At their July 25 meeting, the executive committee of the RLC of Florida made two official recommendations regarding Florida referenda that reiterate the group’s commitment to free markets, individual liberty and private property. The RLC officially recommended voters at large vote YES on Amendment 9 and NO on Amendment 4 in November.

Amendment 9, as known as the Healthcare Freedom Act, states that any law or rule shall not compel, directly or indirectly, any individual to participate in any health care system against their will. The Act specifies that individuals cannot be fined, penalized or imprisoned for not participating in a mandated health insurance program such as Obamacare. If approved by Floridians in November, Health Care Freedom will become a provision of the Florida Constitution.

That Amendment 9 is on the ballot at all is partly due to efforts of RLCers who lobbied for the bill and traveled to the state capitol and went door to door speaking to legislators on behalf of the measure. Political consultant John Hallman said the measure was on the edge of being dismissed without even a committee vote when an outpouring of support surrounding the crucial vote in March led to a 10-3 committee vote to send the bill to the floor of the Senate and eventually passage in both houses.

In this effort, the RLCFL worked closely with Sen. Cary Baker and Rep. Scott Plakon, the two chief sponsors of the amendment.

Unfortunately, even though the Amendment was approved by the legislature, lawsuits have been launched to keep the Healthcare Freedom Act off the ballot. However, the RLC strongly believes the decision should be made by citizens and not by the court.

The RLC executive committee also came out against Amendment 4, the so-called Hometown Democracy act, which would require public referenda on a wide range of land use decisions.

Leonard Gilroy, a senior policy analyst at the libertarian Reason Foundation, put it like this in a James Madison Institute Point of View: “Throwing landowners’ ability to develop their property to the whims of public opinion shaped by costly public relations campaigns embraces the ultimate tyranny of the majority over individual property rights.”

For the record, the RLC is dissatisfied with the status quo where the decision-making responsibility is largely shared by elected officials and urban planners. Citizen input comes through their participation in planning boards and there is recourse to appeals, but nonetheless property rights are routinely violated in the state of Florida.

However, Amendment 4 is a move in the wrong direction, adding an additional layer of bureaucracy and expense in exercising one’s property rights. In practice, where Amendment 4 style laws exist, the process is mired in litigation.

In 2005, the RLCFL played a significant role in the successful statewide referendum to protect property owners from the use of eminent domain for private purposes. See also here and here for more details of RLC efforts on the successful Kelo remedy amendment.

At the Sunday night meeting, the board also considered several endorsements of candidates and announcements of new endorsements can be expected in the coming weeks.

About 35 RLCers from around Florida attended this week the 2010 Liberty Days at the Capitol, the RLC’s annual grassroots lobbying trek to Tallahassee, in the midst of the national battle against ObamaCare.

The timing was perfect. The RLC’s first event was a hearing before the House Healthcare Regulation Policy Committee, in which Rep. Scott Plakon – sponsor of the Healthcare Freedom Act – made his case for protecting Floridians from the individual mandates included in the national bill. His bill (HJR 37) to do that passed the committee 10-3 amid cheers from the RLCers present.

After the committee hearing, RLCers met with Rep. Plakon and the Senate sponsor of the bill (SJR 72), Sen. Cary Baker, for some celebration and planning our next steps. After the meeting, RLCer and political consultant John Hallman led RLCers went from office to office for two days pressing for support of the Healthcare Freedom Act, two other 10th Amendment bills, TABOR and protection of Florida’s 8-year legislative term limits law.

Meetings included one on Tuesday with Florida Lt. Gov. Jeff Kottkamp, shown addressing RLCers above.

In the late afternoon, Florida RLC chair Will Pitts and others met with new Republican Party of Florida chair, Sen. John Thrasher, to mend the rift between the RPOF and the RLC created by the disgraced former GOP chair Jim Greer. After a successful day for both our bills and our organization, RLCers spent the evening eating and drinking in downtown restaurants and bars, meeting and getting caught up with each other.

For the full story and more pictures, see www.rlcfl.org.

Idaho Congressman Butch Otter made a name for himself in the early 2000s when he voted against the PATRIOT Act and had a record favoring less government intervention in the economy. The RLC endorsed him numerous times, including in his race for Governor in 2006.

Unfortunately, since leaving his post in Congress, his views dramatically shifted toward Big Government, and he even reversed his previous civil liberties stance, saying “much of the USA PATRIOT Act is needed to help protect us in a dangerous age of stateless zealots and mindless violence.”

Although no longer a darling of the Republican Liberty Caucus or freedom-loving Americans, Otter has made the news this week for signing a bill passed by the Idaho House and Senate that would sue the federal government if the Obamacare (health care) proposal passes.

