American Dad for Conservative Values

With this weekends vote on “Healthcare Reform” - no I mean “Evil Insurance Reform” - where the leaders in Congress ignored the will of the American people and broke a few arms to get it passed with only one Republican voting for it (we will get to him later), I have decided that what we need if we want to move Washington D.C. out of the special interest groups and lobbist pockets term limits need to be set.

Here are two examples alone that have helped me come to this conclusion.

The first is something I read on Monday here where the Louisianna Representative Anh “Joseph” Cao voted yes to this bill because Obama gave him assurances he would help Cao’s district with economic recovery. So, when Cao says the following, ”My vote was a vote of conscience, whether or not it was a popular vote for the party is of little relevance to me.”, he is actually saying that the President was trading his yes vote for extra federal money to “help” economic recovery in Cao’s district and had nothing to do with conscience. You can see that with the next comment by Cao in the story:

“We were able to sit down to talk about recovery, to talk about the needs of the district,” Cao told Fox News, though he said no “promises” were made. “The administration and I, we have a very great relationship.”

You can see from the comments by the Republican party leadership in the story that they understand why he voted for the bill because:

The Republican won in an upset election last December, ousting embattled Democratic Rep. William Jefferson, who has since been convicted on federal corruption charges. 

But Cao’s victory also immediately made him one of the most vulnerable GOP members in the House. Cao was keenly aware of how the health care reform vote could affect his political future. 

According to The Times-Picayune, he said over the summer that “voting against the health care bill will probably be the death of my political career.” 

With the “yes” vote, Cao may give himself a fighting chance. 

The Republican gave a twofold explanation for his decision late Saturday, saying in a written statement that he was standing against taxpayer funding for abortion as much as he was standing for health care reform.

You see, it is all about getting re-elected and “pay or play” Chicago style deals and not about the bill they are voting on.

Here is the second example of why there needs to be term limits put in place for the House and Senate. This example comes that to my friend Ken with his story here.

Jim Cooper is my “Representative” in the 5th District in Tennessee. He spent weeks claiming to not support the different versions of the bills before congress because they were not “budget neutral” and blah, blah, blah. Even last week he stated that he would not vote for this bill. Well, on Saturday this “Blue Dog” Democrat became a “Lying Dog” Democrat and voted yes to pass the H.R. 3962 bill. I was already not happy with the vote, but then read Ken’s post where Cooper testified in the Senate yesterday to say “… that the country’s huge debt is a “fiscal cancer.” three days after voting for the largest entitlement program in U.S. history.

I cannot believe he could say that with a straight face after voting yes on the stimulus plan, the 2009 budget and H.R. 3962. He went on to say the following:

“So, how can we fix it? The best course is more direct spending cuts, but we all know how likely those are. The second-best solution is a top-level commission to force congressional action.”

Ken did a great job in translating Rep. Cooper’s stated with the following:

“Senators, our country is in a huge amount of trouble because we have spent money we do not have for years.  This behavior is like a cancer that is killing us and it’s getting worse. I should know. Just 3 days ago I added over $2 trillion dollars to the $55 to $60 trillion dollars of unfunded mandates in the area of health care alone that threaten to cripple our Economy. The President and Congress all understand that it is precisely that sort of health care spending that has put us in this mess and so we’re going to fix it.  Yessirree … we’re going to reduce that pesky deficit spending.  We all know the best and most effective way to do that would be to reduce deficit spending.  So, we’re not going to push for that because it might be hard on our chances to get re-elected.  What we should, therefore, do as a fall back position is to have another Congressional panel to make non-binding recommendations to Congress telling them they should cut spending while not actually insisting that they do.  That way everyone acknowledges the problem, we are all seen as doing something about it and nothing really has to change.  And by the time the country implodes, we’ll all be out of office.  Any questions?  Thank you for the opportunity to testify today.”

These two members of Congress are the last straw that has made me determine that we need to give these members of Congress term limits. I support any conservative grass roots effort to replace the current members of congress that have become entrenched in the Washington elite with citizens who only care about the constitution and equal protection under the law and not special protection. They also need to pledge to pass legislation to set term limits for themselves, so we do not have another problem with career politicians who use taxpayer money as their personal credit card.

I support the American Liberty Alliance and their efforts to replace Congress with citizen politicians and not establishment hacks who are part of the problem with both parties. 73wire is a new site they recently launched that is a great place to get information and they also have a place for Campaign trail updates here. Help show Washington that we are the people with the power and not them!

God Bless,

American Dad

UPDATE:

I just read something on 73wire.com/wire that is disgusting on so many levels that words fail me. Here is what he said on Saturday afternoon:

I will vote yes on H.R. 3962. My vote is not an endorsement of all the provisions of the bill because I find much of the bill to be deeply flawed. There is little chance that H.R. 3962 will become law due to the long legislative process. My reason for voting yes is to advance the cause of health care reform by forcing the Senate to act. Without passage of this House bill, the Senate could delay reform indefinitely. That would be the worst possible outcome because our current health-care system is not sustainable. Congress needs to pass good health legislation in the next few months for the good of the country.

Unbelievable is all I can say, this is a perfect example of the need for term limits.