“The President’s Plan”: All you need to know
Don’t forget the bit about choice: I was just in a hotel in the Midwest where every lamp was fitted out with one of those newly “energy efficient” lightbulbs your masters in Washington want you to use. The sickly yellow glow emitted reminded me of a B-film about Eastern Europe during the Cold War. In 2012, unless people come to their senses, you’ll be forced — forced — to buy that sort of light bulb because Congress in its wacko nanny-state wisdom has decided that’s the only kind of light bulb you will be allowed to buy. Don’t believe me? Take a look at this splendid, if depressing, clip from Reason TV:
The Obama administration’s approach to health care betrays a similar top-down, do-as-I-say, it’s-for-your-own-good, nanny-state aroma. As the Journal notes (my emphasis),
The coercive flavor that animates this exercise is best captured in the section that purports to accept the Senate’s “grandfather clause” allowing people who like their current health plan to keep it. Except that “The President’s Proposal adds certain consumer protections to these ‘grandfathered’ plans. Within months of legislation being enacted, it requires plans . . . prohibits . . . mandates . . . requires . . . the President’s Proposal adds new protections that prohibit . . . ban . . . and prohibit . . . The President’s Proposal requires . . .” After all of these dictates, no “grandfathered” plan will exist.
Are you listening? Obama & Co. require, prohibit, mandate, ban. That’s what it’s about, folks. Government deciding for you how and how much to pay (you can be sure it will be lots), what doctors you see, indeed, what sorts of doctors there are for you to see. Lenin put it more briefly still: the fundamental question of politics, he said, is Who-whom? “Whom,” it pains me to report, is us, the American people.
Tomorrow, we can all watch the little circus Obama has crafted for the credulous: the “bipartisan” “debate” over health care in which Obama, as master of ceremonies, will invite his Republican colleagues to demonstrate their “bi-partisanship” by acquiescing to the Democratic plan. The show is guaranteed to be a travesty, though not, I think, in the entertaining, theatrical sense.
The more the public knows about what the Democrats have in store for them with respect to health care, the less they like it. “Voters still strongly oppose the health care reform plan proposed by President Obama and congressional Democrats,” Rasmussen reports. Don’t think a little thing like that matters, though. Part of the shock and awe in shock-and-awe statism is the sublime indifference it shows to anything so quaint as democratic accountability. Big nurse here knows what’s good for you, and she’s going to give it to you whether you like it or not.
There’s a lot about dollars and cents in the debate over the future of American health care. The sums of money being bandied about really are staggering. (My favorite bumper sticker of late: “It’s a good thing Obama doesn’t know what comes after ‘trillion.’ ”) But even more alarming is are the dolors and (non)sense — I mean the prospects for 1) freedom and 2) quality medical care. The issue of freedom is one that is too obvious to require commentary: if ObamaCare passes, you will be less free in about 87 different ways. You’ll be poorer, you’ll have less choice, and you’ll be subject to vastly more regulation and bureaucracy. It’s a horrible thought. The DMV coming to a doctor’s office near you.
But the proof’s in the pudding. At the end of the day, how good will American health care be? (By “American health care,” incidentally, I do not mean “health care available to Congress and other members of the government”: as part of our nomenklatura, they of course get special dispensation, not a Cadillac plan, but a Mercedes, a Rolls Royce plan not available to us plebs.) I am finally getting around to my title. In essence, Obama wants to transform American health care into a larger version of what is available in Canada. What do you make of that? There’s a news story going around the internet that gives us the nub. When push comes to shove — when it’s your kidneys, your heart, your cancer — what would you do if you were Canadian? The story of Danny Williams, the Canadian Premier, tells you all you need to know.
In an interview with the Canadian Press, Williams said he went to Miami to have a “minimally invasive” surgery for an ailment first detected nearly a year ago, based on the advice of his doctors:
“This was my heart, my choice and my health,” Williams said late Monday from his condominium in Sarasota, Fla.
“I did not sign away my right to get the best possible health care for myself when I entered politics.” . . .
“My heart, my choice,” eh? That’s so yesterday, Danny. You were lucky enough to live in a world that offered both the self-righteousness of Canadian socialism and the competence of American capitalism. What’s your son or daughter going to doing if the former is abolished by well-meaning but clueless bureaucrats? Then it will be “My heart, your choice.” What do you think of that?
UPDATE: William Jacobson knows what he thinks of it: take a look at his column today at “Legal Insurrection”:
The health care plan put forth by Obama, based on the prior Senate bill, is so destructive on so many levels that it must be opposed without regard to political fallout.
The Obama plan contains fiscal gimmicks and gamesmanship which will lead to crushing deficits and debt; sanctions government intrusion into our lives unlike anything we have seen before; will lead to the destruction of a private insurance system which, while not perfect, delivers coverage to the overwhelming majority of Americans in a satisfactory manner; will result in the demoralization of our most honored profession, reducing medical care to the lowest common denominator in the cause of a false sense of fairness; and reflects the ultimate hubris of ideological, power drunk people who have proven themselves unworthy of our trust and who express, time and again, their disdain for the people they claim to serve.
Hat-tip to the Argus-eyed Instapundit.
Concerning the “compact fluorescent lights (CFLs)”: I know from experience that, contrary to what we have been told, they don’t last longer than incandescent bulbs.
