On the social medicine senate vote, here are the stats showing you how much each senator has gotten from the health industry. My own Portland senator, Wyden, got over 1.5 million dollars. I really don’t think someone paid that much by the health industry can represent my health concerns for any type of social medicine program. Same thing is true if you look at their cozy relations with Wall Street. Next fall is a wonderful opportunity to send all of these blokes (Republican and Democratic) home.
Archive for the ‘politics’ Category
What the senators got from the health industry
Thursday, February 4th, 2010Changes in Washington, D.C.
Tuesday, January 26th, 2010Get ready for massive changes in Washington, D.C. next fall.
Start getting ready for the November, 2010 elections. Remember the motto (unless you like being abused): If they’re “IN;” they’re “OUT.”
Remember this on the 2010 Election Day. . .
1. Your U.S. House & Senate have voted themselves $4,700 and $5,300 raises.
2. They voted to NOT give you a Social Security cost of living raise in 2010 and 2011.
3. Your Medicare premiums will go up $285.60 for the 2-years and you will not get the 3% COLA or $660/yr. Your total 2-year loss and cost is $1,600 or $3,200 for husband and wife. Plain enough?
4. Every member of Congress will get an added $10,000 which is putting them very close to $200,000 per year. They’ve exempted themselves from the healthcare changes they wish to enact on us. Sounds like an elite class to me. They should be on the same health and pension plan we are: Social security and Medicare – or they go home.
5. Do you feel taken advantaged of? They vote themselves a raise and better benefits. They only care about WE THE PEOPLE on election day, right? You never did anything about it in the past. The time for action is near!!!!
6. Do you really think that Nancy, Barbara, Patty, Harry, Chris, Charlie, Barney, John Murtha, et al, care about you? SEND THE MESSAGE — You’re FIRED.
7. Our present elected representatives are loyal to their party. They are bribable, do what is in their OWN best interest. They have completely ignored the massive debt this country is in and are increasing it without regard to the taxpayers who will have to pay for it all.
8. President Obama isn’t leading any more. Bernanke (with the help of Congress) shoved billions to Wall Street and corrupt corporations under the motto “they are too big to fail”. That statement is immoral and unethical. Once core values are sacrificed, there is no leadership or vision. As a result, Bernanke should be out of there. Meanwhile, a stimulus plan that was supposed to create jobs didn’t. Most of the money was wasted.
9. Both political parties have tried to build a social medicine plan when both of them are owned by the health industry. One of my senators has received over 1.5 million dollars from the health industry. I can’t trust him to put together a social medicine program for me.
*** THIS IS NOT ABOUT POLITICAL PARTIES!
IN 2010 YOU WILL HAVE A CHANCE TO GET RID OF Up to 1/3 OF THE SENATE AND 100% OF THE HOUSE.
The election in 2010 will be a sea-change to the mindset of any member of Congress who may survive..
The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else. It is time for you to lead. Send ‘em home. Pass this post on to your friends. As them to stand up. Write to those representing them in Washington.
Oregon’s Measure 66 and 67
Friday, January 8th, 2010One hotly debated topic in Oregon right now is the vote in January on 26 regarding measures 66 and 67.
A vote FOR measure 66 will mean:
• Taxes for wealthy Oregonians (about $250,000 for households, $125,000 for individuals) will increase.
• No income taxes on the first $2400 of unemployment benefits received in 2009.
• The resulting estimated $472 million raised will provide funds for education, health care, public safety, and other services.
• The increases are permanent.
A vote FOR measure 67 will mean:
• The $10 minimum tax for corporations increases to $150.
• The tax rate for many corporations will increase, along with some filing fees.
• As with measure 66, the resulting estimated $472 million raised will provide funds for education, health care, public safety, and other services.
• The increases are permanent.
We urge a NO vote on both of these issues.
• People supporting the taxes say it will only tax the rich. They are wrong. The increase will be passed on to the customers, and you will pay more for gas, groceries, and services.
