No Thanks Mr. President--I'll Indoctrinate My Own Kids

Next Tuesday, September 8th, President Obama will address students nationwide as described at the U.S. Department of Education's home page. This has never happened before.

It's fully possible that the message is innocuous enough. If he sticks to the message sent to school administrators that would be great. I would hope for a message stressing the importance of education with a challenge to students to excel in areas of math, science, engineering, and medicine. These are key skills the economy needs in order to expand, innovate, and create.

I have a natural inclination to suspect ulterior motives. I'll admit that I don't trust the current federal government. Let's face it--adults are just too difficult to re-educate. The younger generations are much more malleable. I have a hard time not picturing some left-leaning suggestions creeping into the text of the speech. What's the over/under on how many times the word "green" will be in the speech?

Educators have been sent suggested activities for this speech including:

Grades 7-12
Guided Discussion:
What is President Obama inspiring you to do? What is he challenging you to do?
What do you believe are the challenges of your generation?
How can you be a part of addressing these challenges?

PreK-6
Students could discuss their responses to the following questions:
What do you think the President wants us to do?
Does the speech make you want to do anything?
Are we able to do what President Obama is asking of us?

I emailed the principal of my son's school to just ask if she has heard about the broadcast or had plans to participate. She responded that she didn't know anything about it, but would ask the teachers. Nationwide this event has parents prepared to pull their kids from class for the day. I don't think I'll go that far. At least for now, I'm still confident that I'm more of a hero to my son than the POTUS. I'm more concerned about biased teachers brow-beating progressive activism into kids in the classroom. What I don't need is someone committing my children to serve Barack Obama.

Healthcare Takeover Has Been Tried Before

I ran across this speech from Reagan today. Watch the clip after the jump. There is also an abridged (and 'hip') version that Glenn Beck has put out there. I recommend listening to the whole thing because of how familiar the arguments are and how well he exposes the motivations behind government controlled healthcare. This recording (it is audio only) was apparently released in 1961.

"What can we do about this? Well, you and I can do a great deal. We can say right now that we want no further encroachment on these individual liberties and freedoms and that you demand the continuation of our traditional free enterprise system. You and I can do this. "

The currently proposed version of healthcare reform may not survive thanks to all those that have joined the debate during this August recess. Charles Krauthammer writes that the next version will surely come, may garner wide bipartisan support, and still accomplish the goal of socialized medicine--only delayed a little longer.

A Few Reasons to Oppose the Current Health Care Reforms

First, here are a couple of good articles from people who have actually read the bill.

• This one addresses 5 important aspects of the current health care system that would be destroyed.
• This one that takes issue with health care as a basic 'right'.

Lots more to discuss of course so now is an important time to discover and discuss the policy points--which the supporters don't seem to want to do.

Top Reasons to Stop the Cap-And-Trade Bill

Last Friday's House vote to pass the "American Clean Energy and Security Act" was like taking a kick to the gut. Especially for me in the Washington state 8th district, where our moderate Republican representative Dave Reichert was one of the eight Republicans that voted in favor of it. I have more to say about that later.

In the meantime, read this article of the top 50 reasons to oppose the bill that has now gone to the Senate. It is a long read, but an important one as there is still time to voice your opinion to your senators.

No Plans for the Fourth?

If you are interested in spending some time this July 4th with some patriotic people that believe in limited-government and fiscal responsibility--join a Tea Party event. You can find an event near you through TeaPartyPatriots.org.

"Thomas Paine" Open Letter to the President

Health Care Isn't Free

The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office just posted a brief analysis of the draft legislation for health care reform. No surprise that it is going to cost you--a lot.

According to our preliminary assessment, enacting the proposal would result in a net increase in federal budget deficits of about $1.0 trillion over the 2010-2019 period. When fully implemented, about 39 million individuals would obtain coverage through the new insurance exchanges. At the same time, the number of people who had coverage through an employer would decline by about 15 million (or roughly 10 percent), and coverage from other sources would fall by about 8 million, so the net decrease in the number of people uninsured would be about 16 million or 17 million.

So, if we quickly do the math: $1,000,000,000,000 / 17,000,000 = $58,823 per net individual insured by the plan--over a ten year period. This does not include the cost of debt in the form of interest payments and inflation needed to fund the plan--and does not include the possibility of significant expansion of Medicaid in the future.

This will be funded by increased taxes at some point. The "Affordable Health Choices Act" goes into committee for debate today. Call your congressional representatives and let them know how much you are willing pay for this program.