An Open Letter to President Obama

July 30, 2009 by 14 Comments

Dear Mr. President,

I am reading the Health Reform bill and I do not like it at all. I do not think this is the direction in which our government should be going– specifically, that is, competing with private business and issuing mandates to employers about insuring employees and mandates to American citizens (and also to non-citizens!!!) about our bodies and our minds and even opening the door to monitoring how we raise our children.

I am not one who thinks highly of modern Western medicine with all its drugs and advanced technology. Instead, I tend to have confidence in the ability of the body and mind to heal themselves. I suspect that except for what doctors and hospitals accomplish in the case of trauma (i.e. mechanical repair and temporary life support,) a remarkable amount of “health” care in the U.S. is unnecessary, ineffective, and at times actually harmful. If amusement parks had the same accident record as some hospitals, they would undoubtedly be shut down.

I believe that food is the best medicine. Add an active lifestyle and a sound spiritual foundation and for the most part an individual can achieve health without the constant presence of doctors and certainly without government management.

Which brings me to the fact –by the way– that under your watch government is getting way too big way too fast in an enormous number of areas. This was unfortunately also the direction of the Bush administration. But by means of the stimulus horribilis bill you signed into law, the far- reaching arms of the government have been transformed. Now they are more like tentacles that would only grow longer if this Health Reform bill passes.

I am also concerned that you don’t seem to be following through on quite a number of your campaign promises. One particularly bothersome omission is that you promised (I thought) to bring bi-partisanship to Washington. I know this is a difficult task but some of your comments and your obvious feelings of irritation haven’t been helpful. The same goes for your supposed post-racial philosophy.

You promised transparency in your administration and you simply have not achieved that nor apparently have you made any efforts to do so. As far as I am concerned, your thinly disguised love of power and secrecy creates a frightening and dangerous combination.

Our nation and her people will be lucky to survive another three years of your administration. Another seven is totally out of the question

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Open Letter To Senator Grassley

July 30, 2009 by 17 Comments

An Open Letter to Senator Charles Grassley

By Representative Kent Sorenson

 

Senator Grassley,

Few Iowans, especially those of us who like you are in politics, command the respect and dignity you have over the course of your long and distinguished career.  On the other hand, I am merely a freshman state legislator who has yet to complete his first term, so I recognize the miles of difference between us in both achievement and experience.

However, as I watch you carry out your duties in the United States Senate as of late, I must confess that not only am I puzzled by some of your recent decisions, but so are thousands of your constituents across the state of Iowa as well.

Senator, I challenged an incumbent Democrat last year in my district in a year that strongly favored Democrats.  A young, popular, and charismatic colleague of yours in the U.S. Senate was at the top of the ballot as well, coasting to victory in Iowa’s presidential election.  I was underfunded.  I was practically ignored by the state Republican Party apparatus, who assumed I had little chance of victory – and given the facts on the ground I don’t blame them for that – and therefore offered only token assistance to my campaign.

I was even told by a Republican statehouse leader not to campaign on social issues, lest I risk being defined by the media as a member of what he described as “the God squad.”

Yet, despite all of these obstacles, and the fact that I went house-to-house in a Democratic district clearly and plainly defining where I stand on every issue in our party’s platform, my campaign defied conventional wisdom and emerged victorious on Election Day.

Not only that, but my race was one of only two in the 2008 election that took a seat away from the Democrats and gave it to the Republicans.

Because of that accomplishment, which is a rare feat as of late, I had hoped my campaign would be a model for our party across the board.  Ours is a party that should stand for the strong convictions in its platform, because it is supported by a grassroots that consists of people who share those strong convictions.  I know this firsthand, because I came out of those same grassroots that have supported your campaigns for several decades now.

That’s why many of us back home here in Iowa are troubled with some of your decisions as of late.  As the current statewide standard bearer for our party, at least until we defeat Governor Culver next year, the decisions and statements you make in Washington have a huge impact on the grassroots here at home.  Both my constituents and the people I talk to across the state are puzzled by the following:

  • Your vote for the so-called TARP program last fall.  That Bush bailout not only violated our party’s convictions, but it also violated our nation’s Constitution.  You expressed remorse that you were asking hard-working Iowans to bailout Wall Street, but you voted with Tom Harkin anyway.
  • Your vote to confirm Eric Holder as Attorney General of the United States.  According to a November 21, 2008 article at NewsMax, Holder was a “strong supporter of restrictive gun control” as President Clinton’s deputy attorney general.
  • The fact you told The Des Moines Register back in April you needed “30 days to think about” whether or not you support an amendment to the State Constitution defining marriage as one man and one woman.
  • The fact you said on Iowa Press back in April that county recorders needed to “follow the law” and issue marriage licenses to homosexuals.  The last time I read our State Constitution, I was working in the only prescribed body for the making of laws, and lawmakers didn’t vote to legalize homosexual marriages on any day of the session I attended, and I attended them all.
  • The fact that you have failed to flatly refuse to support President Obama’s attempted takeover of our healthcare system, and thus one-seventh of the U.S. economy.  It’s ironic that as more and more Americans are realizing the scope of what Obama is proposing, and coincidentally more and more Democrats are realizing the political backlash they will face at the polls next year if they vote for it, you at the very least are being portrayed as someone attempting to keep this empty hope and change alive with bi-partisan support. From its government mandates to rationing of healthcare, we need this bill completely defeated, not just negotiated down to a more manageable monstrosity.