• It is estimated that the tax will cost Oregon 70,000 jobs, increasing unemployment.
• State spending is increased, not decreased as it should be.
• Small businesses will suffer major damage. If the tax passes, we will immediately increase business costs. Many small businesses will have to close, increasing unemployment. Some businesses will move to Vancouver and other places.
• Measure 66 will cause many small farms in Oregon to close. That means you pay a higher grocery bill and the farmers will be hurt, some losing their farm.
• Voting for these measures will give you the largest tax increase in the history of Oregon. It will give our state the second highest income tax in the nation. It is not a good idea to saddle Oregonians during the largest economic downturn in a generation with the largest tax increase in Oregon’s history.
• If the measures pass, the taxes are retroactive to the first of 2009. You probably didn’t have enough taxes taken out of your salary to cover it. If you are out of work now but worked some in 2009, you are probably going to owe money.
• The Portland Business Alliance urges a NO vote of these measures. So does many of
the Chamber of Commerces: Beaverton, North Clackamas County, Salam, Wilsonville, and many others.
• The Oregonian and many other newspapers in the state urge a NO vote on measures 66 and 67,
• The measures will delay economic recovery in Oregon.
• The legislature ignored tax advice and sided with special interests. Even this vote is riddled with special interest money. Don’t be deceived.
Don’t be fooled. Don’t let the special interests that bought the legislators buy your vote.
Vote on the measures and vote NO on both. Then vote the legislators out that even proposed this nonsense in our tough economic times.
Oregon can pay its bills by managing the money they have better and cutting those salary increases. Here’s an example of how the state can save - companies that are not involved with energy are buying energy tax credits at a profit, cutting into the state income. Wal-Mart, for example, paid 22.6 million last year to the right to clam in 33.6 million in energy tax credits. The state is out the full 33.6 million in tax revenues, money that would have gone through the general fund to schools and health services. And Wal-Mart isn’t alone. Other companies at the top of the list playing this game are Costco and U.S. Bank – two of America’s wealthiest businesses.
Be sure vote. In voting you lead, you make a statement. Encourage others to vote. On issues, be willing share your reasons for why you are voting for or against the measures. For more on real leadership, see http://www.creatingnewworlds.org/beyond.htm.
Social medicine - the problem with it in America - Urgent!
Friday, November 20th, 2009This Is Not A Drill. This Is the Real Thing.
Majority Leader Harry Reid is planning to ram through the massive government health care takeover bill with a crucial preliminary vote likely Saturday and a full Senate vote by next week.
More and more Americans oppose this 2,000-page fraudulent scheme, so House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Reid and President Obama are trying to get it done quickly.
Call or email your Senators now! The Capitol switchboard is (202) 224-3121. To reach your senators by email, please click here: U.S. Senators.
• Ask them to vote NO on cloture on the Motion to Proceed.
• Tell your senators you want them to vote against any advancement of the health care takeover.
A cloture vote on a Motion to Proceed will probably take place by Saturday.
Sixty votes are needed on this vote, so if all 40 Republican senators oppose it and only one Democrat or Independent joins them, the bill is dead.
Several Democrats are seriously considering voting against the motion.
Call or email your Senators now! The Capitol switchboard is (202) 224-3121. To reach your senators by email, please click here: U.S. Senators.
Again, calls are needed now to your U.S. Senators! Especially in the following states where several Senators are wavering:
• Arkansas residents, must call:
Senator Pryor’s office (202) 224-2353
Senator Lincoln’s office (202) 224-4843
• Connecticut residents, must call:
Senator Lieberman’s office (202) 224-4041
• Indiana residents, must call:
Senator Bayh’s office (202) 224-5623
• Nebraska residents, must call:
Senator Nelson’s office (202) 224-6551
• West Virginia residents, must call:
Senator Byrd’s office (202) 224-3954
• North Dakota residents, must call:
Senator Dorgan’s office (202) 224-2551
Senator Conrad’s office (202) 224-2043
Call today!
