Mathew Staver, Founder and Chairman
Liberty Counsel

On the same day that President Obama signed his healthcare “reform” bill in a White House ceremony, Liberty Counsel filed a lawsuit to stop it in Federal District Court. Although socialists may be celebrating their so-called “victory” today, this battle has just begun!  Please read below – Mat.

Friends, I’m sure you are finding it difficult to watch giddy liberal Democrats celebrating the passage of ObamaCare. That’s because you and I know that their “win” comes at the expense of our Constitution and through the complete marginalization of the will of the American people.

Here are just a few of the realities that make this such a bitter experience:

Fact One:  ObamaCare was unconstitutional from the beginning!  Congress NEVER had the power to force Americans to buy health insurance or to force employers to provide health insurance.

Fact Two:  It is always difficult for Americans to watch cheaters win.  That’s why we insist on placing asterisks after questionable records.  And we all know this bill was passed under extreme “Chicago Rules.”

Fact Three: No Democrat has yet come up with a credible estimate of what this monstrosity is going to cost. When it comes time to actually pay for ObamaCare, Americans are going to have the biggest case of buyer’s remorse in our nation’s history.

Fact Four: All across America, men and women of good will are asking themselves how they can live with the fact that their tax dollars may soon pay for abortions.

Friends, those are just a few of the reasons why Liberty Counsel filed our lawsuit…and why it MUST succeed.

Socialists twisted the system to get their prize.

Only by using the convoluted combination of “reconciliation” (that was never meant to be applied to this sort of legislation) and the threat of using the “Slaughter House Rule” (set aside only after Democrat leaders were assured of the “Stupak Sellout”), this so-called victory was disgracefully obtained.

That’s not “sour grapes”… that’s the plain truth. And with a CNN poll taken the day after the House vote showing 59% of Americans are still in strong opposition to ObamaCare, Barack Obama has been forced to go back on the campaign trail to try to “sell” his socialization of American medicine.

That means we’re in for more, “let me do a better job of explaining why you’re going to love this plan” speeches and other condescending, arrogant assertions.  Please, Mr. President, we “get it” just fine.

Americans have lost confidence in the legislative process.

At every step of the way in ObamaCare’s long march through Congress, the liberal Democrat leaders used trickery, overt manipulation, and out-and-out vote buying to thwart the American people’s clearly expressed opposition to their socialist takeover of our medical system.

Here’s what the 111th Congress has forced down our throats:

• Abortion coverage Americans don’t want
• Exorbitant costs Americans don’t want
• Mandatory participation Americans don’t want
• New federal bureaucracies Americans don’t want
• A vast expansion of IRS power Americans don’t want

Our Constitution has been subverted right before our eyes.

Friends, the “checks and balances” our Founders gave us are being systematically overpowered and dismantled by the Obama/Pelosi/Reid power axis.  Never before has
the will of the American people been so completely marginalized.

Liberty Counsel has filed our complaint in order to protect the American people from a total government takeover.  I am not being an alarmist – the very survival of the constitutional republic our Founders gave us hangs in the balance!

ObamaCare is unconstitutional!  If Congress has the power to FORCE each person to have health insurance, then individual liberty is totally meaningless.

That’s why we need hundreds of thousands of Americans to sign our Statement of Support for this litigation. Given the sad spectacle we saw play out in the House of Representatives this weekend, we must now win this battle in a court of law.

If you haven’t done so already, please click below to sign your official Statement of Support.  If you have already signed, PLEASE forward this entire message to as many like-thinking friends as possible:

http://www.libertyaction.org/310/petition.asp?rid=23597880

ObamaCare was unlawful from its conception.

There were MANY reasons why Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi allowed no one but their closest insiders — and the White House arm twisters, of course — to participate in developing and managing ObamaCare. For one thing, its “Tooth Fairy” accounting couldn’t stand up to even mild scrutiny.

But the biggest reason was that Congress had NO AUTHORITY to force its socialist healthcare agenda on citizens and businesses in the first place!

