NoStimulus.com petitions

Here's a message from NoStimulus.com which is of utmost importance if you want to the United States to have a chance at stopping the "stimulus" bill. It is followed by an email I sent to Congressman Bill Delahunt.

Dear Friend,

At 2PM tomorrow afternoon, your NoStimulus.com petitions (which at the moment number 395,047) will be officially presented to the United States Senate in an event at the Capitol. Later in the day, the Senate is expected to make the final vote on the Pelosi/Reid/Obama trillion dollar spending bill.

You're invited to join us for this presentation if you are in or near Washington. It will be held in Upper Senate Park at 2PM tomorrow. I'm sorry we couldn't give you more notice, but moving the vote up to tomorrow was a surprise move by Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid to try to jam this disastrous bill through before folks can even read the bill.

If someone tells you this fight is over think about this for a moment. Last Friday, I stood at the Capitol with a band of AFP staff, interns and volunteers as we presented our petitions to Senator Jim DeMint -- our free market leader in the Senate. At that time, we had 69,487 petitions.

Tomorrow, we will present your more than 400,000 petitions and -- if you can help us make a final push by sending the site to your friends in next couple of hours – it can be more than 500,000 petitions to the Senate telling them to vote NO on this outrageous spending bill.

Here's the update on where the battle stands.

Senate and House negotiators are set to agree tonight on a $789 billion bill. Here's what we know about the deal:

• This conference report provides the least tax relief of any version yet, even cutting President Obama’s signature middle class tax cut from $500 per individual and $1000 per couple to $400 and $800. That takes money out the pockets of regular Americans to pay for more wasteful spending.

• This conference report gives away as "tax cuts" tens-of-billions of dollars to people WHO DO NOT PAY INCOME TAXES.

• This conference report, by all accounts, still funds the stealth imposition of health care rationing via so-called “Comparative Evaluation Research,” that would let bureaucrats decides whether people are too old or too sick to receive a treatment.

• The price tag is still astonishing. $789 billion might be less than the Senate’s $838 billion, but it’s massively more than the $300 billion this bill originally was proposed at, and still tops a trillion dollars when interest is included. There's still $50 million for the National Endowment for the Arts, $600 million to buy cars for government workers, $88 million for ATV and bike trails and so much more waste. And, go to stimuluswatch.org to see the wish list of earmarks for cities and counties in your area. It will blow your mind.

With a likely Senate vote tomorrow, time is of the essence. These are the key action items that could lead to victory tomorrow:

1. Get at least 3 more people to sign the NoStimulus.com petition. If we have a huge final push we could reach an astonishing half-million signers -- or more -- before our presentation event tomorrow.

2. Make 1 last call to your senator. Many of you have done this and we're so thankful for your standing up. But, we have just 24 hours to make our final push. Call the Senate switchboard at 202-224-3121 or better yet go on-line and call your Senator's local offices. If you need talking points go to NoStimulus.com and we've got plenty.

3. Consider making a special financial contribution to Americans for Prosperity today. Help us continue to get the word out about the dangers of this no-stimulus bill to literally millions more Americans around the country. Your support will provide resources to ramp up our "No Stimulus" advertising and outreach on websites like the Drudge Report, FoxNews.com, Townhall.com and others for the final day of this fight so we can generate thousands upon thousands of phone calls into Senate offices. A gift of $10, $25, $50 - or any amount you could afford - would go a long way toward reaching even more people with our No Stimulus message and mobilizing them to make a difference alongside you and me to STOP the Pelosi/Reid/Obama boondoggle.

You're making a huge difference. Yesterday, “Americans for Prosperity” and “No Stimulus Petition” were the top two searches in the nation on Google, and your efforts to drive literally hundreds of thousands of people to our NoStimulus.com website was a featured story on the Yahoo! front page. Additionally, today you may have seen the number of petition signers ticking upward along the bottom line of the Fox News “ticker.” You have literally flooded Senate offices with your calls and most of Washington is now going to NoStimulus.com site to view the counter to find out how many folks have signed the petition.

I know the pundits are political prognosticators are saying it's over and the Pelosi\Reid\Obama trillion dollar bill is a done deal.

But, don't be discouraged. Instead, keep fighting. One petition signer from Wisconsin, Carla, sent me an email that says exactly why we should keep fighting. She wrote:

"Tim,

For a week I've been so frustrated over this terrible Stimulus bill. Then in the last day I've called both my senators and my congressman. I've signed the NoStimulus.com petition and then forwarded it to my entire email list. For the first time in my life I even called a local talk radio show to tell people why the bill is so bad.

