Making a difference starts with ideas. If we are to rebuild and re-energize, we need creative thinkers who look to what is possible. What might work. What we should try. I will be asking for your input regularly here to help craft solutions to the challenges we face. So let me hear from you. Oh, and if you think this is a place to complain, you’re in the wrong place. This space is all about new ideas.
Click here to view Bob’s Voting Record.
Dear Friends,
“Unchange” has come to Washington in a Massachusetts minute. Say the name of Scott Brown, and all the agents of “change” frown.
South Carolinians saw through the change that the Democrats were selling in 2008. Sadly, a majority of Americans didn’t. But they’re not buying it anymore!
Americans have had their fill of the change. We’ve decided to “unchange”. We’ve decided:
• To put government back in its Constitutional bounds,
• To keep health care in private hands, and
• To put entrepreneurs back in charge of free enterprise.
The general interest of the many (in balancing the budget and paying down the debt) is beginning to overtake the special interest of the few (a private earmark here or a special tax loophole there). The people are rising up, and they’re being heard. And they’re showing that there’s nothing wrong with America that can’t be fixed with a little Constitutional perspective. We make a mistake every now and then, but this glorious Constitutional republic can “unchange” when it gets on a wrong course.
Will you help me with some “unchange”?
I’ve got four primary opponents who’ve sensed an opportunity for themselves in the confusion and pain of this recession. They’re loud and proud when it comes to opposing me, but near silent when it comes to proposing solutions. They go around saying that I’ve changed, that I’ve been corrupted by Washington.
Washington hasn’t changed me; God’s grace is changing me. When I first went to Congress (1993-1998), I focused a lot on scapegoats. When I went back to Congress in 2005, I decided to focus on solutions.
Each of us needs solutions. America needs solutions. We conservatives know we’ll find those solutions in faith, family and free enterprise. There’s no time to waste on scapegoats. We need accountable answers and an accountable action plan.
That’s why I’m enclosing a record of key votes and some billboards highlighting some of those votes.
You tell me whether those votes show the “unchange” that we need.
I don’t own this seat. If I’m going to continue to serve after 2010, I’m going to need your help. You gave me the opportunity to represent you from 1993 to 1998. Then I sat out for 6 years. With your support (85% of the primary vote, in fact) you gave me the opportunity to serve again, starting in 2005. The time-out gave me perspective. The time-in has given me some know how.
The years ahead are going to be some of the most challenging this nation has ever faced. I’m running again because I want to spend my most prepared and productive years delivering the solutions that America needs. Those solutions won’t be easy, and they won’t be simple (although they will be based on simple principles).
Will you join with me? Will you help me deliver the “unchange” that America needs?
Dear Friends,
I’m inspired by people who lead—by people who, in the words of Rudyard Kipling “keep [their] heads when all about [them] are losing theirs.”
John Adams led. In 1770 eight British soldiers were accused of gunning down colonists in the Boston Massacre. John Adams wanted independence as much as any patriot, and he had reasons to despise the British soldiers. But he believed in the rule of law, and he believed that the soldiers deserved a fair trial. So he agreed to defend them in court, realizing full well that it could cost him his political future. He lost half of his legal practice and feared for his life and for the lives of Abigail and their children.
Adams got six of the soldiers acquitted and used a technicality to get the charge of murder reduced to manslaughter for the other two. He later wrote that it was, “One of the best pieces of service I ever rendered my country.” This from the man who had an outline of the Constitution in his head before the Declaration of Independence was even written.
Adams needed the passion of the crowd. The crowd needed Adams’ commitment to the rule of law. Without passion, the colonies would never have declared independence. Without Adams’ understanding of checks and balances, the rule of law, and the nature of man, America would never have been born. Without Adams, the beauty of a constitutional republic might have given way to the bloodbath of the French revolution.
In the fight against the Pelosi health care bill, runaway spending, the growth of government and illegal immigration, we need passion and we need leadership—passion to oppose the wrong prescriptions for America and leadership to show the better way.
We need passion to live free—not in a nanny state, not in the decline of European capitalism but in the exuberance and creativity of American free enterprise rooted in faith and family.
We need leaders to lay out a vision that captivates the imagination of the country for, as Proverbs tells us, “Without a vision the people perish.”
So I’m inspired by people who lead.
I’m also inspired by loyalty. I’m inspired by your loyalty to my attempts to follow in the footsteps of John Adams. Will you help me before the end of 2009? If you’re able to give the same as or more than you’ve given before, I’d be very excited. If the recession still has hold of your finances, give what you can, and I’ll be grateful.
You see, I’m into loyalty. I form relationships and, by God’s grace, I’m into keeping those relationships, realizing full well that I’ll need lots of grace along the way to make up for my shortfalls.
Best regards,
Bob
Supporters have asked me for an analysis of the candidates in SC4. I’ll start with this self-analysis and then describe my four primary opponents.
Bob Inglis: The incumbent in challenging times
Strengths:
Thoughtful. Steady. Consistent. Conservative.
Big on loyalty.
Sold on the strengths of SC-4 and its people.
Draws optimism from sovereignty and goodness of God.
Weaknesses:
Fairly rigid in ideology.
Complex communicator.
Waits until he’s certain that he’s right (the opposite of the “often wrong, never in doubt” type.)
Often makes decisions without regard to or awareness of political environment (for example, Joe Wilson disapproval; Iraq surge vote).
Reacts harshly to pseudo-conservatives and to people who don’t think things through.
What others say about Bob Inglis:
“One of the most courageous and articulate members of Congress.”
–Mike Pence (R-IN6), Chairman, House Republican Conference
“Agree or disagree with you, you’ve got to admire your courage.”
–Jeb Hensarling (R-TX5), Chairman Emeritus, Republican Study Committee (conservative members of the Republican Conference)
“The guy with some of the purest motives in politics.”
–Dick Armey, House Republican Majority Leader (1995-2002)
“If you’re to the right of Bob Inglis, you need rappelling gear.”
