I was so depressed last night thinking about the economy, the wars, lost jobs, Savings, Social Security, retirement funds, etc……

I called Lifeline.
Got a freakin’ Call Center in Pakistan .
I told them I was suicidal.
They all got excited and asked if I could drive a truck.

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Odessa, TX

Speech By Stefano Rosellini

Ladies and gentlemen, I am here today because I believe it is my duty to share my personal story, or at least part of it, with you.

I was born and raised in Italy and I came to the US in 1994. Since then I have lived in Connecticut, Florida and Georgia and now I can call West Texas my home. I am 44 years old and for the first 30 years of my life I have experienced firsthand the Euro Socialism that the Obama administration and the current liberal Congress are trying to impose on all of us and I can report to you, without any shade of a doubt that you do not want to follow that path.

The main reason I am here today is because I see the healthcare bill being proposed as a tipping point. I have never been involved in politics before and I have never participated in a rally like this, but for the last few years I have witnessed a very alarming trend on American politics and I believe that it is time for me to stand up and give back some of the love that this Country has given me since the first day I arrived.

I love this Country, I really do. The day I was sworn in as an American Citizen I felt an inch taller and I couldn’t stop smiling. I love the American People, I love their capacity to overcome adversity, I love the can do attitude, I love the solidarity that people express to each other and the compassion that is pervasive when disaster strikes. But more than anything else I love the fact that in this Country you can still dream and know that there is a possibility that that dream can one day come true.

The only reason why we can still do that is because we enjoy liberties that nobody else in the world enjoys. Believe it or not we enjoy those liberties because our government is not as pervasive and oppressive as in every other country in the world. At list not yet.

The only reason is because our Constitution is still, at least partially, enforced.

Some people are telling us that the Constitution of the United States is old and needs to be rewritten or, at a minimum, adjusted. Other times they tell us that it needs a more liberal interpretation. I would like to respond to those critics that the Constitution doesn’t have an expiration date. Our Constitution is alive and well because it doesn’t deal with the nature of the government but it deals with the nature of the People. That nature has not and never will change.

The founding Fathers knew, because they had witnessed it first hand, that governments of any type, Democracies, Monarchies, Republics, tend to become oppressive. They become oppressive because once in power people tend to want more and more of it.

The US Constitution is the only document of its type that clearly puts in place checks and balances. It balances the power of the government with the power of the people.

Every time the people relinquish part of their power to the government by allowing it, for example, to levy more taxes used to run social programs, the so called safety nets, that make some feel more “secure’, every time we trade our individual rights for the so called “greater good”, we shift the balance towards the government and away from the people.

You see, when I was in Italy I have never dreamt of having a boat, or a big car or a big house or any other thing that was not strictly necessary for my daily life. I never dreamt of it not because I would have not liked it but because for a man of my means, for somebody not born in wealth, it was simply impossible. In Italy, and we can extend this reasoning to the whole Europe, there is no law that forbids an individual to have all of those things. It’s not necessary. Taxation takes care of it. Taxation is so high that it makes it practically impossible to even dream of a better life.

I can assure you that very few people in this audience would afford the vehicle that they are driving now if gas was $8 per gallon, sales tax was 20% and your income was taxed at a 50% rate. Taxes not only hurt your pocket, they hurt the human spirit.

At those rates only the elite can afford those things. Only the elite can afford a self fulfilling life when normal people are enslaved by a government that keeps more and more of what they make in the name of peace and prosperity.

Europe has created a whole class of people that has never worked during their lives, that has never produced a widget with their name on it, and the only thing they know is how to keep the politicians that are taking care of them from cradle to grave, in power. How do the politicians keep those people on their side? By redistributing wealth. By redistributing the money earned by hard working citizens that love God and their Country. Citizens like you and me. They use the police powers of the government to do what any of us would be jailed for. They pick your pocket.

Like many of you, I have worked too many hours to achieve the little I have achieved to stay here and watch people that have never done anything in their lives telling me how I should live mine. I am tired of people that are giving speeches telling me that I should not pollute and make me feel guilty if I use my car to go to work and then at the end of their speech jump on their jets, paid for by the tax payers and go and relax in their multimillion dollars mansions.

Where is the common sense in that?

When you travel across Europe and talk to people about politics it is amazing to see their reactions. Some are completely fed up about the system they live under and they look at the US as the Promised Land, but many are so numbed up after years and generations of government brainwashing that they have lost any will to fight for what is right.

They have no idea what is up and what is down. They really believe that having to work 80% of your time for the government so that the elite can leave a great life and redistribute the wealth to those that have no inclination to contribute anything to society, is the right thing to do to keep the peace. It would be immoral to think otherwise.

