Stop ObamaCare, Contact Your Senators and Representatives

Writing to you congresspersons is a relatively easy process. Simply type their name and the word "contact" in your preferred search engine. Google with show a contact link is the search results.

Now that you are there, fill in the indentification information and do not forget to enter your email address if you would like a response from them.

When sending an email be sure you treat it as if you were sending a letter with the proper salutation, such Dear Senator Last name, be respectful if you are serious about getting a favorable result with your message, do not stray into more then one issue (or you risk confusing them), and end it with a respectful closing, such as, "Thank you for your service". Do this even if you did not vote for that person and especially if you do not like them at all. This will demonstrate ability to keep a level head when discussing issues that you care about deeply and especially if the issue presses your hot buttons.

These same rules apply when writing a letter to the editor of a newspaper, or even when responding to blogs. Some of the more open minded and progressive blogs, such as the Huffington Post, censor the comments and will remove anything that goes against their mindset, or the mindset of the author of the blog, using the excuse that you were using ad hominem attacks or other distractions that they willing allow when the object is someone or some organization that they don't like. Save the fun for your own blog.

Back to writing to your congressperson....

Here are examples of two different webmails I sent to my senators this morning.

The first one is to Senator Bill Nelson, a Democrat from Florida. I'm pretty sure he will vote for ObamaCare anyway, believing we will forget that he helped destroy the country by the time he runs for reelection.

Notice how I give my specific reasons why I do not want this legislation passed. And, while I may not have all my grammar and spelling correct, I sent it anyway because the issue is important to me and I believe that it is understandable.

Here goes....

Dear Senator Nelson,

I am very troubled this morning to learn that the US Congress is planning to force the president's version of health care insurance reform through congress while knowing that 73% of Americans are against it.

The problem isn't that we do not know enough about it, as we do know.

The problem is that experts agree this program, if enacted, would destroy all private sector health insurance companies and make all Americans dependent on the federal government for health care insurance.

With the Medicare cuts, it would destroy Medicare as well.

It cuts payments to doctors ensuring that there will be fewer doctors to provide services to the president's estimate 30 million additional patients while reducing the number of qualified researchers who discover all the wonderful innovations that have made America the envy of the entire world.

This one reason alone is why other countries can seemingly afford nationalized health care as we are paying for the research, not them. It is the same as they depend on us for their national defense and they only invest minimally in their own.

It increases the threshold of medical expense deductibility from 7.5% to 10% of the adjusted gross income, penalizing responsible Americas who pay for their own medical care and insurance.

Instead of lowering private sector insurance premiums, it would cause a large increase due to:

- having fewer paid customers (who will be moving to the government's plan),.

- making up the difference of lower government mandated fees to doctors who would otherwise leave the profession due to their inability to earn a living.

- no relief from malpractice insurance ensures no relief from higher costs and higher fees that are passed on to the patients and their insurance company.

- mandatory coverage of pre-existing conditions means that people will not pay for insurance until they need it. This will drive costs even more as the only paying customers will be those who already require expensive treatments.

- this country is already dangerously in debt and this health care reform will make matters worse. The debt is responsible for devaluing the US dollar, down at least 16% in the last year. This also makes insurance more expensive.

Government mandated purchasing of insurance by working Americans will fail the Constitutionality test as this kind of intrusion has never been the within the authority of the federal government.

This bill makes no sense to working Americans and needs to be stopped before it can further ruin this country.

The government is constituted to represent the will of and by the consent of the people. Poll after poll shows that most Americans do not want this bill. Passing it will surely cause voters to reconsider who they allow to be the majority party in congress during the next few election cycles when we know for a fact that will of the governed is being set aside for political gain in Washington.

There are better plans out there that need to be considered by rushing into national bankruptcy merely for the purpose of tallying up a win in the president's corner.

Thank you for your service.

I also wrote to our other senator, George LeMieux, Republican - Florida.

Dear Senator LeMieux,

While I am very sure that you will be voting against this health care reform package, I would like to reiterate my opposition to it. This makes me in agreement with at least 73% of Americans who are against it, knowing that it would be a huge unwieldy mess and that there are many more common sense way to help uninsured Americans to receive proper health care. Most of those ways are listed in the GOP's health care reform web site.

I also want to thank you for your service to this country and the Great State of Florida and I hope that you will consider a run office at the end of this term.

Sincerely yours.

Please note that the letter to the "friendly" senator is much shorter than the one I sent to Senator Nelson. I've written to both before on this issue and while Senator LeMieux's response agrees with mine, while Senator Nelson's only reiterated the party talking points.

When you right a letter, you do not need to include all the reasons your are for or against some issue or policy. Just letting them know your position on the issue is normally enough. Besides, I doubt they (or a staffer, most likely) will not have the time or inclination to read it all. That is the reason I put my request, vote NO, in the subject line of the mail. When the staffer sees the subject, the point is already made.

Finally, I tried to write to my Representative, Vern Buchanan, after writing to my senators, but it seems as if his web page is overloaded and would not display. I'm sure he is on the same side of this issue as I am, so I may try again later or simply trust him to do the right thing. (What a concept).