Says The Washington Post: “Idaho is leading the charge in a states-rights push to defeat a proposal in Congress that would require people to buy health insurance, a key piece of reforms being pushed by President Barack Obama. [Governor] Otter used a ceremony Wednesday afternoon to become the first governor to sign into law a measure requiring the state attorney general to sue the federal government over any such insurance mandates. There’s similar legislation pending in 37 other states…”

Meanwhile, in New Jersey, Governor Chris Christie has taken an important step toward consolidating bureaucratic agencies in that state: he formed a Privatization Task Force of five members to cut waste and abuse.

The members of the Task Force are Dick Zimmer, Todd Caliguire, Kathleen Davis, John Galandak and Dr. P. Kelly Hatfield. Former RLC Vice-Chairman Murray Sabrin praised the appointment of Galandak, saying

I have known John for 25 years, and we worked together for more than 20 years delivering the World of Free Enterprise program to public school children, primarily in Bergen County. John has the unique perspective of a business association trade leader who understands completely the strengths of the free enterprise system and how taxes, government spending and regulations undermine prosperity and job creation.

John should not be shy in advocating a massive downsizing of state government, and in keeping with sound free market principles, steep cuts in taxes and an overhaul of the regulatory climate in the Garden State.

In addition, John should also advocate for free enterprise education. He should call for teachers, principals, administrators, parents and other stakeholders to run local public schools. That means schools becoming nonprofit institutions, relying on tuition, fees, grants and other non-tax means to pay for all school costs.

Additionally, former Congressman Dick Zimmer, while far from perfect on the issues, was on the RLC Advisory Board while he was a member of Congress.

Politics is very circular. It’s good to see some familiar faces in the news this week.

House Democrat leaders are pushing for a Saturday vote on their sweeping health-care bill.

There are certain Democrats who MUST be called every day from now until the vote, which may be as early as Saturday now. Here’s the Target 92 list on the House side to all vulnerable and Blue Dog Democrats.  Blue Dogs are in blue. Here’s the .xls and .pdf versions.  Of note, the first 40 on the list are the Blue Dogs that signed the “deficit-neutral” letter mentioned above.  Everything you need to email their staff, write letters, make phone calls and send faxes, both to their district and Capitol Hill offices.

Keep calling out to the House and to the Senate in general. Of course, you can also reach them via the Capitol switchboard at (202) 224-3121. And of course, here is the CapWiz alert so you can contact your own members directly.

Top Ten Tax Increases Included in ObamaCare House Bill H.R. 3962

1. Small Business SURTAX (Sec.551, p. 336) – $460.5 Billion
2. Employment Mandate TAX* (Secs 511-512, p.308) – $135 Billion
3. Individual Mandate TAX* (Sec. 501, p.296) – $33 Billion
4. Medical Device TAX* (Sec.552, p. 339) – $20 Billion
5. $2,500 Annual Cap on FSAs* (Sec. 532, p. 325) – $13.3 Billion
6 Prohibition on Pre-Tax Purchases of Over-the-Counter Drugs through HSAs, FSAs, and HRAs* (Sec. 531, p.324) – $5 Billion
7. Tax on Health Insurance Policies to fund Comparative Effectiveness Research Trust Fund (Sec. 1802, p.1162) – $2 Billion
8. 20% Penalty on certain HSA Distributions* (Sec. 533, p.326) – $1.3 Billion
9. Other Tax Hikes and Increase Compliance on U.S. Job Creators – $56.4 Billion
………> IRS reporting on payments to certain businesses (Sec. 553, p.344) – $17.1 Billion
………> Delay implementation of worldwide interest allocation rules (Sec. 554, p. 345) – $26.1 Billion
………> Override U.S. treaties on certain payments by “insourcing” business (Sec. 561. p. 346) – $7.50 Billion
………> Codify economic substance doctrine and impose penalties (Sec.562, p.349) – $5.7 Billion
10. Other Revenue-Raising Provisions – $3 Billion

TOTAL TAX INCREASE . . . . . . . . . . $729.5 Billion

*[Violates President Obama's pledge to avoid tax increases on Americas earning less than $250,000]

Dr. Rand Paul, who is running in the Republican primary for U.S. Senate against Attorney General and former Democrat Trey Greyson, was the featured guest at an event hosted by Republican Liberty Caucus members in Kentucky.

This event occurred in Georgetown (near Lexington), Kentucky this past Saturday. It was hosted by RLC activist Sheryl Ford and longtime Kentucky RLC Coordinator Michael Moreland helped organize it.