Here’s What’s Wrong With the Bill
The Senate version will allegedly cost $849 billion. But that is a fraud, since it leaves out a quarter of a trillion dollar “fix” for Medicare payments to doctors over the next 10 years. The Senate already defeated that dishonest dodge, but Reid is right back trying it again. Also, every federal health care program has exceeded initial cost estimates by billions and billions of dollars. A full-scale takeover will bankrupt our nation.
The current bill is a chamber of horrors:
• New tax-supported subsidies to purchase private health plans that cover abortion on demand;
• Watered down abortion federal funding restrictions;
• Many new taxes, including taxes on medical device makers, a 5 percent tax on cosmetic surgeries, and penalties on American households with incomes over $200,000; a government-run “public option” health insurance plan that will destroy private insurance;
• A mandate for all Americans to purchase a government-approved plan or go to jail;
• A mandate for employers to offer insurance or pay a fine, which will spur many to pay the fine and end employee insurance plans;
• $500 billion in Medicare cuts for older Americans, thus introducing rationing;
• Subsidies for “end-of-life” counseling.
President Obama said last week that he wanted a bill that would not be “restricting women’s insurance choices.” He has promised Planned Parenthood that he would force taxpayers to fund “reproductive care,” i.e., abortions. Reid and Pelosi also want taxpayers to fund abortions.
The health care takeover attempt is full of paybacks to various leftwing constituencies. The bill would also change Medicaid eligibility rules that could put nearly 21 percent of the U.S. population on Medicaid, the federal-state medical funding plan for the poor, according to a study cited by the Heritage Foundation.
A Plan to Turn Us Into Government Serfs
A prime goal of the Left is to make as many Americans as possible dependent on government until the private sector is overwhelmed and we all become subjects, not free citizens.
Obama, Pelosi and Reid want to force socialized medicine on the nation. This is about far more than medical costs. It’s a way to turn us into government serfs who will be afraid to speak out against government erosion of our freedoms lest we jeopardize our loved ones’ access to government-controlled health care.
In communist and socialist nations, the people who get first-class care are those who cooperate with government party officials. If this scheme succeeds, our children and grandchildren will not grow up in a free country. It is that serious.
Again, calls are needed now to your U.S. Senators.
Ask them to vote NO on cloture on the Motion to Proceed. Tell your senators you want them to vote against any advancement of the health care takeover.
ACTION
Call or email your Senators now! The Capitol switchboard is (202) 224-3121. To reach your senators by email, please click here: U.S. Senators.
Thank you for making your voice heard!
Sincerely in Christ,
Robert Knight
Senior Writer and Washington, D.C. Correspondent
To learn more about the government health care takeover plan and its threat to freedom, please request our DVD The Health Care Lie!
Robert Knight is Senior Writer and Washington, D.C. Correspondent for Coral Ridge Ministries and the author of Fighting For America’s Soul.
Here’s one example: Republican Senator Charles Grassley has taken two million dollars from the health care sector. How can he represent the health concerns of any constituents from Iowa? Why can’t other senators (such as our own Wyden and Wu) stand up and tell him that? Why is he even involved in this vote with that record?
Note: I’m not against social medicine. The social medicine system in Switzerland saved my life in 1989. What I am against is a medical system that doesn’t work run by the insurance and pharmaceutical companies.
Call your Senator today!! Stop Senate bill 909–Hate Crimes Bill criminalizing teaching Biblical Truth
Wednesday, May 20th, 2009The U.S. Senate is scheduled to vote any day on a federal “hate crimes” bill that will pave the way for persecuting Christians and threatening our freedoms of religion, speech, and association.
Dr. D. James Kennedy, and Coral Ridge Ministries have warned for many years against this threat to our way of life and our children’s freedom to live out their faith.
The Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Prevention Act (S. 909) is the Senate version of a bill that passed the House in April. A cornerstone of the “gay” political agenda, it would raise “sexual orientation” to a legal status equivalent to that of real civil rights categories such as race or ethnicity, and it would introduce for the first time into federal law the radical concept of “gender identity.” Since “sexual orientation” is not clearly defined, it would afford special legal protections to pedophiles and other sexual deviants that ordinary Americans won’t get.
