is about who & what is covered.
The Health Care Compact is about who decides.
And Ohio should decide what is best for Ohio!

The Politically Incorrect Story of Thanksgiving

At this special time of year when we give thanks, it is important that we recognize the true origins of Thanksgiving.

With Happy Thanksgiving wishes to you, your family and your loved ones from the Cleveland Tea Party Patriots, the below story gives a politically incorrect but accurate history of Thanksgiving...

By Richard J. Maybury

Each year at this time school children all over America are taught the official Thanksgiving story, and newspapers, radio, TV, and magazines devote vast amounts of time and space to it. It is all very colorful and fascinating.

It is also very deceiving. This official story is nothing like what really happened. It is a fairy tale, a whitewashed and sanitized collection of half-truths which divert attent ion away from Thanksgiving's real meaning.

The official story has the pilgrims boarding the Mayflower, coming to America and establishing the Plymouth colony in the winter of 1620-21. This first winter is hard, and half the colonists die. But the survivors are hard working and tenacious, and they learn new farming techniques from the Indians. The harvest of 1621 is bountiful. The Pilgrims hold a celebration, and give thanks to God. They are grateful for the wonderful new abundant land He has given them.

The official story then has the Pilgrims living more or less happily ever after, each year repeating the first Thanksgiving. Other early colonies also have hard times at first, but they soon prosper and adopt the annual tradition of giving thanks for this prosperous new land called America.

The problem with this official story is that the harvest of 1621 was not bountiful, nor were the colonists hardworking or tenacious. 1621 was a famine year and many of the colonists were lazy thieves.

In his 'History of Plymouth Plantation,' the governor of the colony, William Bradford, reported that the colonists went hungry for years, because they refused to work in the fields. They preferred instead to steal food. He says the colony was riddled with "corruption," and with "confusion and discontent."    [Socialism always has corruption to gain power, confusion to deceive and discontent because it is so harmful, causing the people to suffer] The crops were small because "much was stolen both by night and day, before it became scarce eatable."

In the harvest feasts of 1621 and 1622, "all had their hungry bellies filled," but only briefly. The prevailing condition during those years was not the abundance the official story claims, it was famine and death. The first "Thanksgiving" was not so much a celebration as it was the last meal of condemned men.

But in subsequent years something changes. The harvest of 1623 was different. Suddenly, "instead of famine now God gave them plenty," Bradford wrote, & quot andthe face of things was changed, to the rejoicing of the hearts of many, for which they blessed God." Thereafter, he wrote, "any general want or famine hath not been amongst them since to this day." In fact, in 1624, so much food was produced that the colonists were able to begin exporting corn.
What happened?

After the poor harvest of 1622, writes Bradford, "they began to think how they might raise as much corn as they could, and obtain a better crop." They began to question their form of economic organization.

This had required that "all profits & benefits that are got by trade, working, fishing, or any other means" were to be placed in the common stock of the colony, and that, "all such persons as are of this colony, are to have their meat, drink, apparel, and all provisions out of the common stock." A person was to put into the common stock all he could, and take out only what he needed.

This "from each according to his ability, to each according to his need" was an early form of socialism, and it is why the Pilgrims were starving. Bradford writes that "young men that are most able and fit for labor and service" complained about being forced to "spend their time and strength to work for other men's wives and children." Also, "the strong, or man of parts, had no more in division of victuals and clothes, than he that was weak." So the young and strong refused to work and the total amount of food produced was never adequate.

To rectify this situation, in 1623 Bradford abolished socialism. He gave each household a parcel of land and told them they could keep what they produced, or trade it away as they saw fit. In other words, he replaced socialism with a free market, and that was the end of famines.

Many early groups of colonists set up socialist states, all with the same terrible results. At Jamestown, esta blished in 1607, out of every shipload of settlers that arrived, less than half would survive their first twelve months in America. Most of the work was being done by only one-fifth of the men, the other four-fifths choosing to be parasites. In the winter of 1609-10, called "The Starving Time," the population fell from five-hundred to sixty.

Then the Jamestown colony was converted to a free market, and the results were every bit as dramatic as those at Plymouth. In 1614, Colony Secretary Ralph Hamor wrote that after the switch there was "plenty of food, which every man by his own industry may easily and doth procure." He said that when the socialist system had prevailed, "we reaped not so much corn from the labors of thirty men as three men have done for themselves now."