And you something, I feel so much better because I'm doing all I can do."

Carla is right. We can just be frustrated over what these politicians are trying to do to our nation and our economic freedoms. Or, we can do "all we can do" for our nation.

Thanks and if you are in the area please join us tomorrow, 2PM, Upper Senate Park for the presentation of your petitions to the Senate!!

Sincerely,

Tim Phillips
President, Americans for Prosperity

Here's the bulk of the email I just sent:

Mr. Delahunt, I know you're a Democrat and really want to believe in our new presidents plan to recover our economy, but please listen to reason! The economic recovery plan about to go up for vote will not save our country. All it will do is put is more into debt. There are three ways the Federal Government can pay for the stimulus, and all of them are bad for our economy.

This is coming from a Conservative Libertarian from our dear Massachusetts 10th district. Specifically, the town of Tisbury. If you want to check my voting status before you read on, my name is Christopher David Osborn and my last U.S. address was zipcode 02568, the hamlet of Vineyard Haven in the town of Tisbury in the county of Dukes County.

The first, taxes, takes away money from the people who would otherwise save, spend, or invest it. In an economic crisis higher taxes (for anybody, including the big corporations nobody likes) should be unthinkable. The Revenue Act of 1932 was one of the major reasons the economic problems at the time deepened and lengthened into the Great Depression.

The second, government borrowing, is just as bad! It also takes money out of the private economy - the money that bond purchasers hand over to the government in exchange for bonds. The money people use to buy bonds could be much better served either investing in American businesses, buying American products, or saving in American banks to increase their value.
Also, if the funds are borrowed, we eventually have to pay it back, creating the same tax problems for the next generation - only worse because of interest. Excessive borrowing may also increase interests rates, furthering our credit problem.

The final way to pay for it, without a tax and without borrowing, is to have the Federal Reserve just print more money. This is perhaps the very worst option of all. We cannot just create money out of thin our without it coming back to byte us. Printing more money means the bills and coins we have in our wallets and savings account will be worth less and less. The devaluation of the dollar will eventually lead to us having push wheelbarrows of money to the grocery store just to buy a loaf of bread!
Inflation is the worst thing you could possibly cause! Do you know that the Germans tried to use inflation as a method of war? They attempted to print fraudulent pounds and ship them to the U.K. in order to collapse their economy.

Another reason for you not to pass the bill is for what the money is being spent on. I don't know what it is exactly, but I keep hearing that the massive amount of it is going to buy condoms or some other sex-related thing. One website talks of some kind of adult sex workshop.

There is also supposedly going to be spending by the Department of Agriculture on broadband Internet services in rural areas. First of all, the Ag department has no business dealing with broadband Internet access - my grandfather (the late Rodman F. Backus Jr., founder of Rod's Flowershop & Nursery and Rod's Landscaping on Martha's Vineyard) went to an Ag school and while he was a great and intelligent man he new nothing about computers. Second of all, that the heck is the government doing giving people free Internet?! Sure, it's a good business and educational resource, but do you realise how much of it is just used for porn? I am ashamed to admit this, but honestly, it was not too many years ago when I was one of those porn-addicted teenagers. If rural schools, libraries, and businesses are having problems getting Internet access that's one thing, but I don't want the general public being given free broadband access.

Please, read the bill. If you haven't had time to read the whole thing, demand to be given the time to read it. Once you read it, do not give in if you see anything that's unnecessary. You can do it! If you see something you think is inappropriate for the government to be spending money on, that shout it out and tell the others that you will be voting no unless it is taken out! Stand up for what you know is right and against what you know is wrong! Be the patriot I know you can be!

In Liberty,

Christopher D. Osborn
fipher.blogspot.com
http://www.downsizedc.org
battleforheaven.blogspot.com
http://www.upf.org

Here's hoping for a miracle for our country,

from Bergen, Hordaland, Norge,

Christopher D. Osborn

Letter on Economy to and from Sen. Edward Kennedy

Hey, I just recently sent an email my senetors and representatives.  They are Sen. Edward Moore "Ted" Kennedy and Sen. John Forbes Kerry representing the whole of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and Congressman William D. (Bill) Delahunt representing the Massachusetts 10th district.

One of them, Sen. Kennedy, responded.  Below is what I wrote, followed by what he wrote back to me.

Thank you for using Congress.org Mail System.

Message sent to the following recipients:
Representative Delahunt
Senator Kennedy
Senator Kerry
Message text follows:

Christopher D. Osborn
[my U.S. address was inserted here]


January 14, 2009

[recipient address was inserted here]


 [recipient name was inserted here],

I I just wanted to let you know that I oppose the request for $350 billion
in TARP funds (and any other government bailout or stimulus package)
because it does not make any sense for the government to intervene when
government intervention is what caused this problem in the first place.

