Posts Tagged ‘Ohio Issue 3
Obamacare’s Epic Smackdown: Over Two Million Ohioans Voted for Healthcare Freedom
In the days following the November election, the Democrat-Controlled Media didn’t have much to say about Ohio’s defeat of Obamacare by a 66% to 34% margin. They were too busy crowing about the passage of Issue 2, which defeated the State of Ohio’s efforts to rein in out-of-control government unions.
So instead of government union members having to pay 15% of their healthcare and pension costs (versus the zero percent many of them pay now), Ohio’s municipalities now look forward to years of unfunded pension liabilities, bankrupt local governments, and layoffs of union members (way to go, AFL-CIO!)
Ohio is one of four states with unfunded pension liabilities that are above 35% of the state’s entire gross domestic product. That fact isn’t going away, and Ohioans need to be reminded who was responsible for this looming fiscal tsunami when the destruction finally hits.
Hillbuzz Open Thread: November 9, 2011
The voters of Ohio opened a big can of whoop-ass on Obamacare yesterday, and I couldn’t be more proud of everyone involved in drafting the Ohio Healthcare Freedom Amendment, circulating petitions to get it on the ballot, buying ads and yard signs with their own money, and voting it in. It was perhaps one of the biggest grassroots efforts in the history of Ohio. In some counties, one out of every four active voters signed petitions to get Issue 3 on the ballot.
And yet today’s coverage in the Democrat-Controlled Media is wall-to-wall Issue 2.
As the folks at BigGovernment.com have noted, the success of Issue 2 is due largely to a $30 million union-funded disinformation campaign that told Ohio voters they would bleed to death in the streets if government union members had to pony up 15% of their healthcare premiums.
“Out-of-state union donations, grossly understated by Ohio media, far exceeded the “Yes on 2″ campaign’s entire budget. The Ohio Education Association (OEA), a despicable band of hypocrites whose average pay in 2010 was more than $95,000, took an extra $54 from every member to kill Senate Bill 5 … The unions spent more than $800,000 collecting signatures for the referendum …
“We Are Ohio” claimed passing Issue 2 would mean fewer firefighters and nurses, leaving Ohio houses to burn and patients to perish. They released a radio ad saying Issue 2 would “take us back to the days of Jim Crow,” misrepresenting at every turn the effort to limit union power as an attack on Ohio’s middle class. They lied that Republican politicians exploited a “loophole” in the bill, though elected officials have never been subject to collective bargaining. They insisted local budgets were dandy before Kasich’s election.”
What’s your take on the Ohio election results? What’s the spin where you live?
What else is on your mind today?
Ohio Obamacare Smackdown?
The polls closed almost two hours ago, and very early returns show that Ohioans are smacking down Obamacare by a 2 – 1 margin, with a YES vote on Issue 3, an amendment to Ohio’s constitution.
Click to Embiggen
But there’s bad news on Issue 2, a vote to reign in the power of government employee unions. Thanks to massive spending on a disinformation campaign, it looks as though Issue 2 is going down by the same margin– 2 to 1.
However, election results are coming in extremely slowly. Nearly two hours after the polls closed, 20 of Ohio’s 88 counties have reported ZERO results. Hmmm. Here’s a map:
Click to Embiggen
I’ll update this post with a final vote tally as the evening goes on.
UPDATE: 1:48 A.M.
Ohio Votes To Nullify Insurance Mandate
Liberals–including our former governor, Ted Strickland–are spinning this 2 to 1 landslide against Obamacare as a “totally symbolic” and “meaningless” vote, whereas the 2 to 1 landslide in favor of government unions (Issue 2), on the same ballot, during the same election, was a profoundly significant mandate.
Huh. Reeeeeally.
The big story is the grassroots effort that got Issue 3 on the ballot (a totally citizen-led initiative with ZERO paid petition circulators). This was a profound defeat of Obamacare and socialized medicine at the grassroots level.
Buckeyes: Vote YES on Ohio Issue 2 & Issue 3
And take at least one other registered voter to the polls with you when you do it. If you think you can get away with it, vote Chicago-style: early and often.
TODAY IS ELECTION DAY
The Goonions and other special interests have spent a ton of money on ridiculous attack ads. This election is going to come down to turnout. Government employee unions are a tiny minority of Ohio voters. There are more of us than there are of them. So get out today and vote YES on Issue 2 to get the government unions under control, and vote YES on Issue 3 to keep Obamacare out of Ohio.
Ohio’s largest newspapers (and over 500 other news outlets, organizations, and countless individuals) have endorsed Issue 2.
The Cincinnati Enquirer:
Voters are demanding reforms from their elected officials. Ohio’s SB 5, like similar measures in Wisconsin and elsewhere, is the response to that. … If Ohio voters approve Issue 2, we want schools and local governments to take full advantage of this added flexibility and deliver for taxpayers. We want to see innovation, savings and efficiency. We expect results.
Cleveland Plain Dealer:
Ohio desperately needs to control the costs of government at all levels. It needs to send a clear message that the old, familiar ways of doing the public’s business have to change.
In schools, the emphasis has to be on the progress of children, not the comfort of adults. In city halls and county offices, the impact on those who pay the bills — and the sheer magnitude of those bills — must be paramount.
The Columbus Dispatch:
…the effort to reform Ohio’s out-of-balance collective-bargaining law is not an expression of disrespect for or dissatisfaction with Ohio teachers, police officers, firefighters and other government employees. It is a much-needed attempt to restore control over public spending to the public officials elected to exercise that control. … It does not assert that public employees are worth less than the compensation they’re receiving, only that the compensation has grown faster than the public’s ability to pay for it.
GOP Frontrunner Ron Paul has endorsed Ohio Issue 3, the anti-Obamacare amendment to Ohio’s constitution. In this clip, he does what Mittens Romneycare refused to do on Issue 2: he takes a stand, explains himself, and sticks to his principles.
TODAY IS ELECTION DAY
Rush Limbaugh Boosts Ohio Ballot Issues 2 & 3
Rush reports that internal Goonion polls aren’t looking good for Ohio Issue 2, the collective bargaining reform initiative that would help Ohio communities rescue themselves from massive unfunded pension and health care liabilities for government employee unions. It’s similar to the initiative passed in Wisconsin.
Rush also explains the implications of Ohio Issue 3, the Ohio Healthcare Freedom Amendment, profiled by National Review Online this week for its potential national implications for Obamacare. What’s remarkable about this constitutional amendment proposal is that Ohio Tea Party, Liberty and 9/12 groups spearheaded the petition drive to get this on the ballot. It required nearly half a million signatures, 100% of which were gathered by unpaid volunteers in every one of Ohio’s 88 counties, working for over a year. (In contrast, the Union forces behind Issue 2 funded their petition drive with union dues.)
Check out the Rush Limbaugh audio here.
I live in a predominantly Democrat, union-employee neighborhood, so the only signs you see are against Issue 2.
The unions are in hysterics about it. They’re running radio and TV ads warning voters that they’re actually going to die if they don’t allow the public employee unions to bankrupt the State of Ohio. In one ad, a panicked man calls 911 to report that someone just broke into their house. The dispatcher tells him and his wife to lock the bedroom door and wait, because the department is short-staffed and the only deputy is not available. The first time I heard this ad, I laughed at the cowering husband, and thought, “damn, lady, you sure married a wuss. Where’s his gun? For that matter, where’s YOUR gun?”
I don’t dare put up yard signs in support of Issues 2 and 3, but I will certainly look forward to voting for them this week during early voting.
http://youtu.be/nDDuFtzUs30