Before these free markets were established, the colonists had nothing for which to be thankful. They were in the same situation as Ethiopians are today, and for th e same reasons. But after free markets were established, the resulting abundance was so dramatic that the annual Thanksgiving celebrations became common throughout the colonies, and in 1863, Thanksgiving became a national holiday.

Thus the real reason for Thanksgiving, deleted from the official story, is: Socialism does not work; the one and only source of abundance is free markets, and we thank God we live in a country where we can have them.

Happy Thanksgiving

Is Sen. Rob Portman making backroom deals with Sen Sherrod Brown over new Consumer Czar?

H/T Medina Tea Party Patriots

According to a recent article on Big Government, Senator Rob Portman may be breaking ranks with his party by voting to confirm the former Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray as the first director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), or in more accurate terms -- Consumer Financial Protection Czar.

The director of the CFPB is empowered to regulate almost any industry for any reason and cannot be removed for any reason other than malfeasance. The position is a five-year term, so the next president will have to deal with Cordray regulating our economy, despite the president’s wishes.

Many Conservatives are wondering why Portman would join Senate liberals in supporting Cordray, who has shown himself to be an extremely liberal Progressive. The below article indicates Portman may also be facing pressure and making backroom deals with Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH) to confirm Cordray, which is why it is imperative that we let Senator Portman know that we will not stand for this outrageous betrayal of conservative values.

Please contact Senator Portman and demand that he vote against the appointment of Richard Cordray for director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

Senator Rob Portman

D.C. Office Phone: 202-224-3353

Local Office Phone: 513-684-3265

Twitter: @robportman

From Big Government --

In the pitched battle over whether government should take over our health care system, a group of pro-life Democrat congressmen held the line to oppose the legislation because they knew the bill authorized funding for abortion.  Under intense pressure from the president and their pro-choice comrades in the Congress, the group, led by Rep. Bart Stupak (D-MI) flip-flopped when they received a letter from the president ensuring that government would not spend money for abortion.  They were had.

 

Now Sen. Rob Portman appears ready to “pull a Stupak.”  Under pressure from Democrat Sen. Sherrod  Brown, Portman appears ready to cut a deal to confirm former Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray to a five-year term to head the super-regulatory agency known as the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB).

Word on Capitol Hill is that Portman has assured Cordray he has no problems with his nomination and is asking for assurances that his concerns about the Bureau will be address – not in legislation, but in a letter.  Has Portman learned anything from the Stupak incident?  Apparently not.

Unlike Portman, Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL) is taking a principled stand against the creation of a new super regulatory agency and is not shaking in his boots.  Shelby has organized his colleagues who have pledged to oppose the nomination of Cordray or any other nominee unless the Bureau is reformed.  Unlike Portman, apparently, Shelby is smart enough to demand real statutory changes as opposed to “promised” changes.

The CFPB was structured in a way to give huge, and perhaps unconstitutional, power to its Director.  Alan Raul, who served as general counsel of the Office of Management and Budget and associate counsel to President Ronald Reagan, described the CFPB’s power as “an independent agency on steroids because Congress essentially exempted the director from any meaningful accountability or strong presidential oversight.”

As structured, the Director is empowered to regulate almost any industry for any reason and if Cordray is confirmed by the full Senate, would be given a five-year term and be removable only by malfeasance.  So if a Republican wins the presidential election, they would enjoy four years of Mr. Cordray regulating the economy, no matter what the president did or said.

Not only should the CFPB be reformed, it should be eliminated.  If Mr. Portman gets weak knees, he will ensure that another government regulatory agency – one with more power than most – will be around for a long time.

Please call Senator Portman and remind him he was not elected to make back room deals with Senator Sherrod Brown but to act with conservative conviction and integrity like Senator Richard Shelby (R-AL).

Senator Rob Portman

D.C. Office Phone: 202-224-3353

Local Office Phone: 513-684-3265

Twitter: @robportman

The Ohio Health Care Compact: The Second Step for Health Care Freedom in Ohio

Finally bringing the Constitutionality of Obamacare to an end the U.S. Supreme Court has decided to hear the lawsuits brought by 26 states and the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) sometime this spring.

Taking the first step towards healthcare freedom in Ohio and sending the U.S. Supreme Court a booming message against Obamacare, voters across the state -- Democrat, Republican and Independents alike -- passed the Ohio Healthcare Freedom Amendment with a mandate vote in all 88 counties.

Now it is time to take the second and most meaningful step in securing our Healthcare Freedom in Ohio! 

Regardless of the U.S. Supreme Court ruling on Obamacare, be it ruled Constitutional or Unconstitutional, the old healthcare system in our country was sorely lacking and clearly not working. 