In addition, S. 909 would:
• Put pressure on police and prosecutors to devote more time and money to some victims’ cases and not others.
• Vastly expand the federal government’s power to intervene in criminal cases, whether local authorities want this or not.
• Create a taxpayer-funded slush fund for “education” programs that lump conservative Christians among “hate groups.”
• Have a chilling effect on free speech by making unpopular ideas a basis for harsher treatment in criminal proceedings.
• Add a layer of law that is utterly unnecessary. There is no evidence that “hate crime” victims receive less justice. Everyone deserves equal treatment under the law—no more, no less.
Widely known homosexual activist Andrew Sullivan recently said this:
The real reason for hate crimes is not the defense of human beings from crime. There are already laws against that-and Matthew Shepard’s murderers were successfully prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law in a state with no hate crimes at the time. The real reason for the invention of hate crimes was a hard-left critique of conventional liberal justice and the emergence of special interest groups which need boutique legislation to raise funds for their large staffs and luxurious buildings.
Please call or email your senators now to voice opposition to this dangerous bill. The Senate switchboard is (202) 224-3121 or (202) 225-3121. To identify your senators and reach them directly by phone or email, click here and then choose your state near the top.
Here are three key points to tell your senators:
This bill:
Is an Assault on Liberty of Conscience. In free countries, criminal acts are punished—not beliefs or views. The proposed hate crimes bill would result in two convictions—one for the criminal act, and another for the beliefs or thoughts behind it. This is a road to “thought crime” tyranny that is unfolding already in Europe and Canada.
Is not needed. Every state legal code already protects men and women, whatever their “actual or perceived … sexual orientation,” against criminal assault. There is no hate-crime “epidemic” in America. The FBI reports that so-called hate crimes, which are difficult to identify because only God can know the human heart, are a tiny fraction of all crimes.
Puts Pastors At Risk For Prosecution. Anyone, including pastors, can be accused of creating a “climate of hate” that leads to violence, merely for speaking biblical truth. Under Pennsylvania’s hate crimes law, 11 Christians were arrested and jailed in 2004 merely for preaching the gospel at a Philadelphia homosexual street festival. Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas), a former judge, said that under this federal bill, clergymen and others could be charged with encouraging or inducing a “hate crime” if they preach against homosexuality.
Please call your senators now to respectfully request their position on this bill and to urge them to vote “No” on S. 909. Among other things, this bill is a giant step toward the criminalization of Christianity.
The Recession 1 - We are not in Kansas any more
Tuesday, April 21st, 2009“Toto, I’ve got a felling we’re not in Kansas anymore.”Dorothy, in The Wizard of Oz
No matter how one looks at our world, the nation, and our personal lives today, one thing is certain. Extremely major shifts are taking place at this point in history on a global scale, and it is essential for even our survival to understand these. Our institutions as we know them: government, medical, economic, educational, and even the church have often become nonfunctional. Unless you understand this shift and how to lead through this you are going to have a serious problem.
Unfortunately for most of us, we build an illusion around that somehow, in some way, things will keep on going. And we keep on going like we always gone. We stay in our illusion and try to muddle on. Like the old cliché, however, if you keep on doing what you always done, you will keep on getting what you’ve always got. Unless there is a sense of desperateness (dissatisfaction), it is difficult to initiate change. This sense of desperateness is already sweeping a nation.
I like the story in the Bible of blind Bartimaeus as Jesus is leaving Jericho on his way to Jerusalem for the last week of his life. As the man is screaming to Jesus for mercy, Jesus replies with what seems like a really stupid question.
“What do you want Me to do for you?” Mark 10:51
The reply of the man is the heart cry of each of us.
