Energy

After health care, where do we go from here?

Jedediah Bila Contributor
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Well, conservatives, its time to put your endurance caps on. We’re on a rocky and challenging road, but America needs us now more than ever. And the fate of your children, grandchildren, and the country we love depends on our commitment, perseverance, and refusal to accept the things we know we can change.

The passage of Obama’s disastrous health care bill marks a new age in American politics. The supporters of the legislation are right. It certainly is historic. It will, for the first time in American history, place the health and well being of Americans in the hands of government bureaucrats. It will balloon entitlement spending, grant the IRS the power to penalize Americans who don’t comply with government’s rules, mandate that citizens purchase health insurance whether they want to or not, rob the states’ authority to regulate health care premiums, crucify taxpayers with a deluge of new taxes, increase premiums for millions of families, and swell our national debt, among other catastrophic consequences. Rasmussen reveals that a mere 26 percent of Americans feel that the country is heading in the right direction.

So, what are the lessons to be learned?

  1. This administration will do what it wants, when it wants, how it wants, whether you like it or not. Our power is in our votes. You may not be able to make them listen to you while they’re in office, but you can see to it that they are replaced in 2010 and 2012 with those who care about what you have to say.
  2. This health care bill isn’t about your health. If it was, then doctor shortages, rationing, rising costs, and mandates wouldn’t be part of the package. Instead, you’d be purchasing insurance across state lines and forcing insurance companies—by virtue of your demand for quality care at affordable costs—to shape up or ship out. This bill is about boosting Uncle Sam’s control over your choices, while simultaneously expanding the entitlement bracket in this country. What better way to keep the governing elite in power?
  3. And make no mistake: They will exempt themselves from the rules they impose upon you with a wink and a smile. The lesson? Don’t let them pull the wool over your eyes with other policies that will surely be coming down the pike. Cap-and-tax is about the environment in the same way that the health care bill is about your health, as in not at all. If they control energy, they control private industry and the lifeline of the American economy. You must make it your business to see through the rhetoric.

So, where do we go from here?

For starters, there’s no room for complacency. The well being of our country is at stake and only our voting power can turn the tide. The 2010 and 2012 elections can return constitutional integrity, limited government, states’ rights, and individual liberty to their rightful place as the backbone of our country. Signing Senator Jim DeMint’s petition is a great place to start.

Attorneys general in states across the country have already begun filing suit against the unconstitutional mandate in this health care bill. One of my Chicago readers recently asked me if I thought it would be a good idea for Tea Party patriots to carry their state flags in future marches against Obamacare. You bet I do.

I know that times are tough. And it can be so easy to sit back and feel like your voices won’t matter much anyway. That’s what Obama, Pelosi, and Reid would love you to think. The quieter you are, the stronger their agenda becomes. And the bottom line is that without your votes, their jobs don’t exist.

So buckle down, shake off the fear, wear your love of country like a badge of courage, and make it your priority to elect people who will bring a whole lot of Jefferson, Madison, Washington, and Hamilton to the table.

The power is in your hands and don’t you forget it.

Jedediah Bila is a conservative columnist and commentator living in New York City.  For more information on Jedediah, please visit http://jedediahbila.com/.