What I said at the Kill the Bill Rally

Yesterday I spoke at the Kill the Bill Rally staged by Minnesota Majority at the state capital. The event drew thousands of people, which makes them about 100 times more newsworthy than the “coffee party” gatherings that drew tens of people … three tens of people in St. Louis, for instance, which garnered CNN’s attention. I didn’t see CNN at our little get-together, but perhaps the cold weather and bitter wind deterred them from covering our grassroots event. It didn’t deter thousands of Minnesotans from joining our call to kill the ObamaCare bill and start over from scratch on reforming the cost structure of American health care.

Sue Jeffers gives me a kind introduction; although we appear on competing stations in the Twin Cities, her station and AM 1280 The Patriot were happy to collaborate on this important issue. The intro lasts about two minutes, and the rest of the video is my speech. My friend David Strom used my Flip HD camera to shoot the video. Later, I’ll have videos of John Kline and Michele Bachman:

I’m including my remarks, as prepared for delivery. It’s a bit different in the actual delivery, where I opted to ad-lib a little bit, but it works for tracking the general thrust of the speech.

Thank you for coming out to express your opposition to the most expansive government takeover attempt in our history. When the Minnesota Majority asked me to speak at this rally, I was proud to contribute in any way to this national movement prompted by a government that has become a force for its own perpetuation instead of a servant of its constituents. Washington has forgotten that it represents the people rather than their own interests. That arrogance has awakened this country, which has come together like never before to say “No!” to the nanny state, and to tell Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, and Barack Obama to butt out of their lives.

I’m amazed at the hubris of these politicians and their elite group of allies in Washington DC. Perhaps in early 2009, after that big election win the previous November, they had an excuse to assume that they had a mandate for a radically statist agenda, one that sought to make the most private of decisions subject to government oversight – the choices we make for our own health. Since last summer, though, they have no excuses. The American people have overwhelmingly rejected ObamaCare. We marched to town halls across this country last August to show members of Congress just how angry their attempt to overhaul the American medical system has made us.

And you know that they heard that message. Last week, Pelosi and Obama insisted on rushing their latest version of ObamaCare through Congress before the Easter recess, when these politicians have to come back to their districts and face their constituents. Why? Because they know that you’ll come back out in force to teach them the lesson they should have learned the first time in August, that’s why!

They’re not listening, but they should. How angry will we be if Pelosi, Reid, and Obama try to jam this bill through Congress through chicanery and manipulation? Poll after poll shows just how unpopular this ObamaCare effort has gotten:

• Last week, an AP poll showed that 68% of Americans oppose the use of “reconciliation” to pass health-care reform
• Two weeks ago, a CNN poll showed that 73% wanted Congress to start over from scratch or just forget about health care reform altogether in this session – and that matched the 72% who wanted the same in November
• In fact, in nine national polls taken in the month of February, all nine showed opposition to ObamaCare ranging from nine points to 20 points

Not only is this bill too radical for the American people, it’s too radical for even some Democrats in Congress. But that has not convinced Pelosi and Obama to withdraw it, or to start working with opponents to find some common-sense compromises to reform the cost structure of health care in America. Instead, Nancy Pelosi has decided to attack the structure of representative government by attempting to pass the Senate version of ObamaCare without a floor vote in the House. That’s how desperate the nanny-staters are to defy you and saddle America with a government overhaul of our health care system that we don’t want.

Just fourteen months after taking complete control of Washington, Democrats face a Waterloo in the midterm elections. In November 2008, Obama, Pelosi, and Reid thought they had a mandate to fundamentally remake America through a hard-Left agenda. Today, surveys of likely voters show Republicans favored over Democrats on generic Congressional ballots by wide margins. That hasn’t happened since 1994, the last time Democrats tried shoving a government takeover of the health-care system down our throats. And that time, they weren’t trying to do it by the diktat of the Speaker of the House.

They think that you will forget all of this by November. In fact, they’re counting on it! But we have a message for them today, and for the rest of the year. We’re not going to forget how a small cadre of elites in Congress attempted to put a bill into law without a vote, are we? Will you forget how Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, and Barack Obama wrote these bills in backroom deals with lobbyists and then demanded votes before anyone could read what these 2000-page behemoths contained?

This is why it’s so important to keep the pressure on Congress. Don’t let them ignore us. Keep coming out to these rallies, and keep calling their Washington offices to tell them to kill the bill. Kill the bill! Kill the bill! Don’t let them forget it! Thank you!

• About those “doctored” Benghazi e-mails…
• White House word of the day – Irrelevant
• IRS Commissioner: Yeah, we staged that Lerner apology

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