Monday, March 28, 2016

Foxx says the House Doesn't Have the Power of the Purse

At around 32 minutes, Foxx says the House doesn't have the power of the purse. 

Can't make this stuff up. 

Yes, the House controls the purse strings. All appropriations must originate in the House. The constitution says the Senate may propose or concur with amendments. 

Ahem, thus, the House controls the purse strings. 

Madison called it a weapon. Apparently Foxx doesn't understand this weapon called the power of the purse. The constitution is clear:

Article 1 Section 7 Clause 1: All Bills for raising Revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives; but the Senate may propose or concur with Amendments as on other Bills.

For more clarification, read my article from Faith and Freedom on the power of the purse here.


Saturday, March 26, 2016

Friday, March 25, 2016

It's Official Again

I forgot to blog about my refiling for Congress last week. I guess that's because it just isn't as exciting the second time around. Just kidding, it was pretty exciting.

Having an election where your name is on the ballot but you don't have any results is anticlimactic,  I can tell you that!  We get to do it all over again on June 7th. Here's a picture with a few friends after refiling last Friday in Raleigh:


We are excited to have already been to many events in the newly added counties of Stokes and Surry. Can't wait to meet the good people of Avery county! Before the March 15th chaos hit, I had knocked on 8,811 doors and my grassroots army hit another 4,000 doors. I'm hoping to get another 3,000 - 4,000 doors in before the June 7th primary. It takes money to do all of this, so if you feel compelled, please donate to my campaign here.  I'm going up against a 6-term incumbent career politician (she was in Raleigh for at least a decade before heading to DC) who has $2 million cash on hand in her campaign account.

We can make our voices heard in DC. She's sent out 4 or 5 mailers and we have her nervous. She and I have been at events where we've both had the opportunity to speak. We are getting under her skin- she keeps saying, "Don't believe what you hear about me." In some instances, she's added, "Come to me and ask me." I had to laugh because I'm thinking, "Do people believe a politician in an election year?"

I literally choked on my tea at the Alexander County Reagan Day dinner when she told the folks not to believe what they hear about her and added, "I did not vote to fund Planned Parenthood."  A blatant lie.

When I had my three minutes, I told the crowd gathered that I was tired of the lies and tricks. If they had not voted to fully fund Planned Parenthood on December 18, 2015, they would not have had to pretend to defund it three weeks later. She thinks we the people are stupid enough to believe her lies.

THERE WOULD HAVE BEEN NO NEED TO "DEFUND PLANNED PARENTHOOD" and "DISMANTLE OBAMACARE" if they had NOT first voted to fund them both for another year on December 18th.

How can she lie with such a straight face? She knows she can't defund anything that has not been funded. It's a simple fact. Period. Don't fund it and you won't have to defund it. The House failed to use the leverage of a government shutdown to end funding for PP, Obamacare, executive amnesty, the Syrian refugee program and much more. They handed Obama and the Democrats everything they wanted on a silver platter without even a hint of a fight.

I've gone off on a tangent....this was supposed to be about my filing last week, but I've gone on about why I filed to run!

Thursday, March 24, 2016

Faith to Not be Healed

A friend (in real life) and fellow rare disease mom wrote a blog post yesterday titled "Faith to Not be Healed". You can read her blog entry here. It was such a timely blog post about her reaction to a clip she'd heard and her daughter's recent diagnosis. This week, I have been asking God why He has chosen to allow our family to deal with three rare diseases (Shwachman-Diamond Syndrome, Mitochondrial Disease and Eosinophilic Esophagitis) and asked Him why He would give my boys these diseases and also allow some of the treatments not to work for them.  We found out Monday that my son's scope looks to be unchanged from his previous two. Meaning the new medication he started back in December isn't working.

So, reading Kathy's post really hit home today. Do we have the faith to not be healed? We know that God doesn't heal everyone. Even when Jesus walked this earth, He did not heal everyone, so why would we expect everyone to be healed now?  So often over the years, people have said to us, "If you have faith, they will be healed," and we even had one lady say, "You don't need to bring them to the doctor, it is God's will that they be healed." It's amazing what people say.