An exciting & fast-growing 50 state initiative of the Tea Party Patriots & The Health Care Compact Alliance to enact Interstate Health Care Compacts, is the second step in securing true Healthcare freedom in Ohio. 

Health Care Compacts are quickly becoming a big hit for states looking to take back control of their health care and move the decision making process away from federal bureaucrats and closer to the people. These Constitutional Interstate Compacts (Article 1 Section 10) for Healthcare shift the responsibility of health care decisions closer to the people will give the states more flexibility in combating the rising costs of medicaid/medicare and health care in general.

The Health Care Compact has been introduced in 14 states and has passed the State House of Representatives in Montana and Colorado.  In more than 36 states, citizen groups and state legislators are actively considering the Health Care Compact.  In addition, the Governors for the states of Georgia, Oklahoma, Missouri & Texas have already signed the Health Care Compact into law.

Ready to take the second step in securing Health Care Freedom in Ohio, the Ohio Health Care Compact (SB 189) has already been introduced in the Ohio Senate (Click to read the full text).

To learn more about the Tea Party Patriots Ohio Health Care Compact efforts and how you can help, please click here. 
*Note - For more information or to set up an interview with the board of the Health Care Compact Alliance or a local Ohio supporter of the Compact please contact Marianne Gasiecki or Gary Young at Ohiohcc@gmail.com.

Real Cuts vs Fake Cuts

With the deadline for the Super Committee fast approaching Tea Party Patriots have put together this little clip to explain real cuts vs fake cuts.  As witnessed in the fights over the Debt Ceiling increase and Continuing Resolutions, the definition of "spending cuts" is much different in D.C. than it is in the real world in which we live.

In D.C. a spending cut is defined as spending less than they were GOING to spend, in the real world a spending cut is defined as spending less than you ARE spending....

It’s as simple as that. So when the Super Committee (or any politician) comes out with a plan, look at the summary tables at the back of the plan, after it’s published. Look at the level of spending at the start of the timeline, and look at the level of spending at the end of the timeline (the timeline is usually ten years).  If the number they end up with is smaller than the number they started with, that’s a REAL CUT. If the number they end up with is bigger than the number they started with, that’s a fake cut, a.k.a. business as usual.  

Don’t allow the politicians to use gimmicks to lie to you. When you hear the inevitable outcry about Drastic Cuts® destroying the country, you first must look at the numbers and check to see if they increase or decrease.

Click Here for contact info on members of the Super Committee and tell them you want REAL cuts!

Contact the "Super Committee"

The “Super Committee” was formed as a condition to the “Debt Ceiling” debate, this past late-summer’s effort to increase federal spending authority for the president without really saying so. We believe it is an unconstitutional construct, but it is there and we have to deal with it.

This Super Committee, comprised of twelve Congressmen (six from each party; half from the House and half from the Senate) was tasked to reduce the deficit. If the Super Committee does not come to bi-partisan terms, and Congress fails to pass the recommendations they propose, automatic “cuts” kick in.

Democrats are looking to pass $1.3 trillion in tax increases, with a similar amount in cuts, over the next 10 years. As usual, especially with the likes of Sen. John Kerry and Sen. Patty Murray sitting on this Super Committee, the Democrats are pushing for more spending on top of the tax increases. The same game plan they have been preaching for the last 3 years.

For a good analysis on the Super Committee, see this from The Heritage Foundation.

It appears that those involved are NOT attempting to look for real cuts. And any cuts to Medicare/Medicaid will be overturned as soon as the next Congress convenes.

Republicans offer to cut deficits by about $2.2 trillion over a decade; about one-third of that coming from increases in items such as Medicare premiums, the sale of public lands and airport fees -- measures that increase government revenue without raising taxes. The GOP plan also assumes that tax reform would generate economic growth that would also lift revenues.

The GOP plan would also cut about $500 billion from Medicare over the next decade and $185 billion from Medicaid, officials said.

Democrats say that elsewhere in the budget they plan to reduce deficits by more than $3 trillion over the coming decade, while financing a $450 billion jobs bill along the lines that President Barack Obama is recommending. The same worthless “jobs bill” that was defeated in the Senate.

Tea Party Patriots has railed over the last 2 ½ years - Reduce the size of government; Slash spending and Repeal Obamacare - for trillions in savings!

Credit rating agencies, yet again, have stated emphatically that nothing less than $4 to $5 trillion in spending cuts will stem another downgrade in the U.S. credit rating... but, apparently, members of the Super Committee believe their half-baked ideas (that they know will be rejected) will lead to some sort of consensus (and maybe political gain) in 2012?