Let me give you an example of what I am describing:

Across Europe, criminals are not criminals in the old sense of the word anymore. You know, somebody that needs to be confronted and punished for what he or she has done. No, criminals are people that are not understood by society and had a very difficult life. If someone comes in your house to steal your hard work, you have to let them do that because they have more need than you. It would be immoral to get a baseball bat and kick their butt. If you react and the criminal gets hurt, you are persecuted because you didn’t avoid confrontation.

Similar laws are already in effect in many of the most liberal states in this country. In the name of morality we grant more rights to criminals than to law abiding citizens.

All across Europe you cannot keep arms for self defense:

My parents have to cage themselves in their house every night before they go to sleep and pray that nobody will assault them. Their house has been burglarized three times already like all the others around it. Thank God they were never home when that happened. But Euro Socialism does not allow self defense. The only idea that you can arm yourself with a gun and have at least a chance to a fair fight is beyond reach.

They don’t want you to be able to defend yourself and your family, that has to be a function of the government, so that you can depend on it for yet another program.

What I am asking at this point is: Where is the common sense gone?

Ladies and Gentlemen, We are going through the exact same phase across our great nation. I am hearing more and more of those Euro-Socialist speeches in this Country.

How many times have you heard in the last few weeks that it is “immoral” to keep the status quo when it comes to healthcare. It is “immoral” not to give to those that have less. It is “immoral” not to tax the wealthy so that the needy can prosper.

Well ladies and gentlemen let me tell you what is really immoral:

It is immoral to claim that there are 50 million Americans that have no health insurance when there is no evidence of it and most of them are not even Americans.

It is immoral to demonize law abiding executives of companies that have created great products and services, employed millions of people and generate billions of dollars in economic activity and income taxes.

It is immoral to push through a health care bill that the majority of the people of this country don’t want when you have been elected to represent those people.

It is immoral to ask me to fund a health bill that will kill millions of babies through abortion when I don’t subscribe to that doctrine.

It is immoral to have to insure people that can insure themselves with my tax dollars.

It is immoral to tell us that the government or non-for profit groups can run health care more efficiently than the private sector and for-profit companies when hard evidence shows exactly the contrary.

It is immoral to sell to the masses the concept that they can get services for free from the government.

It is immoral to saddle our children and grandchildren with a debt that will take all their lives to repay.

And, above all, it is immoral to have in the White House czars and other advisors that call me a racist simply because I use my own brain and I do not subscribe to their principles.

Race has nothing to do with this debate and has everything to do with the need of the politicians to keep us divided.

Let me talk a bit about the healthcare bill:

President Obama has made “universal” health care a corner stone of his policies and has been promoting it during his campaign and since his first day in office.

First of all we should clarify the term “universal”: Today we have a truly universal health care system. Everybody is entitled to heath care and if you go to the emergency room nobody is being refused urgent and immediate attention. Of course you are expected to pay for the services you receive either by cash or through a health insurance that you purchase and pay for beforehand.

So if we have a universal health care system in place already what is the president talking about? Well he is actually talking about “Socialized” Health Care. But of course because the term socialized doesn’t sound nice he prefers not to use it.

Socialized health care is not a new concept invented by our President; it is a concept that has been used for decades in most of the western world with mostly abysmal results.

Governments are very inefficient: Hard data are difficult to come by because the US government is probably the worse corporation that there is in terms of reporting and transparency, but it is common wisdom that over 50% of the tax dollars received is wasted due to administrative costs, pork and other pet projects that benefit only the few participants.

Now, let’s compare that number with those of an evil and greedy private insurance company. You know one of those private institutions that our honorable Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi would like to shut down or at least nationalize.

I have taken as an example Humana but you can certainly do the math for any other large company such as Blue Cross Blue Shield or any other.

Humana in 2008 reported $29b in premiums; that is the money that they collected from their customers. They also reported $4.2b in administrative and other general expenses.

For every dollar they received they used $14c to manage their business, $1.2c was returned to the government to pay taxes, $2.2c was retained by the shareholders. $81c was disbursed for medical treatments. I don’t see any excess profits on those numbers. Shareholders retained 2.2% of the money the company collected, almost the same amount as the government share of the pie.

Where are the excessive administrative costs that our government officials are trumpeting to the masses?

Remember that a good government would have disbursed only 50c for medical treatments. How can 50c be better than 81c? I guess you need to be from California to understand that or at least have a degree on liberal mathematics.

Now understand me; managing healthcare is a very complex issue and I am certain that improvements can be made in the way we do it today. No system is perfect. However going from a system that disburses 81c on the dollar to one that disburses less than 50c doesn’t seem the right answer. If nothing else it will cost more, much more to achieve the same results.

In fact the Obama administration is also telling us that over the next 10 years the plan they are proposing will cost us tax payers 1 trillion dollars. Now we all know that that number is greatly underestimated.

