Freedom Campaign - July 2010
by Larry Greenley, Director of Marketing
“Choose Freedom — Stop Obamacare” on Facebook
If you’re already using Facebook, the social networking phenomenon on the Internet, go to http://facebook.com/ChooseFreedom.StopObamaCare and click on “Like” to become a “fan” of our new “Choose Freedom — STOP ObamaCare” page on Facebook. With over 100 million users in the United States, it seems nearly everyone you know is on Facebook, especially the political activists.
Our new fan page on Facebook is intended to complement our overall “Choose Freedom — STOP ObamaCare” campaign. Here’s how we describe it on the fan page:
“Choose Freedom — STOP ObamaCare” provides news of the grassroots campaign to restore our healthcare freedom under the Constitution by nullification of ObamaCare at the state level, repeal at the federal level, then restoring free market healthcare.
The fan page itself is a type of blog with a series of entries or posts (also called microblogs) appearing on the page with the latest posts at the top. A very important feature of a Facebook fan page is that each post is also posted on the “News Feed” microblog of each fan. Therefore, fans of our page don’t have to come back to our page for updates, but instead our updates are automatically posted in a place where each fan will see them in their daily use of Facebook. In addition, each post we make to our Facebook page is automatically “tweeted” to our followers on Twitter at http://twitter.com/STOP_ObamaCare.
The good news is that our fan page is growing steadily since we launched it on May 19. Here’s a graph of the growth from May 19 to June 8 which shows we had attracted 5,700 fans for those three weeks. With the continuing high degree of interest in nullifying and repealing ObamaCare, which should only increase during this election year, we expect that our fan page should easily grow to tens of thousands of fans by this fall.
By posting a combination of news about the bad effects of ObamaCare and the progress of nullification and repeal efforts along with posts about our campaign tools, speeches, and how to organize with others on JBS.org to stop ObamaCare, we plan to influence our fans on Facebook toward involvement with our campaign on JBS.org.
Beware of ObamaCare “Repeal and Replace” Bills
All Republican politicians and candidates have gotten the message by now that the “Repeal ObamaCare” issue is definitely “in.” And, this is a good thing. However, most of them go on to say, “Let’s repeal and replace ObamaCare.” That can be a dangerous thing, because over the past year of intense debate over healthcare reform, many Republicans have put forward unconstitutional, government-oriented health care reform proposals of their own. But since government involvement in health care is the problem, not the solution, the last thing we need is to repeal ObamaCare and replace it with ObamaCare-lite.
An Example of a Good “Repeal and Replace” Bill: Ron Paul’s H.R. 5444
Even though we’ve just warned you against “repeal and replace” bills, we’re happy to tell you about Ron Paul’s new bill, “The Private Option Health Care Reform Act,” H.R. 5444. This bill is an example of a good “repeal and replace” bill.
The title of Section 2 of Paul’s bill reveals that this is definitely a repeal ObamaCare bill: “Sec. 2. Repeal of Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010.” The two provisions of Section 2 proceed to repeal the two laws that together are known as ObamaCare. Then, each provision goes on to say, “the provisions of law amended or repealed by such Act are restored or revised as if such Act had not been enacted.” Thus, Paul’s bill would completely repeal ObamaCare “root and branch.”
Now on to the “replace” portion of Paul’s bill. These provisions are constitutional, free-market reforms of health care that are reflected in the titles of sections 3-10:
Sec. 3. Refundable Credit For Health Care Costs.
Sec. 4. Disposition Of Unused Health Benefits In Cafeteria Plans And Flexible Spending Arrangements.
Sec. 5. Strengthening Health Savings Accounts.
Sec. 6. Repeal Of 7.5 Percent Threshold On Deduction For Medical Expenses.
Sec. 7. Purchase Of Health Insurance Across State Lines.
Sec. 8. Facilitation Of Importation Of Drugs Approved By Food And Drug Administration.
Sec. 9. Credit For Purchase By Patient Of Insurance Against Negative Outcomes Resulting From Surgery.
Sec. 10. Exclusion From Gross Income For Medical Malpractice Awards Granted In Binding Arbitration.
In sharp contrast with the massive ObamaCare health care reform bill, Ron Paul’s bill is only seven pages long when printed out from the Library of Congress’ Thomas legislative database.
The bottom line: The entire ObamaCare law must be repealed; be very wary of “repeal and replace” bills in general; however, Ron Paul’s H.R. 5444 “repeal and replace” bill is worthy of support.
ACTION SUMMARY
If you’re already “on Facebook,” be sure to visit http://facebook.com/ChooseFreedom.StopObamaCare and click on “Like” to become a fan of our new campaign page.
Click on “Legislative Action” under the “Action” menu item on the JBS.org homepage, then click on “Repeal ObamaCare” and send an email to your representative and senators to help keep the pressure on Congress for repeal (understanding that ultimate repeal could take three years), and to see if you can glean anything useful from their responses for the election campaigns this summer and fall.