More importantly, they are made in China by GE. You remember General Electric, the owner of NBC News and MSNBC. GE has received billions in “stimulus” money. Unsurprisingly, GE’s CEO, Jeffrey Immelt sits on Barack Obama’s Economic Recovery Advisory Board.
Some giant corporations are collaborating with the nanny state — nothing personal, just business.
With Obama’s new healthcare system I hope things will change for us all.
Hell…meet hand basket.
Totalitarianism:
Where debates are “settled” even before they are discussed.
Where an entrenched media, doesn’t just bury the lead, or not nearly as much as the truth, anyway.
Where John Yoo and Jay Bybee get prosecuted and Black Panther thugs and ACORN felons do not.
Where local banks can have books examined with an electron microscope and Fannie’s and Freddie’s are swept under the rug.
Where citizens expressing their rights to free speech are slandered as “racist” and “teabaggers” and where one Cuban American politician is called a coconut (brown on the outside, white on the inside)…and that’s ok.
This is an America I do not recognize, I am a stranger in my own land. Who stands for this as acceptable behavior? Who accepts this as reasonable? Do classic liberals? Libertarians? Centrists? Independents? Moderates?
No man or woman of conscience can find this anything but deplorable.
All you need to know: the plan is by the President, the critique is by Roger Kimball.
With each passing day I become more alarmed at President Obamas obvious ignorance of economic theory and his incomprehension of economic reality. Even I didn’t fully comprehend the lack of sophistication. His political quest for state power seems unquenchable. He obviously cares not the harm that he does as long as he can acquire more control over our everyday lives. He is Ahab after the whale about nationalizing health care. He is about to reap Ahab’s fate.
The principals of the founders are completely irrelevant to this mans world view. He reminds me a bit of the Tommy Friedman types who are constantly infatuated with Asia and Europe, anything, as long as it isn’t intellectually American.
He is proving he was the Manchurian candidate. Americans are belatedly waking up.
The worse, the better:
Run the ship hard aground.
At Hahvard, the “thinking” is that this administration needs to write out some Cliff Notes for we the peeps, since we’re not smart enough to grasp complexities, you know, rebellious and stupid children that we are.
While Valerie Jarrett is offput that her brilliant President could be obstructed by other branches of gov’t (not to mention we the ignoramuses) in attempting to get his brilliant plans for America enacted.
Val should stand your hair on end
These people are frightening in their arrogance, their ignorance and their sense of entitlement.
The story of Danny Williams, the Canadian Premier, tells you all you need to know.
In Canada, they were going to have to crack (aka break) his sternum (“sternotomy”) to fix the faulty heart valve.
In Miami, they made an incision under his arm and went in that way, with no breaking of bones.
Gee, which one would you choose ?
Here’s what I need to know: Why can’t anyone define the “nuclear option” for me? I hear the Dems are set to use it and I’ll be dag-nabbed if I can find out what that means. Anybody?
crickets
A fine, cogent summary! My feeling about this whole mess- nothing,absolutely nothing but a huge ego trip by an unbalanced person!
Ah come on ‘sqweezenits’ dont play naive you know that the Dems plan to use the ‘Nuclear Option’ of a simple majority of 51 votes to get their ‘Health Boondoggle’ passed. A PLOY that Democrats were violently opposed to when Bush tried to use it to get some of his nominees ratified (an extremely minor situation not a MAJOR America changing thing like the Health SCAM is). But of course now the LYING CHEATING America hating Dems want to use it themselves suddenly its OK. Rush Limbaugh had lots on it yesterday including quotes by the ‘Then Senator’ OBAMBI himself and Pelosi and Reid and Clinton in 2005 who were all vehemently opposed to this wicked Republican scam. But then short memories and flip flopping opinions when it suits them has always been the Dems and particularly the LYING MOHAMMEDAN BOGUS POTUS’s way. There happy now moonbat?
Sorry that should not have read ‘There happy now moonbat?’ I should have said ‘There happy now MOHO?’
Please, let the Democrats go nuclear (I’m bi-partisan here, I wanted the Republicans to do it on judicial nominations as well)–that may be the final guarantee of the Republicans taking back the House and Senate. Skeeziks, if you have any influence upon the powers that be, help make it happen–all will be forgiven.
Love that socialised medicine..just look to Canada..hahahaha Williams went to florida to have his surgery!! not something the average canadian could do.
So why is it held up as a model for the USA?
The nuclear option is steps(8 , i believe) designed to “by pass” the 2/3 vote that is required to be able to change rules, laws, enact. It’s stupid and should be against the law, morals and ethics.
skeeziks, you don’t have tee vee where the yakking about the nuclear option (aka reconciliation) has been near incessant ?
Don’t your handlers there at “the home” let you use google ?
Here are some of your beloved “dems” on tape, bashing the thing a few years back, when the shoe was on the other foot.
It’s tough to imagine this level of hypocrisy in any human being walking around and chewing gum at the same time
12
Also, I think no one has answered you because you’re always rude and mean in everything you bring to the table. Infact I seldom read your posts anymore. You just happened to be at the bottom and I saw your post.
I sure hope Dick Cheney’s OK. Hey, who’s paying for his health care?
How things have improved! I remember, not so long ago, when leftists came on here boasting of how, in Kruschev’s words, they would “bury us”–now they are reduced to sniping, cheap sarcasm and ghoulishness.
