Speech For The April Fools Day Rally At Dutch Ruppersberger's Office

Thank God we live in a country where we can gather together to let our elected officials know that we are not happy with their job performance. Throughout the past year and a half they have tried to ignore us, marginalize us, and discredit us while they pushed through bailouts, a fake stimulus, Cap and Trade, and the Health Care debacle. We, as their employer, refuse to sit idly by and watch these career politicians pass legislation that erodes our freedoms and violate the constitution. John Adams wrote in 1776, “Government is instituted for the common good; for the protection, safety, prosperity, and happiness of the people; and not for profit, honor, or private interest of any one man, family, or class of men; therefore, the people alone have an incontestable, unalienable, and indefeasible right to institute government; and to reform, alter, or totally change the same, when their protection, safety, prosperity, and happiness require it.” If we, as citizens of this great country do not hold our elected officials accountable for their actions and votes, then who will? We certainly cannot entrust them with that responsibility.
Elections have consequences, and we are experiencing the consequences of the past several elections. Elections where we watched as the same career politicians were elected to fix the problems that they created. The time has come to remind Dutch and the rest of the bureaucrats in DC and Annapolis whom they work for. This coming election is about more than Dutch Ruppersberger, it is about the future of our country. The national debt that they have rung up is astounding and they show no signs of stopping. Last year alone they had a $1.5 trillion deficit. This year is projected to be just as bad if not worse. Their solution is to throw more of our money at the problem and hope that this time a government solution will work for the first time in human history. We need to unleash the entrepreneurial spirit of the free market. The Federal Government needs to remove the burden from the backs of the taxpayers and small businesses; and then get out of the way.

Dutch and his cronies in DC told us last year that the government was the only one to save us from the declining economy. Now that we have had 10% unemployment for months, why should we trust that they now know how to fix the problem that they created? November provides us as voters the opportunity to send a crystal clear message to the career politicians in our state house and our Congress. We can tell them that business as usual will no longer be accepted. If you vote for legislation that increases our debt, increases our tax burden, decreases our freedom, violates the constitution, or threatens our sovereignty, you will be unemployed after the next election. My name is Troy Stouffer and I am not a career politician nor do I want to be one, but I would love the opportunity to serve you in Washington DC. Thank You!

How Much Can They Ignore?

On January 19, the people of Massachusetts actually elected a Republican to the United States Senate. Senator Scott Brown was elected to a seat that was held by Senator Teddy Kennedy from 1962 until his death late last year. The Democrats and the media have tried to spin the Brown win as everything from a result of a bad candidate, Martha Coakley, running a bad campaign to the voters of Massachusetts electing a Republican because they hate Bush. They can spin it however they want to help them sleep at night, but the fact remains that Brown was elected because the majority of the public have rejected the President’s socialist takeover of the Health Care system.

I find it a bit ironic that Brown’s election night victory comes a day before the one-year anniversary of President Obama’s Inauguration. In the ensuing 364 days leading up to the special election in Massachusetts, the President and Congress have taken over the banks and two of the “Big Three” automotive companies, spent $787 billion on a “stimulus” bill that did nothing to stimulate the economy, and tried to takeover the Health Care system. In a practical sense, the first year of “Hope and Change” has come up extremely short. Unemployment has risen above 10% and the latest numbers have “surprised the experts” by rising even more. The Democrats lack of accomplishments over the past year ought to make next week’s State of the Union speech very interesting.

Some speculation in the wake of the Massachusetts humiliation has suggested that the Democrats did not go “progressive” enough in their drive to destroy our economy. MSNBC political pundits suggested on Tuesday evening that the Democrats should now push forward with every liberal ideal. They believe that the best course for them is to completely ignore the will of the people for yet another year. Isn’t that what they have done for the past year? They ignored the public on Cap and Trade, the bailouts, and Health Care Reform. The poll numbers for the President and the Democratic controlled Congress have been a gradual decline since early summer and now they are in real danger of losing their majorities in both houses of Congress.

Will the Democrats pay attention to the results in Massachusetts or will they dismiss it as insignificant? Some early signs show that they will stay the course. After raising the national debt ceiling by $290 billion in a quiet vote on Christmas Eve, the Democrats are poised to raise it yet again by a stunning $1.9 trillion. The national debt ceiling will be $14.29 trillion and that is only expected to last until the end of the year before it will need to be raised again. That coupled with the President’s plans to takeover all student loans, leaves the voters to wonder, when will they stop? The answer to that question is when they are voted out of office and sent home to learn what real life is all about. In November, I believe there will be a surprising amount of politicians updating their resumes and looking for a new career.