The bill that passed the House of Representatives on Sunday night is unconstitutional because:

1. Congress has NO authority to force every American to carry insurance coverage, and,
2. Congress has NO authority to fine employers whose policies do not have the mandated coverage.

No matter the desires of Obama, Pelosi and Reid, there are some things Congress just cannot do!  And the threat to our liberty posed by ObamaCare goes FAR beyond healthcare.  If Congress can get away with this expansive power grab, then individual liberty and state sovereignty will soon vanish.

Nancy Pelosi said as much last week when she told reporters that after “kicking down the door” with ObamaCare, her Congress will push through the rest of its ultraliberal agenda.

EVERY version of the “healthcare reform” bill this Congress produced – even considering whatever “reconciliation” issues are eventually appended to the Senate version – is patently unconstitutional!

Friends, this monstrous, anti-life, anti-family healthcare bill MUST now be strongly challenged in the federal judiciary. Liberty Counsel is doing exactly that!

The battle over ObamaCare is just beginning.

Now more than ever, the socialists and abortion advocates need to understand that WE HAVE NOT GIVEN UP and will resist implementation of ObamaCare to the very end.  Now WE’LL SEE THEM IN COURT!  And we have an excellent chance of winning our federal lawsuit.

Here’s what I’m asking you to do…

1. Sign the Statement of Support for our lawsuit.  If you have already done so, please forward this message to twenty or thirty like-minded friends.

   We want to deliver hundreds of thousands of these Statements to all the key plotters behind ObamaCare.  Reid, Pelosi, Obama and all their confederates need to know they’re not going to get away with this travesty!  Go here right now:

   http://www.libertyaction.org/310/petition.asp?rid=23597880

2. Call your Representative’s and your Senators’ offices.

   Please… take a moment to call your Representative and your two Senators and let them know you are OUTRAGED by the way ObamaCare was handled.  Then let them know you will be supporting litigation against this unconstitutional bill.

   • Sen. Feinstein          202-224-3841
   • Sen. Boxer              202-224-3553
   • Rep. McClintock         202-225-2511
3. Pray for Liberty Counsel’s success in court.  Pray for God’s deliverance from being forced to pay for abortions and from the overt deceit and trickery that has become the norm from the Obama/Pelosi/Reid power axis.  PLEASE keep the heat on, especially now that the socialists have played their hand.

And, of course, this litigation is going to be very expensive.  Please prayerfully consider a significant gift to help offset Liberty Counsel’s expenses to mount a major constitutional challenge to ObamaCare.

I have appended a copy of Liberty Counsel’s official News Release about our lawsuit next to your Statement of Support. You can see it and sign your Statement of Support for litigation against ObamaCare by going here:

http://www.libertyaction.org/310/petition.asp?rid=23597880

Now is NOT the time to be silent!  Join like-minded Americans who will be putting the plotters on notice that we have filed a federal lawsuit to stop this power grab once and for all.

God bless you,

Mathew Staver, Founder and Chairman
Liberty Counsel

P.S.  This battle is NOT over, no matter how much the Pelosi/Reid/Obama power axis wants us to think that it is. Sign your Statement of Support for our lawsuit so we can win this phase of the battle in court and in the court of public opinion!

And please pray! There is always hope in God! Also, let your Senators and Representative know that you WILL hold them accountable for their decisions on ObamaCare and its outrageous handling.  WE MUST NOT SUBMIT to this tyranny! Once again, thank you for praying and speaking out.

Last night, the House of Representatives passed ObamaCare by a vote of 219-to-212. The most bi-partisan aspect of the bill was the opposition to it. Republicans voted unanimously against it and they were joined by 34 Democrats. This bill raises taxes by more than $500 billion. It imposes new taxes on investments and new fines on businesses. It imposes unconstitutional mandates on Americans and funds abortion. This is what happens when liberals get power.

In a weekend of outrageous statements, the worst was to hear Obama and Pelosi describing their takeover of nearly 20% of our economy in the language of liberty. They cloaked one of the biggest expansions of government and retractions of liberty in our nation’s history in conservative rhetoric. For example, Nancy Pelosi hailed the vote as “great act of patriotism.”