“Rabboni, that I may receive my sight.” Mark 10:51b
Each of us is trapped in our illusions and we can’t see what God is really doing and our part in the Kingdom Enterprise. Until we can see that and claim authority in our lives in terms of this, nothing changes and we remain trapped in our illusions. Jesus will give us that vision if we ask, just like He did with Bartimaeus.
Dr. Wallnau speaking on the 7 mountains
Sunday, March 29th, 2009In an earlier posting we mentioned that Dr. Lance Wallnau will be speaking April 3-4 at the Portland Christian Chamber of Commerce conference. As we mentioned, Lance Wallnau, a business coach, has identified 7 cultural mountains: business, government, arts and entertainment, media, education, family, and church. Christians should be involved in leading the transformation that is needed in each of these.
Lance is a dynamic teacher with a gift for imparting the Word of God. His anointed messages are remembered years afterwards, He captivates his audiences by humor, illustrations, drawings, and a fresh vocabulary which penetrates deep into the heart with incredible authority, clarity, and personal application.
Lance’s prophetic teaching helps people see a clearer path into transformation. His unique style and humor are designed to keep you smiling so it isn’t too painful when the truth hits home. Such high intensity in the Holy Spirit, accompanied by his pointed, colorful delivery, and use of diagrams and instruments enable him to impact his audiences and clients worldwide. His teaching is an unforgettable experience.
If you can’t make the conference or want to hear him free, you can catch him speaking at the International Life Center on Saturday, April 4 at 6:30 p.m. No reservation is necessary. The address is 10014 NE Glisan, Portland, OR.
What the Obama Inaugural Means
Tuesday, January 20th, 2009Watching the inaugural today was a very emotional experience for me. I lived in Washington, DC from 1962 to 1968. I walked that mall back then during that March on Washington (August of 1963) at the mall when King spoke and gave his I Have a Dream speech. The emotions of that moment still flood my mind. It is still amazing what happened from that astonishing non-violent action.
Then JFK was shot (November 1963) and I was caught up in the emotions of Washington with the loss of this leader with his vision of a coming Camelot and our responsibility to make it happen . Part of that vision was to put us on the moon. And that we did. I got to be a part of that vision. After three astronauts died when their capsule caught fire, my company sent me to Houston to check out things there for ideas on how to make those flights safer.
I remember walking the streets of a poor part of Washington one day much later and not seeing not a single person. Off in the distance somewhere I heard shouts. I finally found a lonely walker and asked what was happening. One of the Kennedys’ (probably Bobby Kennedy) was moving down the street in (probably an open) car, and the people were shouting greetings with hope in a coming Camelot.
Then Martin Luther King was shot in April of 1968. Again the emotions of another leader’s death shook the city. I was working at the coffeehouse of a church in the inner city that night, and calls were coming in to us that the city was burning just a few blocks from where we were. We stayed at the coffeehouse. And not even a single window was broken there that night as we worked.
Then, a few months later (June, 1968), we saw the death of Bobby Kennedy. Camelot never came.
Today, again, at this same mall we see the visions that these leaders held in the past beginning once again to break loose of the bondage that has held them for years. The most important thing about President Obama’s inaugural speech, however, is that the President only used the word “I” about three times. What really happens here in this change is up to us. It wasn’t “A change I can believe in” but “A change we can believe in”. The responsibility for leading is with us – not President Obama. What are you going to do about it?
The Talking Ass
Saturday, December 20th, 2008If God can speak to and through Balaam’s ass (Numbers 22), surely He can speak to an elephant.
Leadership comment: Balaam was good, but not Godly. Balaam had a hollow leadership. He had the right vision, but the wrong heart. Our political leaders, as well as each of us, should well remember this. Balaam is dead by Numbers 31. The above quote is from my friend Wayne McCroskey. Thanks, Wayne.
Please Vote!
Saturday, November 1st, 2008Be sure to vote. Our forefathers fought and died so that each of us can vote in our elections and participate in choosing its political leaders. This is called democracy, but it only continues if we take ownership of studying, praying, and particpating actively in the process. Pray, study, and vote.