Sqweezenits the answer to your question is that it will be YOU and all the other Taxpayers (if you are one of course and not a food stamp recipient)who pays for Cheney’s Health Care once the Dems get their Health Care SCAM through. HAPPY???
18. tanstaafl:
So, the nuclear option refers to reconciliation? You sure about that? I’ll give you one more chance.
Might want to consider this first;
“The term “nuclear option” was coined by former Sen. Trent Lott (R-MS), one of the leading advocates of the proposal to change the Senate rules on filibusters for judicial nominations. After Republican strategists deemed the term a political liability, Republican senators began to attribute it to Democrats.
Reconciliation, on the other hand, is part of congressional budget process. The budget reconciliation process is defined by the U.S. House Committee on Rules as “part of the congressional budget process … utilized when Congress issues directives to legislate policy changes in mandatory spending (entitlements) or revenue programs (tax laws) to achieve the goals in spending and revenue contemplated by the budget resolution.” (MM)
I wonder if I can find clips of Republicans complaining about the fillibuster? Calling it unconstitutional?
You know what? Forget that “one more chance.” I’ll take the nuclear option off the table and ask you a new question, Who’s paying for Dick Cheney’s health care?
crickets
18. tanstaafl:
Oh, and you might want to consider turning off the tee vee once in awhile. I think you can see the effect Fox is having on what’s left of your brain.
Anybody else want to try?
How about you 14. Pragmatist:Your post is rife with inaccuracies. You seem to think that the nuclear option refers to “a simple majority of 51″ Want to try this one again? Sure you do, big boy Step up.
22. Pragmatist:
You’re on a role. So we’re NOT paying for Dick Cheney’s health care now? Because the truth is we ARE paying for Cheney’s health care. Happy?
22. Pragmatist:
Oh, and you too might want to consider turning off the tee vee once in awhile. I think you can see the effect Fox is having on what’s left of your brain.
Pull!
If this passes so shall violence because a free people will not be subjugated to t totalitarian state. The democrats are doing us a favor by exposing to the ignorant masses, who hadn’t previously known, just who the Democrats/Socialists/Progressives/Marxists really are.
They are making a very big and dangerous mistake.
No crickets. Care to cite your rambling mess? Even if it was reputable, it’s not like it wasn’t used prior to Lott was it?
Must eat you up realizing you only have a few months of power left before Democrats lose so many seats as to make them even more impotent.
Sometime in the last decade, I was watching a documentary about Saddam Hussein’s ruthless rise to power and his equally ruthless efforts to guarantee his power. At one point in Saddam’s rise, he gathered together all the members of the Iraqi legislature, or the Baath political party, I don’t recall which. From the podium, Saddam called out numerous opponents in the audience. Each of them stood up. Saddam publicly denounced them. Saddam’s security forces entered the auditorium, seized the named opponents, took them out into the lobby and promptly executed them. So much for bipartisanship.
One wonders if cub reporter Jimmy Olson—er—rather—our glorious, illustrious, and fearless leader, Barack Hussein Obama, wouldn’t actually prefer resorting to Saddam Hussein’s methods of inspired leadership.
If not, on Thursday count on the president and his film crews to orchestrate a great many film clips for future political campaigns showing us counter-revolutionary Republicans to be bumbling or obstreperous Luddites bent on derailing Obama’s divinely inspired Progressive march to oblivion.
I wonder if it is too early for me to reserve my own place in Obama’s Gulag. I hear that the accommodations are really first class and the health care not only first rate, but almost Cuban.
God save our Republic!
1774 The intolerable Acts
You remember them from American history class. Parliament decided to punish the the people of Massachusetts into submission. The Acts included:
Parliament taking away local power to try British subjects for crimes against freemen.
Taking away colonial land south from Canada to the Ohio River and ceding it to Canada. Called the meeting of colonists in public “rioting”, which was against the law.
Imposed quartering of British troops.
These and other acts were designed to scream loudly and clearly that Britain had absolute authority and unmitigated power to rule over the colonies. The Acts were to be enforced by Parliament with no say from the people of Massachusetts. Colonists viewed the acts as an arbitrary violation of their rights, and in 1774 they organized the First Continental Congress to coordinate a protest. As tensions escalated, the American Revolutionary War broke out the following year, eventually leading to the creation of an independent United States of America.
That was then.
This is now.
2010 The intolerable Acts
Holding a dog and pony show on Feb. 25 with the kind of surprise ending James Cameron put in his movie, “The Titanic,” President
Obama is trying to set a trap for the Republican Party, and, in effect, the American people. This is the kind of smoke and mirrors ploy
that’s become a staple (modus operandi) of arguably the most partisan President in the history of this nation.
Obama wants to be able to say to the American people, “See I tried to be bipartisan and include the Republicans in the
approval of what they call, “ObamaCare.” But they wanted to start from scratch. And I, Barack Obama know this is what
the American people want and need. Look, 30 million American are uninsured.” What Obama fails to disclose is that virtually all of that
30 million get medical care if they want it. That’s the dirty little secret Obama tries his best to hide. At the same time, this nation
can provide medical insurance for 30 million people without giving up control of our medical system to the government, especially considering what a great job they’ve done bankrupting social securty, bankrupting medicare, mismanaging the post office, and the
motor vehicle bureau and IRS, just to name a few incompetencies of the federal government.