This is the second time in the month of October that Dr. Paul has met with RLC members. The first was in Northeast Florida, where Dr. Paul met with the Florida RLC Chairman and other RLC members at an event hosted by one of his former medical school classmates.

The videos of Dr. Paul’s remarks to RLC members in Georgetown are as follows. Special thanks to our RLC volunteers in Kentucky for making this event a tremendous success!

Part 1:

Part 2:

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer’s town tall meeting in suburban Maryland Tuesday evening dissolved into chaos, with attendees at several points bringing the event to a complete halt, according to Politico.

“We want the government out of our business!” said one person.

“This is not how the government is supposed to work!” yelled another.

According to Politico:

“The night’s most curious twist came when Collins Bailey, a Republican who serves on the Charles County Board of Education [and ran against Hoyer last year], strode to the microphone and asked Hoyer whether the health care reform effort would be paid for.

“The crowd whooped.

“Collins, how are ya?” Hoyer asked, smiling.

Hoyer went on to pledge that, yes, everything in a reform package would be paid for.”

Of course, he didn’t explain how.

Mr. Bailey is a Republican Liberty Caucus member and was endorsed by the RLC in his 2008 race.  He is very eloquent and a passionate defender of individual rights and constitutionally limited government.

This is the second time in the last two month that a RLC member in Maryland has gained attention for asking a hard-hitting question to their representatives.

In late July, RLC supporter Robert Broadus poignently questioned U.S. Senator Ben Cardin (D-MD) at his town hall.  He asked, “I want to know — are you going to tell me, an individual, that I have to buy health care or you’re going to fine me $2,500?”  Here’s a clip of the Broadus’s question as well as his appearance on Your World with Neil Cavuto.

“When you’re a child … you rely on your parents. If you want to get insurance, you buy it yourself,” said Broadus. “[For my family,] the economic downturn would better be spent on immediate, daily needs [than on health care],” he explained.

Bailey and Broadus provide two instances of appropriate ways for RLC supporters to ask questions at town hall meetings.  Their questions — both asked in a civil manner — were difficult for the Congressmen to address.

Dear RLC of Florida members:

What an exciting five months it has been since our RLC of Florida State Convention. The newly seated RLC of Florida Board of Directors is been off to a great start in accomplishing our 2009 Strategic Objectives (.doc).

Below please find a brief update to things that are occurring around the state:

Chartering Local Groups

Our 2009 Strategic Objectives placed high priority in assembling organized groups of RLC Chapters around the state. By having organized groups that regularly meet, discuss upcoming events and get to know one another, we will become more effective at spreading the message of liberty.

We officially chartered our first two groups: Northeast Florida, Chaired by John Stevens and Central East Florida, chaired by Matthew Nye. Both of these men and their boards are demonstrating great leadership and are now holding regular RLC meetings with upwards of 150 persons in attendance.

Additionally we have groups in Tallahassee, Pensacola, Clay County and St. Johns County actively working to become chartered. We have a student in the University of Florida Law School that is in the process of chartering a UF School of Law RLC group.

If you are interested in starting a county chapter or a student chapter formed and chartered please contact RLCFL Vice-Chair Steven Talcott Smith or Board member Michael Durden.

The Chartering Committee completed a chartering application template for local groups to easily become chartered by the RLC of Florida. Essentially, the group needs paid ten members within a county or student group to petition to become chartered. Also, we have a standing conference call for all leadership around the state who wants to become more active. If you would like to begin building a group, we welcome your participation.

Marketing / Promotions

The Northeast Florida Marketing Committee group created a fantastic standard template website for use by newly chartered groups to promote their regional or county group. You can view the new Northeast Florida RLC website template at www.rlcnef.org. Special Thanks goes Kimberly Wells, the NE Florida Vice Chairman, and Erik Setzer, NE Florida RLC Board member, for their work in developing this new website.

Additionally, we are raising money for printing of new Rack Cards, Brochures, and the new 18 Page Liberty Guide. The Liberty Guide will be a magazine type document that can be given to our state legislators or fellow Republicans in the local Republican Executive Committee’s to provide an understanding of the RLC Positions. We anticipate this entire project costing approximately $5,000 for printing. The design and graphics work of these projects are substantially complete with minor edits needed. If you are able, please make a generous donation to the RLC of Florida to help promote our cause.

Committees

We have numerous committees that are working on membership, chartering, marketing, activism, legislative issues, and numerous other topics. If you would like to join one of these state committees, please let me know. A follow up e-mail is forthcoming to discuss the committees in more detail.