After the House vote, President Obama said, “We proved that this government — a government of the people and by the people — still works for the people.” But the American people didn’t want this bill. The latest Rasmussen poll found that likely voters opposed it 41%-to-54%. In fact, there is not a single poll the president can point to in the past 60 days that shows public support for the legislation that passed last night.

Conservatives did everything in their power to stop socialized medicine. The reconciliation process used to circumvent conservative efforts is proof of that. And while the Left is celebrating today, it has damaged our democratic republic in the process. The bill was written behind closed doors. Committee hearings were a charade. It passed the Senate not because of the legislation’s merits, but because of special deals and kickbacks. Until the national uproar, Speaker Pelosi had planned on passing it without even voting on it.

When a Republican doesn’t vote consistently for conservative principles, he is called a RINO – a Republican In Name Only. I don’t know what you call a Democrat who betrays his core principles, but this bill should be called the “Stupak Abortion Subsidy Act.”

Rep. Bart Stupak has been elected to Congress as a Democrat since 1992 in a relatively conservative district. But he was always pro-life. Yesterday, Stupak sold out his pro-life values for an executive order from the most pro-abortion president in history. An executive order cannot override legislation. That’s why the Hyde Amendment was so important and has been reaffirmed by every Congress for more than 30 years. The Senate bill funds abortion, which is why Stupak consistently said he was a “No” vote until the very end.

My friends, this is just the beginning. Obama said recently that he was going to wear us down. The Left isn’t done. Immigration “reform” is next. This is gut check time for our values and American Values is not giving up. We have serious concerns with the constitutionality of the healthcare legislation, as do several states. We are exploring various legal avenues to continue the fight for our values in the courts.

Now if your reaction is to throw your hands up in despair, give up and walk away, then the Left has worn you down. But if your reaction is to recommit to the values we cherish and fight even harder, then it’s not too late to make America the “shining city upon a hill” our Founding Fathers envisioned. I’m not giving up and I pray you will continue to stand with me!

Today (February 17, 2010) is the one-year anniversary of President Obama’s signing of the $787 billion stimulus bill, and the administration is putting on a hard sell for the American people. There will be a White House reception today to mark the anniversary. Later this week, Vice President Joe Biden and various cabinet secretaries will fan out across the country to host dozens of rallies touting the stimulus package’s success. Exactly what are they celebrating?

• President Obama told the American people that Congress had to pass the Democrat stimulus bill in order to keep unemployment from rising above 8%. After hundreds of billions of dollars were spent, unemployment hit 10% last year and remains near that figure today. On the most critical measurement of success laid down by the president, the bill is an abject failure. STRIKE ONE!
• In promoting the stimulus, President Obama promised us that the funds would be spent on timely, “shovel ready” projects. In spite of the financial emergency that necessitated the biggest spending bill in American history, if not world history, just one third of the stimulus funds have been spent. So much for “shovel ready.” More than 2.5 million Americans lost their jobs last year, while most of the stimulus money intended to “save or create” jobs went unspent. STRIKE TWO!
• President Obama promised us that the stimulus funds would not be wasted, and he named Vice President Biden “stimulus czar.” We now know hundreds of millions of stimulus dollars were spent to create jobs overseas. We learned that thousands of jobs were created in places that don’t exist. President Obama promised that 90% of the stimulus jobs would be created in the private sector. An analysis by the New York Times found “the data suggests that well over half of the jobs claimed so far have been in the public sector.”But, wait – there’s more. USA Today reports that billions of stimulus dollars are being spent on programs so inefficient or redundant that even Barack Obama wants to cut or eliminate them! Presumably, Joe “the Stimulus Czar” Biden knows the president’s budget priorities. How did you miss that, Joe? STRIKE THREE!

I could go on, but it’s not necessary. While the administration celebrates this colossal failure, the American people know better. Last week, a New York Times/CBS News poll found that six percent of Americans thought the stimulus bill had created jobs. And, no, that’s not a typo – just six in one hundred Americans believe the $787 billion bill did what it was supposed to do.

