To the editor:

After Tuesday's elections, it should be clear to Congress as a whole that the far-left course it has set for the nation's agenda is not what the American people voted for last year. Expect a conservative sweep in 2010 if they don't get the message now.

While President Obama gave hints of his current agenda with comments to "Joe the Plumber" that he planned to "spread the wealth around," most Americans only heard the relatively conservative rhetoric the president used on his campaign. His "hope and change" slogan was misinterpreted as a desire to bring fiscal responsibility back to a more accountable government.

In the last 10 months, we have seen the opposite: the largest deficits of a president in modern history with no tangible results and half-truths and obfuscations to cover up the failures. We have a ballooning debt that is sure to make our nation's bank account insolvent if we don't audit the Fed and pay attention to the root causes of our money problem now.

Presently, the same president and Congress that has squandered our money and financially ruined our children are bent on forcing the health care and cap-and-trade bills down our throats, even though it is proven that both bills will make our financial problems worse at a time when our economy cannot handle it.

The health bill alone is estimated to cost at least $1.055 trillion. And in taxing us even more when we can afford it least to pay for sub-par coverage, this government wants to force insurance companies to provide certain coverage at centrally set prices, which will necessarily increase costs in general.

When Americans voted for Democrats in 2008, they did so hoping they would address the rising costs of health care, not add to them. The Republicans have an alternative health care plan that would, among other things, allow health insurance firms to compete across state lines and cap medical malpractice cases at $250,000. Each idea could help drive down costs in our free market system, and keep the anti-Midas government from ruining another component of our private lives.

Americans are intelligent people, and I think we've made it clear at protests and Town Hall meetings this year that we do not want what Democrats are offering.

Andrew J. Manuse

Derry, N.H.