I also want to congratulate Sean Noonan, Elaine Zannis, and Pete DiCianni. I called each of them last night to congratulate them on their victories. While we were opponents in the primary election, I’m fully behind them in the general election come November. The primary season is a time for Republicans to get our individual messages out, but the general season is a time for us to unite.

Although, I’d have loved to have won, this loss doesn’t mean the voice of those fighting to increase governmental transparency and decrease government waste and spending gets lost.

I’m proud of the issues that got brought to light during this campaign and the movement that began because of it. Though I may not be in office, I will keep pressing for increased transparency and accountability to taxpayers.

But now I just want to thank you all for your support--especially those who donated their time, talent and treasure. Thank you for your encouragement throughout the campaign and for all the emails, texts and phone calls I’ve received since last night. It means more to me than I can easily express. And again, congratulations to Noonan, Zannis, and DiCianni!

Hope you all enjoy this beautiful day!

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Choose Conservative Policies & Principles Over Power & Pensions

Your Part-Time County Board Member "earns" $50,000 per year. Now that's OBSCENE!

You're Being Ripped Off by Greedy Politicians! Which side are you on...Taxpayers & Families or Power & Pensions?

• Tax Accountability
• Family-PAC
• Illinois Citizens for Life PAC
• Illinois Family Action
• For the Good of Illinois PAC
• DuPage Conservatives
• Illinois Center Right Coalition
• Penny Pullen, President of Eagle Forum of Illinois

I’m excited about these endorsements from independent organizations because it shows that people are interested in ridding government of its current cronyism and tit-for-tat mentality, we need to support candidates like myself—candidates who are not part of the Good Ol’ Boys Network and who are not interested in governing to further our own livelihoods. These endorsements stand in contrast to the politicians who endorse one another as evidence of that “You Scratch My Back; I’ll Scratch Yours” that has brought so much trouble to our state.

About me, Penny Pullen, President of Eagle Forum of Illinois said: "Voters find in Rafael Rivadeneira a champion for their families and a public servant who will respect and protect their property—that is, work diligently to hold down taxes by limiting spending. I urge a vote for Rafael in the March 20 Republican Primary as a wise investment."

I hope you will vote for me based on those very reasons—and that you’ll urge your friends and neighbors to do the same.

If you had a part-time, public-service job, how much would you expect to be paid? $15,000? $20,000?  $30,000? DuPage County Board members pay themselves $50,000/year of your tax dollars for part-time work.  I’m sure we can all agree this is quite generous.

And as if that’s not enough, DuPage County Board members are also eligible for a tax-payer funded pension plan (a generous one to boot!). Board members are vested after only 8 years of their part-time service and stand to receive up to 80% of their salary for life when they become fully vested.

To become eligible for this lucrative tax-payer-funded pension, County Board members must put in 1,000 hours of county-related work in a year—although, since they aren’t required to actually account for those hours in any sense, who knows if they actually do. As they say, nice work if you can get it.

The trouble is, that voluntary public service shouldn’t be about receiving generous pay for unaccounted-for work with incredibly generous benefits unheard of in the private sector.

If you feel taxpayers should not pay pension benefits to part-time elected officials who voluntarily choose to be public servants on the DuPage County Board, please go here and sign the petition to eliminate publicly funded pensions for DuPage County Board members. Then share this blog post with your friends asking them to read and sign the petition too, so that DuPage County taxpayers and voters can be aware of which DuPage County Board candidates are pledging to eliminate publicly funded pensions for the elected members of the DuPage County Board.

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The Petition

In December the DuPage County Board members had the opportunity to eliminate their lucrative, tax-payer funded pension plan, which cost DuPage County tax-payers $352,997 in 2011. However, as the Better Government Association and the Daily Herald reported, the majority of the Board members voted to keep this controversial perk they receive for unaccounted-for, part-time work.

Since serving on the DuPage County Board is voluntary, part-time public service, many tax-payers are understandably outraged at this decision. This lucrative benefit—which politicians get to vote on for themselves!—is a magnet for career politicians.

Many politicians who support publicly funded pensions for unaccounted-for, part-time work have succumbed to an entitlement mentality of protecting themselves, giving themselves benefits unheard of for part-time work in the private sector. Many of these politicians have put their own comfort levels above what is prudent and above what is in the best interest for the hard-working, highly taxed people of DuPage County.