ObamaCare would quickly usher in:
1. Sky high insurance premiums.
2. A ton of heath related new taxes, on everything from bandaids to open heart surgery.
3. A huge jacking up of the national debt. A ballpark figure of five trillion dollars over the net ten years.
The laugh is that Obama says his ObamaCare will actually lower the national debt. Wow, the President must have a clown
in his belly the size of Texas.
But Obama’s Intolerable Acts only start here.
I’d add in his decision to thumb his nose at the 70 or so percent of the American people who want no part of losing their doctors and getting their premiums and taxes raised. Obama says he didn’t splain’ ObamaCare carefully and slowly enough. Bill Maher, a big Obama
brown noser states the Obama view quite accuratey when Maher says that the American people are too dumb to understand why it’s so good for them.
Going against the will of the people who the constitution says gives the President his power. This, freemen and women, is intolerable.
Then there’s all those interceptions Obama, who’s supposed to be the quarterback of our team America throws. To begin with, I’m
talking about using his left arm to sign earmarks amounting to more than 10,000. And using that left arm and left field logic to squander a cool 900 billion in his financially draining stimulus bill. While losing 4,000,000 jobs in the process. Then the magic man comes up with this “saved” figure which not only is impossible to verify, but is meaningless. “More than ten percent of the jobs the Obama administration has claimed were “created or saved” by the $787 billion stimulus package are doubtful or imaginary, according to reports compiled from eleven major newspapers and the Associated Press.
Based only on our analysis of stimulus media coverage in the last two weeks, The Washington Examiner has created this interactive map to document exaggerated stimulus claims. The map, which will be updated as new revelations appear, currently reflects an exaggeration by the Obama administration of about 75,000 jobs, out of the 640,000 jobs supposedly “created or saved.” (Washington Examiner)
Is there an umbrella thought that makes Obama spew out imaginary figures at such a blithering rate?
Could be redistribution of wealth. If that’s not a socialist idea then Saul Alinsky was Obama’s paperboy and not the author of “Rules for Radical.”
To me, a President whose watchword is, “Redistribution of Wealth” is bad, but what makes him intolerable results from a host of other Intolerable Acts. Like trying to sell the idea that driving up the national debt to 16 trillion dollars in just one year is the kind of medicine we need. Truth be known, it’s the equivalent of forcing the Jim Jones brand of KoolAid down the nation’s financial throat.
Intolerable Acts. Let me send them at you in machine gun style. Like Obama spends money.
Shorting McCrystal by 10,000 troops. Have you checked the GI casualty figures lately? Obama cuts General McChrystal a thin piece of replacement pie. And troops die.
Letting voter indimidating Black Panthers go scott free.
Giving enemy combatants miranda rights.
Making believe there are no more terrorists by not saying the word. (Barack has apparently flip flopped on this so maybe he’s admitting to a degree of reality.
Lying about his intention to broadcast ObamaCare negotiations on CNN.
Calling the tea party members a bunch of astro turf nazis. Actually, Pelosi used the words which Obama tacitly approved of.
After saying Obama’s wife and kids were off limits when it comes to negative stories about them, grossly, contemptuously failed to
denounce one of his most avid supporters, Seth MacFarlane whose show, “Family Guy” indecently mocked the Palins for having a Down Syndrome child.
Used his office to undermine a Cambridge, Ma., police officer who arrested a foul mouthed, race baiting Harvard pal of Barack’s.
Knowing the global warming data was cooked and trying to serve it to the American people.
Beginning the attempt to take over the means of production (GM, Ford). Right out of Alinsky’s “Rules for Radicals.”
Lying about his intimate relationship with ACORN, and then getting caught two days ago with the video to prove him to be no less than a pathological liar.
Lying about his close relationship with Bill Ayers.
Lying about his knowledge of the racist, anti-female bent of his religious mentor, the heinous Jeremy Wright. This is after
pewing with the American hating racist for more than twenty years.
Naming a bigot to the supreme court.
Humiliating America by apologizing to every two bit tin horn human rights ignoring dictator for the so called sins of America.
Filling the White House with Van Jones type self proclaimed communists, socialists, to numerous to name, and one NAMBLA supporter who happens to be The Obama administration’s ‘safe schools czar’ Kevin Jennings. Mucho intolerable.
Okay, of course I could go on and on, but I’m sure you get the point.
President Obama has provided us with an absolutely Intolerable 13 months. By far the most left leaning President in history, Obama seems to be doing his best to destroy this country brick by brick. Tomorrow Obama plays carnival barker at his ObamaCare meeting. History, no doubt has a special place reserved for what has to be the worst President in United States history.
If Obama uses the poison pill to pass ObamaCare, the march on Washington will make Sherman’s march to the sea look like a…
well, a Tea Party. Which is probably tolerably about time.
Hey, everybody! Celebrate our wonderful future! Here’s where we’re headed in health care:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1218927/Plumber-shattered-arm-left-horrifically-bent-shape-operation-cancelled-times.html
Two poison pills that Democrats need to settle within their party.
1) the public option.
The majority in the party want this. The House wants this. A few Senators will not allow it. It would be fun to watch a fight between the House and the Senate over this and I think it will happen.
2) taxpayer funded abortion.
Bart Stupak and a small group of moderate Democrats hold the House hostage on this.
The Democrats need to make sure they fully enjoy these poison pills because (and they should be reminded of this constantly) they will not get another shot at this for generations.
crickets said Dick Cheney had this government job and it had Cadillac insurance, we the people will pay for him and the big O when he is retired.
