Freedom is a Right, and Any Health Care Bill That Takes Away Americans’ Freedom is Wrong

After the conclusion of yesterday’s nationally-televised health care “summit” hosted by President Obama, in a video for YouTube’s Citizen Tube I answered five health care questions submitted and voted on by the You Tube community.  The questions posed on You Tube are the same questions and concerns I hear from Americans across the country.  They want to us scrap the current bill and start over with common-sense, step-by-step measures that lower health care costs.  And they want to know why Congress insists on passing massive bills that no one in America has time to read or understand.  My Republican colleagues and I agree a different approach is needed – not just to health care reform, but to the way Congress works on every issue.

In the video, I respond to citizens’ questions about health care reform.  On one question, for example, about whether I believe that health care is a right, I said that, “I believe that freedom is a right, and that any health care bill that takes away Americans’ freedom is wrong.” I also answered questions about my support for health care reforms aimed at lowering Americans’ health care costs, such as medical liability reform and allowing Americans to purchase health insurance across state lines, and pledged I will insist on smaller, simpler bills and implement a mandatory 72-hour online reading period for all bills if Republicans are entrusted with the majority.

Over the past year, Republicans have used new media tools to interact directly with the American people.  Whether on Twitter, where House Republicans outnumber their Democratic counterparts two-to-one, or YouTube, where eight of the top 10 most-viewed and most-subscribed YouTube channels in Congress are from the GOP, House Republicans are listening to and learning from the American people.  Below is full text of my answers to You Tube:

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Tags: blair house summit, government health care, health care reform, health care summit, individual mandate
Posted Feb 26th 2010 at 11:29 am in Congress, Healthcare, News, Obama, Politics, federal spending | 81222262 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/jboehner/2010/02/26/81222/+Freedom+is+a+Right%2C+and+Any+Health+Care+Bill+That+Takes+Away+Americans%E2%80%99+Freedom+is+Wrong2010-02-26+19%3A29%3A04Rep.+John+Boehner

What I Saw at the Tea Party Convention

Glenn Reynolds in Saturday’s WSJ:

There were promises of transparency and of a new kind of collaborative politics where establishment figures listened to ordinary Americans. We were going to see net spending cuts, tax cuts for nearly all Americans, an end to earmarks, legislation posted online for the public to review before it is signed into law, and a line-by-line review of the federal budget to remove wasteful programs.

These weren’t the tea-party platforms I heard discussed in Nashville last weekend. They were the campaign promises of Barack Obama in 2008.

Mr. Obama made those promises because the ideas they represented were popular with average Americans. So popular, it turns out, that average Americans are organizing themselves in pursuit of the kind of good government Mr. Obama promised, but has not delivered. And that, in a nutshell, was the feel of the National Tea Party Convention. The political elites have failed, and citizens are stepping in to pick up the slack.

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Tags: Andrew Breitbart, budget deficit, federal budget, federal debt, Glenn Reynolds
Posted Feb 12th 2010 at 7:36 pm in News, Politics, Tea Party | 7451491 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/publius/2010/02/12/what-i-saw-at-the-tea-party-convention/What+I+Saw+at+the+Tea+Party+Convention2010-02-13+03%3A36%3A04Publius

Will My Army of Davids Beat Boardroom Goliaths?

As the clock winds down on the Illinois Governor’s race, the question on everyone’s mind is whether a newcomer like me, running on robust policy and an American success story, can beat a gaggle of Country Club Republicans and also-rans.

I’m Adam Andrzejewski, the entrepreneur who grew up in central Illinois, worked hard, and ended up successful enough to retire at age 37. Instead of hanging out the beach while managing my portfolio, I started up a non-profit focusing on transparency, and quickly got over $1 billion of public spending placed on-line.  That kind of ‘Every Dime on Line, in Real Time” transparency, coupled with my aggressive ethics reform modeled after those passed in Louisiana by Bobby Jindal, are the foundation of my policy agenda to reform Illinois.

