GOA Email Alert

[Guest oldfella]

Slimy Politics Help Advance ObamaCare In The Senate

-- But we still have a chance to kill this bill

Gun Owners of America E-Mail Alert

8001 Forbes Place, Suite 102, Springfield, VA 22151

Phone: 703-321-8585 / FAX: 703-321-8408

http://gunowners.org

"Gun Owners of America sent out an action alert to its 300,000 members on Friday...." -- The Washington Post, November 23, 2009

Monday, November 23, 2009

By now, you have probably heard the bad news regarding Saturday night's vote on the anti-gun ObamaCare bill.

Sixty Senators voted to bring the legislation to the Senate floor for discussion and debate, which means that rather than killing the bill outright, we must fight to defeat it another day.

Saturday's vote was very, very important. And every Senator who supported the legislation should be taken to the woodshed for casting an all-important vote in favor of the bill, at a time when we had the best chance to kill ObamaCare.

The good news is that we still hope to win our battle against ObamaCare, and we can do that because Saturday's vote was not the only opportunity to filibuster the bill. At least four Senators -- who voted for ObamaCare on Saturday -- have said they will support a filibuster if the bill stays in its current form.

Nevertheless, it would have been nice to kill the legislation on Saturday, especially given that the American people had not had an opportunity to thoroughly look at it.

As you know, GOA's legal team has reviewed each version of the legislation and found it wanting. GOA has reported on these problems for several months, and now, these concerns are starting to gain traction inside the Beltway.

Today, The Washington Post reported that GOA's gun-related objections "could cause political indigestion for Democrats from conservative states," thus threatening the eventual passage of the bill. The Post said:

"The conservative group Gun Owners of America sent out an action alert to its 300,000 members on Friday warning that the Senate legislation would mandate that doctors provide 'gun-related health data' to 'a government database,' including information on mental-health issues detected in patients, which could jeopardize their ability to obtain a firearms license.

"In addition, the group said the legislation's 'wellness' provisions -- designed to encourage more healthful lifestyles -- would allow federal officials to mandate that companies charge higher insurance premiums for employees who own guns."

Saturday night's "cloture vote" is not the end of the road for us. But for the so-called "moderate" Democrats -- Ben Nelson of Nebraska, Mary Landrieu of Louisiana, Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas, Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, and Evan Bayh of Indiana -- it does make it clear that they were bribed into selling out the American people because Harry Reid ordered them to do so.

Can you spell R-E-C-A-L-L? GOA is looking into which states are the best targets for recalls -- and you can be sure that we will be pursuing this option aggressively, exposing the Senators who sold their vote.

Landrieu's price tag was $300 million -- paid for by the American taxpayer. When a lobbyist gives a financial present to a Senator, they go to prison. Well, what's the difference between that and what Harry Reid did? Senator Landrieu sold her vote!

But do not lose heart. The bill will be debated in the Senate over the coming weeks. And the first step is to let your senators know of your approval of their "no" vote or your strong disapproval of their "yes" vote.

Wondering how your Senator voted? Every Democrat and Independent Senator supported the bill. All Republican Senators voted "no," except for Senator Voinovich of Ohio who missed the vote. To see the official roll call vote, go to: http://tinyurl.com/yaeu5am

ACTION: Please write your Senators. Let them know how you feel about their votes on cloture Saturday night. You can use the Gun Owners Legislative Action Center at http://www.gunowners.org/activism.htm to send a pre-written message to your Senators -- the appropriate e-mail will automatically be sent, based on how they voted.

----- Prewritten letter for ANTI-GUN Senators who voted "yes" ------

Dear Senator:

Just so you know, I will not forget how you voted on Saturday, November 21 when you threw your support in favor of anti-gun socialized health care.

Even if you vote against it at some point in the future, you went on record (on Saturday) to vote for higher taxes and more gun control, at a time when the forces of freedom had the best chance to kill the bill.

I am VERY upset and I will not forget.

Sincerely,

----- Prewritten letter to thank Senators who voted "no" ------

Dear Senator:

Thank you so much for your vote against cloture on ObamaCare. I totally support the vote that you cast.

This bill will raise taxes and lead to more gun control, and I, for one, am glad that there are some Senators who are willing to stand up against socialized health care.

Regarding the latter point, readers of The Washington Post saw in the November 23 edition that:

"The conservative group Gun Owners of America sent out an action alert to its 300,000 members on Friday warning that the Senate legislation would mandate that doctors provide 'gun-related health data' to 'a government database,' including information on mental-health issues detected in patients, which could jeopardize their ability to obtain a firearms license.

"In addition, the group said the legislation's 'wellness' provisions -- designed to encourage more healthful lifestyles -- would allow federal officials to mandate that companies charge higher insurance premiums for employees who own guns."

I hope you will continue to oppose this bill and make sure the rights of gun owners are protected.

Thank you.

Sincerely,

[Volzfan]

Done!

[Guest botulism]

I'm not sure how this has anything to do with gun control. Gun ownership and healthy lifestyles are not related. And TN law already has limitations for people with a history of mental illness. The mental illness issue is related to emergency departments. So unless your family or the police brings you to the emergency department for mental problems and aggression, your doctor is going to be writing you up for committment.