I wonder if I can find clips of Republicans complaining about the fillibuster? Calling it unconstitutional?
I see they’re letting you use google now at “the home”. Both terms, nuclear option and reconciliation, refer to limiting debate & shutting off the filibuster, or, as you write, the fillibuster.
The democrats on that tape had their panties in a knot, to a man, or a woman, over reconciliation, which the Senate democrat leadership has been threatening to invoke for weeks to jam through Obamacare. Its genesis was for use in budget bills (Obamacare doesn’t qualify, unless it were to be substantially re-written) where only a simple majority, 51 votes, would be required for passage.
Even you, sweet pea, should be able to see what hypocrites the leaders of the democrat party are, wanting reconciliation when it’s in their favor, and declaiming vehemently and self-righteously against it in 2005, when they deemed it wasn’t in their favor.
Such hypocrisy is very common in the species currently known as “Progressive”.
As a man of means, achieved via honest hard work and individual initiative, Mr. Cheney probably is paying for his medical treatment with his own cash.
Why shouldn’t he?
“You were lucky enough to live in a world that offered both the self-righteousness of Canadian socialism and the competence of American capitalism. What’s your son or daughter going to doing if the former is abolished by well-meaning but clueless bureaucrats?”
Well meaning but clueless bureaucrats are getting rid of Canadian socialism?
Do the taxes in this new plan still start up immediately while the taxpayers have to wait several years for the benefits to kick in?
If so, then this is still a bill to increase taxes, not a health-care bill. Remember, if a year is an eternity in politics, then several years must be an entire geological era. Should Congress decide to modify or eliminate the “health benefits”, it will not turn around and give back the extra money it has taxed away from us. The entire US media establishment persists in sliding past this point. Keeping it in mind helps to explain why the Democrats are so insistent on trying to pass this “health care”bill — they do not want to end up with the same sort of California-type financial problem as the rest of the blue states now have …
Funny thing, skeeziks – if you supply your own definition, of course it will match your intent. Here’s Wikipedia, that bastion of right-wing thought:
“In U.S. politics, the nuclear option is an attempt by a majority of the United States Senate to end a filibuster by invoking a point of order to essentially declare the filibuster unconstitutional which can be decided by a simple majority, rather than seeking formal cloture with a supermajority of 60 senators. Although it is not provided for in the formal rules of the Senate, the procedure is the subject of a 1957 parliamentary opinion and has been used on several occasions since. The term was coined by Senator Trent Lott (Republican of Mississippi) in 2005;[1] it has also been known as the constitutional option.[2]
The maneuver was brought to prominence in 2005 when then-Majority Leader Bill Frist (Republican of Tennessee) threatened its use to end Democratic-led filibusters of judicial nominees submitted by President George W. Bush. In response to this threat, Democrats threatened to shut down the Senate and prevent consideration of all routine and legislative Senate business. The ultimate confrontation was prevented by the Gang of 14, a group of seven Democratic and seven Republican Senators, all of whom agreed to oppose the nuclear option and oppose filibusters of judicial nominees, except in extraordinary circumstances.
During the 111th congress, opponents of Democratic legislative initiatives began to refer to the budget reconciliation process as the nuclear option.[3] For a discussion of the legislatively-enacted reconciliation process, which only requires a majority vote, but which – unlike the nuclear option – does not alter Senate rules, see Reconciliation (United States Congress).”
And as for Dick Cheney’s health care – what is your point? Presidents and Vice Presidents (acting and former) receive health care from the government. They also receive pay from the government. Extending either to the entire country is an idiotic concept.
Now, here are some questions for you: which health insurance industry lobby group drafted the Democrat health ‘reform’ bills? And which party receives the most funding from health insurance companies?
*crickets*
Hardly anything this admin has done or tried makes any sense by any ordinary standard. The sort of revolution it is fomenting is for the overthrowing of tyranny by a people with no voice but revolution. This is not such a country. That it isn’t makes the admin look like a faculty run amok on some university issue.
Nonetheless, at the tiller a fool or a genius either one can sink the ship of state, one as well as the other.
I wonder, do the admin’s supporters see that the greater their success at socializing America, the poorer, meaner, more ignorant their lives –and far more importantly their descendent’s’ lives –must be?
For example, the enormous union pressure to pass these economy-killing bills comes in some large degree from the fact that these unions –SEIU for example –have profligately mismanaged their pension funds and find them now critically underfunded –and savable only by some coup de main such as unionizing the nation’s medical system. but if they succeed, the financial markets wherein these pension funds are invested is quite certain to crash 30 or 50% –and thus, tho the free cash flow from member dues may be stronger –tho their P&L will look better –the balance sheets will have gone strictly to hell, along with the rest of the systems which thitherto in their profit motives had filled your fine affordable refrigerator with excellent vittles from the world over.
This sort of destruction of human, financial, and material capital usually leads to war, either before, after, or during one of those romantic revolutions with public squares full of noble peasants cheering brainy charismatics who lean way forward with outstretched arms over the podium during their exhortations –stirring leaders who alas cannot except by murdering them prevent your wife and kids and mom and dad from soon enough damning you to hell for your vain, stupid, ignorant ruination of a perfectly good national exemplar of the only Great Enlightenment humankind has yet proffered (except in Marxist fantasy).