–Trey Gowdy (back when he said he was an Inglis supporter)
Trey Gowdy: Challenged on the commitment thing
I had lunch with Spartanburg Solicitor Trey Gowdy in February of this year. We discussed all the issues on which he’s currently running. At the end of lunch he declared,
“I’m a Bob Inglis kind of guy, I’m with you.”
Three months later, he was running against me.
I shouldn’t have been surprised. In 1998, when I was running against Senator Hollings, Trey Gowdy co-hosted a fundraiser for me and gave $1,000. Months later, under pressure from his trial lawyer friends, Trey gave $1,000 to Senator Hollings.
An attorney general candidate and a judicial candidate report similar experiences. When opportunity comes in the door, you can expect commitments to go out the window.
David Thomas: Another free shot
Greenville State Senator David Thomas is half way through a 4-year term—as is Trey Gowdy. Both can run, lose and return to safe state jobs. Since David Thomas has long been interested in this seat, I’m not surprised that he’s running.
Senator Thomas’ plan to use the Sanford matter for free publicity seems to have been curtailed by Boeing’s decision to expand in Charleston. That record-breaking economic development announcement seems to have strengthened Governor Sanford’s position.
Christina Jeffries: Always an interesting take
Wofford Adjunct Professor Christina Jeffries always has an interesting and enthusiastic take on issues of the day. She served briefly as House Historian until Speaker Newt Gingrich relieved her of those duties following a controversy over some of her writings.
Jim Lee: In it for all the right reasons
If I had to lose this race, I’d want to lose to Mauldin businessman Jim Lee. I’m impressed by the spirit he brings to the race and by the soundness of his positions. He’s a committed Believer who’s in this race for all the right reasons.
Wrong Way Health Care
Right Way Health Care
Wrong Way to Jobs
Right Way to Jobs
Wrong Way to Energy Independence
Right Way to Energy Independence
Inglis:
Change Congress
Stop the partisanship. Start the solutions.
More conservative than Inglis?
NO on $787 billion stimulus package
NO on auto bailouts
NO on housing bailouts
NO on cap and trade
Has developed an alternative with Art Laffer, Ronald Reagan’s Economics Advisor, which would break our addiction to oil and create jobs in America. If you like the Fair Tax, you’ll love the Inglis-Laffer idea. Note: Laffer is “agnostic” as to whether climate change is real. Inglis believes we should act as a matter of Creation care.
NO on czars
Learned from citizen concerns at August town hall meetings and took action.
NO on ACORN
Supported shrewd Republican strategy to get a vote de-funding ACORN.
NO on an earmark for a $150 million lake in Union County
Gowdy and Thomas have fully endorsed this “mother of all earmarks.” Inglis faced an angry town hall meeting of 200 people to explain his “no.”
NO on diverting TARP I repayment to favorite Democrat spending priorities
Inglis insists on the full $350 billion being repaid and applied to deficit reduction
No on Card Check
Labor unions’ attempt to circumvent secret ballot labor elections.
YES on TARP banking rescue
Agreed with President Bush that failing to rescue the banking system in October of 2008 would have risked a depression rather than a recession.
YES on offshore drilling
Drill here and now. Save some (ANWR) for national security reasons. Drill into “can do” American entrepreneurship to develop the fuels of the future.
YES on the most conservative budget alternatives
Republican Study Committee budgets savings compared to budgets that were enacted:
2005 $18 billion (102 voting in favor)
2006 $63 billion (94 voting in favor)
2007 $38 billion (160 voting in favor)
2008 $85 billion (157 voting in favor)
2009 $409 billion (111 voting in favor)
$613 billion savings supported by Inglis during “Inglis 2.0”
100% Christian Coalition
100% National Right to Life
100% American Family Association
“A” with National Rifle Association
100% English First
0% NARAL ProChoice America
0% Planned Parenthood
American Conservative Union Rating: 84
Carroll Campbell, SC’s most revered Republican governor, had an ACU rating of 85.8 from his time in Congress.
Dear Friends,
Fiscal year 2010 just started in Washington. The numbers are in and they’re Halloween scary: an annual deficit of $1.42 trillion; an accumulated national debt of $13 trillion.
We’re counting on free enterprise to lift us into recovery, but the government’s deficit and debt and the Fed’s impending inflation fight are going to drive up interest rates, choking the recovery.
The U.S. has lost 7.2 million jobs since the recession began in December 2007, and South Carolina’s unemployment rate is nearly 12 percent. Real people have lost real jobs and many are taking pay cuts and furloughs, struggling to pay their mortgages.
The first thing to do is stop the runaway spending. A great place to start is to cancel the unspent authorizations under President Obama’s stimulus package. Since only 13% of that stimulus package has actually been spent, we could save $687 billion over the next 5 years by simply cancelling the unspent authorizations. That’s why I’ve signed onto H.R. 2842, a bill introduced by Rep. Todd Tiahrt (R-KS4) that would rescind all unobligated stimulus funds.
The next thing to do is insist on repayment with interest of the $350 billion loaned to the banks under the first TARP. Sadly, the second $350 billion got diverted (over my objection and over the objection of most Republicans) into auto and housing bailouts. That money is gone, and isn’t coming back to us.
When it comes to health care, the main thing to do is “Do no harm.” A public option leading to a single payer government-run system isn’t what we want. We want a system of robust, 50-state competition among private insurance companies, tort reform and an end to the cost shift that drives up insurance premiums.
Every year that I’ve been in Congress I’ve voted for the tightest budgets offered. In my first 6 years in Congress I helped to write those budgets as a member of the Budget Committee. Since coming back to Congress in 2005 I’ve belonged to the Republican Study Committee, a group of fiscal and social conservatives that each year offers the most conservative budget alternative. Had our conservative budgets prevailed over the last 5 years, we would have saved $613 billion compared to the budgets that were adopted.
