Sign the Declaration of Health Care Independence
In less than two days, more than 6,200 Americans have joined the nearly 100 lawmakers who have signed a formal Declaration of Health Care Independence.
The statement is simple and thorough in its rejection of Washington plans to take over the nation's health care as unconstitutional.
It states:
We, therefore, the People and Representatives of the United States of America, do solemnly Publish and Declare that health care reform, as a matter of principle, must:
- Protect as inviolate the vital doctor-patient relationship;
- Reject any addition to the crushing national debt heaped upon all Americans;
- Improve, rather than diminish, the quality of care that Americans enjoy;
- Be negotiated publicly, transparently, with genuine accountability and oversight;
- Treat private citizens at least as well as political officials;
- Protect taxpayers from funding of abortion and abortion coverage;
- Reject all new mandates on patients, employers, individuals or states;
- Prohibit expansion of taxpayer-funded health care to those unlawfully present in the United States;
- Guarantee Equal Protection under the law and the Constitution;
- Empower, rather than limit, an open and accessible marketplace of health care choice and opportunity.
Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn. |
Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., drafted and formally unveiled the Declaration of Health Care Independence Jan. 27. The declaration is a commitment to protect the rights of the American people to make their own health decisions, reduce bureaucratic red-tape, decrease intergenerational debt and implement 10 common-sense principles for future health-care reform.
Bachmann, who wants the document delivered to Congress, cites the "impasse" now.
"With Sen. Scott Brown's election," she told WND recently, "that seems to have been able to stop the ball from rolling in the Senate. But we know the president still plans to base his plans on the health-care bill."
She noted President Obama has extended an invitation to Republicans to join Democrats for a live, televised meeting on health-care reform on Feb. 25.
"For us to go forward, it's important for those of us who are constitutional conservatives that we lay out what our vision is – our roadmap, so to speak, for any future health-care discussion," Bachmann explained. "The people have thoroughly rejected what the Democrats came up with in the Senate and the House."
Bachmann said the Obama administration is conducting backroom deals on bills and refusing to broadcast negotiations on CSPAN as pledged. She said health-care legislation must not "force Americans to violate their conscience by having to pay for abortion coverage for other Americans." She added that U.S. citizens must not be obligated to pay for health insurance for illegal aliens.
Bachmann also warned that any health-care plan should not add to federal or state deficits. She shared the following charts printed in the Feb. 2 issue of Congressional Quarterly Today revealing that the federal deficit under the Obama administration is expected to widen to a record $1.6 trillion in fiscal year 2010 – exceeding 10 percent of the total output of the economy for the first time since World War II:
Source: Office of Management and Budget |
"This nonpartisan graph shows what America's future will be if we continue down the road on runaway spending under President Obama," Bachmann said.
She said it represents a future with a declining standard of living so severe it will be unlike anything the nation has ever known. Bachmann challenged Americans to take a close look at the projected debt levels America will be embracing.
"If people see this graph, they will know from there what to do, very clearly, this November," she said. "They need to turn out of office people who agree with President Obama's economic policies, and they need to replace them with people who agree with our founders and our Declaration of Independence and Constitution that we are a constitutional republic. We cannot drown our nation and our people in debt, and we can't force upon them tax increases so egregious that we will never again know true prosperity."
As for the Declaration of Health Care Independence, she is asking the American public to put pressure on President Obama and the Democrats in Congress to sign the document as well.
"We're encouraging them to sign," Bachmann said. "We're asking people to sign this and forward it to their member of Congress. Then, if there's a town-hall meeting, or if they are somewhere where their senator or congressman is, print out a copy of this declaration, wave it in the air at your member of Congress and say, 'Look! At least 95 members of Congress have already signed this. Why haven't you signed?'"
She said American's should hold their lawmakers' feet to the fire – in public if possible – and ask them whether they agree with the 10 constitutional conservative principles.
"Go on the offense. That's what we're trying to do," Bachmann challenged Americans. "We believe that members of the House and Senate need to answer to their constituents, whether they agree or disagree with this as a beginning platform going forward with health care. The American people have clearly repudiated what President Obama and the Democrats have put forward thus far."
What should citizens do if their lawmakers shut them out?
"This is my challenge: Right now, I challenge every reader at WorldNetDaily to print the declaration out, contact their member of Congress and report back on the WorldNetDaily website what they heard from their member of Congress," Bachmann said. "People can come back to WorldNetDaily. They can memorialize their experiences, and then we would know where these members of Congress truly stand. Do they agree with the people, or are they going to pursue a radical agenda that the American people have thoroughly repudiated?"
Share your experience now at WND's new forum if you have tried to get a member of Congress to sign the Declaration of Health Care Independence.
Feb. 16, 2010