The Panic In Massachusetts

The Health Care Reform bill is continuing to plummet in the polls as more and more information is revealed to the public. The Democrats have refused to listen to the American people on virtually every issue that has arisen over the past year. As a result, they have lost the Governor races in Virginia and New Jersey, and now the U.S. Senate seat that was occupied by Teddy Kennedy of Massachusetts is now poised to be won by a Republican.

Republican Scott Brown has closed in the polls against Democrat Martha Coakley. Two weeks ago, Brown trailed in the polls by nine points, but Coakley’s ineptitude and the growing discontent with the horrendous policies of the Democrats in Washington D.C. have turned the tide of public opinion to the point where Brown leads in some polls and is tied in others.

The prospect of losing a “safe” Senate seat in Massachusetts has caused an all out panic within the Democrat party. The Democrat National Committee has had pour money into Massachusetts in hopes of saving the seat and ultimately their plans for destroying our health care system. If Brown wins next week, he will effectively kill the prospect of passing the current bill that is being worked out in conference. I believe that the type of fraud on display in Minnesota last year will be pulled out again if this race remains close after Tuesday’s special election. We will again hear of boxes of ballots “found” in the trunks of election workers cars. The Democrats know what is at stake in this election and they will stop at nothing, legal or illegal, to ensure that Coakley wins that race.

The Massachusetts race is highlighting the discontent with the extreme lack of representation in Washington D.C. The American people have watched Congress spend $1.4 trillion in deficit spending, bailout automotive companies and banks, pass legislation that will destroy our health care system and hamstring our economy, and pass a stimulus bill that has caused our unemployment rate to climb above 10%. The voting public is fed up with our elected representatives ignoring our wishes to blindly follow their party leadership steer our country toward ruin.

2010 will be a remarkable year. The politicians that have played a part to the budgetary idiocy of the past year are in for a very rude awakening in November. I believe there are no safe seats in the midterm elections. Every seat is available to won by a citizen legislator. Voters are tired of career politicians who seek only to extend their power and their careers, instead of actually representing their constituents and following the Constitution. 2008 was the year of “Hope and Change”. 2010 will be the year “We the people” change the Congress.

The Love Sacrifice Of Leonard And Ray Ethelyn Stouffer

I had planned to write a summary of 2009 with my thoughts, but the events of the past week in my family changed my plans. I hope that you will forgive my abandoning of politics for this week.

After 72 years of marriage, Leonard and Ray Ethelyn Stouffer simply refused to be apart. At 7:10 P.M., December 29 my grandmother passed away, followed shortly thereafter by my grandfather at 9:35 P.M.

Early last week, my grandmother was placed under hospice care and a hospital bed was moved into the living room of their apartment. I saw them both on the morning of Christmas Eve and they were happy and talkative. On Christmas night my grandfather had a heart attack and was rushed to the hospital where a catheterization was performed and revealed that three arteries were completely blocked and a fourth had minimal blood flow. The cardiologist believed that he had less than a week to live. He was moved back to their apartment to be near the love of his life.

They were both awake enough last evening to realize that they were together again. When the nursing staff pushed their beds side by side, my grandfather reached out and took his bride’s hand and held it. He tried to talk to her but she was not awake enough to respond, so he tried to get into her bed with her to hold her. He eventually settled down and rested.

As his wife’s breathing became more labored, his breathing remained steady. At just after 7 we noticed that her breathing had changed. My father took her hand and she took her last breath. At just after 9 the funeral director left the room with my grandmother, and my sister, Lisa, noticed that there were tears in the corners of my grandfather’s eyes. We also noticed that now his breathing had changed from steady to labored. My father took his hand told him that he loved him and that his wife was waiting for him. A few minutes later he opened his eyes and looked at my father and took his last breath.

This has been a long hard week of emotions. It is painful to lose any loved ones, but it is also painful to watch loved ones suffer. It has been particularly difficult to watch my father suffer the loss of both of his parents in such a very short time. The grief will subside, but I want to remember the love that they shared and his strength and love for his wife. By all accounts, he probably should have gone first. His heart should have given out first. I believe that he held on and stayed conscious enough to know when she had passed away. He refused to leave his wife behind. Their love was their bond and he would have found a way to survive as long as his bride lived.

As I left the retirement home this evening, I was struck by the love and the love sacrifice that my grandparents displayed the last few days and their entire married lives. I also realized that they were just following the example of the love sacrifice of Jesus Christ. At Christmas we celebrate the birth of Jesus. The day that God sent his Son to earth to become a love sacrifice for all of us. He endured our rightful punishment so that we would have the opportunity to accept His sacrifice and receive eternal life in Heaven.
Ray Ethelyn and Leonard Stouffer are together in Heaven. They have met their Savior face to face. My prayer tonight is to follow their example of love in my own marriage, but more importantly to follow my Savior’s example of love. Is He your Savior tonight?

