AG McCollum Defends Floridians’ Right to Preserve Healthcare Freedom in Florida Constitution

(Orlando, FL – June 29, 2010)—The YES ON 9 Campaign applauded Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum today for his decision to defend the Amendment against a lawsuit that attempts to block it from the November ballot. Amendment 9 seeks to protect Floridians’ right to choose their own healthcare by placing that right in the state’s Constitution.

“Florida’s Constitution is a sacred document that outlines the liberties, freedoms, and fundamental rights of Floridians,” said Rep. Scott Plakon (R-Longwood.) “By defending the right of voters to place healthcare freedom in the Constitution, Attorney General McCollum is upholding a right that Floridians and people across the nation continue to demand in the face of big-government mandates.”

Amendment 9, which has already been vetted by the Florida House and Senate and approved for the ballot according to Article XI and statutory procedure, unequivocally states that no government can mandate a Floridian’s participation in a government healthcare scheme against his or her will. Under the leadership of Sen. Carey Baker (R-Eustis) and Rep. Plakon, the Florida Legislature approved the amendment and it now has over 4,000 citizen co-sponsors.

“Amendment 9 has already won broad-based support across Florida, reflecting the people’s deep distrust of the federal government’s healthcare plan,” said Sen. Baker. “Small businesses, grassroots volunteers, medical professionals, and everyday Floridians continue to express their support for healthcare freedom, and we are grateful for Attorney General McCollum’s efforts to ensure that they will have the opportunity to preserve this fundamental right in our Constitution.”

Attorney Mark Herron and Democrat operatives with ties to Organizing for America, MoveOn.org, and other liberal special interest groups filed the lawsuit in Friday. Visit the YES ON 9 Campaign at www.FLHealthcareFreedom.org for additional information.

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Protect our health care freedom

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 23, 2010

Contact: Erin VanSickle
erin@flhealthcarefreedom.com

(Orlando, FL – June 18, 2010) The YES ON 9 Campaign announced today that it is launching a statewide campaign to educate voters on and promote passage of Amendment 9, the Healthcare Freedom Act. The amendment, sponsored by Senator Carey Baker (R-Eustis) and Representative Scott Plakon (R-Longwood) will appear on the November ballot and seeks to protect Floridians’ right to choose their own healthcare instead of being forced into a government mandate.

“Amendment 9 will protect Floridians from a Massachusetts-style design that forces them to participate in a healthcare plan under the threat of penalties and heavy fines,” said Senator Baker. “Our goal is to educate voters about what could happen to them without the protections that Amendment 9 would put in place.”

Amendment 9, which will appear on the November 2010 ballot, unequivocally states that no government can mandate a Floridian’s participation in a government healthcare scheme against his or her will. Under the leadership of Sen. Baker and Rep. Plakon, the Florida Legislature approved the amendment and over 4,000 citizens have signed on as co-sponsors. The Yes On 9 website, FLHealthcareFreedom.com, will serve as a web portal to keep voters informed and engaged, as well as providing up-to-the-minute information on town hall events and activities across the state.

“We agree with the need for meaningful health care reform, but not on the backs of Florida taxpayers, and not at the expense of one of our most fundamental liberties,” concluded Representative Plakon. “The people of Florida deserve the right to decide the amount and kind of health care they want. YES ON 9 will ensure that this right is protected and that bureaucrats won’t come between patients and their doctors.” Visit www.FLHealthcareFreedom.com.

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Vote Yes on 9!

I am happy to announce that the Florida Health Care Freedom Act, which recently passed the Florida legislature, will be placed on the November ballot as Amendment 9. If 60% of Floridians vote Yes on 9 in November, we will take a giant step toward protecting against the enforcement of Obamacare in Florida.

I’m also pleased to announce that Citizen2Citizen will be coordinating with Liberty 4 Florida to work toward getting this amendment passed. I am a county chairman for the statewide effort, and am calling on all of Citizen2Citizen to volunteer to help out with this endeavor.

Some of you have already volunteered. I will be in touch with you shortly. If you have not volunteered, pleased visit the Florida Freedom Project volunteer page. Our goal is to have 100 volunteers in Orange and Seminole counties. If you are in another county, please contact me and I will put you in touch with activities in your county.

If you are on Facebook, please join the Florida Freedom Project group and share it with all of your friends to help us spread the word and recruit volunteers.