Yes, toss away a robust, productive, healthy society in favor of some campus abstraction. Sure, why not? How can it be of any value, since it was just sitting here waiting for you when you first opened your newborn eyes, and since it has never yet forced you to open a history book, hey, nothing has changed since then!
Or maybe it’s that unionized public-employee career that you thought what you thought was “safe”? That you supported the revolutionaries on account of you thought they were gonna shake that old money tree and “nationalize” a few more lifetime bennies for ya?
Ha ha ha…may be gallows humor but it’s still funny –
A LIST OF SWING CONGRESSMEN WHO CAN BE REACHED ON HEALTH CARE. According to Dick Morris, anyway.
Posted at 9:29 pm by Glenn Reynolds
(…according to Glenn Reynolds, anyway)
(…according to me, anyway)
#1. Harris Tweed
So did IG Farben, Hochst, Bayer, and so on at another time and place. History has a remarkable tendency to repeat itself, especially for those who neither read nor understand it.
“You know what? Forget that “one more chance.” I’ll take the nuclear option off the table and ask you a new question, Who’s paying for Dick Cheney’s health care? ”
Let me help you with that. See Cheney’s last job was Vice President of the United States of America, maybe you heard of it?
As he lost his job less than 18 months ago, he still qualifies for COBRA with his previous employer. So if he hasn’t found another job yet I’d say his previous employer’s health plan is picking up the tab. Unless his last job had some kind of retirement health benefits.
But I still have no idea what that has to do with Obama and the Democrats being hypocrites.
Jackass.
“too obvious too” –> “too obvious to”.
Forgive me if this comment is a bit off topic, but I feel that the widespread ridiculing of Sarah Palin and her family has gone way too far, and particularly in the instance of one very grotesque and obscene individual. This individual goes by the AOL screen name of lilTrigPalin and e-mail address liltrigpalin@aol.com in an attempt to mock and belittle Sarah Palin’s beautiful child who happens to have Down Syndrome. This sad, reprehensible person populates AOL chat rooms Life – Bible Fellowship, Life – Bible Fellowship 1, and Life – Beliefs Christian, with screen names lilTrigPalin and HooverMeCheney and is relentless in their dissemination of disgusting, hateful attacks against Sarah and her family. You can report them to AOL terms of service at TOSreports@aol.com . That is all I have to say. Thank you for your cooperation and understanding.
I know exactly whats going to happen. Obamacare will be passed. The people will resign themselves to the horror, because there is nothing they can do anyway. In 2012 the Democrats campaign slogan will be, “The Republicans want to take away your health care”, and on we go.
What I find so horrifying about all of this is that the other day Obama gave a speech to some business leaders and claimed that he was NOT a socialist. Really, he said that with a straight face. These words were uttered by a guy who promoted the ideas of the government taking over two car companies, AIG, most of the major banks, and now wants to take over the healthcare industry (with ObamaCare) and then the energy industry (with Cap and Trade). Oh, and if any of you blue-collar workers out there think this guy is a “Man of the People,” just wait and see what your local union will look like if Card Check gets passed too. Face it, this is all about government control. It is straight up socialism, because the government will soon be making all of your decisions for you: How much you will earn, what companies will win or lose or stay in business, what type of home you can have (energy efficiency, don’t ya know), what type of doctor you will have, what medical procedures you can have, and, in the final analysis, how long you will be allowed to live. Because, my friend, if you’re 75 and need a heart operation, some government bureaucrat will determine that you’ve lived too long and don’t really have that much of a contribution to make to society anymore, so you really need to go. That is what we are facing and that will be your future. And if any of you out there don’t believe this is going to happen, just look at what is going on in Canada to see what your future is going to look like. Stand up, America. This is probably going to be your last chance to stop this madness. If Obamacare is passed, it will mark the end of this nation and we will certainly become no better than most of the other European nanny-states, only with a much, much, larger debt.
You GO Rachel Peepers!
Our power-lusting Looter-in-Chief — hell-bent on destroying the last of our liberty and taxing us into oblivion — hasn’t a clue as to the level of outrage he’s stirred up in the American people.
It’s time he learned.
And “skeeziks” — is that all you’ve got? The sum total of the defense you can mount for our totalitarian wannabe President is to debate the meaning of reconciliation and throw barbs at Cheney?
God, you Obama supporters are really mindless. Trouble is, Obama thinks the American people as a whole are as stupid as you are.
It’s time he learned on that point, too.
Libertyship46 @47,
I laughed out loud when President Liar came out with that whopper. The more I watch and listen to him, the more I realize he is a serial prevaricator. So far he has nationalized auto manufacturers, banks and student loans, and is intent on socializing healthcare, but no, no, folks he is not a socialist! Amazing.
I give this guy high marks for his aggressive use of Reapers and Predators in Pakistan and Afghanistan. I can think of no other policy of his that I support. I don’t have any trust when it comes to this man, He is causing great damage. However, this fits his background and education. Very predictable.
Libertyship46:
I’m with you.
The gall of Obama is truly without limits. The other day I heard him tell a reporter he was “in favor of the free market”.
My conclusion is that he thinks the American people as a whole are every bit as stupid as his core supporters — I’m referring now to the 22% who continue to say in polls that they “strongly support” his Presidency. I take comfort in the fact that in those same polls, over 40% “strongly disapprove”. We are not as dumb as he wants to believe.
To take the Ben Hur analogy further:
Is Scott Brown going to save the Centurion when the ship goes down?