Welcome To The Era Of Ignorant Arrogance

As the Senate winds down with their plan to further destroy our economy with healthcare reform, they have thrown away any semblance of transparency or desire to actually reform healthcare. The pressure is turned up for every day that we get closer to Christmas. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid desires to pass any bill, whatever the cost, before Christmas to present to President Obama. All of this maneuvering is to enable the President to point to at least one accomplishment when he delivers his State of the Union speech in late January. After all it isn’t exactly a great accomplishment for the President to point to 10% unemployment, his historic spending deficits, or even the newly increased debt ceiling.

With just a week before Christmas, the final version of the 2000+-page bill has not even been released to the full Senate for them to read. The majority has rushed this bill to try to get it passed for not only the President’s own selfish reasons, but also because the longer this monstrosity of a bill sits out there, the less the American public supports it. As a matter of fact, there is less support among the public for this reform bill, than there was for Hillary-care back in the early 1990’s. The severe lack of support for this reform bill is more than likely the catalyst for Reid’s desire to keep this bill hidden until it is passed.

Even the amendment process is too politically charged for the majority to allow an amendment to be read aloud on the Senate floor. The admitted socialist from Vermont, Bernie Sanders, proposed an amendment to the bill that would supersede the entire reform bill and replace it with a socialist health care system. When Senator Cobourn of Oklahoma asked that the clerk on the floor read the 767-page amendment, Sanders came down to the Senate to break Senate rules and end the reading and remove the amendment. The break in rules came when Sanders removed his amendment and ended the reading. The problem is that once the bill reading had started, only unanimous consent can end the reading.

It is a rare moment when I praise Senator Olympia Snowe, but I find myself wholeheartedly agreeing with a recent statement that she made. “I don’t see anything magical about the Christmas deadline if this bill is going to become law in 2014.” Her words ring very true. What is the rush to pass this disastrous bill if none of the reforms actually take effect until 2014, conveniently after the 2012 elections? Of course the urgency of the matter has become the party line for all Congressman who have supported it. My own embarrassment of a Representative, Dutch Ruppersberger, explained in his form letter reply to my query about his vote that the urgency of the matter played a very large role in his decision to vote for it. I suppose that when a bureaucrat sees his political career coming to an end, his urgency may be a bit skewed. I believe it is time to end the era of ignorant arrogance.

The Obama Deficit Lie

President Barack Obama and Democratic Congressional leaders have hypocritically promised since taken office in January that are going to be “deficit hawks”. We have not even reached the one-year anniversary of the Inauguration and the same Democratic leaders are raising the debt ceiling by $1.8 trillion. The national debt is already nearing $12.1 trillion and the economic geniuses in DC have realized that their historic deficit spending has made it imperative to raise the ceiling.

The federal deficit for last fiscal year that ended at the end of September was around $1.4 trillion. To put that into perspective, the federal budget for all of 2008 was $2.9 trillion. To be fair, and to prevent my left-leaning friends from hyperventilating, some of that deficit belongs to President Bush, but in the first 2 months of this fiscal year the Obama administration has spent $296.7 billion in the red. Project that out for the next 12 months and the 2010 federal deficit will be about $1.8 trillion. Of course we have to consider that the “emergency” stimulus spending has not really even started to be spent.

Based on President Obama’s penchant for socialist government, you can guarantee his response to the crippling deficit and ever-increasing debt will be to raise taxes. His tax increases will be “targeted” towards only the “rich”, but it will soon become apparent that the definition of rich will be continually redefined until the majority of the middle class will be hit as well. Of course the net result of his tax hikes will be an even bigger hit to the economy than his disastrous policies have already been. "There is no such thing as government money - only taxpayer money." William Weld

The bureaucrats in Washington have expelled so much hot air making promises about deficits, bailouts, Afghanistan, Guantanamo, and health care that if I believed in the global warming hoax, I would be worried about a real life Day After Tomorrow. Thank God the carbon dioxide being spewed out in DC has no effect on our climate. Unfortunately the idiotic economic policies coming out of Washington will have lasting effects that our children and grandchildren will feel. To borrow a line from the President’s campaign, “It is time for Change!”

Thank You Veterans!

