Hundreds attend 'Hands off my Healthcare' rally and sign petition, Chabot makes surprise appearance

Cincinnati, OH - The line outside of the Nathanael Greene Lodge started forming long before the doors opened at 5:30 pm. Attendees came from all over the Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky region, and even as far north as Lebanon, Ohio to sign petitions against the healthcare bill and hear the guest speakers for the “Hands off my Healthcare” rally that had been organized by Americans for Prosperity, The Cincinnati Tea Party, and The Cincinnati 9/12 project. A sound hookup was set up outside the building for those who weren’t able to get in line early enough to get inside the building, which was filled to capacity. By the end of the evening, close to 500 signatures had been collected.

Rebecca Heimlich Photo by Elizabeth Delaney Rebecca Heimlich, the State Director for the Ohio chapter of Americans for Prosperity kicked off the rally with a joke she attributed to comedian Milton Berle: “You can lead a man to Congress, but you can’t make him think.”

The crowd of about 500 laughed, and she went on to make her point that it’s clear that Washington hasn’t been listening and isn’t truly thinking about what the American people want or need, but that she was hoping to see a change in that as Americans sign petitions, continue to call, and continue to speak out against this bill.

She mentioned that she was at a dueling rally earlier on Tuesday in front of Ohio Senator Mary Jo Kilroy’s office. Those who supported the healthcare bill were wearing green and those who opposed it wore red. Those wearing red outnumbered those wearing green by 4 to 1, and that there were about 500 people. Americans for Prosperity has been holding rallies all over the nation.

She mentioned that the House would be voting on the Senate bill within the next few days, and that it’s the same bill that has “all the corruption and pays back Senators for their votes. It’s the same bill with all the horrible provisions.” She admonished attendees not to fall for the notion that if the bill isn’t stopped now, that it can be stopped in reconciliation, “because the fact is, the Senate parliamentarian hearing determines that before they can even start the reconciliation, the bill has to pass the House, and the president has to sign it, so it will be law. They never have to do reconciliation.” And as long as the House is willing to settle for everything that’s in the Senate bill, no reconciliation process would be necessary. That’s why the bill must be stopped now.

Americans for Prosperity put a list together of the worst provisions of the bill.

* A price of 2.5 trillion over the first 10 years is entirely too much

* Taxes of about 493 billion will be levied on “so called Cadillac plans,” the Medicare payroll tax, taxes on health insurance, drug manufacturing companies, and these taxes will undoubtedly be passed on to “We the People.”

* There is an individual mandate, a requirement on every American, to buy health insurance.
Anyone who refuses will be charged a $750 fine. Every company must provide all of its full-time employees with insurance. The Congressional Budget Office has estimated that up to 5 million workers could lose their insurance because it would be cheaper for those companies to pay the fine than offer insurance.

* The bill cuts $120 billion from Medicare advantage and up to 2.6 million seniors could lose their Medicare advantage.

* There will be panels of alleged experts who will be assessing Medicare spending, recommend cuts to congress, make plans for rationing, and basically, healthcare will be overseen by the government.

The first speaker of the evening was Chris Finney, co-founder of Coalition Chris Finney Photo by Elizabeth Delaney Opposed to Additional Spending and Taxes (COAST). The organization is known for being a defender on behalf of Cincinnati and Hamilton County taxpayers, saving them billions in tax dollars. Finney reminded attendees that Obama didn’t run as a radical leftist, he ran as a moderate who said he’d cut taxes, and that’s why people voted for him. Finney also reminded the crowd that America isn’t a socialist country and that it wasn’t founded with the intent of ever being one.

He encouraged the Cincinnati Tea Party and Cincinnati 9/12 project in their efforts of reaching out to citizens, helping them stay informed, and gain a deeper understanding of the political process. He affirmed them in their tireless efforts to attend town halls, hold peaceful protests, call their Congresspersons, and write letters, encouraging them to remain an active, energetic populace that educates themselves and their communities about America’s history and political process-- because these things are what are needed for such a time as this. He added that “People, if they educate themselves, stay motivated and work, aren’t going to put up with this nonsense. What’s going on in Washington is not America right now.” And the crowd verbalized their agreement. He also said that a socialist agenda “has taken over in our government right now, and (with our persistence in speaking out and our votes) we are going to get rid of it.”

Dr. Rob Lewis Photo by Elizabeth Delaney Dr. Rob Lewis has been practicing medicine in Cincinnati for 17 years and has been named a healthcare hero by the Cincinnati Business Courier. While he admitted that the present system does need reform, he also admitted that defensive medical practice, or the practice of doctors and nurse practitioners ordering more tests than what they need happens not out of greed, but out of fear. So they do this to try to protect their careers, families and homes, and they also pay up to 100,000 in medical malpractice insurance, which does drive up the cost of healthcare. He also pointed out that price transparency is needed because patients typically don’t know what the real costs will be. However, he believes that a free market approach will drive prices down.

Lewis was emphatic about, “We do not have a crisis of healthcare quality in this country.” The crowd applauded and cheered in agreement. He pointed out that “I have colleagues from Asia, Europe, Canada, and the UK, and they bring their families here when they want to have the best quality healthcare that they can get and not be put on a waiting list and not be rationed.” He also stated that “We have the best medical education system in the world. I know because my colleagues come from all over the world to be educated here.” He added that America has the best medical personnel, top level technology, and amazing medical manufacturing industry. He cautioned that “we cannot lose quality when we reform our system.” He also warned that if the present bill passes, that Americans would experience the same kind of rationing and waiting lists that his colleagues come here to escape.