Senator Grassley, I applaud you for your vote against confirming Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court.  However, I would also like to encourage you to not stop there.

Ours is a state that is hemorrhaging young families like mine.  We are getting older and poorer.  I witnessed Democratic budget tactics in my first legislative session that in this nation’s past history would’ve seen them tarred and feathered by the very public they were attempting to fleece.

You have been in the U.S. Senate for a long time, but I’m guessing our country has never needed principled and bold leadership from its leaders more during your tenure than it does right now.

We are facing a war for our very way of life, both at home and abroad.  Senator Grassley, we need you to set an example of that principled and bold leadership that will inspire us both here in Iowa and across the country.

Iowans cannot afford any more of Obama-Culver-Gronstal government.  However, I fear that unless our party shows them something more righteous than “the lesser of two evils” as a comparison, that’s exactly what we’ll get.

Senator Grassley, Iowans need the bold convictions of our party platform like never before.  I wish to partner with you in advancing that platform if you’re interested in offering the principled and bold leadership Iowans need.

God bless,

Kent Sorenson

(Kent Sorenson is a Republican representing House District 74 in Warren County.)

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Culvers bright Idea for future is to take Iowa back to train travel?

July 30, 2009 by 6 Comments

Once upon a time in America you traveled by foot, then horse, then stage coach, then train and finally plane. Each  faster than the other. It would take days to travel from west coast to east coast by train and this remained the mode of travel til airplanes came along and cut the days down to hours. Now our not so  bright governor instead of promoting more daily airline flights to Chicago  from Des Moines or Cedar Rapids is taking us back to the past. Now if the airline industry can’t hardly  get enough  passengers every day to maintain daily flights to  Chicago from Des Moines or Cedar Rapids just how is Amtrak going to get enough passengers every day?  Amtrak is a lot faster than the old steam engines i did find some speed records of over 100 miles per hour in 1930s from steam engines but in this day and age of speed and super fast internet and cell phones we want to get there as quick as possible.  I could fly from Des Moines to Chicago go to a Cubs game and fly back home before the train would even get there.

I looked up Grey Hound it would get there about as fast as Amtrak would. It costs $162 dollars for a round trip from Ottumwa to Chicago and Amtrak is losing money. But Gov. Culver is working with Amtrak officials “to make Chicago-to-Iowa possible,” at a price ranging from $40 to $50 for a roundtrip ticket. That would take 3 times the passengers to equal the cost of the Ottumwa Amtrak trip.  So you can tell right away that this will lose money from the get go not to mention the $50+ million for track upgrade. They are planning on calling it the Chicago Flyer it ought to be named Rip Off Express!  Amtrak officials are expecting 120,000 to 190,000 passengers a year for this line i would like to know where they will get all these passengers to appear to ride something thats a by gone era of transportation. I guess everyone in Des Moines better least plan on one train trip a year! Well when were paying for it why not put it through?  Taxpayers provide over $100 for every 1000 miles traveled by each Amtrak passenger. This is turning out to be more of a political payback than necessity. I just can’t envision a multitude of Iowan’s  this day and age who would want to take so long to get there and back we want to get there faster and quicker not back to 1930s or 40s time. Because if that was the case more people would be driving to Ottumwa and riding Amtrak now.

In years past, Culver said, “Passenger rail really connected people in the Midwest. I think people miss that. … People are rather nostalgic about what this used to mean to their town.”   I’m sure the average Iowan or American wants to spend 10 hours on a train and think they are doing it for nostalgic reasons. I don’t know why even Culver is so thrilled with the passenger train idea since he was only 4 when Des Moines last had a regularly scheduled passenger train service that ended on  May 31, 1970, when the Rock Island Lines’ Chicago-Council Bluffs Cornbelt Rocket ceased operations. So please Governor tell us of your train rides back in the good ole days i would be thrilled to death to hear you tell some tall tales. Maybe you was on the train with Babe Ruth!?  Not considering he died in 1948 and you wasn’t born til 1966. I don’t think being nostalgic is worth this cost. I should run for governor i think the old west was pretty wild so i will bring back a stage coach line to Chicago and have bandits shoot at passengers.  Boy that sounds nostalgic doesn’t it !?

Amtrak has never turned a profit and your telling me  in these times when we need to carefully spend money that this is a good idea. I don’t think we need to be spending money on a  upgrade of a blast from the past. I think  he’s got some money invested in this hoping to reap big rewards from the government.  I got news for Culver were BROKE and printing money faster than Parker Brothers for Monopoly. Its a matter of time before it devaluates and becomes worthless.  I’m 43 and have had no interest in going to Chicago or reason to go there in my lifetime. I would rather see the money spent creating jobs in Iowa not making another Amtrak non profit line.

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