How much longer will freedom last in U.S.?

Is our government for sale? I asked myself that question many times as the new health bill was debated, passed in the Congress and signed into law by President Obama. We all know that it was eventually passed because of huge “compensations” to Senators Mary Landrieu of Louisiana and Ben Nelson of Nebraska and Congressman Bart Stupak of Michigan.

Are we to assume, then, that lesser compensation was given to Sen. Tom Harkin and Congressmen Bruce Braley, Leonard Boswell and David Loebsack of Iowa for their vote on this bill? Why else then would you vote for a complicated, 2,300-page health bill that you haven't read? This is the height of irresponsibility for a legislator.

If the Speaker of the House and the Senate Majority Leader knew that their subordinates would vote for anything they are told to, without either reading or debating it, then we are in danger of a bloodless coup that would eliminate most or all of our liberties and freedoms with a stroke of the president's pen.

People want to come to the United States because of the freedoms they can enjoy here. How much longer will that premise last?

I have eight young grandchildren, and I'm sad to think they will never know the America I've known. I am a child of the Great Depression and I know what poverty is, but we were always free, and that was and is the greatest treasure of all.

Jim O'Brien

Ryan