Here at home I’m excited to see the Upstate’s energy security work gaining momentum. If we play it right, we can lead the nation out of this recession. BMW’s new hybrid X6, CU-ICAR’s work on reinventing the car, General Electric’s wind turbines and improved gas turbines, and Fluor’s nuclear proficiencies mean that we’re poised to lead a new-energy recovery. As the Great Recession is prayerfully losing its grip, three electric vehicle companies are looking at the Upstate. Any one of them would mean hundreds of new jobs. Those jobs are dependent on sound fiscal and energy policies at the federal level and a climate of innovation and daring at the local level.
The Republican “deliverable” is by golly making things work. When it comes to energy, we should subscribe to Spartanburg entrepreneur Carlos Gutierrez’s definition of sustainability: making a profit. When it comes to fiscal policy, we understand that hyper-inflation can ravage the U.S. just as it ravages third world countries.
A lot of people talk about being conservative; other people do it. With your help, I’m doing it.
There are 178 Republicans in the House and 256 Democrats. It takes 218 votes to win a majority for a conservative budget. Some years we’ve had a few as 94 voting for the most conservative budgets. As you can see from the details below, you’ve already got a conservative representative in Congress. As one of my primary opponents once said, “If you’re to the right of Bob Inglis, you need rappelling gear.” I took that as a compliment!
Can I count on you to support that kind of conservatism—the kind that says that America’s best days are still ahead, that believes in the creativity of those who have grown up in freedom, and that is committed to faith, family and free enterprise as the foundations of our success? If so, would you make a contribution today?
Best regards,
Bob
Our primary opponents
More conservative than Inglis?
Or just personally ambitious?
NO on $787 billion stimulus package
NO on auto bailouts
NO on housing bailouts
NO on cap and trade
Has developed an alternative with Art Laffer, Ronald Reagan’s Economics Advisor, which would break our addiction to oil and create jobs in America. If you like the Fair Tax, you’ll love the Inglis-Laffer idea. Note: Laffer is “agnostic” as to whether climate change is real. Inglis believes we should act as a matter of Creation care.
NO on czars
Learned from citizen concerns at August town hall meetings and took action
NO on ACORN
Supported shrewd Republican strategy to get a vote defunding ACORN
NO on an earmark for a $150 million lake in Union County
Gowdy and Thomas have fully endorsed this “mother of all earmarks.” Inglis faced an angry town hall meeting of 200 people to explain his “no.”
NO on diverting TARP I repayment to favorite Democrat spending priorities
Inglis insists on the full $350 billion being repaid and applied to deficit reduction
YES on TARP banking rescue
Agreed with President Bush that failing to rescue the banking system in October of 2008 would have risked a depression rather than a recession.
YES on offshore drilling
Drill here and now. Save some (ANWR) for national security reasons. Drill into “can do” American entrepreneurship to develop the fuels of the future.
YES on the most conservative budget alternatives
Republican Study Committee budgets savings compared to budgets that were enacted:
2005 $18 billion (102 voting in favor)
2006 $63 billion (94 voting in favor)
2007 $38 billion (160 voting in favor)
2008 $85 billion (157 voting in favor)
2009 $409 billion (111 voting in favor)
$613 billion savings supported by Inglis during “Inglis 2.0”
100% Christian Coalition
100% National Right to Life
100% American Family Association
100% English First
“A” with National Rifle Association
0% NARAL ProChoice America
0% Planned Parenthood
Dear Friends,
Congress came back into session last week after the August recess. Health care is on the table.
Americans are rightly indignant about the Democrats’ attempt to cram down health care reform. That anger will slow down Speaker Pelosi, but it won’t stop her. The only thing that can stop Obama Care is a better solution.
So where’s our plan? Before we left for the August recess the Republican leadership decided not to file a health care bill. They wanted to spend August talking “principles” and not specifics. And they didn’t want CBO (Congressional Budget Office) to “score” (place a cost estimate on) a Republican alternative.
Maybe the GOP leadership is right in some political sense. Maybe I’m crazy for thinking that we can do better than that. But people are hurting. Even if they haven’t lost their jobs, the average family of four is struggling to pay nearly $1,000 a month in health insurance premiums. Unchecked, entitlement spending on Medicare and Medicaid will consume the entire federal budget 20 years from now.
As Americans reject big government options, conservatives must show that we have alternatives that will work. We must prove that we can be trusted to deliver market-driven solutions that fit freedom loving people. That’s the only way we will win back the majority.
That’s why I’m drafting a bill now and it’s why I need your help before the end of September.
Since it’s not possible to fight without a plan, here’s an outline of the plan I’m working on:
· Reduce health care costs.
Reform malpractice laws. Bring 50 state competition to insurance markets. Make insurance premiums deductible for the self-employed. Bring consumer-directed solutions like health savings accounts to Medicare and Medicaid.
· End the “cost shift” that drives up health insurance premiums.
Accept the challenge of getting every citizen covered by private insurance, even if it’s just catastrophic coverage. End the free riding. Insist on accountability. End preexisting condition coverage exclusions. Define the whole state of South Carolina as a group for rating purposes.
· Restore the trust of citizens.
Make Congress subject to whatever plan it passes. Don’t set artificial deadlines. Have a thorough and thoughtful debate. Don’t ram something through on a partisan vote.
Here’s why I need your help this month. I’m going to be spending time writing a bill that incorporates the principles outlined above. My potential Democratic opponents and my four primary opponents are going to be taking aim. Will you cover my back by giving before September 30th?
Best regards,
Bob
P. S. It really is important that your contribution be received on or before September 30th—the cutoff for our 3rd quarter Federal Election Commission report. I don’t own this seat. I’ve got to win it every two years. Each quarter I’ve got to prove that I have the momentum to win. Will you help build that momentum?
Below are 2 articles that came out as a result of the August town hall meetings that I thought you might enjoy.
