Paul Ille [dot] com

So it’s a couple days late Happy Thanksgiving anyway.

We hosted our first Thanksgiving here this year and it was a lot of fun. While we weren’t able to get the entire family together, we did manage to get a good portion of it, we had a good time and damn did we have food. I didn’t even get to taste all of the food we had cause there was just so much! There was:

Turkey, Chipolte Turkey Breast, Ham, Home made Cranberry sauce, String beans, Califlower with cheese, Califlower, Mushrooms, Mashed Potatoes, Gravy, Spinach with garlic, Sweet Potatoes, Stuffing, Creamed Onions, Cornbread Casserole, Corn…and that’s just what I know we had on my half of the table!

For dessert we had:

Brownies, Brownies with Chocolate Chips, Apple Pie, Chocolate and Peanut Butter Pie, Cookies, Rhubarb Pie…there were more, but I was running around so I didn’t have the chance to see everything.

The food was phenomenal. I just love the year end holidays. Great food and great company.

But, this year wasn’t JUST our first Thanksgiving at our house. It was the first year Sandy or I had Thanksgiving anywhere, but our Grandparent’s houses. This was something that weighed heavy on our minds, but I can’t imagine it didn’t weigh a bit heavier on mine. While this year was the first year Sandy’s family didn’t have Thanksgiving at her Grandparent’s house, it was the first time I hadn’t spent any of Thanksgiving with my extended family – they were unable to come for one reason or another. This fact didn’t fully hit me until I spoke with my Grandfather on Thanksgiving morning. I thought about him throughout the day and wished he had been able to make it. Don’t get me wrong. I was still very happy to have my Brother, Sister-in-law, newly born neice, Mother and Aunt Betty there to represent.

I enjoyed having Thanksgiving at our home and I’d like to continue to host it for the family. Everything has to change doesn’t it?

I had Thanksgiving at Sandy’s Grandparent’s house one year earlier – Sandy’s Grandmother has long since past, but I always say Grandparent’s anyway. I remember the long room they had with a long table going all the way down through it fitting at least 20 or 25 people. I remember thinking, damn that’s quite a table and I appreciated the fact that everyone was at that one long table together. My family always had a good time, but we always had one smaller dining room table with everyone else at semi-crappy folding tables – it was somewhat disconnected at times. There was always a distant feeling I didn’t like, but of course I hadn’t realized that until I saw this gigantic table.

The following year, Sandy’s Grandfather unfortunately broke his hip and decided to sell his home. With that, he also decided to give us his dining room table. Being such a stickler for tradition, it was clear we’d have to take the torch and host it for the family, but it’s funny that I didn’t realize there was a very crafty trick played on me. The dining room table was 110 inches long with the leafs in! It couldn’t fit 20-25 people! It could maybe fit 10 or so maxed. So what exactly did Sandy’s Grandfather do? He built additional tables to butt up against the dining room table to give the illusion of a long table. It worked. Brilliant. Fooled me. The whole time I was wondering how on Earth we’d fit that table in our dining room!

I decided to take Sandy’s Grandfather’s idea and run with it.

The dining room table was 110 inches long and 42 inches wide. I took two 6 foot heavy duty folding tables that I had, bolted 3/4 inch plywood 6 foot by 42 inch on top to match the width and height of the dining room table and presto! We had a 21 foot and change dining room table.

Sure, it didn’t look so hot with sawdust and rulers on top, but that’s when I turned the show over to Sandy’s wizardry (and Jonathan’s vacuuming skills hehe). She did an amazing job getting table cloths and decorating the table from cranberries with candles to plate chargers and nicely folded napkins. Amazing. The final touch was the centerpeece sent by a good friend who unfortunately couldn’t make it. It was perfect.

I was a bit bummed that I didn’t get a picture of the entire table full with the entire family. I should have had everyone pose for one big picture (I will next year), but sometimes I guess the moments just can’t be captured. The best I got was a partial table taken from my seat at the head, but there were about 5 people cut out. The two empty seats are from my Brother and his wife putting baby Maddie to sleep.

But in the end, the entire family WAS there and everyone contributed. The centerpiece, my Mother’s chairs, Sandy’s Grandfather’s dining room table, my Grandmother’s piano and everyone who came or was on our minds. To history, future and new beginnings!