Thank you,
Jesse Phillips
Citizen2Citizen, Founder

Thank you!

Here’s a general principal: it’s much easier to be vocal when you’re angry than when you’re grateful. We got the Florida Health Care Freedom bills on the ballot by relentlessly pounding our representatives doors telling them to vote for it.

Now they have voted for it, and I don’t think we should shut up just yet. Since they did what we asked, I believe they deserve our gratitude. If we express thanks to them for listening to our desires now, then it could also help them listen again the next time we need to get their attention.

We are working on plans to help get the word out to voters this November. But step one of the Florida Freedom Project (which you can voluteer for here) is to thank the elected officials who voted to put this on the ballot.

There are two ways you can do this:

1. Download the list and email them yourself: I have two lists. You can download the lists (list option one here, list option two here), copy in the email addresses and send them a note. Both of these lists contain the same addresses, they’re just formatted different ways depending on your email program.

NOTE: You might want to send two emails with 36 recepients on each instead of emailing the whole group to avoid spamming controls.

Please SHARE THIS PAGE and send these lists on to others to spread the word of gratitude.

2. Add your name to my email: I will be emailing on behalf of the 150+ members of this Citizen2Citizen group. I’m going to send this email on Monday. If you’d want your name explicitly added to the signature (and not just implied as a C2C list member), then click this link and fill in your name to send me a quick email and I’ll get your name in there.

Note: if the link doesn’t work just send an email to me@jessephillips.net with your name and I’ll sign you on.

Thanks,
Jesse Phillips
Citizen2Citizen

“WASHINGTON, April 22 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — Today, Florida’s Health Care Freedom Act (HJR 37/SJR 72), sponsored by Florida Representative Scott Plakon and Florida Senator Carey Baker, passed the House and Senate and will appear on the November ballot. The legislation is now introduced or announced in 42 states” (From PR Newswire).

VOLUNTEERS NEEDED: We have much more work ahead of us to get this passed by voters in November. The Florida Freedom Project is being assembled to help coordinate this effort. If you haven’t joined the Florida Freedom Project volunteer group, you can do so here. If you’ve already volunteered for the project, I will be emailing you soon with some ways we can help prepare for our fight this fall.

Hello all:

I sent you a viewing-download link to the images from yesterday’s health care protest rally. We may indeed lose today’s battle but I’m confident we’ll win the war.  The “Democratic” values of modern liberals are not the values of classic liberalism (this is not your father’s Democratic Party!) and and certainly not the values of a majority of Americans.  It’s going to be an uphill fight to November.

The Founding Fathers did their work.  Today, it’s time for us, the Defending Fathers to do ours.  Restraint of government is the true liberty of the people!

Our strategy is straightforward: 1.  Resist from the beginning.  2. Never, ever quit.  3.   Know that in war there is no substitute for victory.

The battle is just beginning.  “Repeal and replace” may become our new battle cry.

Blessings,
Mark Bernhardt, Photographer

Find more photos like this on Citizen2Citizen

Let freedom ring, not burn

With the health care bill that was passed yesterday, a ball started rolling that over the next 4-8 years will fundamentally transform America into a socialist state, unless we can stop it.

A cursory study of history reveals some valuable lessons we can learn from the Roman empire. Rome was built on the rule of law with a form of representative government that allowed for individuals to prosper based on their own abilities and hard work.

The turning point in the fall of Rome came when people abandoned those principals and figured out that they could elect corrupt leaders who would give them certain entitlements. Who wouldn’t take up that offer? Hard work is overrated when you can live off of others via government intervention.

This abandonment of principal led to corruption, instability and ultimately financial and societal collapse. With the passage of this health care legislation, we are taking a giant leap forward down this very path.

Florida Freedom Project

Now is the time for action. We can sit around and wonder how this happened, or we can do something about it. November can’t come soon enough, but much can be accomplished before then.

Here’s what you can do: Volunteer for the Florida Freedom Project. We are gathering signatures for the Florida Health Care Freedom (Obamacare nullification) Act. You can read about this project here. We are collecting citizen co-sponsors to help raise public awareness so that this issue can be put on the ballot in November.

All politics is local. If we change things on a local level, we will do our part to slow the progressive momentum long enough to overturn their unconstitutional actions all together.