How do we react when it just isn't God's will that we or our children are healed? I believe God uses healing just as much as He uses suffering in the absence of His healing. Do we see God suffering? This week being Holy Week, I have been meditating on the Lord's Passion. A lot.

We've been dealing with rare, chronic illnesses for almost twenty years. While we pray for healing daily, we are confronted with reality when tests reveal that healing hasn't taken place. Or has it?  I think healing comes in many forms. Maybe God has chosen to heal us spiritually instead of healing our children (or us) physically. I think over the course of twenty years, God HAS healed us spiritually. His grace gets us through the rough times and the crazy illnesses that pop up due to the rare diseases my children battle daily. God uses our suffering to encourage others. Paul says the following:

2 Cor 1:5-7- "For as Christ's sufferings overflow to us, so through Christ does our encouragement also overflow. If we are afflicted, it is for your encouragement and salvation; if we are encouraged, it is for your encouragement, which enables you to endure the same sufferings that we suffer. Our hope for you is firm, for we know that as you share in the sufferings, you also share in the encouragement."

Sometimes, I can easily accept God's will. Other times, I am tired, cranky and fight acceptance. I'm human! Prayer helps, but I can't say that I always accept His will, if I am being honest with myself.  I understand redemptive suffering and scripture is replete with examples of suffering with Christ and accepting our sufferings patiently.  1 Peter 4:13 reminds us, "But rejoice to the extent that you share in the sufferings of Christ; so that when his glory is revealed you may also rejoice exultantly."

It's just not always easy to rejoice in our sufferings, is it?  My middle son was hospitalized the week before Christmas last year because his uvula was nicked during a routine upper GI scope and it became infected. Who has ever heard of an infected uvula? I'm here to tell you that it happens. It was difficult to say, "Wow, Jesus, I'm sure glad you allowed this odd infection to set in after we've already spent the week at the hospital, I'm going to rejoice in this." It doesn't come naturally for anyone. Many a saint has worked a lifetime to gain acceptance of his suffering. While I hope to one day be counted among the saints in heaven, I've got a long way to go.

God also gives us the grace to laugh at some of these odd trials we manage to overcome with His help. In my opinion, laughter IS grace.

Name the appendage and my people have had an infection on it. I could do a stand up comedy routine just on the unusual and rare infections. If I had a penny for every time I'd heard, "We've never seen anything like this."  Sometimes, people who haven't faced the medical trials that we have faced look in horror because we are laughing.  We can laugh or cry. We choose to laugh. With the help of God's grace, of course. Sometimes we can't even begin to laugh until we cried.

It's Holy Thursday and I'm doing what I've done many a Holy Week in the past.....waiting on the final biopsy reports and test results. Slowly, we are accepting that the scope on Monday doesn't look any better than the previous scopes in December and October. It's difficult to accept that medications don't  knock the disease out. The biopsy results will tells us if the medications are working AT ALL.  We pray for healing, we pray for a cure and we keep working at accepting God's will in all of this. We pray for the grace to patiently accept the suffering we encountered for the grace to be able to unite our sufferings to His.

Tomorrow is Good Friday and I am always reminded that every Good Friday brings an Easter Sunday, a  Resurrection Sunday. This week, as I have pondered Christ's passion, I've also been reminded of what Paul says in 1 Colossians 1:24, "Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ on behalf of His body, which is the church."

Somewhere in all of this, we find the faith to not be healed. God is good.

Win a Smith & Wesson M&P Shield 9mm Handgun

I'm raffling off a Smith & Wesson a $20 donation to my campaign gives you once chance to win. You can donate to enter the drawing here.  <--You can also see a picture of the actual gun you'll have a chance to win at that link.

Win a Smith & Wesson M&P SHIELD 9mm!