[Guest oldfella]

I'm not sure how this has anything to do with gun control. Gun ownership and healthy lifestyles are not related. And TN law already has limitations for people with a history of mental illness. The mental illness issue is related to emergency departments. So unless your family or the police brings you to the emergency department for mental problems and aggression, your doctor is going to be writing you up for committment.

Any attempt to force any type of gun control or prohibit gun ownership nationally, especially using indirect or hidden means, is troubling to me, as it should be to all gun owners.

Pete

[Volzfan]

I'm not sure how this has anything to do with gun control. Gun ownership and healthy lifestyles are not related. And TN law already has limitations for people with a history of mental illness. The mental illness issue is related to emergency departments. So unless your family or the police brings you to the emergency department for mental problems and aggression, your doctor is going to be writing you up for committment.

"The conservative group Gun Owners of America sent out an action alert to its 300,000 members on Friday warning that the Senate legislation would mandate that doctors provide 'gun-related health data' to 'a government database,' including information on mental-health issues detected in patients, which could jeopardize their ability to obtain a firearms license.

Many of our brave men and women that return from the war are being labeled as unfit to own a weapon,

"In addition, the group said the legislation's 'wellness' provisions -- designed to encourage more healthful lifestyles -- would allow federal officials to mandate that companies charge higher insurance premiums for employees who own guns."

This is BS. You want this type crap in a health bill? The politicians are using this as a way to further infringe on our rights. You are right that gun ownership and healthy lifestyles are not related so write your Rep. and Senators and tell them that very thing!

[Guest oldfella]

Many of our brave men and women that return from the war are being labeled as unfit to own a weapon,

This is BS. You want this type crap in a health bill? The politicians are using this as a way to further infringe on our rights. You are right that gun ownership and healthy lifestyles are not related so write your Rep. and Senators and tell them that very thing!

Hear, hear!... Well said!

Pete

[Guest botulism]

This is BS. You want this type crap in a health bill?

No I do not. So I was relieved to find out that none of this is in the bill. This sounded ridiculous to me, so I had to check.

1) Gun data. "Guns" "firearms," whatever, doesn't appear in the bill. Check for yourself. http://democrats.senate.gov/reform/patient-protection-affordable-care-act.pdf Your doctor is not required to find out if you are a gun owner and report you. I don't know of any doctors that have time to find out all of your actual health problems anyway.

I didn't find and dig through the mental health reporting section if there was one, and whether such a database is linked to background check systems. But Tennessee restricts gun rights for those individuals already anyway. Doesn't matter if you're General Patton or Charles Bronson, if you've been recently committed to a psychiatric facility, your past service to your country doesn't factor into your continued use of firearms.

2) Health Premiums. The bill does allow employers to discriminate against employees with health premiums, and legally offer discounts to employees that participate in wellness programs or behaviors that are linked to better health. Smoking, nutrition, exercise are examples of mention. Firearms usage is not mentioned. Since gun ownership has no direct link to health, it's not a designated program, and I'm not sure anyway why your employer would charge you more or less for health insurance. How would your employer even find out? Firearms usage is not specifically prohibited as something they can't charge different premiums for, but neither is kazoo ownership.

In conclusion, it sounds scary but this is pretty stupid work from the GOA. You don't have to look hard to find catastrophic problems with the bill; no use making them up.

[Guest oldfella]

Since this is a civl disucussion, I will add that GOA, as well as other interested organizations, is concerned the the Bill as currently written, knowing the track record as the make-up of the mentality of the current administration, raises that question. Here is a blurb which spreaks to that concern:

"Let’s look at the bill. The rules for a “Wellness Program†begin on page 87. In brief, if you participate in a Wellness Program, you can get a health insurance premium discount of up to 30%. Stated another way, if you don’t participate in a Wellness Program, you will pay a substantial insurance rate penalty for not doing so. The definition of a “Wellness Program†begins in paragraph ( on page 88:

“(

The wellness program shall be reasonably designed to promote health or prevent disease. A program complies with the preceding sentence if the program has a reasonable chance of improving the health of, or preventing disease in, participating individuals and it is not overly burdensome, is not a subterfuge for discriminating based on a health status factor, and is not highly suspect in the method chosen to promote health or prevent disease.â€

Pages 29–30 mention some of items that “Wellness and Prevention Programs†“may include.†The phrasing does not appear to exclude other items. In any case, the item for “Healthy lifestyle support†is broad enough to include almost anything.

This definition is extremely broad, and the assertion that it is not broad enough to encompass gun ownership appears to be incorrect. There is a very large body of “public health†scholarship which claims to show that gun ownership is a very large health risk to the family that has a gun in the home. I believe that much of this scholarship is of poor quality, and some of it is mere junk science. However, the existence of dozens of articles in public health and medical journals would almost certainly be enough for an anti-gun definition of “Wellness Program†by the Dept. of Health and Human Services to pass the deferential Chevron standard of review."

[Guest oldfella]

Here is another interesting article showing the relationship between the proposed heathcare reform and gun control - yes, we do need to be concerned and very vigilant on the connection between the two:

http://www.ammoland.com/2009/11/10/will-health-care-reform-regulate-guns/

Pete