Please take some time today to click the volunteer link above. Forward this link to your friends and ask them to be involved as well. By signing up as a volunteer, they will be added as a citizen co-sponsor as well. I will send out a note to our volunteers soon about our plans.

Thank you for your vigilance!
Jesse Phillips
Founder, Citizen2Citizen

Christians asking God for help on the US Capitol on the eve of health care vote (via Jason Hoyt).

For the first time since the Civil War, a church service will be held inside the Capitol. One the same day that Congress is scheduled to make one of the most important votes in our nation’s history, our leaders will gather for the first church service inside the Capitol in a century and a half.

While Congress and their families are inside the Capitol, many of the thousands of people who gathered for the rally this weekend will gather outside the building and pray for their leaders inside. Please join them in prayer, wherever you are, and ask that God would grant our leaders wisdom as they consider this transformational legislation. Forward this link to your friends, and especially your pastors, asking them to say a prayer for our leaders at your church tomorrow.

If you haven’t been following, this weekend could be a decisive one for the healthcare debate. Pressure on politicians is immense. The Capitol phone system is ringing at 100,000 calls per hour. The vote will be Sunday or Monday in all probability. It’s going to be a close vote, probably a few votes deciding whether America is fundamentally changed by socialized medicine and government run healthcare. The democrats are planning unconstitutional parliamentary tactics to “deem” that the bill has passed without a vote. We’ve never seen anything like this in our nation’s history, and there has potentially never been a more important weekend in recent history.

Although tens of thousands are going to Washington, we’re going to visit Suzanne Kosmas, a pivotal undecided vote, and to warn her against voting for this disasterous bill. Special thanks to our own Phyliss Reinhardt for taking the lead on this.

Orlando Rally – Suzanne Kosmas’ Office!

Central Florida patriots will be gathering and rallying outside Suzanne Kosmas’ office tomorrow (Saturday) from 12pm Noon to 2pm on the corner of E Colonial (50) and Alafaya Trail.  Park behind Wendy’s at 11:30am. Bring your family, friends, neighbors and co-workers!  Please forward this email and SHARE the blog post on Facebook.

What: CODE RED Rally at Suzanne Kosmas’ Office
When: Saturday, March 20th at 12pm Noon – 2pm
Where: Corner of E. Colonial (50) and Alafaya Trail in Orlando
Park behind Wendy’s at 11:30am

Do it now!

Please contact the five Senators below today by email and voice mail to their Tallahassee offices, and urge them to vote YES on SRJ 72 Thursday in the Senate Health Regulation Committee.

Thursday morning, March 4, at 8AM, the Health Care Freedom Act, Senate Joint Resolution 72 (SJR 72) will be heard before the Senate Health Regulation Committee.

The bill is sponsored by Senator Carey Baker (R), who is not on the Committee. If passed by the Senate and House with 60% of the vote, a proposition will be placed on the ballot in 2010 which would supersede any other laws to force Floridians to buy Health Insurance or restricting their options.

Two of the Committee members, including the Chairman, Don Gaetz, and Mike Bennett, have cosponsored the bill. You may of course contact them as well.

There are five other members of the Committee, including the Vice Chairman, Eleanor Sobel (D). See their contact info below.

Sen. Thad Altman (R)
(850) 487-5053
altman.thad.web@flsenate.gov

Sen. Andy Gardiner (R)
(850) 487-5047
gardiner.andy.web@flsenate.gov

Sen. Dennis Jones (R)
(850) 487-5065
jones.dennis.web@flsenate.gov

Sen. Eleanor Sobel (D)
(850) 487-5097 (V)
sobel.eleanor.web@flsenate.gov

Sen. Al Lawson, Jr. (D) Democratic Minority Leader
(850) 487-5004
lawson.alfred.web@flsenate.gov

Please contact these five Senators by email and voice mail to their Tallahassee offices, and urge them to vote YES on SRJ 72 tomorrow in Committee.

The Florida Health Care Freedom Act allows a vote on an amendment to the Florida Constitution that says any “law or rule shall not compel, directly or indirectly, any person, employer, or health care provider to participate in any health care system,” and specifies people and employers can’t be fined for not buying insurance. This bill does not ban federal programs such as Medicare and Medicaid in our state; it simply focuses on restricting the federal government from forcing Americans to participate in an insurance policy, public or private.