Wall Street Journal
AUGUST 20, 2009
Lawmaker Gets Flak for Health-Plan Idea
By LOUISE RADNOFSKY
PIEDMONT, S.C. –U.S. Rep. Bob Inglis is a Republican who says he doesn’t support the president’s approach to health care. But Mr. Inglis’s efforts to suggest other ways the government could change the system have stirred up his upstate South Carolina district.
“I think there’s no right to health care,” Mr. Inglis told constituents at a town meeting. “You don’t have an obligation to provide me housing, food or health care…. But here’s the funny thing, I believe as somebody that believes in a Christian ethic, a Judeo-Christian ethic, that I have an obligation to provide care for the least of these.”
He is finding it risky as he searches for a middle ground acceptable to those who support providing more people with coverage, and those who don’t want any expansion of the government’s role.
The congressman faces four conservative challengers in a Republican primary next year. Nationally, just 21% of respondents to a NBC News poll released Tuesday said they approved of how Republicans in Congress were handling the health-care issue.
David Thomas, a state senator from Greenville who is one of Mr. Inglis’s challengers in the primary next year, said in reference to Mr. Inglis’s proposals: “Anything that smells of a socialistic approach to government and to involvement in the health-care system, I don’t think I’d make it into an issue, it is automatically an issue.”
Others have responded more enthusiastically to Mr. Inglis’s ideas. “I’m impressed with them… as a Republican I think he’s offering some things which are very non-Republican,” said Chris DeJong, a retiree living in Greenville who said he started to vote Democrat in 2004. Mr. DeJong is a legislative volunteer for AARP.
At his meetings, Mr. Inglis has been trying to reassure conservatives worried about big government, the Constitution, the deficit and illegal immigration while also persuading President Barack Obama’s supporters that he had an alternative to the administration’s proposals.
Mr. Inglis says he opposes what he calls “Obama Care” because it includes public funding for abortion and a government-provided option for coverage that would ultimately cause “a devaluation of life” and public costs to spiral upward.
“You talk about free enterprise and then you talk about turning around and giving money to people to subsidize health care! There’s an inconsistency there,” one man yelled at a meeting on Monday. A woman who asked how people could be expected to find the money for compulsory health insurance complained that he was dodging her question.
But Mahlon Helmuth, pastor of the Tabernacle of Faith in Piedmont, said Mr. Inglis gave an “excellent” answer to his question about whether health care was guaranteed by the Constitution. Mr. Inglis said: “It doesn’t say you’ve got to, and it doesn’t say you can’t.”
Write to Louise Radnofsky at louise. radnofsky@dowjones.com
8/21/2009
Spartanburg Herald Journal
You might want to put cheese on that
By Lane Filler
lane.filler@shj.com
Published: Sunday, August 23, 2009 at 3:15 a.m.
Attending the town hall meetings of Rep. Bob Inglis and Sen. Jim DeMint on Thursday helped me see the issue clearly: We must stop listening to people, on either side, who engage in only half of the American conversation.
Inglis made this point beautifully. Asked whether he believes health care is a right, he said it is not, but he immediately addressed the other half of the conversation, saying he has “an obligation to care for the least of these among us, helping them with food, clothing and shelter.”
Exactly. No one has any right to demand anything from me, but I have an obligation to provide for the less fortunate.
If you think it’s OK for broken bones to go unset in America, then you’re not part of the real conversation. If you would deny a poor person with an infection three bucks worth of penicillin, then you’re not part of the real conversation.
You have a right to your opinion, but we’re trying to have a civilization here. The greatest, richest, most philanthropic country in history doesn’t let people die from easily treated problems.
But if you think the health insurance companies should be shut down, the doctors should all work for the government and no one should have better care than anyone else, you’re not part of the conversation. We’re trying to have a free nation here, and I’ll buy ritzy health care if I want to.
And when we get the selfish, racist and xenophobic folks shushed, and we get the leftist, wealth-hating big-government loving freaks quiet, we can have the real conversation.
The real conversation is about levels of care, and delivery systems. The health care that needs to be available to all people should be about as good as government cheese and must be delivered via a cheaper method than emergency rooms.
Ban the dispensing of non-critical care in emergency rooms and set up government-run doc-in-a-boxes, urgent care centers open very long hours, one per county. Set up specialty offices, for cancer and the like, every 10 counties. Staff them with physicians paying off their student loans via a few years of service.
The lines would be long, the drugs generic, the service grumpy, the decor horrid. I wouldn’t go there, because I have great health insurance. My company wouldn’t cancel my insurance because poor people were allowed to get generic blood pressure medicine or an X-ray at a clinic. It would be cheaper than emergency rooms flooded with the uninsured seeking painkillers, stitches and antibiotics.
Health insurance carriers won’t be destroyed by the public health insurance option because there won’t be one.
Poor people dying for lack of a reasonable amount of medical treatment is not an acceptable option in America. We have the responsibility to do better. Single-payer health care is not an option in America. We have the right to ask for, and buy, more.
I pay taxes, and I say if someone’s poor and hungry, give them a big, cheap hunk of cheese. If they’re poor and sick, get them basic treatment.
Not because they deserve it, but because it’s my obligation.
America is at its best when citizens and government pay attention to rights and responsibilities in equal measure.
Bob, your idea to make insurance premiums deductible for the self employed is excellent! We should also do something to scale back malpractice law suits. I think members of Congress should abide by the same health care rules as the rest of us. I like your doc-in-a-box idea. I remember when doctors paid their student loans by a limited time in the armed service. My current doctor did that. As for our obligation to “care for the least of these”, I agree, but I think that’s a responsibility of a Christian, not a government. What to do about that, I don’t know. I also do not think illegal aliens deserve anything from the government they have disobeyed. Thank you for working on a plan.
Mr. Inglis,
I think your ideas are wonderful! Instead of just shooting down the Obama Health plan, provide an alternate solution, one that won’t run our country into the ground. And I agree with “caring for the least of these,” But that doesn’t mean we just hand them health care, money, and shelter, but help provided that for them. If that made any sense. And I agree with Dorine Lennon when they said that we shouldn’t just hand the illegal aliens anything, because they are illegal.