Write to the Super Committee - but don’t just stop there; e-mail, phone, fax, and tweet!

Click here for a direct link to the Super Committee website.

Whatever you can do - create a presence, from Tea Party Patriots groups all across the country!

The lobbyists are all there, waiting to add more dollars to Super Committee members’ campaign coffers! We have millions of members, enthusiastic Patriots who stand for their Country, NOT Party! Put pressure on them for: NO increase in ANY taxes, and CUT spending, PERIOD!

“Super Committee” Members

Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-TX) Committee Co-Chair
Twitter: @RepHensarling

Phone: 202-225-3484
Fax: 202-226-4888

Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) Committee Co-Chair
Twitter: @PattyMurray

Phone: 202-224-2621
Fax: 202-224-0238
Toll Free: 866-481-9186

Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD)
Twitter: @ChrisVanHollen

Phone: 202-225-5341
Fax: 202-225-0375

Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ)
Twitter: @SenJonKyl

Phone: 202-224-4521
Fax: 202-224-2207

Sen. John Kerry (D-MA)
Twitter: @JohnKerry

Phone: 202-224-2742

Sen. Pat Toomey (R-PA)
Twitter: @SenToomey

Phone: 202-224-4254
Fax: 202-228-0284

Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT)

Phone: 202-224-2651
Fax: 202-224-9412

Sen. Rob Portman (R-OH)
Twitter: @robportman

Phone: 202-224-3353

Rep. Xavier Becerra (D-CA)
Twitter: @RepBecerra

Phone: 202-225-6235

Rep. Dave Camp (R-MI)

Phone: 202-225-3561
Fax: 202-225-9679

Rep. James Clyburn (D-SC)
Twitter: @Clyburn

Phone: 202-225-3315
Fax: 202-225-2313

Rep. Fred Upton (R-MI)
Twitter: @RepFredUpton

Phone: 202-225-3761
Fax: 202-225-4986

Tweeting to the Super Committee, should have a # setup... Example below-

@RepHensarling #SuperCommittee – NO tax inc., CUT spending #tpp

@RepHensarling #SuperCommittee - Repeal Obamacare, Save $2T #tpp

Call Your Senator; Repeal the CLASS Act

REPEAL THE CLASS ACT NOW!

A few weeks ago the bipartisan majority on the Democrat led Senate Appropriations Committee voted to defund part of the ObamCare law, the CLASS Act. The head of Health and Human Services, Kathleen Sebelius, and other Administrative wonks finally realized that the unsustainable program would be an albatross around their necks if they didn’t shelve it now.

However, it is not gone, just merely waiting in the background for some new infusion of taxpayer cash, to once again forge creative financing for the current Administration. This is where the “savings” in the ObamaCare bill came from and now it is finally out and for the whole nation to see the enormous failure of this program.

Polls are continuing to show that the law is going out of favor with most people as the following Reuters article highlighted...

(Reuters) - Americans' opinion of President Barack Obama's healthcare reform in October reached its lowest point since the law passed in March 2010, according to a monthly poll by the non-profit, non-partisan Kaiser Family Foundation.

The view of the law has been roughly evenly split since its passage, but in October 51 percent said they had an unfavorable opinion, while 34 percent said their opinion was favorable, poll results released on Friday showed.

Although Democrats were still much likelier to view the law favorably than Republicans or independents, the percentage of Democrats who said they and their families were better off under the healthcare law dropped significantly to 27 percent in October from 43 percent in September.

Yesterday on the Senate floor Senators Barrasso (WY), Thune (SD) and Sessions (AL) were discussing the need to repeal this program altogether and they  are right. Now is the time to get rid of another failed government program that would have only been yet another taxpayer subsidized program for years to come. Richard Foster the long time actuary for the government said this was a “recipe for disaster” and as such the Administration finally cried “uncle” and defunded it, so why would we keep it around in any form?

 Let’s see government shrink by at least one failed program and find out who the real heroes are in Congress by asking all of our Senators to Repeal the CLASS ACT now!

Call Senator Brown & Senator Portman and ask them to support S720 to

Repeal the CLASS Act.

Senator Sherrod Brown

Cleveland Office PH: (216) 522-7272
Cleveland Office Fax: (216) 522-2239

D.C. Office PH: (202) 224-2315
D.C. Office Fax: (202)228-6321
Email: http://brown.senate.gov/contact/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/sensherrodbrown

Senator Rob Portman