What I support is the permanent income hypothesis (PIH).  From Wikipedia:
"The permanent income hypothesis (PIH) is a theory of consumption that was
developed by the American economist Milton Friedman. In its simplest form,
PIH states that the choices made by consumers regarding their consumption
patterns are determined not by current income but by their longer-term
income expectations."

The hole reason past stimulus packages have not worked is because while we
were all happy to receive money, a sudden burst of cash does not guarantee
long-term financial stability.  Weather you are a big company receiving
billions or an individual receiving hundreds or even thousands, if you're
only getting it once you will likely want to save it or pay off old bills
rather than spend it on new things.  Weather it be a new washing machine
or a new factory or other big investment, you will be hesitant to spend
the money if you aren't sure that you'll be getting more money in the
future.

Please consider pushing to immediately eliminate the . . .

* Capital gains tax (which discourages investment),
* Corporate tax (which is merely passed on to consumers),
* And reduce the regressive payroll tax, which does not need to be so high
in order to pay for current entitlement expenses

Permanent tax reductions would . . .

* Make new investments and businesses profitable
* Convince consumers that their incomes will be higher for the long run
* Increase investment, job creation, and consumer confidence.

P.S. while in the congress.org sender information I've put my American
adress, I currently reside in Norway as I've married a Norwegian.  Make no
mistake though, that I still care deeply about my country despite living
abroad, and I do plan on moving back to the United States in a few years.
In addition, while I am away I will still be voting.

To contact me in Norway, please either use my email address the the
Norwegian phone number a provided.

Also, my blogs are fipher.blogspot.com and battleforheaven.blogspot.com



Sincerely in Liberty,


Christopher D. Osborn
[my Norwegian phone number was inserted here]


Please use this link to SEE ME and view more information about me
http://www.congress.org/congressorg/picturepages.tt?id=81300

Employer Name: unemployed
Employer City: Bergen, Hordaland, Norge
Position: unemployed
Are you a registered voter?: Yes
Did you vote in the last election?: Yes
Age: 22
Gender: Male
Organization: One Family Under God, United States of America, Commonwealth
of Massachusetts Interest Group: God's Children, American Citizens, and
Bay Staters Living Abroad Would you like a reply?: Yes Have you visited
our website?: Yes

Christopher D. Osborn sent this message via Congress.org, which uses the
Capwiz·XC system.  Congress.org is a free public service of Capitol
Advantage and Knowlegis, LLC.  You may access Congress.org here:
http://congress.org

And here is the reply:

Dear Mr. Osborn:

 

Thank you for your recent letter on the economy and the proposed economic stimulus package.This is a very important issue to me, and I'm committed to making sure that hardworking families get the help they need. 

Day after day, we see distressing evidence that our economy is continuing in the wrong direction. The unemployment rate is rising, the cost of basic essentials such as food and fuel is soaring, and foreclosures and bankruptcies are skyrocketing. Our failing economy has a real impact on the lives of tens of millions of Americans. Every day, working men and women are being forced to make impossible choices between feeding their families, paying their bills, and keeping their homes. 

That's why I strongly support immediate stimulus legislation to help those in need and revive our economy as soon as possible. The Senate stimulus proposal is a major step in the right direction. It contains targeted spending and tax incentives designed to jump-start the economy as quickly as possible. It also provides help to the large numbers of unemployed workers, including 75,000 workers in Massachusetts, who have exhausted their unemployment benefits while they continue to look for jobs. 

There's still more to be done in coming days before the stimulus package is complete. I believe we must add aid for the millions of families struggling to heat their homes, and give greater assistance to those who need help in feeding their families. 

We have much to do in the days ahead, and I intend to do all I can to make sure that working people in Massachusetts aren't left behind. 

Thank you again for your letter on this pressing issue.

 

 

Sincerely,
Edward M. Kennedy

So, there we have it.  I imagine Sen. Kennedey did not write this, as last I heard he was, while still working to some extent, is rather ill.  Becides, even if he was perfectly fine I doubt he has the time to respond to my emails.  However, it was nice of a staff member to respond in his name.

Though despite that it is nice to get a response, I wish it more specifically adressed the ideas I  mentioned.  Oh well.  I still love being American for this very reason, that what I say and think does still matter to my government, at least a little, and while I know governments care about the people in other countires I do beleive the American Revolutuion is what really inspired this way of thinking.

From Bergen, Hordaland, Norge,

Christopher D. Osborn