You have quoted the Bible out of context in your health speach plans.
You will not take a stand on defending our borders and illegal imigration,
agreeing with the Libs. or the middle of the road is not a stand for a Republican.
If the Republicans don’t disagree with the (Libs) Democrats and instead agree with the Democrats (Libs.) then there is no reason for two different parties who’s members agree with each other to exist except to decieve the American People.
There is no real choice between conservatism (Republicans) and (Democrats) liberalism, because both parties are bent on control and ignoring the Constitution and destroying our personal freedoms, but you Bob Ingis and Lindsey Graham are the worst of RINO’s (R.epublicans I.n N.ame O.nly) in South Caroilna.
I not only will not vote for you, But I am going to volunteer my time to help some one else.
The government has bankrupted Social Security three times and three times rasing the Social Security Tax to take the Social Security fund out of Bankruptcy, only to Bankrupt Social Security Fund again by steeling the money from the Social Securtity fund and using the funds for other than what the funds were collected for.
The reason I call it Steeling Bob is because the funds where collected, was for Social Security, but are being used for everything else but Social Security, thereby Bankrupting our Social Security Fund.
Which by the way is exactly what Congress has done and is doing to our Medicare funds.
Jimmy Hoffa was put in Federal Prison for doing exactly what Congress is doing and has done to our Social Security Fund, But you won’t hear that on the Liberal Media News Reports.
So if the Government has not been able to run the Social Security Fund since it was started in 1935 what kind idiot can think that the Government can run our Health Care Planswithout Bankrupting our Health Care Plan (HELLO) only to use the funds collected for Health Care Plan on other things, like Bailouts.
Which I believe is exactly what Congress plans to do to our Health Care System once the Government (Congress) gains control of it.
Dear Folks,
Spartanburg Herald Journal Reporter Jason Spencer wrote a blog below about my town hall meeting in Boiling Springs on Thursday night. It fairly captures our campaign—not just to win the Fourth District, but too win back America.
My town hall meetings have convinced me we need to (1) oppose Obama Care with a positive alternative (2) build a credible conservative movement that wins the hearts and minds of America with ideas based upon faith and confidence in our country.
Our party cannot be the party of fear and anger. My opponents might see this as a time to whip up and exploit the emotions of the crowd. We need to see this as an opportunity to win back the Congress. Having seen the liberal agenda, America’s listening for alternatives. America is listening now.
Click on the attached YouTube link from the Boiling Springs town hall meeting. What do you hear?
America needs to hear more than fear and anger. Now is the time to win with ideas and with confidence in the greatness of our country and its founding principles.
Will you help me to do that?
This week we want to run radio spots advertising a positive discussion of health care at our August Let’s Talk breakfast (August 17 @ 7:30 a.m. at the Ham House in Greenville) and lunch (August 17 @ noon at Wade’s in Spartanburg). You’re invited, of course!
Will you contribute on line now so that we can pay for those radio spots?
Best regards,
Bob
Contributions may be made on-line at:
Or mailed to:
Inglis for Congress Committee
P. O. Box 210
Travelers Rest, SC 29690
Posted August 07th 2009 12:45:32 am by Jason Spencer
Categories: News, Politics
Republican U.S. Rep. Bob Inglis stood in front of a verbal firing squad for more than 90 minutes tonight, trying to keep a lid on the fear and anger in the room enough to have a rational discussion about health care.
But in the end, things bubbled over.
I filed my story from the Upstate Family Resource Center in Boiling Springs well over an hour into the town hall, tweeting before, during and after writing it. I figured I had enough material.
The congressman, after all, already had affirmed his belief in the Second Amendment, not to mention the First, Fourth, Tenth and maybe another one or two. He’d reminded everyone that he was a Republican, not a Libertarian. He had tried to convince them he wasn’t pushing a secret plan to force everyone to get vaccinated against the swine flu. He said he didn’t believe health care was a right, but that a Judeo-Christian nation would see to it that people who needed emergency treatment got it. He talked about the need for everyone to have health insurance, because “free riders,” as they are called, cause medical costs to go up for the rest of us. He criticized the current health care bill for not specifically including language that would prohibit taxpayer-funded abortions, and put forth the belief that a public option would drive private providers out of the market. He had, after all, a 16-point list of reasons why he was against the very health care bill that much of the fervent crowd had come to voice their opposition to.
He even said, when asked, that he would opt out of the health insurance program he has by virtue of his office and “join the rest of us” if the current legislation passes.
But he wouldn’t sign an undated letter of resignation to be submitted in case he didn’t. That certainly raised some eyebrows: “Why not?”
So, after I hit my send button, a woman stands up and starts saying repeatedly that she’s afraid of President Obama. Inglis asks her why she’s afraid. And that’s when it started.
“He has too much power!”
“What do you mean, why?”
“Go home, Bob!”
It’s kind of a blur here. Inglis told people to turn off Glenn Beck. He told them to turn off the fear-mongering.
Thankfully, Inglis called me later tonight, on his way home from the “after party” where he met with a dozen or so local Republican precinct chairmen. Just to make sure, I asked him if he used the specific term “fear-mongering.”
“Probably,” Inglis said. “That’s what he does. That’s what Glenn Beck is all about. And Lou Dobbs. I’ve had the misfortune of listening to those shows a couple of times.”
The Beck comment was the last straw for what was left of the 350-plus people who had come to the town hall – the seventh of 12 Inglis is hosting.
Afterward, there was some discussion among the Democrats and less extreme Republicans — I used the word “moderate” on Twitter, but not everyone agrees with that label — that they felt too intimidated to speak up tonight.
Inglis said his staff members got a similar sentiment, as several people came up to talk one-on-one with someone from the congressman’s office on their way out.
The atmosphere of fear at the town hall was markedly different than the one on the street, Inglis said. He went door-to-door in a nearby neighborhood before the town hall. (He often does that.) He said that gives him “a more standard distribution of people.”
