Tea Party Time in Bozeman!

The Bozeman Tea Party group is organizing an event on November 6, 2009, and put out the following email:

EVENT NOTICE, FRIDAY, NOV. 6th, 12 PM NOON

OPPOSE HEALTH CARE TAKEOVER

Visit the offices of Senators Jon Tester and Max Baucus. Protest House and Senate health care bills. Bills are rapidly moving through committees of both houses. Now is the time to voice your concern.

When: November 6, 2009. 12:00 noon- 1:00 p.m.
Where: Avant Courier Building
1 E Main Street, Suite 202
Bozeman, MT 59715
Details: Bring a sign. Bring a letter. Or, simply come.

Are you alarmed by acts of Congress? Does liberal health care reform make you angry?

Are you perturbed to hear that ” ‘reform’ will double or triple premium prices”? (WSJ)

Do you sense that this bill and others are an erosion of founding principles of

* self-reliance
* individual liberty
* freedom to contract
* freedom to be left alone
* and freedom from onerous government exactions?

Does the vanity and heavy-handedness of Pelosi, Reid and Obama leave you incredulous?

We are planning to make our displeasure felt, our dissatisfaction heard, by the field staff of senators Tester and Baucus this coming Friday. Please join us.

Give your lunch hour to let your voice be heard.

These officials should know of our dissatisfaction, discontent and state of perturbation even if we don’t change their vote.

They must know!

We must not stand by mute while this catastrophic legislation gets imposed on us.

My top reasons for opposing health care reform as presently formulated:

* Fails to deliver its promise of universal coverage while lowering costs (The Impossible Dream. Duh.)
* Disproportionately expropriates from young adults
* Breaks Montana’s state budget by piling costs on Medicaid
* Forces individuals to buy something, a seemingly unconstitutional requirement
* Expands incessant government meddling in personal affairs
* Increases my costs, decreases my choices

Reminder: When: November 6, 2009, noon hour. Where: Senator Jon Tester’s office: Avant Courier Building, 1 E. Main St., Suite 202. Bozeman. We will walk the two blocks to Baucus’ office after meeting with Mr. Tester’s staff.

It’s not a bad sentiment, and organizing a protest is a nice way to spend a Friday, even if futile. Much of the email captures the fears, real and imagined, of the right wing of government oppression. It’s kind of where they live, how they think.

Most of it is hyperbole meant to inflame passions, and can be dismissed as such. One line is pure manipulation:

Are you perturbed to hear that ” ‘reform’ will double or triple premium prices”? (WSJ)

In reality, the “double” or “triple” was lifted from an opinion piece by Kim Strassel in which she cites nameless “insurers” who supposedly put forth that figure. Wording it the way they did in this email makes it appear as though it was actual WSJ reporting that produced the number. That’s misleading.

Anyway, I think we can make common cause with these folks, and perhaps should attend the rally as well. They say the proposed legislation forces individuals to buy something, a seemingly unconstitutional requirement. I agree – if government were simply to issue the insurance itself as part of its single payer program, there would be no constitutional issues, since it falls under the General Welfare clause. But forcing people to buy overpriced products from private companies is, in my view, odious and hopefully unconstitutional.