Lewis hit on the fact that insurance does need to be reformed, but not by using the same old broken down, incremental, dysfunctional system that has been in place over the past 70 years, consisting of both backroom deals and out-in-the- open deals between our politicians, healthcare providers, businesses, health insurance companies and unions. He said the original purpose of insurance was very basic. Years ago, it was simply designed to protect people from a catastrophe and the financial disaster that can come from a medical crisis. He insisted that “we have to find a way to get back to the basics so that we can have healthcare insurance that is affordable, and one way to do that is to get control of what actually goes into the policies. We cannot hand over our decision making to politicians and insurers.”

Three goals that he insisted must be achieved in order for reform to be worthwhile include improving access, driving down costs, and improving overall health. While he acknowledged that access may be slightly increased, he was emphatic about the facts that consumer self-interest will go down and costs will go up. He insisted that the present bill is nothing more than an expansion of the already broken-down, dysfunctional system, and that it hands the control of a large sector of our economy over to the politicians who are stuck in the mindset of that broken-down, dysfunctional system -- which is not reform.

Small Business owner, engineer, and consultant George Brunemann specializes George Brunemann Photo by Elizabeth Delaney in green technology firms and is a life-long Cincinnatian who is also considered a community leader. He took a moment to recognize that Monday was the 1 year anniversary of the first Cincinnati Tea Party, which took place in the heart of downtown Cincinnati on Fountain Square. The gathering of 5000 gained national attention as they rallied around the core principles of fiscal responsibility, limited government and free markets – and that focus is consistent even today.

Brunemann pointed out the fact that the healthcare bill is about as fiscally irresponsible as it gets. He grinned as he added that knowing the equation for compound interest isn’t necessary in order to comprehend that you can’t spend more money than you get – especially when it involves trillions of dollars. Brunemann brought out the fact that until the government embraces fiscal responsibility, there is definitely a risk that our bonds could soon be considered junk bonds – even in the eyes of China. He added that in spite of what the government keeps telling us, the bill cannot legitimately be claimed as budget control, even if taxes are collected on it for a few years before they actually let anyone use it.

Becoming a bit more sober, he stated that the healthcare bill is, “a multitrillion dollar expense, with no visible means of financing, that gives you almost no visible improvement in service.” He added that it “not only represents the take-over of an entire industry, but now we’re going to have committees sitting between us and our doctors deciding whether or not I qualify to be taken care of. Suddenly my value to the government is how they figure out what healthcare I’m allowed to have. Again that seems a little contrary to anything that Americans would say is an American principle.”

Touching on the free market concept, he said that the bill would entirely remove healthcare from the market. Being a small business owner, he said that the “Cadillac tax” that would be levied on him because of paying 100 percent of the healthcare benefits of his employees would cost $400 per person per month. Not a situation that’s going to reduce his costs and therefore give him an incentive to hire more employees, two of the very things which would benefit the economy overall. Brunemann explained that the reason why, “the rest of the world looks to the United States for improvements, innovation, healthcare, and medicine is because, up until now, we are the last remaining free market for healthcare.” He encouraged attendees to make sure that they sign the petition before leaving, and also encouraged them to visit www.OHcongress.com, a website that serves as a way to document that the protest and signatures are real.

Justin Binik-Thomas Photo by Elizabeth Delaney Author Justin Binik-Thomas is a founding member of the Cincinnati Tea Party and co-creator of the OHcongress project. His book, Profit is not a Dirty Word, was published last year. Binik-Thomas reminded attendees that the healthcare bill flies in the face of all three of the core values of the Tea Party movement. Quoting James Madison, America’s 4th president and a man considered to be the “father” of the constitution, Binik-Thomas stated, “The powers delegated by the proposed Constitution to the federal government are few and defined. Those which are to remain in the State governments are numerous and indefinite.” He added that federal government, “controlling the healthcare of every American is not a defined power; giving Washington bureaucrats authority to make our medical decisions for us is not a defined power; placing these bureaucrats between us and our doctors is not a defined power.” Insisting that the bill “plays many games” with its double speak strategy, lack of ethics, and outrageous tax burden on Americans, he pulled from the words of Reverend Martin Luther King who once said, “History will have to record that the greatest tragedy of this period of social transition was not the strident clamor of the bad people, but the appalling silence of the good people.” Then Binik-Thomas said of that statement that “it is as true today in our battle for personal rights as it was for civil rights. This call to action – to protect our liberties and kill the bill – is absolutely deafening.” He then encouraged the crowd to continue calling, writing and visiting their Representatives, and to log their visit and message at www.OHcongress.com. The goal is to gather 2309 letters – one letter for each page of the bill. Former Congressman Steve Chabot Photo by Elizabeth Delaney

Former Congressman Steve Chabot made a surprise guest appearance, telling the crowd that Congress’ blatant disregard and disrespect for the will of the majority of the American people, and their attempt to ram the bill through is “scandalous,” as were all the votes that were bought and special deals to the unions. He encouraged attendees to keep in mind that “it’s not over yet, and we can still influence this vote.”

Chris Littleton and Li'l Stevie Driehaus And yet another surprise guest appearance was made by “Li’l Stevie Driehaus,” pictured here with Cincinnati Tea Party President Chris Littleton. Li’l Stevie will not only provide some comic relief at the Cincinnati Tea Party tax day rally on Thursday, April 15, but he also serves as a reminder that big Stevie Driehaus is a puppet who can’t think for himself and who pretty much votes however Nancy Pelosi tells him to vote. There is talk that Li’l Stevie and Flat Nancy might be in TV commercials and maybe a few campaign ads in the near future -- depending on how motivated The Cincinnati Tea Party members and Cincinnati 9/12 members should get.