He tried to explain the difference between being fearful and being aware of problem in order to try to fix it. He said the fearful crowd was predominantly rooted in the Libertarian and Constitutional parties.
“The conservative Republicans there realize that the Constitution is stronger than any president. We have every reason to have faith in the institutions that hold the country together,” Inglis said.
“But when fear takes over and people start thinking the Constitution is not strong enough to meet the challenge of a president they don’t like, you end up with some fairly hysterical reactions.”
Since we were on the subject, I asked him more about Beck.
“I don’t listen often to Glenn Beck, but when I have, I’ve come away just so disappointed with the negativity… the ‘We’ve just gone to pot as a country,’ and ‘All is lost’ and ‘There is no hope.’ It’s not consistent with the America that I know. The America I know was founded by people who took tiny boats across a big ocean, and pushed west in tiny wagons, and landed on the moon. That’s the America I heard on the streets of Boiling Springs.”
He continued: “The America that Glenn Beck seems to see is a place where we all should be fearful, thinking that our best days are behind us. It sure does sell soap, but it sure does a disservice to America.”
Now, given that I’m a journalist, I have an interest in the way the media works and how people perceive it. Lord knows, I can’t tell you how many times people have come up to me to let me know what a liberal rag I work for – despite the fact that many people who actually read our paper’s editorial page call it one of, if not the most conservative in South Carolina. And that’s saying something. So maybe this was giving Inglis a soapbox, but I wanted to hear it.
“If Walter Cronkite said something like Glenn Beck said recently on the air, about the president being a racist, Cronkite would’ve been fired on the spot,” Inglis said. “But I guess the executives of these cable news shows are more enamored with the profits that come from selling this negative message than they are with undermining the faith of people in this wonderful constitutional republic.”
He continued: “There is every reason to oppose President Obama’s health care package. It’s the wrong prescription. It needs to be stopped. But that doesn’t mean we need to abandon hope in America, and say the end is near, and people are going to force us to have immunizations. There’s no reason to go to that extreme.”
I should point out that Inglis is facing a crowded slate of challengers in next year’s Republican primary. If any of those candidates want to call and talk about FOX, MSNBC, CNN, talk radio or even good old-fashioned newspapers, they have my number.
Anyway, Inglis made a couple of final points in our conversation. It was getting late, and I was missing The Daily Show and The Colbert Report. 
“This is a constitutional republic that can withstand any president I disagree with,” Inglis said. “It withstood Bill Clinton. And if you were a George Bush-hater, it withstood George Bush. And it will withstand Barack Obama. And that’s just because there’s such confidence in the Constitution and the framers, who set up such an incredible system of checks and balances. …It’s inspiring to me to think about that.”
“What you saw tonight was people who had been convinced of this negativism, and are detaching from the communities and institutions that hold us together,” Inglis told me. “And I believe in the importance of strong institutions. I’m not an anarchist. And I’m not a Libertarian. I believe in a strong, smart federal government that is able to meet challenges like 9/11, and figure out how to correct its mistakes from Katrina…”
He lost his signal. (He was, after all, on Highway 11.) He called back and we wrapped up.
“I hope to convince people that there’s every reason to be optimistic, and there is a way forward. And I hope to help position the Republican Party as the party that presents a message that America can fall in love with, rather than a message that would drive fear in order to win votes.”
This healthcare plan needs to be done. I have worked in the system and it is broken. Health care is being paid for now by somebody. Why shouldn’t it be by those who receive it on the basis of their health care coverage from an alternative government program that gives the unfortunate a chance to the happiness that America should offer to all of its citizens no matter how unfortunate they may be.
Bob, I feel your pain. Hysteria is contagious and we need reasonable people to stand up beside you and fight for reason too. The important thing to remember about all of the wishful thinking about the 1994 midterm elections is that the Republicans swept back to power as a result of Newt Gingrich’s “Contract with America”. A very positive 10 point plan about fixing America’s problems. The opposite of what Rush and the others are putting out. You need an Inglis Contract with America. Sorry I am in China and not in Boiling Springs. Don
Bob I feel you needlessy stepped into a hole with your comments about Glenn Beck. My take on him is quiet different than yours. He is a realist and probably you have not seen him enough to know his full views. He is efffective at overcoming apathy, which is the OTHER great lack of our populace. (The first one is ignorance -of the facts and also regarding the sovereignty of God).
And even if I agreed, i wouldn’t have thrown that out in that context (the town hall meeting). That disapponted me Bob.
I hope you wil profit from the Boiling Springs experience. I want you to succeed.
Harrell
I am so upset by that video! Part of me wishes I was there to defend another side, but another part of me is glad I was not there because I would have probably gotten into an argument with many of those people. Many of those people were rude - thay cut Bob off, wouldn’t let him respond to their comments without heckling or interrupting him, and they were very, very sarcastic! It makes me embarrassed to be a registered Republican! Mike Huckabee should have been our Presidential nominee instead of McCain/Palin - we would have beat Obama if we had chosen Huckabee! Bob Inglis was one of the few top South Carolina politicians that endorsed Huckabee and for that reason I will always trust Inglis’ judgement!!!
I admire Cong. Inglis because he is independent and intelligent. I disagree with him on health care reform. I favor a publicly financed plan like Medicare which takes the cost off the backs of small business owners and covers everyone with some sort of basic package. For those who desire it and can afford it supplemental insurance from private insurerers would be available. I never have heard anyone complain about their Medicare benefit and no one has ever chosen not to accept the benefit. The Congress and all federal employees are covered by a publicly financed government run insurance plan. If its good enough for them its good enough for us.