Legislative Initiatives

On the legislative front, there are numerous exciting pro-liberty pieces of legislation pending in the Florida legislature this year that that the Board of Directors will be considering. We will be taking Board action to pass resolutions for and against legislation. If there is a bill that you feel the board should support or oppose, please let us know. We will be assembling a committee to head up our annual Tallahassee trip. If you would like to serve on this committee please let us know. Below are some of the specific pieces of legislation with links that the Board will be considering resolutions in support or opposition:

Support:

HB 21 Florida Firearms Freedom Act

Original Bill Filed: http://myfloridahouse.gov/Sections/Documents/loaddoc.aspx?FileName=_h0021__.xml&DocumentType=Bill&BillNumber=0021&Session=2010

HM 19 – Limiting the Scope and Exercise of Federal Power

Original Bill Filed: http://myfloridahouse.gov/Sections/Documents/loaddoc.aspx?FileName=_h0019__.xml&DocumentType=Bill&BillNumber=0019&Session=2010

HJR 37 – Health Care Services

Original Bill Filed: http://www.myfloridahouse.gov/Sections/Documents/loaddoc.aspx?FileName=_h0037__.xml&DocumentType=Bill&BillNumber=0037&Session=2010

Floridians for Smarter Growth Initiative

http://www.florida2010.org/index.php

Oppose

Hometown Democracy – Amendment 4 – a statewide “Vote on Everything”

Read and learn more about this dangerous communistic initiative

http://www.florida2010.org/aboutus.php

Candidate Campaign Endorsements

RLC Members around the state are actively working on a number of local and state campaigns. Additionally, candidates are seeking endorsements from our state board. If you would like to serve on the Candidate Endorsement Committee, please e-mail me.

Conclusion

It is a pleasure to serve as the Chairman of the RLC of Florida. We are never at a loss of events to attend, candidates to support or legislative efforts to rally behind. It is all of you that are the Patriots and the true Public Servants. The true public servants are those Patriots who tirelessly dedicate their time and energy without payment and their treasure without thought of monetary gain; whose efforts are often met with criticism and seldom without thanks; yet they remain undeterred in the glorious Cause of Liberty for themselves, their fellow man and their posterity.

It is these Patriots who have and will preserve our American way of life. We are making a huge difference in the public debate. Thank you the opportunity to serve this group during this exciting times.

Sincerely,

Will Pitts
Chairman

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________

Below you will find links and articles relating to the legislation being considered by the RLC of Florida Board of Directors:

Regulation of Firearms: Creates Florida Firearms Freedom Act; provides legislative findings & definitions; provides that specified firearms, firearm accessories, & ammunition for personal use manufactured in state are not subject to federal law or regulation; provides that importation into state of specified parts & incorporation of such parts into firearm, firearm accessory, or ammunition manufactured in state does not subject firearm, firearm accessory, or ammunition to federal regulation; provides that certain basic materials are not subject to federal regulation of firearms, firearm accessories, or ammunition under interstate commerce; provides that specified firearm accessories imported into state from another state do not subject firearm to federal regulation under interstate commerce; provides legislative findings with respect thereto; provides exceptions; provides applicability; requires that firearms manufactured & sold in state must bear indicia of manufacture by specified date.

Limiting the Scope and Exercise of Federal Power: Urges Congress to honor provisions of U. S. Constitution & U. S. Supreme Court case law which limit scope & exercise of federal power.

HJR 37 – Health Care Services

Health Care Services: Proposes creation of S. 28, Art. X of State Constitution to prohibit laws or rules from compelling any person, employer, or health care provider to participate in any health care system; permit person or employer to purchase lawful health care services directly from health care provider; permit health care provider to accept direct payment from person or employer for lawful health care services; exempt persons, employers, & health care providers from penalties & fines for paying or accepting direct payment for lawful health care services; permit purchase or sale of health insurance in private health care systems; & specifies what amendment does not affect or prohibit.

Articles of Interest Relating to the Above:

Will Florida Ban National Health Care?

Plakon and Baker File Florida Health Care Freedom Act (.pdf)

Florida reacts to Federal overreach, joins 10th Amendment reserved rights effort

Baker sponsors 2nd Amendment protection bill in Legislature

In the past several days, Congressman Ron Paul has been featured on two television debates (on Larry King Live) with proponents of the Democrat health care plans pending in Congress.

As many of you will have heard by now, the Democrats have struck back against Town Hall protesters and grassroots activists who just want to be heard and ask their representatives reasonable questions. They are sending out thugs from the notorious SEIU to make sure that only their picked shills get into the Town Hall events and to intimidate protesters. The union thugs have already injured several activists, destroyed video equipment and in a bit of good news three of them were arrested for attacking a protester in St. Louis on Thursday. Their goal is to silence you and make sure that only one viewpoint on health care gets discussed.