Only 500 entries will be sold! Enter at $20 per entry with no entry limits. Show your support for Pattie Curran!
1st PRIZE: Smith & Wesson M&P SHIELD 9mm (7 round magazine)
2nd PRIZE: Concealed Carry Class
3rd PRIZE: Concealed Carry Class
Must be 21 or older to be eligible. California residents are not eligible. Must pass a background check to receive and pick up 1st prize (Smith & Wesson M&P SHIELD 9mm). 1st prize may be shipped out of state to a gun dealer of the winner’s choice. Concealed carry classes have been donated by Larry Holder of First Shot Personal Protection in Walkertown, NC. Classes must be taken in Walkertown, NC. Only 500 tickets will be sold. The drawing will occur on May 1, 2016, or when the 500th entry is sold – whichever comes first.

#NoHearingsNoVotes TweetFest Today from 10a-12p

Join us! The American people, not a lame duck president, should decide the next Supreme Court Justice!

We need to specifically tell the members of the Senate Judiciary Committee to continue to stand strong against the nomination of Merrick Garland for Supreme Court.
Tag them specifically to tell them to hold strong for
‪#‎NoHearingsNoVotes‬
Members of the Senate Judiciary Committee
Sen. John Cornyn (TX) -- @JohnCornyn
Sen. Ted Cruz (TX) -- @SenTedCruz
Sen. Jeff Flake (AZ) -- @JeffFlake
Sen. Lindsey Graham (SC) -- @LindseyGrahamSC
Sen. Chuck Grassley (IA) -- @ChuckGrassley
Sen. Orrin Hatch (UT) -- Orrin Hatch
Sen. Mike Lee (UT) -- @SenMikeLee
Sen. David Perdue (GA) -- @sendavidperdue
Sen. Jeff Sessions (AL) -- @SenatorSessions
Sen. Thom Tillis (NC) -- @SenThomTillis
Sen. David Vitter (LA) -- Senator David Vitter




Monday, March 7, 2016

Health Care is NOT a Natural Right

I think I have touched upon this subject before, but as we push for the full repeal of Obamacare, it is nice to be reminded that health care is not a natural right.  We don't want Ryancare or any other government health care. Get government OUT of health care all together.  Let's remember the words of the Declaration -- "That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed."  Our founders held these truths to be SELF-EVIDENT.  Government wasn't given power over health care in the Constitution. 

Yesterday was the 159th anniversary of the Dred Scott decision. The day the Supreme Court ruled slavery constitutional. (Dred Scott v. Sandford 1857).  I use this as a reminder to people that the 9 men in robes are NOT supreme arbiters. They sometimes get it wrong, just as they did when they ruled in 1896 that segregation was constitutional in Plessy v. Ferguson. In 1944, SCOTUS ruled the internment of Japanese Americans was constitutional in the Korematsu v. United States. Many conservative Americans also believe the SCOTUS ruling on Obamacare is wrong.  That being said, on to the point of this post--- 

Health Care is NOT a Natural Right

You and I do not have the right to compel another person to labor for us, nor do we have the right to compel him to give the fruits (products) of his labor free of charge.  

I have two children with life-threatening illnesses. I cannot make others care for them or give them goods and services. It is not the responsibility of government to coerce other citizens to pay for their health care or mine via taxes, either. Government isn't given the power in the Constitution to do this nor is it given the power to force others to give their labor and goods free of charge.  And even though the Supreme Court ruled otherwise, the Constitution doesn't give the government the power to force citizens to BUY products like insurance, either.  Even though SCOTUS ruled that slavery was Constitutional 

If government can force doctors and nurses to work for free or set low cost wages, then doctors and nurses are slaves. If you and I can force doctors and nurses to serve us and force others to give us their products, then we are nothing but slave masters. If government can compel these folks to work for free or set low wages, then government can compel ANYONE to do the same.  

Your natural rights end where they interfere with another person's rights. You must choose between slavery or liberty. I choose liberty! 

"Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!" ~Patrick Henry