Finally these ignorant goons who shout down public officials in town meetings are more suited to the overthrow of constitutional government in Germany during the early thirties than they are to the US in the modern era.
chris, you missed the point. A government run option would not only add onto the expenses in small business and it would hurt private health insurance companies. How can a Private sector, who gets to follow all the wonderful and burdensome regulations provided by the government, who exempts themselves from them, compete with a government plan who has artificially low premiums while the private insurance companies have an artificially high premium? How well has government managed anything? Medicare and Medicaid are bankrupt! They fail at predicting costs. Insurance is not a prepaid service, it is a measurement of risks. Why on earth would we want mandated insurance from employers?! Do our employers pay for our food, clothing or shelter? If they did, why would that be good? Insurance is a terrible way to pay for things. Aside from the fact that it burdens us with paperwork, invites cheating and, worst of all, creates a moral hazard that distorts incentives; it raises costs by insulating consumers from medicine’s real prices! This is not saying that we don’t need insurance. We need it to protect us against financial catastrophes that could result from a stroke or heart attack. That’s why health savings accounts, which cover smaller out-of-pocket health expenditures, are paired with high-deductible catastrophic insurance. That’s a good thing, but it is today’s demand from people that insurance cover everything from pets to dental work that is putting us on a slide toward bankruptcy. That is also not saying we should do nothing. We should. We should have TORT reform. Hospitals are already going to computer based medical records without the government so that part is covered. We can also take away the power from insurance companies and employers, and allow the individual to own their own insurance plan that goes with them.
Bob is honest enough and has enough integrity to not “cover-up” a difficult town-hall meeting with glib responses. He faces the concerns head-on.
It would be easy for Bob to be another conservative talking-head, but as Bob notes, he is not selling soap but solutions. Health care is a huge issue and instead people want simple one-line answers to the problems within the system. My husband and I pay for our own health care to the tune of $1200 per month also feel the pinch. As a small business owner, my husband also knows what it is like to pay more than his fair share in taxes.
Bob understands that health-care reform and other legislation has nuances that must be addressed. carefully with conservative wisdom. We want someone like Bob who understands these matters and does not just cater to the on-line crowd.
When you lead, you can expect to get shot at. When you lead in tumultuous times, you can expect for the shooting to come from all directions.
We could all do without the tumult of double digit unemployment and $2 trillion deficits, and the shooting from my four primary opponents is to be expected in such times. It just tells me that I’m leading and thinking out of the box that’s landed Republicans in the minority.
How about you? Are you ready to fight for the future?
If you come along, expect some shooting from behind. There’re political opponents back there who see opportunity for themselves in the tumult. They plan to stir up reactionary forces whether they identify with those forces or not. It’s to be expected. Anytime you lead, you open an opportunity for opponents to use the fears of those who wish there were no need for new strategies.
Elections are about the future. That’s why leadership matters. Leaders lead; they don’t follow. They don’t leave people where they are. Leaders gather information, think problems through and offer solutions. They offer value. They’re willing to risk their political future to do what’s right. The safest thing to do in a wonderfully conservative district is to repeat the lines that have worked before. But what if those lines have stopped working nationwide? Do you help draw up strategies that will work where we’ve lost seats (in New England, in the Northeast, in the Midwest and out West) or do you just sit comfortably in your own seat and watch the conservative flame dim to a flicker?
In an op-ed published by the Greenville News last week, David Jenkins and John Wagner argued for fresh, conservative leadership. You will find a copy of their piece below. Let me know whether you agree and disagree by email at bob@inglisforcongress.com.
There are two “Battle Alerts” below as well. One describes the main action on the health care front. The other describes a new hot spot on TARP repayment. Both give you the chance to engage; both ask for money. Money is important as we face a very competitive election. Your contribution of $25, $50, $100, $500, $1,000 (anything up to the new maximum of $2,400 per person for the primary and $2,400 per person for the general) would give us the resources to fight for the future.
Are you with me?
Ready to fight,
Bob
The Waxman-Markey-Pelosi cap-and trade proposal is an act of Treason against America, the American Worker and American Industry. Our Congress has taken an oath to Protect and Serve America and they are falling far short of doing their job. They do this without any fear of the consequences of the out come of these Idiotic and Ignorant proposals.
Its time Americans begin to hold our Congress men and women personally liable for their actions. Americans Need to bond together so that we can hold Cogresses feet to the fire and get reasonable actions from this band of these Ignornt Idiots in Congress that think they can run our coutry into the ground and not be held personally responsible they need to think again.
I agree with with the essence of the editorial. I am completely against cap and trade legislation as an environmental protective or energy reduction solution….for greenhouse gases or any other “reason”.
I am also opposed to the health coverage programs being discussed by Congress at this time. I favor only private insurance programs..with stricter monitoring. FURTHER, I FAVOR LIMITS ON MEDICAL MALPRACTICE AWARDS….APPLICABLE TO ALL ELEMENTS OF THE PROFESSION….DOCTORS, HOSPITALS AND DRUG COMPANIES. This in itself would dramatically cut medical costs.
I am opposed to increasing taxes on the upper and/or the middle class just to fund programs that result is waste and fraud (the bailout handouts being but one example). I am also opposed to taxing the working class (blue or white collar) to support governnment payments to those who are capable of working, but not willing to work (in a legal job that is).
The way to fund the needed programs is to end the government waste, eliminate incentives to avoid work, and demand accountability from both government bureaucrats and all recipeints of government funds.
Finally, I am opposed to using ACORN in any capacity for census taking.
I urge Congressman Inglis and our other public servants in the Congressional halls to seek and discover private sector solutions to our problems, not bigger and more wasteful government programs.
If that is not the direction Rep. Inglis and our politicians take, they will not have any support from me. If their philosophy matches mine, it matters not to me which party name they run under.
My wife & me are more than ready to fight against this Health
Insurance that our so called President is tryin to pass. Please see
you do not vote for it. It is the worse thing that could ever happen
to Our United States. Thank you.
I woke up this morning to learn that I’ve had “it too good for too long”! I started to think about that and the anger that it generated inside me. I’m on track in 2009 to earn around $250,000 for the first time which according to President Obama makes me one of the “rich” that he is fond of demonizing. I don’t feel rich, I don’t have a new car or large house nor can I afford them at this time but I’m not complaining. I love my life, my job and this country which has given me much opportunity.