One aspect that Americans do not seem to understand is that once the government gets involved in the administration of healthcare, decisions will not be based on need or merit but rather on politics. Doctors will not be appointed to a post because they are the most qualified to do that particular job but rather will be appointed for political reason. What happens with socialized healthcare is that it becomes an instrument for politicians to collect more votes and swing the electorate one way or the other. Powerful people will always be on top of the list when it comes to care and the weak will always be last. In other words, socialized healthcare is bad for the people that is supposed to serve and that are today advocating for it.

You need something done quickly, well, call a favor with the politician du jour and an appointment will be arranged, however, remember who saved your brother or sister or father or mother when it comes to election time. Healthcare is too important to be left in the hands of bureaucrats. Do you really want your representative in congress to take care of your son or daughter’s leukemia?

If you don’t believe me please go and visit the UK, Italy or our neighbor Canada. As a European that has lived most of his life under socialized medicine I have never received better care than since I moved to the US. I have many horror stories that I can share with you about the care that friends and family have or have not received under the social plan. Please stop this nonsense before it is too late.

What will happen when malpractice arises? What will happen when a government doctor will kill or paralyze your daughter? Have you ever tried to sue the government? Who’s going to be the attorney that takes on the body that makes the law in the first place?

Governments need to stay out of private affairs as much as possible. That is the only way to assure that they can act impartially when administering the law. How can you win a law suit when the defendant can change the rules of the game at will?

We have witnessed this exact case just a few months ago when the government confiscated General Motors and did not compensate the debt holders in one of the most disgraceful events of government abuse in recent history. The bondholders were intimidated by the President and by the whole administration that called them “speculators” and when a few courageous pension funds tried to get their contracts enforced, they were thrown out of court by a government judge.

The other day I heard somebody say: “Well if you don’t like the public option you can always choose to buy private insurance”. Sure I can. But first I have to pay for the public insurance that I don’t like through increase taxation and then I need to pay again to get a procedure done. Isn’t that the definition of socialism?  From each according to his ability, to each according to his need …

The problem with socialism, as somebody said, is that eventually you run out of somebody else’s money.

A few months ago a friend of our family was diagnosed with breast cancer. She is a very young mother of two small children. The doctor told her that if she did not have surgery immediately she would have only a few months to live. As you can imagine her family and friends were devastated by the news but, what was more devastating to all of us was the fact that, with the government care, the waiting list for the surgery was almost a year long, even for a very urgent case like hers.

To get a chance to live she had to go to a private clinic and spend 25,000 Euros, approximately $36k to have the surgery done on time, money that her family did not have and had to borrow.

These are the real problems that come with socialized health care, and I can assure you that they become very real and very serious when you are the one involved. This is what we can expect from the Obama Care. Don’t trust anybody that says it will be different for us. It will not.

Another argument that is typical in Europe, and is becoming wide spread in the US, is the concept of “free” health care. You hear the talking heads saying: “In France health care is free, we need a free option. Free is good…” When is the last time that you have received something for free? Free means paid by the government by confiscating wealth from its citizens. It is free if you don’t pay taxes but it is very expensive if you do.

The same talking heads that are promoting the free concept, are telling us that HC is too expensive, we need to reduce the cost of it. How do you do that if people do not know how much they are paying for? How do you do that if people think it’s free? Every public plan that I know of is running a deficit. If the government cannot keep the cost of the public options that we have in place already, Medicare and Medicaid, in check how do they expect to keep a larger system solvent?

It reminds me of a student that was seating by me when I was in high school. One day the teacher called Tony up for a history test. He opened the book and asked: How many chapters were we supposed to study? The first three… It’s not enough…call me back up when there is more. Well Tony never finished high school. President Obama like Tony is telling us: I have no idea how to keep Medicare solvent but just give me a larger plan to handle and I will show you how good I am. I can assure you that like Tony, he will never get it done.

But that is not important.

It isn’t important because all this debate is not about healthcare but about advancing the socialist agenda.

If you don’t believe me just ask yourself the following question:

If the President really believes that this is just a great plan and he is so concerned about the health of his fellow Americans, why does he want to pass a bill so important in such a short time? After all health issues are not just a democrats, republicans or independents problem. We all want good health care and we all agree that some changes must be made but why does he want to push something so important so quickly if it wasn’t just another power grab?

I should close this speech with “God bless you all, and God bless America”. I will not do that. I will not do that because I believe that we have been blessed many times already and because God has blessed this Nation from the moment it was born. It is up to us now to carry on His work. Is it up to us to decide what is right and what is wrong. It is up to us to stand up and make sure that those unalienable rights that are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness are still preserved. It is up to us to assure that our government remains well defined and confined to its original purpose. It is up to us to stop blind liberalism. Do Not Tread on US.

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