Last Thursday as the country watched in horror the extreme cowardice of Major Nidal Hassan at the Fort Hood Army Base, I was reminded of the sacrifice that the men and women of our armed forces make each and every day. Since our great country’s inception, men and women have put their lives on the line for the cause of freedom. More than 1,314,000 lives have been lost in the 233 years since our forefathers declared their independence from tyranny.

I have the honor of visiting Walter Reed Army Medical Center and the National Naval Medical Center on a weekly basis to perform the duties of my job. As I walk the corridors of these hospitals, I see the men and women who have lost limbs in combat and I am humbled and inspired by them.

Veterans Day grew out of Armistice Day that commemorated the end of World War 1. In 1954 it became Veterans Day to honor all veterans from all wars. 22 years ago, I was standing at attention in Navy Boot Camp listening to our Company Commander vent her anger and frustration at some local radio personalities who failed to show the proper respect for the meaning of the holiday. Sadly, not much has changed in the past 20 years.

Today we observe Veterans Day and for many people, this is a day that they will not even realize is a holiday. They will probably wonder why the bank is closed at lunch or why their mail didn’t get delivered. To many it is merely a nuisance vice a sobering reminder of the honor, integrity, courage, and patriotism those veterans from every generation of our nation’s history have displayed.

The members of our armed services, both past and present, are a rare breed; they truly are the bravest and finest that our country has to offer. They deserve our admiration and respect. The United States of America is a great country because of our freedoms and we are free because of the sacrifices of our veterans. At the funerals of veterans, a flag is presented to the family of the fallen with the words, “On behalf of a grateful nation.” Those should be our words every day of the year to our veterans. Today I stand and salute the veterans from every branch of service that have come before me, and those who have dutifully followed after me. I humbly say, “On behalf of a grateful nation, thank you!”

Thousands Draw A Line On The Capitol Steps Over Health Care

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has decided to try to strong-arm through her plan to destroy our health care system, even in the face of overwhelming signals that she is fighting a losing battle. In the process she has continued her annoying little habit of breaking promises to the American people. She had promised to not hold a vote on the “health care reform” legislation without posting the final language of the bill online at least 72 hours prior to the vote. Apparently she is afraid that the final version of her 2000 page behemoth will further outrage the voting public.

The public has made their frustration and anger known all summer long, all the while congressional leaders have pretended to not hear them. The public outcry has prolonged the debate from something that the White House expected to be passed quickly and quietly by mid summer into an eternity for lawmakers. After the congressional switchboards were jammed with phone calls demanding that their elected representatives listen to them, the bureaucrats ignored their constituents. After millions of emails clogged the politicians’ inboxes, they sent out their canned responses claiming to represent their constituents. Tired of the unprecedented arrogance filling the Capitol Building, thousands of people showed up on the steps of the Capitol to hold a rally against the destruction of our health care system. After the rally they stood in line for hours to enter the Capitol to meet their elected representatives face to face. They wanted to ask one simple question, “Are you going to vote for this health care reform bill?” Several reports emerged showing the arrogance and superiority complex from which members of Congress are suffering. They could not spare even a few moments to “lower themselves” to the level of the common man.

It is most surprising that House leaders are pressing forward this week, of all weeks. Tuesday showed a dramatic reversal of the political leanings of the country. Democratic stronghold New Jersey saw their incumbent Governor Jon Corzine lose to Republican Chris Christie by 5 percentage points. New Jersey is a state that President Obama won easily by 20 points just one year ago. Virginia saw a political drubbing when Republican Bob McDonnell beat Democrat Creigh Deeds by 19 points. President Obama again won Virginia a year ago by 6 points. Right on cue, the White House downplayed the results saying that the outcomes had absolutely nothing to do with the President or his socialist agenda. The problem is that the President and his minions spent a lot of time and political capital in both states campaigning for both losers.

Whether or not the President or Ms. Pelosi are able to twist enough arms on Capitol Hill this weekend to pass their health care debacle is yet to be seen, but the damage has been done. The voting public has awakened to the fact that after the numerous bailouts already this year, the government now owns or controls 30% of our economy. They also see that if the power hungry bureaucrats are successful in destroying our health care, they will add another 18% of our economy. That will give them power over nearly half of our economy and they are just starting to erode our economical freedoms.

The War That The White House Does Want To Fight

Over the past few weeks the White House has openly declared war on the Fox News Channel. It has been going on since before the election when the Obama campaign refused to send campaign staff to appear on Fox. Now the senior staff and even President Obama have openly criticized an entire news organization. The President was asked about the squabble during an interview with NBC on Wednesday. He responded that he is not losing much sleep over it, and that he believes that the American people are more concerned with the war in Afghanistan and unemployment.