I began to think about my situation and the current sentiment in Washington about our healthcare system needs and stimulating the weak economy. It occurred to me that I haven’t had it too good for too long, as the President stated, our elected leaders in Washington have had it too good for too long. I have climbed every rung of the ladder from starting out “poor” to where I am today but now my future looks very uncertain and that’s a tough realization for someone with a wife and three young children and 60 employees.
The problem is a simple one to define, our Government spends too much, way too much. When you and I are faced with a financial crisis or we want to buy something that we can’t afford we a few options which dictate our decision. We can try to earn more, borrow or cut something else out and if we borrow we must pay it back. It’s a pretty simple situation for most of us but not always easy and some days doesn’t seem fair but it’s the same for all of us.
Our government has always operated with a little different set of rules. They make decisions on how to spend our money which we may like or not but when our country is faced with a crisis or our government runs short of money to pay for things that it wants it has an added option it can “take” more from us. Currently our government wants to spend lots more than our budget can afford some of this is due to crisis and other spending initiatives are being driven by our charismatic and popular President who wants to leave a legacy of meaningful change and all kinds of great stuff. I support our president but our government cannot afford to spend or borrow enough to pay for these endless and costly initiatives and it’s on track to run out of citizens to “take” from. This is not a political statement and I’m not a demon for trying to earn more; the fact of matter is that we all pay too much in taxes now and further taxing the high earners and job creators does not solve any of these problems. Balancing the budget just like all Americans must do with their own personal finances is the only solution. History has shown time and again that it’s impossible for a government to be all things for all people. Tough choices and balanced spending may not be a very fun job for President Obama and his high profile cabinet but demonizing and debilitating the people that provide the bulk of our governments tax revenue today seems very short sighted!
I WOKE up today!
Signed,
Taxpayer, Parent and CEO
OK let’s get back to basics: Healthcare;abolish all health insurance.Create a patient doctor Personal relationship where a patient pays the doctor directly.I believe the cost of health care will fall to where every one can afford the care that each patient needs.
Valuable thoughts and advices. I read your topic with great interest.
First of all the Gore theory of GLOBAL WARMING is full of bad science. The planet is warming because of cycles and not man. This Cap & Trade will be a job killer and do nothing.
This country desperately needs to pass this legislation. It is not a tax. It makes polluters pay to pollute, thereby giving them an economic incentive to stop polluting. This approach worked to deal with the acid rain problem, better than anyone expected and cheaper than anyone predicted.
People said the Clean Air Act and the Clean Water Act were going to destroy American business. Didn’t happen. The rest of the world is waiting on us to act. It is pass time to do so.
The question is WHATS WRONG WITH CAP & TRADE? It is somthing
that we do not need. Our so called President wants it so bad. Just
like Health Insurance.. I hope it does not pass. Our so called president
is the worse president I have ever known..
Remarks by U.S. Rep. Bob Inglis (R-SC4)
Saturday, April 25, 2009
It’s all the rage to be negative right now-real negative.
Many say that we’re done for, that capitalism has given way to socialism, that America is finished.
That kind of talk riles people up.
Anger flashes in the pan; demagogues drive votes-temporarily; and solutions remain elusive.
Seems to me that to join the negative chorus is to deny our faith-in God, in freedom and in each other.
1 Peter 3:15 tells us to, “Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have.”
So here’s the reason for the hope that I have: God is sovereign in all things, and God is good. Therefore, I have every reason to be optimistic.
On top of that, He’s blessed me to live in America-the “can do” constitutional republic that:
Sure we’ve had some setbacks. My401(k) is almost half what it once was, and I have no guarantee of keeping my job.
But I know what’s at stake, and I’m not giving up. Think you know what’s at stake, and I don’t think you’re giving up.
On the way to Washington this week a fellow traveler asked me, “How do we get out of this mess?” He’d been hearing the negative rage, and he was beaten down.
“Here’s how,” I told him. “First, use the current financial crisis as the house cleaning opportunity to solve the underlying budget problem.
Let’s get and refine more of our own oil in the short term.
Let’s use conservative principles like accountability and markets and profit to break the addiction to oil long term.
Let’s build clean, safe nuclear power plants with the help of the Fluor on Halton Road.
Let’s reach the 20% of wind energy that the DOE says we can reach, and let’s build some of those units at General Electric’s plant on Garlington Road.
And let’s put pedal to the metal on reinventing the car-
Those are the assets that are here in the state that makes BMWs; the state that knows that “BMW” means “Bubba Makes Wheels.”
Let’s win the triple play of this American century.
Let’s create jobs, clean up the air and improve the national security of the United States. It’s all within our reach.
Let’s show ourselves to be the party with solutions.
Let’s lead, and let’s not look back.
In the first of my 4 trips to Iraq, a trip led by Senator DeMint in February of 2005, we met with General Sattler in Fallujah. He showed us how America’s best won the Second Battle of Fallujah.
One of his slides was a now-famous photograph of two American soldiers, a photograph that’s on my office wall in Washington. One soldier is leaning up against a concrete wall lifting his helmet above the top of the wall, drawing enemy fire.
His buddy is lying on his stomach shooting through a hole in the bottom of the wall at the enemy targets that become identified as they fire at the American helmet on the stick.
The General takes his laser pointer, puts the beam on the stack of sticks leaning against the wall and says to us, “I can assure you, members of Congress, that it is a sophisticated but affordable weapons system.”
Then he said something very serious: “That’s the kind of creativity you get from people who grow up in freedom.”
Ladies gentlemen, that’s your heritage; that’s my heritage.
Let’s lead to American solutions so that America the blessed can continue to be a blessing.
Thank you for what you do. Thank you for letting me speak to you.
Thank you for the opportunity to serve.
Thankful for all you have done. Hopeful for your continued work for our nation.