Thank you Georgia!

Great Support for www.nostimulus.com !

You’ve signed the petition and passed it on to your friends all over the US. Our petition counter passed 400,000 late Wednesday night! Georgians made up almost 10,000 of those. Our top three GA cities for valid petition signers were Atlanta, Marietta, and Alpharetta. (Do not sign more than once, please.)

So while Americans came together and objected to the many bad aspects of the bill, Congress held secretive meetings that excluded most Republican conference members, then announce that a “deal” has been struck. What’s the “deal?” Like the original stimulus package, it’s sure to be full of surprises.

Is it too late to object? Not as of this writing. Keep sending the petition around. Some of us put it on our Facebook pages. More importantly, ask your friends who live in Congressional Districts or states where the legislators are supporting the stimulus package to call and apply pressure. To date, both GA Senators and all GA Republican Congressmen have come out against the stimulus. All of GA’s Democrat Congressmen are supporting it.

All of our wallets could be consumed by this stimulus bill, as demonstrated by magician Joe M. Turner .

House Bill 307, Hospital and Health Insurance Tax
The Governor’s floor leader has dropped the bill that would tax your private insurance and hospitals to pay for Medicaid patients and trauma care. Although the bill substitutes “fees” for “tax,” a tax by any other name is still a tax. And who pays taxes? Not health insurance providers or hospitals, but their customers.

Health insurance providers will be forced to raise their rates.Many small hospitals, particularly in rural Georgia, already struggle to keep the doors open. An added tax could be the death knell – for these hospitals and their patients.

First, call the Governor to voice your opposition at 404-656-1776-- this bill was his idea. Then call your State Representative and State Senator today to register your opposition to HB307. (Click on “Fact sheet” to get your Rep’s number, the Senator’s name to get their number) And while you’re at it, please ask them to support HB 168.

HB 168, eliminates Telecommunications Universal Access Fund
AFPGA favors the bill by Rep. Clay Cox that would eliminate the fee on metro customers’ phone bills that basically subsidizes the higher cost of phone service to rural areas. Apart from the fact that the fund has been abused by the smaller phone companies (i.e., a $20,000 Christmas Party), the concept of this tax is against sound market principles. The fee is a hidden tax to provide for a fund which obviously requires more oversight. It’s comparable to rural homebuilders or real estate agents suddenly being required to pay a fee to subsidize the higher cost of homes in the metro area!