It is interesting that the President would choose to bring Afghanistan and unemployment. The Labor Department reported that in September 23 states saw a rise in unemployment. They also reported that 43 states lost jobs in September. The national unemployment numbers reached 9.8% for the first time in 26 years. It could be that my memory is failing me, but I seem to recall an unequivocal promise from the administration before the “stimulus” package was passed that if Congress passed the bill that no one read, unemployment would not go higher than 8%. Now economists are predicting unemployment above 10% and it will be at least the middle of next year before we start to see any type of turn around. Of course, those predictions could be proven wrong if the administration decides that they just haven’t spent enough money; money that we do not have. It has gotten so bad that Congress had to raise the federal debt ceiling to $13 trillion.

Afghanistan is another ignorant remark to make because the President is continuing to drag his feet in deciding whether or not to send the 40,000 requested troops. The administration is still trying their tired excuse of blaming Bush and Cheney for their woes. The problem is that they were fully briefed on Afghanistan during the transition time before the Inauguration. Obama had claimed all along that we were following a flawed strategy in Afghanistan and that he had the solution. He even picked his own commanding General to lead our soldiers in Afghanistan, but now he can barely seem to find the time to talk to the man. He refuses to make a decision on sending troops because he is terrified of angering his radical left-wing base by sending more troops. The problem is that the longer he waffles, the more danger our troops will face. This decision should be based solely on the intelligence from the commanders on the ground in Afghanistan, and not by Rahm Emanuel and David Axelrod. This is a military strategy decision, not one to be made for political gain.

The administration has decided that going after Fox News is one of their top priorities. Shouldn’t they be trying to repair our flailing economy? Or speaking to General McChrystal about getting him the resources and troops he needs to fulfill his mission? I suppose they could be using their war on Fox as a way show that they do know how to fight a war. Unfortunately for the administration, they are losing that war. Every time they send some administration lackey out to bash Fox, the ratings for Fox climb. By the way, recent surveys have shown that independents and Democrats make up more than 50% of the Fox news audience.

The Inevitable Vietnam-Afghanistan Comparison

At nearly the same time that the ground war began in Iraq, the Democrats began comparing the war in Iraq to Vietnam. They claimed that Iraq was an un-winnable war. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid declared that we had lost the war, while our troops were still in combat. The bureaucrats in DC tried everything they could to drive down public support for the war. It took them about 4 years to finally depress the American people on the war. President Bush remained resolute in his commitment to our troops in battle and peace in Iraq. Against growing, outspoken negativity by the Democrats, Bush installed General Petraeus as the commanding General in Iraq and fully supported the General’s plan for the “Surge” in Iraq. The result was the declining insurgency and the Iraqi government and security forces standing up to take control of their own country.

President Obama campaigned on the belief that we should never have been in Iraq and that we should be committing more troops and resources to Afghanistan. He believed that Afghanistan should be the center of the fight with Al Qaeda. He promised that as President he would recommit the fight to Afghanistan, sadly he seems to have a very short memory. In August General McChrystal, the General that he personally picked to lead the troops in Afghanistan, asked for a minimum of 40,000 more troops to prevent the country from slipping into chaos. Nearly 2 months after the request, the President has yet to decide whether or not to support our troops with sending the additional forces.

It wasn’t until 60 Minutes aired an interview with General McChrystal, where the General answered a seemingly innocuous question about how often he speaks to the President. The answer touched an embarrassing firestorm for the administration. The President had spoken to his General only once since he sent him to Afghanistan 3 months ago. The President’s reaction was an extremely obvious and rushed set of meetings on Afghanistan.

Since the Democrats were so eager to compare Iraq to Vietnam, I thought it would be appropriate to point out their folly. Their bureaucratic reaction to Afghanistan is precisely the kind of mistakes the politicians of 35 years ago made. The Vietnam era politicians decided that they knew more about fighting a war than the commanders on the ground in the theater of war. It is eerily similar to the idiocy of the DC politicians of today. They are more interested in holding hearings to discuss every possible contingency than to actually support the brave men and women that they claim to care about.

President Obama needs to realize that his role as Commander in Chief is not a political position that he can waffle back and forth on the decisions that affect our troops. It is time for him to grow up and actually make a decision and stand by it for better or worse. He needs to decide if he is going to support the best and the brightest our country has to offer and give them what they need to win the war. Or decide that this is not a battle he thinks is worthy and pull our troops out of there. Although I believe that it will be disastrous for him to pull out of Afghanistan, it would be better than sacrificing our military men and women while he “phones in” his duties as Commander in Chief.