We need to choose County Board Members who are truly interested in cutting spending and looking out for the people they serve. A step in the right direction is to eliminate the incentive that attracts career politicians: publicly funded pensions.

We pledge to support only candidates for the DuPage County Board who pledge to eliminate the publicly funded pension plan for the elected members of the DuPage County Board. Currently, those County Board candidates are:

Rafael Rivadeneira (Rep) - District 2
www.VoteRafael.com

Sign the Petition here.

—Contracts: The Illinois Policy Institute suggests government websites should include easily accessed "rules governing contracts posted online for the past 5 years, including labor agreements with all employee groups, bids and contracts for purchases over $25,000 and the vendor's campaign contributions posted with contract."

Since taxpayers pay DuPage County’s bills it’s essential that residents are able to have easy access to bids and contracts, but also to labor agreements and vendor’s campaign contributions.

While information regarding bids and contracts for purchases over $25,000 is posted online in the DuPage County Board packets from meetings, if someone were looking for a particular past contract he or she would either need to know which meeting it was discussed in or would have to go through every board meeting packet. This information should be easy to access and not buried in the packet. As an example: the Village of Schaumburg does a good job of providing this information.

With this kind of access, taxpayers are able to see if contracts were no-bid or if potential cronyism was at play. Also, they’re able to make sure that the County is choosing well for the taxpayers.

 —Lobbying:  Putting lobbying information online is especially important because few citizens realize they pay lobbying expenses. With openness surrounding lobbying expenses, citizens can determine for themselves whether the money is well spent. DuPage County does a nice job of putting the lobbyists’ names on the website, but without information on how much lobbyist are paid and what they are being paid for, residents cannot decide if the services provided are worth the investment. As an example: Anderson County (South Carolina) does a good job of providing this information.

This issue is similar to that of contracts. DuPage County does post money spent on lobbyists and what they are lobbying for in the DuPage County Board packets from meetings. But once again, this information should be more easily accessible—and not requiring taxpayers to drudge through years of board meeting packets.

Next week: How DuPage County can improve transparency in one surprisingly last area.

While this information is accessible—it is not easily accessible. Which is the way many career politicians want to keep it. Frankly, it’s better for these politicians to keep public payrolls and pensions secret from taxpayers so that they can continue to dole out well-paid publicly funded jobs as rewards to family, friends and campaign donors and supporters.

It’s time for that to end. We need to increase transparency in our County government.  The Illinois Policy Institute has a 10-Point Transparency Checklist here. Thus far in the campaign, I’ve been the only candidate to sign the Illinois Policy Institute’s Transparency pledge. While DuPage County has come a long way toward transparency in the past few years, DuPage County still falls short in a few key areas. This week, I’ll highlight several of these areas. Today, we start with Salary and Benefits transparency.

DuPage County’s website should contain easily accessed compensation information for each individual employee including Wages, Salary, Overtime, Health, Dental, Life, Pension, etc. This isn’t to embarrass any employees but simply because the people who pay the salaries and benefits have a right to know what’s being paid.

Besides, just as they are with most businesses, salaries and benefits make up the largest budgeted expense for most local governments. They also contain perhaps the biggest misnomer: that government employees are poorly paid. Indeed, the opposite is true. The Illinois Policy Institute recently released a report showing that "compensation per local government employee averaged $63,100, which is 12 percent more than the private sector worker average of $56,500. Much of the difference was in employer-paid benefits, which were more than 1.5 times that of private employees. Local government employees received 4 percent more in wages and salaries than private employees."

Access to salary and benefit information is key to understanding this gap between public and private compensation. The Villages of Orland Park and Hoffman Estates do a good job of providing this kind of information.

Later this week: How DuPage County can improve transparency regarding County Contracts, Lobbying and Nepotism.

This summer, when news came that Pat O’Shea would not run for re-election to the DuPage County Board, several people asked me if I would be willing to run for the seat he would be vacating. At that time, my wife and I agreed that the timing didn’t feel right. And I decided not to pursue it.

However, this fall—after County Board Member Jeff Redick surprised many by deciding he would not run for re-election either—I reconsidered when many friends and Republican leaders encouraged me to run.

So, after much thought, prayer and discussions with my friends and family, I’ve decided to take the first step toward a run for the DuPage County Board. For the past several weeks, I’ve been out talking with voters and collecting the necessary signatures to get on the ballot.