It was a great day and we had a lot of laughs, good food and great company. We hope you and your families all had the same I can’t wait until next year! – but Christmas cometh We’re hosting that too!

We have a lot to be thankful for. I think we all do, don’t we?

I haven’t really had much time lately, but I figure it’s important to do what you can. I know getting involved with politics is painful, but it’s not about the politics. It’s about you and your children. It’s about what you believe in.

Recently I took a little bit of time to at least contact my representitives via e-mail regarding the health care reform. I’m not sure it’ll help, but it’s all the time I can spend right now.

It’s fairly easy to do. Look up your representitives using the following page.

Congress.org
http://www.congress.org/congressorg/dbq/officials/

In New Jersey here I contacted 3 people:
Senator Robert Menendez (D) Senator_Menendez@menendez.senate.gov
Rep. Scott Garrett (R) scott.garrett@mail.house.gov
Senator Frank R. Lautenberg (D) senator@lautenberg.senate.gov

Lautenberg is the guy I contacted a while back to ask him to cleanup his political campaign signs in Nutely, NJ. I’m sure he didn’t know they were still up almost a year after he got elected, but I have to say, they were down within 2 weeks of my email.

Anyway, I received a quick and thorough response from Rep. Garrett, but the others just replied with a generic email reply saying they’d get to my email. I know Rep. Garret’s response wasn’t personalized, but it was something. Here was his response:

Dear Mr. Ille:

Thank you for contacting me about H.R. 3962, the Health Care for all Americans Act. I appreciate having the benefit of your thoughts on this legislation and appreciate the opportunity to respond.

H.R. 3962 was introduced on October 29, 2009 by Congressman John Dingell (MI-15). While H.R. 3962 was not formally marked up by any Congressional Committees, the legislation, while differing in some ways, closely resembles H.R. 3200, the America’s Affordable Health Choices Act, which was marked up by the Committees on Ways and Means, Energy and Commerce, and Education and Labor earlier this year. On November 7, the House of Representatives passed H.R. 3962 by a vote of 220-215.

Over the course of this past year, I have said repeatedly that our nation’s health care system is in need of reform. Indeed, most advocates for reform, Republican and Democrat alike, can agree on the problems that need to be addressed: health insurance is too expensive, and is tied too closely to our employers; federal spending on health care is too high and projected to go higher; and a certain segment of the population has difficulty accessing the health care system because of chronic disease, disability, or other reasons. But it is also important to remember that our health care system has many strengths, such as leading the world in medical innovation. I firmly believe that health care reform should build on these strengths, while finding innovative solutions to address its problems.

The nearly 2,000 pages of H.R. 3962 is not real health care reform. It is instead an unprecedented $1.2 Trillion expansion of our nation’s bankrupt entitlement programs, and the creation of a vast new entitlement. As Jeffrey Flier, the Dean of Harvard Medical School wrote in a Wall Street Journal op-ed entitled “Health Reform Gets a Failing Grade”:

“In discussions with dozens of health-care leaders and economists, I find near unanimity of opinion that, whatever its shape, the final legislation that will emerge from Congress will markedly accelerate national health-care spending rather than restrain it. Likewise, nearly all agree that the legislation would do little or nothing to improve quality or change health-care’s dysfunctional delivery system.”

One of the primary goals of health care reform has been to reduce the nation’s spending on health care, or to “bend the cost curve.” On November 13th, 6 days after the House considered H.R. 3962, the Obama Administration’s Chief Actuary of the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), Richard Foster, published a report that said our country would actually spend $289 Billion more on health care as a result of passing H.R. 3962 than if it did nothing at all! In other words, the legislation would bend the cost curve, but it would bend it up. Furthermore, the vast majority of provisions contained in the legislation aimed at slowing the pace of rising costs would have a “relatively small savings impact.”

To pay for all this new spending the bill would impose, in the midst of an economic downturn, $729.5 Billion in new taxes on small businesses, individuals who cannot afford health coverage, and employers who cannot afford to provide coverage. It would also force $282 Billion in draconian cuts on doctors and hospitals that care for our nation’s seniors in the Medicare program. According to the CMS Chief Actuary this could lead to doctors and hospitals leaving the Medicare program, “possibly jeopardizing access to care for beneficiaries.”

