Editor,

Just this week I received one of those thought provoking emails which is too true not to share. The email simply read, “Let me get this straight … Obama's health care plan will be written by a committee whose leader admits he doesn't understand it, passed by a Congress that hasn't read it … and whose members will be exempt from it, signed by a president who smokes, funded by a treasury chief who did not pay his taxes, overseen by a surgeon general who is obese, and financed by a country that is broke. What could possibly go wrong?” Hilarious isn’t it. It might be if it weren’t so true.

Each one of those “tongue in cheek” statements is factually accurate. Yet … Congressman Nick Rahall continues to support this insanity. I sincerely believe the man needs psychiatric help. Or at a minimum, he should resign. Perhaps we could take up a collection and send him on a permanent vacation to the Mariana Islands he loves so well? At least if he is on permanent vacation, he can’t be screwing up our country’s future with his support of this socialist bent President and congressional leadership. In the town hall meeting he held in Princeton recently, Congressman Rahall had this to say about the healthcare bill … “I support a robust public option”. This is double-speak for, “I support a government takeover of the healthcare industry”. Call it a public option, call it a healthcare co-op, call it insurance reform … call it anything you want; but it is still the same lie; which is “Big government can do a better job at running things than the private sector can”.

Now this isn’t a new lie. In fact, it is the same lie first told by FDR. Simply put, the lie is based in the assumption that free people are incompetent to care for themselves, whereas big government is all powerful, all knowing and altruistic. But the facts prove out the opposite. The greatest achievements in the history of man have been born not from government bureaucrats or Congressional legislation, but from free people with individual wisdom and determination. Did a special panel give us the electric light bulb? What government agency invented the automobile, the steam engine or the airplane? NONE! Yet, since FDR, every time the overbearing big government defines a new “crises” their solution is always the same … more government.

Did you ever stop to recognize how these big government supporters like Nick Rahall work? First they stick a rake into the spokes of the wheel (so to speak) with their overreaching guidelines, permits, taxation and oversight. Then they scream … “look everybody, the wheel doesn’t turn anymore! But never fear; big government will take care of it. We’ll simply take over all parts of the wheel. We’ll make it a better wheel than it has ever, ever been … we promise!” But when we review their track record all we find is repeated and prolonged failure. Consider this brief list of some of their grandest attempts at “fixing the wheel”; social security, Medicare, the post office, welfare, public housing, public education, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, the auto industry bailout, the banking industry bailout … need I list more?

Dear friends; the constitution of the United States is NOT a cradle to grave provision for every person of every stripe. The preamble to the constitution establishes the basic framework of what our government is supposed to do; “establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity”. These are the only things our federal government should be doing. I see them as providing a fair court system (establish justice), stay out of personal lives (insure domestic tranquility), organize a national army (provide for the common defense), establish an environment which allows individual success and achievement (promote the general welfare), preserve this liberty for successive generations (the Blessings of Liberty).

The basic belief driving our founders was that free Christian people, given the proper environment of liberty, would flourish, prosper and create a truly godly society for themselves, their neighbors and all who would stand with them in liberty. On the other hand, Nick Rahall, unlike Thomas Jefferson, Ben Franklin or John Adams, believes that we are stupid, incapable and uncaring surfs who must be led about by the nose. He supports “a robust public option” to healthcare, which would certainly go down the same path as all the other “great” government solutions listed previously.

Again I say, “No thanks Nick”. I’ll stand with Thomas Jefferson who said, “I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them”. Amen brother Thomas. I wish you were here to help us throw off this tyrannical bunch of elites who masquerade as servants of the people. But alas you are here, for you gave us the power to vote.

So remember friends … re-elect no one in the federal government!

Gary Lee Corns

Logan