Instead of doing a victory lap around the country on the taxpayers’ dime, Obama and Biden ought to be apologizing for the biggest boondoggle in history. Instead, they are having a Marie Antoinette moment – while millions of Americans have lost their jobs, Obama is spending their money to create jobs overseas and grow the government. Now he wants to tell us what a great deal this has been!

I know there are some signs of growth and improved economic activity — “green shoots,” as economists like to call them. This is not proof that “Obamanomics” works. No matter how badly Washington wastes your money, our economy remains very vibrant. There are millions of entrepreneurs and hard working men and women who get up every day, go to work and do their best for their families. They invest, they work hard and they succeed in spite of government, not because of it. Sadly, that is a lesson that Washington liberals seem incapable of learning.

Remember good old Joe the Plumber, who bravely confronted candidate Obama in Ohio? Joe had the audacity to ask then-Senator Obama, “Your new tax plan’s going to tax me more, isn’t it?” Obama didn’t hesitate a second. He assured Joe that 95% of Americans would see their taxes go down, and then he told Joe “…from 250 [thousand dollars a year] down, your taxes are going to stay the same.”

Joe was skeptical, but millions of voters drank the Kool-Aid and believed Obama. The rest is history. Fast forward to yesterday, when Obama was asked about a new task force he is appointing to come up with deficit solutions. What if it recommends middle-class tax hikes? Would Obama’s promise still hold? No way! He responded, “What I want to do is to be completely agnostic in terms of solutions.” That is Obamaspeak for “you better hold on to your wallet!”

Back in 2009 Joe the Plumber, who didn’t go to Harvard, knew there was no way Obama could pay for all his schemes without raising everyone’s taxes. I am sure Obama knew that too. 2010 is going to be the year of the tax hike.

Media elites and pointy-headed leftwing intellectuals are having spasms this morning over Sarah Palin. What set them off this time? A liberal blogger discovered that Gov. Palin had written some “cheat” notes on her hand to use during her speech at the Tea Party convention this weekend. Every commentator in the country is using the incident to denounce her as stupid, non-intellectual, un-presidential and unserious. By the way, the “reminders” on her palm were “Energy,” “Cut taxes” and “Lift America’s spirits.” Oh the horror!

Of course most of the media talking heads continue to think that Obama is just the smartest, coolest guy that has ever occupied the Oval Office. Most of them thought it was silly when we raised questions about why our Harvard-educated president couldn’t say “Good morning” without his co-president – the Teleprompter. And even with the teleprompter, Obama manages to display serious ignorance. In a speech last week, he told a story about a Navy corpsman apparently not realizing that the “p” and the “s” in “corpsman” are silent. Twice, with the teleprompter, Obama pronounced the word as “corpse man.” Now there’s a job I wouldn’t want.

The media and the Left desperately want America to think that only liberals are smart. I remember how Reagan was mocked unmercifully because he used note cards during his speeches. The media had nothing but contempt for Dan Quayle. And, of course, George W. Bush was constantly presented as a buffoon.

“Poor little stupid Sarah Palin,” they are all saying. She wrote “Energy” on her hand to remind herself to bring up the need for more drilling. She wrote “Cut taxes” because she believes that is how to get our economy moving. She wrote “Lift America’s spirit” because she knows America needs inspiration.

Our president doesn’t write notes on his palm. He “knows” that limiting drilling is a great idea while we grow more dependent on people who hate us. He “knows” that raising taxes on families and small businesses is just the thing to do when the economy is on the ropes. And he is too busy apologizing for America’s sins and bashing businesses to think about lifting our spirits.

So who is the stupid one?

As the nation approaches the one year anniversary of Barack Obama’s inauguration, administration officials are crowing about all their “accomplishments.” On the White House website, you can read about the myriad ways in which President Obama has saved the global economy, tackled climate change and made us safe.