My family and I feel good about taking this step, but remain in conversation and prayer about the next steps. Frankly, many things need to happen for a full run for the County Board to take place.

Although I do have good name recognition among many in the district in which I’d run, still, I need to raise a substantial amount of money. Many candidates have expressed interest in these seats and the competition will be tight.

An advantage I have is that I ran a campaign two years ago based on my proven Conservative fiscal values and my community-mindedness, which puts me in a great position to move forward here. Many people know my positions on issues they care about and are again excited to be a part of a grassroots campaign to support a true, independent conservative like myself.

If you’d like to help the campaign with this first step, either by signing the petition or by circulating the petition, please send me a note.

In the meantime, I appreciate your thoughts and prayers. If you have any questions or thoughts about my running, I’d love to hear from you.

That said, in “Has Marco Rubio Sold Out?" the liberal Ruben Navarette exposes just how far the Left has yet to go in race relations. We can only hope that one day, the Left will allow Latinos to have minds of our own.

In his critique of Rubio’s “pandering” on immigration reform, Navarette writes, “This self-proclaimed ‘son of exiles’ has it all wrong. It’s fine to be tough on immigration, but you don’t have to be predictable and shallow. When that happens, people assume you’re not really thinking through this issue but simply following the herd and pandering to the special interests controlling your party.”

If the Left does assume that Rubio is simply pandering, it’s because they are not yet able to believe that Latinos actually have our own thoughts, opinions and feelings. Perhaps it’s because it’s easier for the “special interest controlling” the Democrat Party to “manage” us if we’re assumed to all think, act and believe the same way.

Newsflash: Like snowflakes and every other ethnic group on earth, no two Latinos are alike. We don’t cook our beans the same way—let alone vote the same way. We are not the same—culturally or individually.

It’s ridiculous that this point has to be brought up—just as it would be ridiculous to assume all Caucasians feel the same on any one issue. I doubt anyone would ever accuse a Caucasian who is “easy” on immigration of selling out her people.

It’s time the Left allows for some diversity within the Latino community. They need to see and acknowledge that we are a large group of separate-minded individuals—and that Latinos disagree on many things. But this is what many people on the Left—like Navarette—seem to fear. Rubio effectively communicates Conservative principles and he is able to speak fearlessly of how the Democrats’ big-government agenda hinders Hispanics by limiting freedom and opportunity.

Politicians need to see that many Latinos actually oppose amnesty and support existing immigration laws and securing our border. We support it not because we are heartless, not because we are panderers, and not because we are selling out anybody. We support it because we believe we need a fair and smart way to allow people from all over the world to enter this country legally.

Navarette claims that Rubio “has squandered the one thing that made him unique, interesting and valuable to his party: the potential that he could help mend fences with disaffected Latino voters alienated by the GOP’s simplistic and mean-spirited approach to the immigration issue.”

Many in the GOP—including myself—still believe that Rubio offers something beyond his Spanish blood. In fact, many of us are quite disgusted to read a sentence like this from Navarette in which we reduce a fellow, complex human to simply his skin tone and last name. In which we take a full man and make him a token. Talk about mean-spirited.

But what Navarette also fails to realize is that Republicans—or any politicians who are willing to run on ideas for a better future—do not need a majority of Hispanics to win elections, they need a majority of Americans. And Sen. Marco Rubio, Gov. Susana Martinez (NM), Gov. Brian Sandoval (NV) and others have shown that you can be a Republican and not toe the “liberal Hispanic” party line on immigration and still win elections even in states with a high Hispanic population.

They are elected by constituents who actually see past race and ethnicity and who embrace the ideas presented. That’s the place we need to get to in this country, not continuing to believe that an entire ethnic group needs to vote and think in lock-step.

While I was disappointed, as we approach Thanksgiving, I wanted you all to know that one of the things that my family and I are most thankful for this year is the support and encouragement we have received from you as I ran for State Rep and then again as I asked to be considered for State Senate.

While neither of these worked out in the ways we might have hoped, truly, this has been one of the most uplifting and blessed years of our lives.

This year we’ve felt your prayers, heard the encouraging words and been humbled by your financial support, hours of volunteer time and the amount of phone calls and emails sent out supporting my campaigns. For that, my family, my campaign team and I are so grateful.

Even though Senator Cronin chose another person, those of you who called and emailed on my behalf need to know that your voices were heard.