And who’s Messala?
34. tanstaafl:
You can’t square that circle, sparky. Reconciliation and nuclear option are two different things. I’ve offered you content that clarifies that diffrence. The TEEvee, at least the anti-American part of TEEvee, continues to tell you that they’re the same.
You’re problem is the TEEvee. You should follow the lead of pragmatist and admit your confusion and move on. But you can’t. Why not? Because you’re a conservative. You’re stuck with that, apparently. But take heart, you only have 39 more years to wander in the wilderness.
42. Cure for skeeziks:
“As he lost his job less than 18 months ago, he still qualifies for COBRA with his previous employer. So if he hasn’t found another job yet I’d say his previous employer’s health plan is picking up the tab.”
First, do you know what COBRA is? Do you know how it works? Before you say “yes” let me suggest that the answer is “no.” Here’s the thing you need to check on, “previous employer’s health plan is picking up the tab.”
Perhaps some forthright and honest commentator here is willing to step up and confirm your confusion, you know, in the interest of truth.
Second, Cheney has been on the public dole for most of his adult life. He’s a welfare queen.
Can’t we just give the “30 Million” uninsured people $1,000,000.00 and require them to buy health insurance with some of that? Seems it would be cheaper and less traumatic that way. And I’m sure the trillion dollar President, as concerned for them as he is, could find that puny amount of money in the stimulus that went to nonexistent zip codes.
There is only one answer to Sqeezezits continuing stupidity and that is ‘Ahhh Didums’
The person that paid for Cheney’s hospital visit is the same one that
.. paid for Clinton’s recent visit.
56. Gracie:
Right, the government. The American tax payer. And I have no problem with either guy receiving that care.
29. Harvard Yard Conservative: S.H. Horrors
1) Execute suspected conspirators
2) Require remaining subordinates to
self-criticize (mea culpa) and denounce
others as conspirators to win forgiveness
3) Require the forgiven to prove themselves
by escorting the denounced outside and
executing them.
4) Videotape the whole proceeding for later
replay: Revenge is a dish best served cold.
Hussein’s sons, the Wolf and the Snake, were
worse than their father, and would have been
rulers of Iraq after him, well into the 21st
century.
The USoA is a much better nation than Iraq;
All we need to do is throw the Rascals out,
before they make the USoA a worse nation,
which will require stronger measures to
reform its government.
Reconciliation and nuclear option are two different things.
You still going on, skeeziks ?
You hang on like a bull dog with a rag doll.
Congresscritters have been using the terms interchangably for months. Maybe you should take it up with them, not me.
On the tape from 2005, when republicans were looking to get GWB’s judicial appts. an up or down vote and threatened the nuclear option, B+arry and others rail against the simple “majoritarian” (B+arry’s word) vote, 51 votes, reconciliation.
Now go pound sand, and get off your obsessive “role” (sic)
(Is English not a native language for you?)
59. tanstaafl:
Yeah, I’m still going on because you’re still in denial. “Congresscritters have been using the terms interchangably for months. Maybe you should take it up with them, not me.” Not true. Right wing media has been conflating the terms for months, and they’re doing it for the same reasons that Republicans tried to offload the term to Democrats back after Trent Lott coined the term.
Reconciliation and nuclear option are two different things. Here’s the fun part, Republicans have a history of defending and decrying both. It’s just that Breitbart won’t show that. Just like he can’t show you the pimp costume.
That’s the facts. You’re wrong. You got schooled, You know it. And you can’t admit it.
You’re on a role . . . and that role is the intransigent ideologue. (I play with language that way. It’s a hobby. You might want to look up majoritarian, by the way. What could he possibly have meant?)
What a great line: “lucky enough to live in a world of the self-righteousness of Canadian socialism and the competence of American capitalism”. You can substitute any other nationality for Canadian. If Obama’s socialist transformation is successful, the world will only know the mediocrity or misery of collectivism presided over by an arrogant and unchecked State elite.
In a way, the Obama regime has no choice but to go for full and unassailable control – because they have put themselves in a situation that is not stable or workable in a free society. Both government and entitlements have to be severely curtailed or our freedom has to go.
The Federal government’s debt load for existing unfunded liabilities in entitlements, social security and health care is already about $60 trillion dollars or just shy of $200k per citizen. There are also state and local unfunded liabilities hanging over our heads – brought to us by the same folks now in Washington pushing Obamacare and cap and trade. Richard Fisher, CEO of the Federal Reserve of Dallas in a 2008 speech: “ … to fully address our current unfunded liabilities with a lump sum payment today, so that all future generations . . . would receive promised benefits . . comes to $1.3 million per family of four – over 25 times the average household’s annual income.”
These are dangerous people we are dealing with. We are all in a bus careening down a dangerous mountain road and the driver believes that buses can fly if he can get up enough speed.
B+arry ended his final 22 min. monologue today (his speaking alone occupied 2 hours of the total 7+) with a veiled reference to going the reconciliation route if republicans didn’t want to come on board for the democrat boondoggle.
For much of the time, especially during the first session, B+arry seemed obsessed with other speakers going long, but not with his own long-windedness, explaining…
I don’t count my time because I’m the President”
In case anyone was wondering…
Here’s where skeeziks gets his talking points
MikeG/61; here’s a fella four years ago telling about the previous year –so –yep, it’s everybody’s fault but it sure does seem to fit the 80/20 rule re the national parties –
62. tanstaafl:
He’s the decider, t’staf. The bully pulpit. Ever hear of it?
