Stop 'bamacare, Whoa C&T,
Audit Fed
Another collection from Downsize DC to stimulate communication with your federal legislators
The following three messages have been cribbed and formatted from recent, timely Downsize DC dispatches urging that we a) full stop the Obamacare insanity, b) reconsider the science dictating cap and trade, and c) help Ron Paul initiate a true full audit of the Fed.
Downsizer—Dispatch, December 08, 2009
Take Time to Stop Irrational National Healthcare
Please send another letter to Congress opposing the cancerous healthcare bill. There's new data you can use to make your case. Just borrow from (or copy and paste) the sample letter below . . .
START OF SAMPLE LETTER
I'm pleased to learn that Senator Baucus finally confessed, during a debate in the Senate on Wednesday, December 2, that the true ten-year cost of the healthcare bill will be closer to $2.5 trillion than the nearly $1 trillion cost he has sold to the public.
Increasing numbers of other Americans are following what you do very closely. We are well aware that Congressional leaders have rigged the CBO score. We know that this has been done by delaying the start point for much of the spending so that it falls beyond the 10-year window evaluated by the CBO. In addition to the unsupportable true cost, there are also these problems…
The CBO—Congressional Budget Office—reported on Monday, November 30, that the healthcare bill is likely to increase insurance premiums for many people, not lower them. This is not what we were promised.
And Richard S. Foster, the chief actuary of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, estimates that the bill's health insurance mandates will cause…
Individuals to pay $62 billion in fines between 2014 and 2019,
Businesses to pay $118 billion in tax penalties
ENOUGH! Scrap this cancerous bill. Do it now!
If you want to you can check my sources here (though you guys should already know this stuff):
Hackers have exposed emails from the CRU (Climatic Research Unit) at the University of East Anglia. These emails reveal shocking things. And what we’re learning should cause us to pause, instead of rushing through the cap and trade bill. Please send Congress another letter opposing cap and trade.
START OF SAMPLE LETTER
You can copy or borrow from my letter to Congress to write your own…
Revelations of anti-scientific behavior at the CRU (Climatic Research Unit) undermines the justification for cap and trade.
The case for human-caused global warming depends on claims made by the UN's IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change), which in turn depend on so-called research by the CRU. But please take note...
Emails hacked from the CRU reveal that key advocates of the global warming hypothesis may have knowingly corrupted the scientific process. For example:
CRU researchers may have manipulated temperature histories in order to get the results they wanted. They have systematically refused to expose either their data or their manipulations to testing by the wider scientific community. This kind of testing is a crucial component of the scientific process.
Real scientists wouldn't behave this way.
CRU researchers have also demonstrated a keen desire to silence critics, as well to devise tactics to rebuff and resist Freedom of Information requests. The scientific process requires peer critiques.
Real scientists wouldn't behave this way.
The hypothesis that rising atmospheric CO2 should lead to global warming seems plausible. But it’s not an open and shut case, and the scientific process is famous for refuting seemingly plausible ideas. Now the practices of the CRU have set back the global warming hypothesis many years—perhaps to its starting point. The C02 hypothesis needs further, OPEN testing. It cannot be taken for granted because it sounds reasonable, nor because it came from people with titles and degrees.
Your responsibility in this matter seems clear…
You must reject the cap and trade bill, and craft no further policy until you have better evidence from which to work. I will be watching to see if you behave responsibly, and I will be discussing your re-election with fellow voters in light of how you handle to this issue.
Rep. Ron Paul's Federal Reserve Transparency Act is making progress…
The House version of the bill (H.R. 1207) has 313 co-sponsors
The Senate version (H.R. 604) has 30 co-sponsors
And last week, Ron Paul along with Rep. Alan Grayson introduced a version of the bill as an amendment to H.R. 3996, Rep. Barney Frank's mammoth banking regulation bill. In spite of Chairman Frank's opposition, the Paul-Grayson amendment passed the House Financial Services Committee 43-26!
This is reason to celebrate, but it's also the first stage in a long process. Unless we keep up the pressure on Congress, this amendment could be stripped from the bill in later negotiations.
With this in mind, please write a letter to Congress demanding an audit of the Fed. The hardwired portion of the letter at DownsizeDC.org begins, "I support H.R. 1207, the Federal Reserve Transparency Act of 2009, and S. 604, the Federal Reserve Sunshine Act of 2009. Please pass legislation requiring an audit of the Fed."
Paul-Grayson calls for an audit of the Fed, but it also allays some (probably unfounded) fears about interfering with the Fed's Independence…
it provides for a 180-day wait before public disclosure of the Fed's individual market actions
it also clarifies that a Fed audit will not give Congress, or the Government Accountability Office, any control over monetary policy
Rep. Paul has said that those who claim they want to protect the Fed's "independence" really want to protect its secrecy. The Paul-Grayson Amendment would protect the Fed's independence but also provide transparency.
Given the Fed's power to set interest rates and cause inflation, no branch of government impacts the lives of all Americans, every day, quite like the Fed does. The American people have the right to know what is happening to their dollars.
That said, I still oppose H.R. 3996 overall, and want you to vote against it (or against a similar measure in the Senate):
It provides mechanisms for more bailouts
More regulations are not the answer because they punish the innocent with compliance costs and can do nothing to prevent miscalculation or fraud
It gives the Fed more powers, even though Fed policy is largely to blame for the boom-and-bust cycle, inflationary bubbles, and the recent collapse of the economy
Paul-Grayson must be included in the final bill that comes before a vote in Congress. Although I urge defeat of H.R. 3996, the Paul-Grayson amendment will make it less bad.
But the best way to get a Fed audit is to pass H.R. 1207 and S. 604.
Whatever you do, remember that the American people will be watching.