The question is, can I  pull this off?  I was written off early by the cynical and jaundiced political press, but I perservered through months of Lincoln Day Dinners, radio interviews, and candidate forums, all of which were fantastic opportunities to meet the people of Illinois.  I noticed something interesting every time I was out on the campaign trail.  When people saw me and heard my message they liked what they heard – a lot.  No matter how much money was dumped into the campaign by the connected donors financing the other 5 establishment candidates, I was always within striking distance.

Then, just in the last 2 weeks, our campaign started to capture the imagination.  With just over one week to go, it was announced that Lech Walesa was coming to Chicago to endorse me.  That set off a firestorm of press coverage and interest in the blogosphere.  Now, the level of national interest has brought in a flood of small donations and volunteers from around the country.  As you read this, people from across the country have offered to log in to call centers and send e-mails, all to assist the my Campaign.

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Tags: Glenn Beck, GOP establishment, illinois governors race, Lech Walesa, Rush Limbaugh
Posted Feb 2nd 2010 at 5:47 am in Politics, State Politics, Tea Party | 68374105 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/aandrzejewsk/2010/02/02/will-my-army-of-davids-beat-boardroom-goliaths/Will+My+Army+of+Davids+Beat+Boardroom+Goliaths%3F2010-02-02+13%3A47%3A13Adam+Andrzejewski

Make the Final Health Care Talks Public

Republicans are continuing to insist on behalf of the American people that any legislative negotiations pertaining to health care reform be made public. Today, Rep. Vern Buchanan (R-FL) is filing a discharge petition which, if signed by 218 Representatives, would force an up-or-down vote on his bipartisan resolution (H. Res. 847) requiring that health care talks be public and open to the media, as President Obama promised they would be.

We’re taking this step because something as important as the Democrats’ health care bill, with its Medicare cuts and tax hikes, should not be slapped together behind closed doors.  Secret deliberations are a breeding ground for mischief, including sweetheart deals that end up not being discovered until it’s too late (see: Sen. Ben Nelson’s “Cornhusker Kickback.”)

Of course, the American people should be able to see how every bill is coming together, but it’s even more important to adhere to this common-sense standard when we’re talking about transforming one-sixth of our economy and implementing drastic changes to the way in which Americans live.

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Tags: Barack Obama, C-SPAN, cornhusker kickback, government health care, health care
Posted Jan 13th 2010 at 9:17 am in Congress, Healthcare, News, Obama, Politics | 5921461 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/jboehner/2010/01/13/make-the-final-health-care-talks-public/Make+the+Final+Health+Care+Talks+Public2010-01-13+17%3A17%3A47Rep.+John+Boehner

ObamaCare Transparency Promise Broken

Transparency be damned.  It seems as if many of the elites in Washington, D.C. were for transparency before they were against it.

President Barack Obama, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid all promised and pledged transparency as part of a covenant with the American people to allow them to take power.  Those promises have been broken.  One Senior Congressional Staffer tells Big Government that “for elected officials that promised the most transparent Congress ever, I never believed them, but it is stunning how fast they are going back on their promises as if they think the voters are too dumb to remember things they said 3 years ago.” (more…)

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Tags: C-SPAN, Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, ObamaCare, Politico
Posted Jan 7th 2010 at 2:51 pm in Congress, Obama, Politics | 55534147 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/bdarling/2010/01/07/obamacare-transparency-promise-broken/ObamaCare+Transparency+Promise+Broken2010-01-07+22%3A51%3A27Brian+Darling

C-SPAN Asks to Televise Health Care Negotiations

Just before New Year’s, C-SPAN Chairman and CEO Brian Lamb sent a letter to Congressional leadership, requesting permission to televise negotiations around the final health care reform legislation. The letter was addressed to Speaker Nancy Pelosi, GOP Leader Rep. John Boehner, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and GOP Senate Leader Mitch McConnell.

The letter notes:

Now that the process moves to the critical stage of reconciliation between the Chambers, we respectfully request that you all the public full access, through television, to legislation that will affect the lives of every American.

