Healthcare Townhall

Now that the House has passed the Healthcare bill, we're reliant on the Senate to block the bill to stop socialized health care. To help spread information, College Republicans are hosting a Healthcare Townhall, tomorrow, November 10th, at 6:30 in Lane 125. The meeting will feature Dr. Mariannette Miller-Meeks.

After leaving home at the age of 16, Dr. Miller-Meeks enrolled in nursing school at San Antonio Junior College. After completing two years of courses, she transferred to Texas Christian University where she earned her bachelor's degree, graduating summa cum laude. Dr. Miller-Meeks then joined the officer corps of the United States Army as a nurse at the age of 20.

Mariannette met her future husband, Curt, while stationed at Walter Reed Army Hospital. Dr. Miller-Meeks completed her Masters of Science in Education at the University of Southern California, soon before her transfer to Seoul, South Korea. After 6 years of active duty, Mariannette entered medical school at the University of Texas and graduated in the top of her class.

After completing her residency in ophthalmology at the University of Iowa, Dr. Miller-Meeks joined the faculty at the University of Michigan and was then recruited back to the University of Iowa as the first female faculty member in the department of ophthalmology. Mariannette has authored numerous articles, presented national lectures and research, was awarded the Charles Phelps Award in 1995, and has been named one of America’s best doctors several times.

Mariannette retired from the US Army Reserve in 1998 after 24 years at the rank of Lt. Colonel, after which she moved to Ottumwa, Iowa to open a private practice.
Dr. Miller-Meeks is currently the councilor for Iowa to the American Academy of Ophthalmology (AAO), serves as an associate examiner for the American Board of Ophthalmology, and was inaugurated as the first female president of the Iowa Medical Society in 2006.

Join us in fighting for our freedom this freedom week!

Where Have I Heard That Before?

Exciting news! A new report says that the new health care plan won't raise our deficit. Isn't that awesome news? Are you sold yet? Unfortunately, as the Republican Senators who read the report saw, this doesn't stop the bill for adding a large cost to those of us in the country already paying for our insurance. So now, in addition to shelling out money for yourself, you get to support all your fellow citizens, many of whom don't have insurance because they don't want it.

So while I appreciate the time our Senator spent creating this report, (they could have been doing something really dangerous, like legislating), I'm going to pass on this one. Thanks though!

Watch what you call a Holocaust...

Rep. Alan Grayson (D-FL) is refusing to apologize for claiming that the Republican solution to health-care is for people to "die quickly" and instead said “I apologize to the dead and their families that we haven’t voted sooner to end this holocaust in America.”

If that's what he truly (misguidedly) believes, that's fine, but there's no reason that this should suffice when Rep Joe Wilson's formal apology was required. If you're going to cite a need for civility and respect within the chambers, then it needs to be seen on both sides of the aisle.

Pay Attention to ME!

I'm not sure how popular the Sunday morning news programs are with the Hillsdale crowd, but this morning, President Obama appeared on 5 of them, both to promote his health care bill and to reprimand the MSM for their bias towards rude people. Apparently it's upsetting to the President that so much coverage is going to Joe Wilson, and his health care bill is being overlooked.

I know the President is pretty busy, but maybe he should take a second to read the 1st Amendment. Freedom of speech and freedom of the press are right there. Just because he "occup[ies] a pretty special seat at the moment", doesn't mean that he can control the press coverage. That's not the way it works in a democracy. And that's what we're aiming for, right?

Legislating from the Oval Office

We face the end of separation of powers within the United States. Originally proposed by Montesque and co-opted by the Constitutional convention, the concept had a rather straight-forward goal: slow down government. Like checks and balances and federalism, separation of powers institutionally put speed bumps in the process of government action and personal ambitions. Unsurprisingly, this idea has been on the decline over the 20th Century. Obama means to kill it completely.

In the healthcare debacle, Obama has shown that he has no regard for this. Between his speech to congress, his outline of what the bill should look like, and particularly his rhetoric, Obama has shown no regard for the fact that the president carries out the law, rather than making it. For example, he told CBS about the bill, “You know, I intend to be president for a while and once this [healthcare] bill passes, I own it.” Clearly, has no intent of respecting the constitutionally defined role of his branch. He is consolidating power for the sake of efficiency and political expediency.


Our country is now taking so steady a course as to show by what road it will pass to destruction, to wit: by consolidation of power first, and then corruption, its necessary consequence.
-Thomas Jefferson

Health Care

President Obama will not let this idea go. He can't be stopped by upset citizens at town hall meetings, reprimands from his colleagues, or even a lack of support. President Obama announced on this evening's '60 Minutes' that he still holds his goal for passing the legislation this year, even if he has to do so without support from both sides of the ailse.

His willingness to pass laws without support is perhaps the most jarring thing about Obama's presidency. The citizens have expressed their displeasure and have been ignored. Worse, the representatives they have chosen are being overlooked and told that their support is not necessary for major American reform. It's hard not to feel that the system of representative government is slowly crumbling away.

TeddyCare

I can’t wait to be dead. No, I’m serious. I’m not rushing to make it happen or anything, but death is like a get-out-of-jail-free card for all the dumb things you did while you were alive. After I die nobody will ever again mention my inability to parallel park, or how bad I was at math, or my occasional lack of people skills. If any of these things are mentioned it will be against the wistful backdrop of how awesome I was. My only regret is I’ll have to watch from the sidelines in heaven and not actively enjoy this royal treatment.

The departed Sen. Ted Kennedy has received this royal treatment in the four days since he passed away following a year-long battle with brain cancer. Everyone’s talked about what a great legislator he was, how he carried the weight of his family through its many tragedies, how bipartisan he was (though nobody has furnished any examples), etc. Some people have used Kennedy’s demise to continue his lifelong push for socialized medicine. However, what nobody has pointed out is that this last year of Kennedy’s life is actually the best argument against socialized medicine there is.

Kennedy spent his life—even while he was undergoing cancer treatment—advocating “universal healthcare” in America. However, I didn’t hear anything about him going to Canada or the UK to get his chemotherapy and radiation. Teddy stayed right here in the United States to get the best healthcare in the world. If he were an MP in Canada or England chances are they wouldn’t have been able to treat a 70+ man who abused his body all his life at all due to rationing.

Democrats may used Kennedy’s death as a sympathy appeal to get the “Public Option” through as a tribute to him, but what Republicans should do is point out that when Teddy Kennedy needed medical help the most, he never went anywhere near universal healthcare.

Cash for Clunkers Headed for the Junkyard

If you haven’t traded in your gas-guzzling SUV for one of those motorized roller skates under Obama’s Cash for Clunkers program, you have a little more than 3 hours left to do so. As of 8:00 tonight, the program will go bankrupt after just a few short months.

Cash for Clunkers went bankrupt in one summer. And Obama expects us to believe he can implement a health care system that will cover every human being in the country, womb to tomb, cost a heck of a lot more than Cash for Clunkers, and it won’t run out of money?

I don’t know which is worse—that Obama believes it or he thinks we’re dumb enough to believe it.