I hope you agree with me that this election cycle has shown us the importance of people being involved in every level of the political process. Now more than ever, we all must continue to be budget watchdogs for our children and future generations. I promise you that I will continue to be one.

So, as you head off to enjoy your own Thanksgivings (and I hope give thanks for the freedoms we enjoy and the opportunities we have to choose our leaders), I hope you know how grateful my family and I are for you.

When friends called a couple of weeks ago, to urge me to put my name forward for appointment to the soon-to-be-vacated 21^st District State Senate seat, they shared several reasons:

• My friends believed in me and my message. Because with Governor Quinn promising tax hikes even in this dire economy, they thought now more than ever we needed more Conservatives in Springfield with a solid commitment to fighting tax increases and cutting wasteful spending.  
• They know me to be honest and forthright. Something Illinois State government could always use more of.  
• Most importantly, there is a need for political appointments to follow a clean process; open and transparent and abundant with good choices. Whereas many political appointments are made “behind closed doors”, a traditional model that no longer works, the people of Illinois are no longer in the shadows and are not willing to tolerate a process that shuts the public out.

Since I’ve officially submitted my name, I’ve garnered a lot of support from conservative groups like Family Pac, Illinois Center Right Coalition, Illinois Conservatives, DuPage Conservatives and Tea Party groups across Illinois as you can read about in this article. I’m also proud to have the support of many Republican precinct committeemen and residents of the 21^st District.
 
Together, we are making the case for my appointment. Hundreds of people have already made their voices heard to Senator Dan Cronin by calling, emailing and/or signing a petition. Since there is no election, the only way to make your voice heard is by directly contacting Senator Cronin’s office. If you’d like to help us in this endeavor that has grown into a movement, we’ve made it easy for you to let Senator Cronin know you’d like to see me appointed to this seat:
 
-Sign our online petition

-Email Senator Cronin senatorcronin@aol.com a personal message
 
-Email Senator Cronin a standard message by simply entering your name, email and town
 
-Call Senator Cronin’s office at 630-792-0040
 
Thanks for your support! 

At the urging of my supporters from DuPage and Cook counties and even across the state, I have decided to ask to be appointed to the State Senate seat that Senator Dan Cronin will vacate when he takes on his new role as Chair of the DuPage County Board.

After such a great Conservative showing across the country last week, it’s essential that more Conservatives are represented in Springfield. Though Democrats still control both houses in Illinois, this appointment brings an opportunity to look to the future, to capture the new “brand” of Conservatism that energized the nation in this last election cycle.

My Conservative track record is well documented. I have long been a champion of lowering taxes and cutting wasteful spending, as evidenced by the policy positions and new ideas that I’ve put forward as well as my endorsement by Tax Accountability, the political action arm of National Taxpayers United of Illinois.

As the son of immigrants and as an entrepreneur, I understand how to make Illinois a state where businesses thrive and where everyone has meaningful work, much as it was when my parents moved to Chicago after fleeing Communist Cuba. My parents chose Illinois because it was ripe with opportunity to work. Illinois offered them the hope to provide a future for their family. Sadly, Illinois has gone the wrong direction.

I’ve knocked on thousands of doors and talked to thousands of voters throughout this district and I understand the hard times many families are in. Since the days my parents moved here, the people of Illinois have seen jobs fade away, corruption flourish and working families struggle to make ends meet. With fiscal Conservatives in Springfield, Illinois can recapture its place as the Land of Lincoln and a Land of Opportunity.

On my website, I have outlined more than $400 million dollars in budget cuts. I have outlined ways we can cut taxes and bring jobs back to Illinois. I have spelled out clearly what I believe on the most pressing issues. Public servants have a duty to be transparent and honest and upfront about what they believe.

I’m not afraid to fight for what I believe is right or to stand up against what I see as wrong. I’m asking you now to support me as I seek this appointment.

Local Republican Party leaders Sen. Dan Cronin, Comptroller-elect Judy Baar Topinka and Mike Corrigan have the opportunity to appoint anyone of their choosing to this spot. I hope they see that what would be best for this district and all of Illinois would be to appoint a hard-working fresh face with Conservative values—low taxes, less spending, greater opportunity—and with the guts to make a difference.