C-SPAN Health Care Letter –

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Tags: closed door negotiations, CSPAN, government health care, government transparency, health care reform
Posted Jan 5th 2010 at 7:31 am in Congress, Healthcare, News, Obama, Politics, Uncategorized | 5549499 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/publius/2010/01/05/c-span-asks-to-televise-health-care-negotiations/C-SPAN+Asks+to+Televise+Health+Care+Negotiations2010-01-05+15%3A31%3A00Publius

UPDATE: White House Spokeswoman Says Different Bertha Lewis on Visitor’s Log

UPDATE: According to Politico’s Ben Smith, the Bertha Lewis who went to the White House is not ACORN’s CEO but another woman named “Bertha Lewis.” I contacted Smith to tell him that Big Government would offer a correction if the “administration official” who offered the information went on record and told us who the “other” Bertha Lewis is and got the unnamed administration source to come out from behind the veil of anonymity and use his/her name. So far, according to unnamed White House sources, “different” people with the familiar names of Malik Shabazz, Jeremiah Wright and Bill Ayers were discovered on White House visitors logs. As I skeptically asked on my Twitter account, “What are the odds?”

First thing Monday morning, Smith contacted the White House and White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki came from behind her anonymous veil and confirmed for Smith, “it was a different Bertha Lewis, though she declined to share details about that visitor, citing privacy reasons.”‘

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Tags: ACORN, Ben Smith, Bertha Lewis, Bill Ayers, Jen Psaki
Posted Jan 4th 2010 at 1:30 pm in News | 55050237 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/abreitbart/2010/01/04/update-white-house-spokeswoman-says-different-bertha-lewis-on-visitors-log/UPDATE%3A+White+House+Spokeswoman+Says+Different+Bertha+Lewis+on+Visitor%27s+Log2010-01-04+21%3A30%3A28Andrew+Breitbart

Transparency Is First Rationing Victim of Reid’s ObamaCare

The Obama-Pelosi-Reid regime marched into office pledging to provide the most transparent federal government in American history. I was looking forward to that.

On Inauguration Day, President Obama told his senior staff:

The way to make government responsible is to hold it accountable. And the way to make government accountable is make it transparent so that the American people can know exactly what decisions are being made, how they’re being made, and whether their interests are being well served.

Mr. President, live up to your statement and ask Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to simply show us the bill.

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Tags: government transparency, ObamaCare, Pelosicare, public option, Reid Health care
Posted Dec 19th 2009 at 6:40 am in Congress, Politics | 49242117 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/kolson/2009/12/19/transparency-is-first-rationing-victim-of-reids-obamacare/Transparency+Is+First+Rationing+Victim+of+Reid%E2%80%99s+ObamaCare2009-12-19+14%3A40%3A01Kyle+Olson

Obama’s Labor Department Ignores Freedom of Information Act

On Friday, 20 November 2009, The National Right To Work Legal Defense Foundation (Foundation) decided enough was enough and filed a complaint with the U.S. District Court demanding that they compel the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) to comply with the Foundation’s April 6th Freedom of information Act (FOIA) request.

The Foundation’s FOIA requested:

• Records from communications and recorded events where specified Obama appointees and Big Labor official were present
• Lists of lawsuits involving the Department of Labor and Deborah Greenfield within the past eight years.
• List of any gifts received by Solis in the past 5 years from Big Labor or its officials
• Specifically provide in detail (a) notes, (b) agreements, (c) communications, and (d) agendas related to the regulations related to the labor union and officer disclosure rules
• Copies of phone logs
• Copies of any notes or documents related to any enforcement of any labor laws and any outside groups such as labor unions, American Rights at Work, or ACORN

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Tags: American Rights at WOrk, Card Check, Darrel Issa, Deborah Greenfield, FOIA request
Posted Nov 22nd 2009 at 11:32 am in Big Labor, Justice/Legal, Obama | 3457458 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/dloos/2009/11/22/obamas-labor-department-ignores-freedom-of-information-act/Obama%E2%80%99s+Labor+Department+Ignores+Freedom+of+Information+Act2009-11-22+18%3A32%3A57Don+Loos

Surprise: Recovery.gov Has a Credibility Problem

Recovery.gov has a vast and challenging mandate: “to allow taxpayers to see precisely what entities receive [stimulus] money in addition to how and where the money is spent.” To its credit, Recovery.gov offers a fascinating look into how government goes about spending $787 billion.