And you should all read that link.
Hurry off now, you don’t want to miss your bus.
B+arry claimed the meeting was about listening to others’ ideas (ha)
True to form, however, he couldn’t keep his yap shut, constantly striving to direct the flow, smirking & interrupting when republicans were talking, faking a rapt look when some democrat was bloviating.
The camera told the story.
Typical thin-skinned authoritarian, narcissistic stuff.
The man is way, way out of his depth.
I dare the Democrats to try to use reconciliation to pass this. Pulling that stunt will not only fail, but they’ll be punished at the ballot box for even attempting it.
Arrogance Personified: “I Am the President!”
An Open Letter to the President of the United States
February 26, 2010
Dear Mr. President:
I’ve always felt that when you invite someone to your home that you extend more than the basic courtesies to your guests. You offer them a drink, pre-prandials, serve dinner and try to make them comfortable.
Granted, Thursday’s bi-partisan meeting on Obamacare, your Health Care Summit, was not a social event but you were hosting an official gathering of some significance and the most basic proprieties should have been extended to your invited guests.
I beg to inform you that you didn’t do that.
I may disagree with invitees to my home on one or both of those two topics never to be broached in mixed company, politics and religion, which happen to be my favorite topics, but I would never intentionally adopt to myself the role of dominant speaker nor dodge specific questions nor employ a haughty, dismissive tone.
I beg to inform you that you did all that as well.
Most importantly, . . .
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=1525)
Obama has his 50 votes + Biden in the Senate already, and will get his Reconcilliation bill through the House as well. Why am I so sure? Because one of the President’s greatest powers is of appointments. He has a large number of new Judgeships to fill, 2 empty seats on the FRB, and numerous other lesser jobs available. In fact, the only jobs available today are for the Federal Government, and they are all under the President’s control. House members are generally not wealthy, and if a losing Democratic Congressman wants to put food on the table come January, he will have to be on Obi’s good side. If the right deals are made, the 218 is in the bag.
The CFL’s are bad for your eyesight. Flourescent light in general is bad for your eyesight. It causes migranes and even seizures in some people. Ridiculous government meddling needs to be reversed.
Statism? Are you kidding me? What do you call years of republican off the books spending for wars, off the book accounting for tax cuts for their constituents, and complete abdication of responsibility for enforcing regulatory statutes on the books. The US is where it is because the “statists” before Obama were radical, tried untested and unproven methods, and were destroying government infrastructure so the country would in effect go private. Now we are screwed.
An aroma of ineffectiveness afflicts bottom up solutions.
Here’s a cause that the Republicans should take up:
THE WAY to Really Call The Democrats’ Bluff and Save Us in the Process
Barak Obama just wants to give granny a pain killer, not treat her condition. And the state of Oregon would rather assist suicide than give one of its residents cancer treatments/medications.
In response, here’s what we do:
Introduce and pass legislation that would prevent the Federal government, or any of its agencies, from harming us, killing us, or otherwise prevent us from receiving life-preserving treatment, as a matter of its operating any sort of health care system.
Push for a constitutional amendment. Really raise as much stink as possible.
Credit Rose Pappas, senior citizen, Chicago, Illinois.
Let’s get behind this. I have a premium membership with Rush and have already emailed him. If you have access to Glenn Beck and/or Sean Hannity and/or Mark Levin through premium membership, please email them.
Also, if any of you are friends with Congressmen or Senators, please copy them.
70. Paul Nolan:
Now, now, Paul. Don’t go flinging facts around. At PJM that’s like poking a white ape with a stick. They just get angry and frustrated and start talking about guns and planes and federal buildings. Really, best to let them exhaust themselves in their drum circle, then take their car keys and throw them in the lake.
Conservative Boehner vs. Liberal Schumer
There are many characteristics and qualities that distinguish a liberal from a conservative. The most obvious, of course, is the fact that conservatives are almost always correct and liberals are invariably wrong.
That difference pales in significance when contrasted with conservative willingness to confront issues and people when they know they are right as opposed to the liberal’s pusillanimous inclination to avoid issues and run away when they know they are wrong.
We see that liberal tendency all the time in international relations and conflicts.
America witnessed a perfect example of that gutless defeatism in Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s actions re: the Iraq War when he opposed it from the outset, then opposed George Bush’s surge, then denied that the surge turned the tide in that conflict.
After Thursday’s useless Health Care Summit at Blair House, a variation on that cowardly behavior involved Senator Charles “Call-Me-Upchuck” Schumer and Senator Tom Coburn.
It was bad enough when Schumer’s leader, . . .
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=1527)
SCARY……
Is this REALLY our AMERICA??????
Know the TRUTH about the Government Health Care Bill H.R.3200 – Key Points
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HcBaSP31Be8
It’s very interesting to go back and read these posts from before the bill passed. I think much of the negative response to Obama is overblown, but critics are correct in saying he’s not bi-partisan. He has a very clear agenda, and it’s a far-left agenda, and anyone who doesn’t agree with it he leaves behind. There’s no compromise or openness to alternative ideas. Those are just lines.
“You don’t “fundamentally transform” a capitalist country that puts a premium on entrepreneurship and individual liberty without undermining capitalism, innovation, and freedom”
I liked this line most.It puts down whole of the dilemma USA policy makers are facing today.