Urgent Healthcare and Eco Action
Use Downsize DC to tell Congress to get it right!
The following two messages have been cribbed and formatted from recent, timely Downsize DC dispatches urging that we tell Congress what to do on 1) the pending government global-warming "edictsphere" (i.e. so-called cap and trade fiat-law) and 2) solving the healthcare crisis.
Apparently, the Senate is set to secretly ram through (er pass) nationalized healthcare-enabling legislation this very day, Saturday, November 20, 2009. [I don't think we're going to obey, Harry.]
Downsizer—Dispatch, November 19, 2009
Healthcare Crisis Solved!
Health insurance is cheap in some states. In others it costs as much as the lease on a Ferrari. This isn't because of any flaw in the free market. It's because we don't have a free market! What we have instead are laws that reward corporate welfare benefits to special interests and insurance companies.
The average medical plan in New Jersey costs $37,164 per year. The monthly premiums exceed the lease for a Ferrari!
By comparison, Indiana has far fewer corporate welfare mandates dictating what health insurance must cover. People in that state can choose between 43 plans costing less than $5,400 annually!
If the New Jersey family could buy medical insurance from an Indiana provider, they'd save over $31,000 a year!
Extend this to the entire country and the results would be dramatic.
One study indicates that this simple reform would make medical insurance instantly affordable for 12 million uninsured Americans! You can check it out here:
But I think the results would be even better. Once Americans have freedom of choice again...
State legislatures will start competing to repeal their corporate welfare mandates And insurance companies will compete to provide better coverage at lower prices
All American should have free market choices in health insurance! No American should have to pay corporate welfare benefits through their insurance premiums, or have to go without insurance. You can make this possible. DO IT!
Oppose the cancerous healthcare bill being pushed in the House and Senate. Oppose complicated insurance buying pools. Instead, please just fix the problems politicians created!
This issue is important to me, and I want to be represented by someone who shares my appreciation of market solutions instead of political solutions.
END OF SAMPLE LETTER
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Jim Babka, President
DownsizeDC.org, Inc.
SOURCE: The Ferrari example used in this message comes from "America's Health Care Crisis Solved" by J. Patrick Rooney & Dan Perrin, page 113
Downsizer—Dispatch, November 20, 2009
Cap and Trade is Bad Environmentalism
You may not believe global warming is happening. Or, you may not believe humans are responsible for it. But for the sake of argument, let's assume human-caused global warming is indeed happening. Conceding this, it turns out that… the effort to curb carbon emissions will be far more harmful than global warming itself!
Efforts to curb global warming make as much sense as spending $2 to save $1.
The International Energy Agency believes we must cut carbon emissions in half if we want to stop global warming. They also estimate that this will cost $45 trillion. Yet Dr. William Nordhaus of Yale calculates that the economic losses from global warming, if we do nothing to curb carbon emissions, will reach just $22 trillion this century. Dr. Nordhaus also estimates that proposals made by The Stern Review and Al Gore to curb carbon emissions would cost $17-25 trillion more than doing nothing.
And all of this assumes an effort in which the whole world cooperates, with no cheating!
If Congress imposes cap and trade on the U.S., or ratifies a climate treaty, it will not stop global warming. Instead, it will only damage the U.S. economy and drive more jobs overseas. That's because… many developing countries will not agree to participate!
We would be hypocrites to condemn them for this. They only want what we already have. Most importantly, there are sound environmental reasons why we should want them to gain our level of affluence... Wealthy nations like ours do better at protecting the environment:
Our water is safer and our air is cleaner.
We can afford to protect species from extinction.
We can afford research that constantly discovers how to do more with less, allowing us to grow more and more affluent while imposing fewer burdens on the environment.
Environmental protection will benefit from a wealthier world, not suffer from it. Developing nations will not sacrifice their progress just to please Western politicians, and we shouldn't want them to do so. If we really care about the environment, then we need these nations to become richer, not poorer.
The proposed schemes for a cap and trade law and a global climate treaty will…
Fail because of cheating or non-participation
Cost at least $2 for every $1 we gain, and probably far more
Impoverish America and the world, thereby destroying the innovation and environmental protections that free market affluence makes possible
Do not spend $2 in a vain attempt to save $1. Do not support a scheme that cannot work. Instead, support the economic progress that makes environmental protection possible. Do this by opposing the cap and trade bill, and any global climate treaty. Let free market innovation and affluence pave the way for solutions that will really work.
END OF SAMPLE LETTER
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