Some of you may be dubious, but you can participate in a series of live online chats and blogs with key White House aides as they detail “what the Obama Administration has done over the past year, and where the Administration is heading on pivotal issues.” The White House may be trying to put on a happy face, but the American people clearly aren’t happy with hope and change.

Virtually every major polling outfit and news organization now finds that the president’s approval rating has tanked. Yesterday, CBS News reported that Obama’s approval rating hit a new low in its polling at 46%. Today, it’s Gallup, which reports that only 40% of Americans approve of Obama’s handling of the economy and just 37% approve of his performance on healthcare reform.

CNN and Quinnipiac University asked voters whether Obama’s first year in office had been a success or a failure. Quinnipiac found that voters were evenly divided at 45% each. CNN found 48% of voters saying Obama’s first year was a failure, while 47% said it was successful. And, after a year of Obama’s leadership, Quinnipiac found voters statistically tied when asked whether the nation would have been better off or worse off if John McCain had become president instead of Barack Obama.

Here are some reactions to Obama’s West Point speech that may surprise you.

“Reporters love a deadline — we’ll hound him over it. Just wait until next year. There will be flashy graphics on our screens saying, ‘Countdown to Drawdown.’” That might sound like sarcasm from Sean Hannity, but it actually came from CBS’s Kimberly Dozier.

“How do you on the one hand say: ‘We need to send these troops over there; it’s critical; this is in our national-security interest to do this.’ But then say: ‘But we’re only going to keep them there for 18 months; we’re going to start to withdraw them after 18 months’? I just don’t understand the logic of how that works. …This is not a football game, where the time runs out. To win this war, you have to defeat the enemy.” Glenn Beck? No, that was veteran CBS anchor Bob Schieffer.

Here’s one more: “Where’s the hope? … It sounds more Rube Goldberg than ‘Remember the Alamo.’ … If I were with the Taliban right now, I’d put a little Post-it up on that month in 2011, and say: ‘This is when we do OUR surge.’” Rush Limbaugh? Believe it or not, that was MSNBC’s Chris Matthews speaking Tuesday night, after he had thought more about the substance of Obama’s remarks.

If liberal media elites are starting to second-guess Obama, I suspect millions of Americans are too!

The evidence is now overwhelming that the Fort Hood murderer, Nidal Malik Hasan, is an Islamist who was trying to please Allah when he gunned down our American heroes. ABC News reported this morning that the CIA has evidence that he had tried to contact Al Qaeda in recent months. For normal Americans the news that he shouted “Allahu Akbar,” the battle cry of jihadists, as he poured bullets into our sons and daughters was all we needed to know.

But that information wasn’t good enough for Dr. Phil, Larry King, major media outlets such as Newsweek, the president and, sadly, even our military elites. Many of them jumped to the conclusion that this was another example of a soldier “breaking” from battle stress. It didn’t seem puzzling to them that he had never been in combat! In fact, all of our elites wanted to lecture the rest of us and warn us that we’d better not jump to conclusions.

Now we know that for years Hasan was quite open about his Islamist views. In fact, HE HARRASSED his fellow soldiers – not the other way around, as has been suggested. Complaints about Hasan’s anti-American rantings were ignored. Some military people say they didn’t file complaints because they were afraid that doing so would hurt their careers in the increasingly “politically correct” Army bureaucracy.

Hasan made presentations that justified suicide bombings, and argued that the wars we have been fighting since 9/11 are really wars against Islam. He tried to convert his military patients to Islam and was put on probation. He attended a mosque in Northern Virginia that two 9/11 hijackers also attended. The list goes on and on.

As an obvious Islamist, Hasan did the predictable – he killed as many of us as he could. His actions should be no more mysterious than those of the hijackers who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 or the Palestinian family who celebrates when they receive news that their teenage child has blown himself up while killing Jews.

What is harder to fathom is why so many elites are more interested in spreading politically correct lies than in confronting the strong likelihood that our jihadist enemy has infiltrated key American institutions. More of our soldiers will die, as will more of us, if the media and our government leaders don’t wake up. Nidal Hasan should not have been in the Army – he should have been in jail. He should not have been assigned to counseling returning American warriors. He should not have been promoted.