I ask that you call Senator Dan Cronin’s office at 630-792-0040 or email him at senatorcronin@aol.com and let him know that you would like to see someone who will work to cut taxes and cut wasteful spending to fill the seat he will vacate. Tell him that you’d like a true fiscal Conservative appointed to that position. Tell him that you would like to see me, Rafael Rivadeneira, as State Senator.

The person who follows Senator Cronin in this seat has big shoes to fill. He’s been a champion of many Conservative causes, from championing more school choice to advocating for more transparency. I’m sure that he'll carry this with him as he leads the DuPage County Board.

Dear Sen. Harry Reid:

You say you would like to know "how anyone of Hispanic heritage could be a Republican." Allow me to be of assistance. Below are “10 Ways Anyone of Hispanic Heritage Could Be a Republican.”

Uno: A Hispanic could believe that this country offers more opportunities to work hard and provide for his or her family than any other place on earth, in any other time in history. And that economic empowerment, not dependence on government, is a key component of freedom.

Dos: A Hispanic could find it unjust to have to hand over a third or a half of his or her income in taxes to a wasteful government simply because he or she achieved the American Dream.

Tres: A Hispanic could believe that education vouchers and school choice offer the best opportunity for his or her children to be properly educated.

Cuatro: A Hispanic could believe that putting the demands of the teachers unions over the needs of the students is upside-down and lacks compassion.

Cinco: A Hispanic could believe that marriage consists of one man married to one woman. And that family should be the bedrock of society.

Seis: A Hispanic could believe that life begins at conception and that destruction of unborn children is murder.

Siete: A Hispanic could believe that the best ways to help the less fortunate are through private giving and providing increased opportunities to be educated and to work.

Ocho: A Hispanic could believe that gun control bans make them less safe and have been ineffective, ala Chicago and Washington, D.C.

Nueve: A Hispanic could believe that having secure borders is essential to immigration reform.

Diez: A Hispanic could believe that President Obama and the Democrats are destroying the economic free enterprise system that attracted many Hispanics to America in favor of a quasi-socialist economic model of wealth redistribution that many Hispanics immigrants left behind.

Does that help at all? Still confused? Perhaps this means you believe Hispanics have such limited intellects that all we care about are amnesty and handouts, which of course are two things that Democrats “excel” at.

I understand how this can be hard to imagine for people like you. You are obviously blinded by your own racial assumptions and stereotypes (When a Republican is like this, you call them “racist”). You obviously see Hispanics as caricatures or as a desperate, lazy class of people needing rescue from White Men in Big Government like you.

Otherwise, why on earth would it be so hard to imagine “why anyone of Hispanic heritage could be a Republican”?

Believe it or not, Sen. Reid, the Hispanic citizens of this country have come here like any other immigrant class—ready to learn, ready to provide, ready to become Americans. Not to be enslaved and entrapped by a government that thinks we are less capable than our fellow Anglo citizens.

If you’re still confused, Sen. Reid, you should understand that we Hispanics do have our own thoughts, our own beliefs, our own individual values. Just like any other ethnic group, as a matter of fact!

We don’t all cook our beans the same way, and we don’t all vote the same way. Because even if we all look alike to you, Sen. Reid, on the inside we are actually quite different—with whole different brains, hearts, and souls at work within us. Each cranking out different views and convictions.

Hispanics are a wonderfully diverse and dynamic group of people, but I’ll venture a guess on something we probably can all agree on: we don’t need YOU, yet another White Man, to speak for us. Contrary to what you might imagine, most of us speak (even English!) just fine.

I hope this has been helpful.

Best--

Rafael Rivadeneira

Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-IL4) calls this bill a “civil rights catastrophe that Republicans in Arizona are unleashing on immigrants and Latinos in the state.” (Never mind, that according to Rasmussen, 51% of Arizona Democrats and 69% of Independents supported this bill.) On National Public Radio Rep. Gutierrez said that we should boycott vacationing in Arizona: “Why would you want to contribute to a group of people that clearly are engaged in a discriminatory act?” I certainly wouldn’t, but I don’t think that’s what’s going on here. The people of Arizona haven’t committed the crimes. They aren’t being “discriminatory.” They’re simply asking their authorities to make Arizona less hospitable and accommodating to undocumented immigrants. They just want an end to the madness.

Then, in the Huffington Post, Rep. Gutierrez slams the Obama administration for deporting more than 1,000 people/day—at a faster rate than the Bush administration ever did—and for doing nothing about immigration reform. He slams Arizona for inviting racial profiling. He slams the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for a recent raid on a human smuggling ring.