There are several health care Town Halls coming up this weekend, but the big ones are going to be the two appearances by Wisconsin Senator Russ Feingold, one in Chaseburg on Saturday morning and the other in La Crosse in the afternoon. Feingold has a high profile and is a major tax and spender and a big supporter of socialized medicine. He’s controversial enough to attract a big crowd and we expect a lot of RLC members and members of other liberty-oriented groups to show up at his events. I fully expect the SEIU to send thugs to every future Town Hall, but their presence will be especially strong at the Feingold events because of his high profile and the strong union presence in Wisconsin.

Hundreds of grassroots activists and hundreds of union thugs bent on keeping them from exercising their constitutional right to seek redress of their grievances is going to be a volatile situation. Whether you’re going to confront Senator Feingold on Saturday or attend one of the other Town Hall around the country over the next month, you need to be prepared.

The SEIU thugs will be there looking to rough people up and throw their weight around. Many of them will be wearing their purple logo t-shirts, but some are likely to be posing as ordinary citizens. Their goals will be to deny you access and provoke incidents which their bosses can play up in the media to make us look like a violent mob.

Your goal should be to get into the Town Hall event, ask questions and ask the speaker the hard questions which we already know they aren’t prepared to answer. You want to get this on video and you don’t want to get kicked out or shouted down.

If you want to get into the hall and play a role you don’t want to be wearing buttons or carrying a poster. In particular, don’t bring anything associating Obama or the Democrats with Nazis or Nazi symbols. Nancy Pelosi and the left media like to seize on those images and then make the ridiculous claim that you’re a Nazi. Bring compact digital video equipment you can fit in your pocket and can afford to lose or have broken, and keep it in your pocket until you need it. If you come in a group make sure several of you have video capability while others are prepped to ask questions. Be prepared to lie to the SEIU gatekeepers. Wear an Obama button. If they ask, tell them you’re a Democrat or a teacher at a local school and a union member. Go to your county Democratic Party website and look up the names of minor party officials like the Precinct Captain for your area. Drop that name and tell them he invited you.

One of the latest reports is that Democrat Party operatives are going through the crowds questioning people about their political views and why they are there. They are looking for ways to spot the “troublemakers” who they need to keep out of the event. A good response for them is “I’m just here to find out more about health care reform” or tell them that you want to know more about how the public option will help you get cheaper insurance. You don’t want to appear too knowledgeable. You want to make them think you are hopeful but confused and looking for information.

If you manage to get inside don’t start chanting or causing a disruption until it becomes clear that you and others who came with you aren’t going to get to speak or get anything useful on video. If they decide to eject you from the hall, turn on the drama and get it on video. Remember the “don’t tase me bro” guy. Speak out. Ask them why you’re being kicked out. Tell them you just want to be ask a question about health care. A specific complaint caught on video is much more effective than a protest chant. If you don’t get in at all or end up ejected, that’s the time to start chanting and raising a ruckus.

If you don’t get into the meeting or end up confronting the SEIU thugs at the door or outside of the hall, talk to them and get it on video. Ask them why they’re there and who they work for. Even ask them the questions you wanted to ask inside. Ask them if they’ve read the Constitution. Keep them off balance. Don’t let them provoke you and if they start calling you names or shoving you don’t respond with violence. Stay with your friends, stand up to them but don’t lash out. I’ve heard some activists boasting that they know martial arts or are going to be armed. That’s a terrible idea. Whoever has the superiority of numbers or force will look like the bully and if that’s us then they can use it to make us look bad. If there’s a riot it won’t matter who started it, the media will blame it on us.

Whatever happens, catch it on video. Right now they think they can get away with anything because the mainstream media isn’t reporting our side of the story. They’re telling the story the way the left wants it to be told. But if there’s enough video people will find it and no one will be able to suppress the truth. Be informed. Be outspoken. Get it on video.

If you’re interested in making your feelings known or asking questions about health care or other issues currently before congress, there are over almost 100 Town Hall meetings scheduled for August and the early part of September all over the country. We want to encourage RLC members to attend and go prepared to hold our legislators responsible for the uncontrolled spending and infringements of liberty which have become the hallmark of congress and the current administration.

Work with your local RLC chapter to get groups organized to attend these events. We’ll provide as much advice and support as we can. And we’d love to have written reports to post here on the RLC site and videos of the events so we can learn from each other how best to take advantage of the opportunity which these Town Halls offer.

To find the event nearest you, download this PDF schedule.