On Meet The Press Sunday, Army Chief of Staff General George Casey continued to urge people not to jump to conclusions about the overwhelming evidence in this case. He expressed deep concern about a possible backlash against Muslim members of our Armed Forces. He actually said this: “As horrific as this tragedy was, if our diversity becomes a casualty, I think that’s worse.” Does he really believe that? I think that 13 American families would argue that we could have had one person less of “diversity” at Fort Hood in exchange for 13 live American heroes.

And what about the White House? Since long before this attack, this president has refused to use the phrase “Islamic terrorism,” and has banned its use by others in the government. He began his administration by attempting to close the prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where Hasan’s jihadist brothers are imprisoned. Day by day, America becomes less safe under his leadership.

On Monday, Senate Democrat Leader Harry Reid announced a grand compromise on healthcare “reform” legislation. To please the leftwing base of his party, Reid’s bill would include a government-run public option – the first step toward socialized medicine in America. That’s not my opinion, but Barney Franks’. To attract the votes of moderate Democrats, Reid announced that his plan would allow states to opt-out of the public option.

The state legislature would have to vote on legislation to opt-out, and the governor would have to sign the opt-out bill. But here’s the catch: There is no opting-out of the taxes to pay for this new $1 trillion entitlement program. All the taxes and penalties would remain in effect, so citizens of states that opt-out would still end up paying for a program they can’t access. As Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT) said, “the big [liberal] states will [opt-in] and the rest of us will end up paying for their excesses.” Remember what happened to the conservative governors who tried to “opt-out” of the stimulus money?

Last night on MSNBC, leftwing radical Ed Schultz was effusive with praise for Harry Reid’s “opt-out” deception. Schultz stated flatly what drives liberal politics: get constituents hooked on government programs and you have a guaranteed voting base. Schultz said of the public option:

“This is a great move by the Democrats. …Once you give it [the public option] to them, they don’t want to give it up. That’s the way it’s gonna be. I think this is a great move by Harry Reid. The public option is a public option. And it is – it is – the first step toward single payer [socialized medicine]. That’s what we progressives want. This is just the road to get there.”

It couldn’t be clearer than that. Liberal politicians and leftwing progressives are taking us down the road toward socialism, toward confiscatory tax rates, even bigger government, greater spending and more debt.

Your freedom is at stake. The standard of living you have enjoyed will be denied to your children and grandchildren if this new trillion-dollar entitlement program passes. And the quality of healthcare that is available today will be destroyed if government gets involved.

Compared to other proposals the administration has thrown at the American people this past year, the home buyer tax credit was not bad. Unfortunately, the government could not even effectively run this program.

New home buyers would receive up to $8,000 in tax credits under the plan. The money was supposed to be available for first-time buyers who bought a primary residence after April 9, 2008, and only individuals making less than $75,000 or couples making less than $150,000 would be eligible. However, during a Ways and Means oversight subcommittee hearing yesterday, House members were informed that thousands of fraudulent claims were made.

The Treasury Department said that at least 19,000 filers who had not bought homes claimed $139 million in tax credits and were in turn reimbursed. An additional 74,000 tax-credit claims, totaling $500 million, could become invalid because of previous home ownership. Even more surprising, 500 people under the age of 18, including a 4-year-old child, had their names on applications for the credit, which has no minimum-age requirement according to federal officials. Evidently some adults used a child’s name as the purchaser of the home because they were ineligible to receive the credit due to their incomes.

Many of these fraudulent claims occurred before the IRS had updated their computer programs. If they had done this correctly, the program would have automatically checked the claims to ensure that they were valid based on the information submitted.

When added up, the total potential waste of your tax money from fraudulent home-credits could be upwards of $639 million. This is the same government that wants to take over our entire healthcare system! We have seen the government’s ineptitude in recent months with cash-for-clunkers, a behind schedule H1N1 flu vaccination and now this. When will liberals in Washington learn that government isn’t the solution to every problem? As my former boss Ronald Reagan correctly said, “Government is the problem.”