And then he wraps it all up with: “Let's be clear, I support targeted enforcement against smuggling rings exploiting our broken immigration system and preying on vulnerable immigrants, but the timing of this show of force could not have been more destructive.”

Huh? What’s clear about this? Actually, what’s clear about any of your positions, Congressman? You don’t want deportation. You don’t want Arizona to fine illegal immigrants. And you don’t want ICE to do its job.

Many of us want to know, Rep. Gutierrez: If you aren’t willing to fine illegal immigrants, what are you willing to do to enforce our immigration laws? Should illegal immigration carry any consequences? Are there any other laws you think we should also ignore?

I wish he would just come out and say he wants open borders. Then he could come totally clean and admit he favors amnesty not because he’s so kind and compassionate but because he sees these immigrants as potential voting blocks, as more people to become dependent on his power. But I’m guessing we won’t hear that bit.

But what we will hear is that Rep. Gutierrez was one of the speakers at a rally Monday night aimed at Governor Pat Quinn. He wants the governor to hire more Latinos because they make up the largest ethnic population in Illinois. A higher official population of Latinos would mean he’d be able to demand larger quotas—and have more “reward” jobs to pass out for political favors. It’s how this all works.

What makes Rep. Gutierrez comments so insulting and ridiculous is that Arizona has a real problem with soaring illegal immigration amid economic crisis. From 2000 to 2008, the state’s illegal immigrant population has increased 70%, according to Department of Homeland Security statistics. He’s clearly more interested in putting the rights of illegal immigrants over those of the people of the country he’s promised to serve. He’s clearly more interested in his own benefit than the overall good of the country.

For this and many other reasons, I think the people of Arizona have waited for too long—for the promises of the federal government to secure our borders and “fix” immigration. While we’re busy debating and discussing and doing nothing about the illegal immigration problem in this country, the safety of the people of Arizona is in jeopardy and their livelihood is being taken away.

This is not to say I don’t understand the concerns with this bill. I am Latino, and I understand full well the reality of racial profiling; I know that speaking Spanish garners shifty looks from the public. I understand that racism plays a very real role in the immigration debate in this country (e.g., do you ever hear anyone complain about the illegal Canadians, Irish, Polish, Lithuanian, etc. working in all sorts of industries across the U.S.? Me neither. Though they are here!).

But fears of appearing racist shouldn’t prevent us from going after actual law-breakers in this country. What Arizona has proposed is that any immigrant found without documentation (something the Federal government already requires—but doesn’t enforce—of immigrants) is charged with a misdemeanor punishable by up to six months in jail and a fine of up to $2500. They’re not being deported. Families are not being broken up. This is not a cruel, heartless bill. It’s one step toward getting control of an out-of-control system.

While President Obama once campaigned on transparency and bi-partisan cooperation, he and Nancy Pelosi have shown us that not only is it politics as usual with them—but on a bigger, more jaded and oppositional level than we’ve ever seen.

Instead of working with Republicans to work on a deal that could’ve resulted in something the over-taxed and weary American people supported, and instead of bringing a bill that would unite the country, Obama used totalitarian tactics to ram through a bill that has bi-partisan opposition, that we can’t pay for, that no one understands and that grows the government in baffling ways. We needed health-care reform. But the cost of this reform is something none of us should have to pay.

Here are a few of the biggest costs of our new health care:

--Four NEW government agencies will be created to oversee it

--$569 Billion dollars in job-killing tax hikes

--$1.2 Trillion in new government spending

--16,500 new IRS workers to enforce all the new taxes and penalties

--$200 Billion in cuts to Medicare Advantage, hurting millions of seniors

--An increase to federal deficits by $59 Billion over the next ten years when the cost of the “doc fix” legislation is added back into the bill

--Raiding Medicare and Social Security to grow the size of government and pay for a new entitlement

--Government mandates on what insurance you can have

Throughout this year-long debate, the American people supported common-sense health- care reforms aimed at lowering health-care costs. This bill lacks common sense. The health-care plan that passed last night does not allow individuals to buy health care across state lines, it does not allow small businesses to pool together to purchase plans at lower costs, and it does not deter junk lawsuits from being brought forth.

Our president and members of Congress failed to hear the voices of the majority of the American people. Perhaps they’ll hear us clearer in November.