However, the website is troubled with inaccuracies, and these problems are undermining its credibility. Wisconsin Democrat Rep. Dave Obey agrees: “The inaccuracies on recovery.gov that have come to light are outrageous and the Administration owes itself, the Congress, and every American a commitment to work night and day to correct the ludicrous mistakes.”

Given that stimulus award recipients are responsible for providing much of the information you see on Recovery.gov, it’s reasonable to expect some errors in the reporting process. Alas, some of the information seems to come out of thin air.

Phantom Congressional Districts.

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Tags: federal stimulus, jobs created, jobs saved, phantom congressional districts, private sector jobs
Posted Nov 18th 2009 at 12:54 pm in Congress, Obama, Politics, State Politics, Technology | 3312678 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/krasmussen/2009/11/18/surprise-recovery-gov-has-a-credibility-problem/Surprise%3A+Recovery.gov+Has+a+Credibility+Problem2009-11-18+19%3A54%3A41Kristina+Rasmussen

Five Common-Sense Steps to Change a Broken Congress

The American people have had it with “business as usual” in Congress.  They are fed up with practices such as tucking special-interest provisions into bills behind closed doors, secretly changing bills without a vote, and passing bills no one has read.  This has happened for far too long, but never before has the need for reform been more apparent than in the past year under Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and her Democratic majority.

Americans are demanding change in the way Congress works.  Recognizing this, I and other reform-minded congressional Republicans this week will put forth a new transparency initiative – a series of common-sense congressional reforms aimed at bringing some much-needed openness and accountability to the House.

In just 10 months, with help from the Obama White House, Speaker Pelosi’s Congress has taken business-as-usual to a devastating new extreme.  The American people have watched Congress rush through a massive “stimulus” spending bill no one read; a massive $410 billion omnibus spending bill loaded with thousands of un-scrutinized earmarks; and a new “cap and trade” national energy tax loaded with special-interest giveaways unveiled at 3:00 am on the morning before a vote.

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Tags: cap-and-trade, Congress, congressional reform, Earmarks, floor action
Posted Nov 18th 2009 at 8:03 am in Congress, News, Politics | 32826109 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/jboehner/2009/11/18/five-common-sense-steps-to-change-a-broken-congress/Five+Common-Sense+Steps+to+Change+a+Broken+Congress2009-11-18+15%3A03%3A17Rep.+John+Boehner

Why We Need 72 Hours to Read Legislation, and How You Can Help

Whoever said, “What you don’t know can’t hurt you,” never went to Congress.

Sometime this year, perhaps very soon, both chambers in Congress likely will be asked to vote on a monumental healthcare bill — monumental in its scope, its cost, and the actual number of pages in the legislation.

And while many important questions about the final draft of the bill remain, here’s one that most Americans are shocked we even have to ask: “Will members of Congress be given enough time to read and understand the bill before casting a vote?”

The answer, based on prior behavior, is “probably not.”

Earlier this year, members, the public, and press were given 12 hours to review the 1,073-page long stimulus bill that cost future generations of Americans (since we’re borrowing just about everything at this point) $787 billion. Not a single member I talked to read it before the vote. I doubt Evelyn Wood could have even pulled it off.

The cap and trade bill, which would cost $846 billion and weighs in at 1,428 pages, was available for 16.5 hours before the House vote.

But this isn’t a partisan problem: under Republican rule in 2003, for example, the 852-page Medicare Part D bill was available for 29 hours before a vote was called on the $395 billion legislation.

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Tags: Medicare Part D, read the bill, Rep. Brian Baird, Rep. Greg Walden, Stimulus Bill
Posted Oct 20th 2009 at 10:32 am in Congress, Featured Story, News, Politics | 1830296 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/gwalden/2009/10/20/why-we-need-72-hours-to-read-legislation-and-how-you-can-help/Why+We+Need+72+Hours+to+Read+Legislation%2C+and+How+You+Can+Help2009-10-20+17%3A32%3A48Rep.+Greg+Walden+%28R-OR%29