More teat suckling

Johnston Memorial Hospital is going to go ahead with its plans to build a hospice center after getting state approval. The approval was previously denied. The denial was based upon the state's failure to see a need sufficient enough for the $4 million facility. That is a bit high for just 12 beds, in my opinion.

The hospital is looking for federal money. Big surprise there. From the article:

Ed Simpson, who is the hospital’s CFO, assured state regulators that if the campaign fell short, then Johnston Memorial would draw from operating funds or take out a bank loan.

In the meantime, Kevin Rogols, the hospital’s chief administrator, is seeking $2 million in federal aid to help pay for the project. Already, Culver is lining up support. She has gathered about 200 letters from local people and called on Congressman Bob Etheridge and Sens. Richard Burr and Elizabeth Dole in Washington, D.C.

Someone please show me where it is listed in the U.S. Constitution where the section is that the federal government should spend taxpayer money on a hospital in one community in North Carolina. It is not the federal government's authority to earmark money for such a project. We shouldn't allow spending of federal dollars on a bridge to nowhere in Alaska, which gets heavily criticized. Likewise, a hospital in Smithfield, North Carolina is pork spending an an earmark.

If we don't stop this sort of spending and the expectation that the federal government is an endless supply of cash coming out of a teat off which to suckle, we will never get back to Constitutional principles. We have strayed so far from the rule of law, every good idea and not so good idea becomes a project on which to waste taxpayer money for political purposes.

Unfortunately, Bob Etheridge loves a photo opportunity and an opportunity to score points by bringing home pork. Thus, I figure that it is just a matter of time before the hospital gets its federal funding.

The hospital is pushing the following:

If you are in support of this project, please write a letter to your congressional representatives listed below and forward the letters to April Culver, Vice President of Government Affairs, Johnston Memorial Hospital, Post Office Box 1376, Smithfield, NC 27577 or via email at aculver@johnstonmemorial.org. The letters will be taken to Washington as a package in support of the project.

I doubt that my letters will be included in the package to support the project. You know that I couldn't let this one pass by without standing up for principle. Here is a copy of the letter I wrote to Representative Bob Etheridge, Senator Elizabeth Dole, and Senator Richard Burr. I also included a copy of each letter for the hospital's Vice President of Government Affairs. Here is what I wrote:

I am writing to you about a campaign that has been mounted by our local hospital, Johnston Memorial Hospital. The hospital wants to build a new hospice wing and is in need of funding in order to do so. Unlike the majority of letters that you have been receiving, I am writing to oppose any and all federal government funding for this project.

I do not oppose the project itself, only the federal funding of it. My opposition is based solely on a revered document that you should be familiar with called The Constitution of the United States. As noble as such an undertaking is by the local community hospital may be, I urge you to do the right thing, even if that is not the popular thing to do.

Federal government spending is out of control. Most of our spending is contrary to the Constitution and should never be undertaken. There have been many earmark projects that are nothing more than pork spending by the Congress. As a member of my elected Congressional delegation, I demand that all of my representatives abide by simple guidelines. Those guidelines have been spelled out since 1787. Please have the courage to abide by them.


Sincerely,


Troy LaPlante
U.S. taxpaying citizen