Real health care reform would increase health care portability by making health care plans less dependent on our employers; make health care more affordable; increase quality and innovation; and be sustainable. H.R. 3962 fails to meet every single one of these goals. For these reasons, I firmly oppose this approach to health care reform, and voted no when the bill was considered in the House of Representatives. I continue to hope that in the coming months President Obama and the Congressional leadership will work to find bipartisan solutions to our nation’s health care problems, and I stand ready to work with the Administration if they will listen.

Thank you for contacting me. Should you have any further questions or comments about this or any legislative issue, please do not hesitate to contact me in my Washington, D.C. office at (202) 225-4465. Also, please visit my website at http://garrett.house.gov/to sign up for my e-newsletter for the latest updates.

Sincerely,
Scott Garrett
Member of Congress

I agree with him except for the fact that he hopes leadership will find a bipartisan solution. I don’t want this to pass in any shape or form. There ARE issues that need to be fixed, but this bill is so bloated, full of non-sensical, over-the-top ideas, control, promises without backing, entitlements, favors for politicians to go along…you name it.

I can’t imagine how we think a government who can’t run the Post Office, Amtrak, Medicare and Medicaid, and Social Security (among others) is going to run 1/6th of the U.S. economy. I mean seriously? Do you think they can?

Post Office Desperate For Financial Help
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/03/25/national/main4891188.shtml

U.S. Postal Service: Escalating Financial Problems Require Major Cost Reductions to Limit Losses
http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-09-475T

U.S. Federal Budget: Medicare and Medicaid
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_federal_budget#Medicare_and_Medicaid

U.S. Federal Budget: Social Security
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_federal_budget#Social_Security

Granted, I won’t say the ideas behind Medicare and Social Security are completely bad. It’s just the way they’d done. Before Social Security, our seniors were horrified to grow old. There was a huge unknown about whether or not they would have enough money to live. But do we need the government to rock us to sleep at night or maybe just to give us a little hand? I’ve said it before. I’d like to see the government allow people to put money tax free aside each week that THEY manage. We don’t need big Mommy telling us what to do with our hard earned cash.

Did you see this latest story?

Exclusive: Jobs ‘Saved or Created’ in Congressional Districts That Don’t Exist
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/jobs-saved-created-congressional-districts-exist/story?id=9097853

And then did you know the website that had this information wrong, you spent 18 million on? lol YES, don’t forget you paid for it.

$18M Being Spent to Redesign Recovery.gov Web Site
http://blogs.abcnews.com/thenote/2009/07/18m-being-spent-to-redesign-recoverygov-web-site.html

Did you realize someone could spend 18 million dollars on a website and it still doesn’t have correct information?

Our elected officials are becoming far too self serving and brave to think we’ve forgotten who is in charge. They work for us, not the other way around. We need to make sure we hold them accountable for this insanely irresponsible fiscal behavior.

Rasmussen: Health Care Reform
This says “Just 38% of voters now favor the health care plan”

38% is a LOT of people, but it’s clearly not the majority. Why are they still going forward? There was more support for Hillary-care back during the Bill Clinton presidency and they dropped it then because of the lack of support. Apparently our politicians are growing bolder and bolder.

I’d much rather see smaller changes first. This 2,000 page bill is just too unmanageable and stealthy.

For instance, there are many ideas out there that should cut the costs of health care. Just a couple easy ones are allowing health care to be sold across state lines and to take a look at tort reform. There’s also other ideas regarding patents for various types of drugs. If the government wants more competition, wouldn’t allowing companies to sell health care across state lines do that?

Look, hey, ‘poke!’.

Whatever your political persuasion is, and whatever you think about this health care reform, get in touch with the people you elected to represent you. Email is good, phone is better, but if you really want to make sure you’re acknowledged, stop by with a sandwich for them. If you disagree don’t let them think you agree by remaining silent. Stand up and be counted!

If you agree with it, so be it. Even though we’re on different sides of the issue, I’d recommend you show up with a sandwich anyway.