Thank you for contacting me regarding the health care reform e-mail that I had sent to you. It is refreshing to be acknowledged for my opinions and responded to. The following is my response to your e-mail;

The Honorable U. S. Senator, Mark Pryor.

I agree with you that health care spending is out of control. You present the argument or should I say, state that, "Perhaps the biggest driver of increasing health care costs is having 46 million Americans who do not have health coverage." You neglected to add to that, the thousands and possibly millions of illegal aliens that use our hospital emergency rooms. Where they can have health care, where all tests are run, no matter the cost, to find out the illness's that plague them and do everything the hospitals can to cure those persons in our country illegally, and yet never pay the bill. If you are an American CITIZEN, not a Congressmen, Senator, President of the United States or their close family member, you have to prove that you can pay for anything above and beyond being stabilized! I would get 10 times the health care if I were to go to an emergency room and say that I was an illegal alien than saying I am a citizen! That is a sad state of affairs in our country.

I would also support a Children's Health Insurance Program but would NOT limit it to just low-income children. If you are going to help protect children, it should NOT be just for one class of taxpayers. There are plenty of times when middle class citizens cannot afford the health care prescribed by a doctor for the children they love and it ends in that "family's" demise, financial and possibly the emotional well being of that family unit and the cause of the destruction of the family unit involved.

I believe in the importance of having Congressmen, Senators and the President of the United States maintain their health. I also believe that if our elected officials were forced to use the same health care system that I and other Americans do and were treated the same as I am treated and had to find and pay for health insurance the way I have to, that the solution to the health care issues would present itself quickly.

I also believe that if these same elected officials were to pay into the social security system they way I and other legal citizens have to and receive the same benefits that are doled out from that system, there would be changes to that system also in a timely manner.

There are many e-mails circulating about how, "if the "Golden Fleece Retirement Plan" was jerked away from Senators and Congressman and put them on the same Social Security plan as the rest of us, that plan would be fixed almost overnight!" No one, that I know of, has presented this concern to any Senator or Congressman. So for me, this is breaking new ground and instead of spreading anymore discontent to others that I know feel the same frustration, I present this to you, my honored Senator and ask, why not?

I am frustrated with not only the Democrat but also the Republican elected officials with how they are segregating themselves from each other on important issues and problems that face Americans today. Health care, excessive spending on "pork" and special issues that doesn't help anyone but special interest groups, protecting Americans in America from terrorists, making it safer to fly in America, making federal, state and county buildings safer from possible terrorists (domestic and foreign), protecting our borders in regard to illegal drug runners or illegal aliens crossing over into or back into our country or the issue of illegal aliens in our country using our resources (free health care, receiving welfare without paying a cent for those benefits, being allowed to stay in our country and collecting many the benefits they should not be allowed to collect for free, complaining all the while of how they are being treated, discriminated against! HELLO! THEY HAVE NO RIGHTS HERE! They are NOT CITIZENS.) I am sick and tired of having to change America to accommodate this minority with no voting rights. Evict them already! Send them back to where they came from. Make them apply for citizenship as others have.

When IMMIGRANTS came to this country through Ellis Island, they actually WANTED to be here. They WANTED to be Americans! They WANTED to learn English! They were PROUD to be an American. Their racial background and the country they came from came second as it should. To be an American you give up your allegiance to whatever country you came from and you swear allegiance to America. You became an AMERICAN. Not an African-American or Mexican-American. That is placing your allegiance to a particular race and/or country before being an American in my opinion. America is a melting pot of different races not someplace where you do not include other Americans not of your race. Personally, I am of American Indian, German, Dutch and Scottish descent. I do not consider myself an "American Indian, German, Dutch, Scottish American!" I am called Caucasian or white even though I am mixed. It shouldn't matter, I am an American. I have served in the Army and was sent to Viet Nam (This is an outside issue but I have placed my Country's priorities before my own safety because I believe in America.). The way service men and women are treated once they return from a War/Policing Action is another subject where Americans and the Federal Government are lacking but I'll stop on that subject here.

After 911, all Americans were united with outrage of the crimes committed against our country. The carnage and damage to America was very evident. It was physical, it could be seen, touched and was clear and present, everyone felt it. Actions were taken to place the safety of America and Americans first by EVERYONE. Everyone wanted that and everyone moved in that direction. Not since the second World War was America so united in a single direction. That direction has not lasted very long. Our bickering over "my wants are more important than yours" is tearing America apart emotionally and financially.

When our safety was at stake, our direction was united, focused. We moved in one direction. We are not that united today and our safety is STILL at stake. We may not have hijacked airplanes headed for our towering buildings but the danger is there. Look at California for one example. The issues of illegal aliens: using the hospital systems; getting welfare when common sense would say, "they are not entitled to these resources"; taking jobs from American Citizens that need a job. The issues of illegal drugs pouring into that state as well as other issues are putting that state into financial bankruptcy!

Shouldn't the States as well as the Federal Government be forced, by law, to work within it's own budget, the income available to that State or the Federal Government? Look at the problems caused when common Americans over spent in the housing crisis.

I have a certain amount of income to live on. If I were to continue spending without first considering where the money was coming from, that I was spending, I would loose everything. Some of the individual States and the American Federal Government is doing just that. Spending and spending with NO consideration of how to collect the money to pay these bills. We, the American people will be the ones put in a bind when the government goes bankrupt! We are being destroyed from within, with NO guns being pointed at us, with NO hijacked airplanes being flown toward our buildings, with NO bombs destroying us from other countries. We, our government, is putting us on a path of destruction when only we, our government, can correct itself and save us from destruction. It is a "catch 22". Stop listening to and obeying the minorities and start governing justly for the majority. I only hope that our elected officials, our Senators and Congressmen will see that before it is too late and change the direction that America is going and end up saving us from this precipice that we are approaching.

I do apologize for drifting from the primary subject of Health Care but I couldn't help but voice my concerns and opinions on issues that are important to me and from others that I regularly correspond to via the internet.

I do not believe in socialization of the health care system. I do think that there does need to be health care reform. I do not believe that only the "rich" should foot the bill. To be quite fair about financing health care reform, why not put a flat tax on all taxable income with NO loopholes? Make "income tax" a straight across the board tax, the same for everyone. That would help pay for the health care reform needed and don't socialize it. Figure out a percentage to charge everyone. If 20% works, make it that with no way to get ANY exclusions. This would be fair for everyone and no, "one tax bracket" would be excessively taxed. Unfortunately, this would do away with many accountants and would EXTREMELY streamline the Federal Income Tax System (Would the Federal Government save more money there?). We should keep it simple. If only those making over $400,000.00 were taxed an extra percentage, they could find loopholes to get out of paying what was owed anyway.

Thank you for listening to my concerns.
May God keep you safe, and your course true.

Most Respectfully

Harry Hunt

(I found out later that the 46 million Americans that Senator Pryor was referring to included 9 to 10 million illegal aliens (As reported on FOX news, 7-24-2009 * NOTE: SEE BELOW) so, does this mean that Senator Pryor thinks these ILLEGAL ALIENS are legalized Americans?)

* Fox News, during a report on the proposed health care reform system stated that the 46 million Americans that had no health insurance included 9 to 10 MILLION illegal aliens presently in our country.