Get ready for the full implementation of Obamacare. It ain't gonna be pretty.
In Mark Steyn’s brilliant opus on the decline of America and what it means to the average citizen and the world at large, After America, he wrote: “When California goes bankrupt, the Golden State’s woes will be nationalized and shared with the nation at large… It will be as if California and New York have burst their bodices like two corpulent gin-soaked trollops and rolled over the fruited plain to rub bellies at the Mississippi. If you’re underneath, it’s not going to be fun.”
Steyn’s point being that one of the great things about America, at least in its past, is that you could escape the policies of your locale and move to a place more conducive to your way of life. Steyn points out that “universal liberalism would rather deny you that choice,” which leads us to a seemingly unrelated story…
The Problem with Mandates
Unless you’ve been busy colonizing the moon, you’ve likely heard something about the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) mandate recently unearthed in Obamacare that all employers, including faith-based employers, must provide free birth control and abortifacients regardless of their moral objections.
The story has generally morphed into a battle between the Catholic Church and the Obama administration, but this angle misses the bigger and far more important issue. When Nancy Pelosi said we’d have to pass the bill to find out what’s in it, she wasn’t kidding. This mandate is just the tip of the iceberg of all the crap that will be coming down the pike. After all, the damn thing is like 10,000 pages long, filled with exemptions and goodies for the politically connected and all kinds of stuff that will make a routine doctor visit seem like a day at the DMV. In a word, it will be awesome.
While this particular HHS mandate is certainly a First Amendment religious liberty issue, it also distorts an already distorted medical market and more distortion is on the way. The federal government is exacerbating the problem of rising medical costs by forcing insurance companies and employers to cover just about everything. In a truly free market I would have a range of coverage from which to choose.
If I could, I would choose only catastrophic coverage and use a pay-as-you-go system for preventative and general illness doctor visits, but I can’t. Instead, due to mandates of this, that and the other, I have little choice in coverage. It’s either pick the expensive coverage, or the more-expensive coverage because I’m forced to pay through higher rates for someone else’s poor choices, the coverage of which has been mandated.
With birth control and abortifacients, putting aside the moral argument, why the hell am I paying for something that’s readily available and relatively cheap? And, if you can’t afford it, just march yourself down to Planned Parenthood, which I am also subsidizing against my will.
Herein lies the greater philosophical issue of positive versus negative rights. I’m foursquare behind the negative rights philosophy, which is the core of America’s founding. Positive rights, in which the government declares you have rights to things like free medical care, allow the government to dictate how you exercise those rights. And if that’s the case, how are such “rights” really rights?
True liberty is based on the concept that government’s role is to secure the ability to pursue your God-given (not man-given) rights. Negative rights, so called because they restrain government’s interference with the individual, ensure liberty. But progressives are not individualists, believing that the general populace needs to be both controlled and coddled, which flies in the face of America’s founding and its success as the greatest guarantor of individual liberty in the history of the world. Did America emerge as such because it was conceived as a welfare state?
Conservatives believe in the power of the individual to sink or swim based on their own merits and the choices – both good and bad – they make. So, if someone’s so hard up that they can’t buy birth control, is that my fault? Or, is it possible they’ve made poor personal decisions, both financially and morally, that led to them to seek free birth control and abortifacients?
With the HHS mandate, poor choices are rewarded while those of us trying to do the right thing are punished for those poor choices. And so it goes as my betters half a continent away dictate what’s best for me with one-size-fits-all “solutions” I’m forced to accept.
In a more Federalist system where locals rule and make decisions for their community I can get the hell out of Dodge if need be when the local government taxes and regulates me into oblivion. Increasingly, this is no longer the case, as the federal government involves itself ever more intimately in my personal life, taking on a role once reserved for the individual and his or her local government, the proverbial two corpulent gin-soaked trollops rolling over the fruited plain. If you’re underneath that, it’s not going to be fun, unless you have that kind of fetish, as progressives apparently do.
A picture of the Great Depression. The "Great Recession" is a vacation compared to the 1930s. Americans don't know what real poverty is anymore.
There’s a reason why all super prosperous nations crumble. If you look closely at the United States it’s obvious. We’re too rich to care about anything other than the next piece of entertainment. The nation grew for 150 years from the work of people trying to make a better life for themselves and for their families. They were immigrants, religious groups, and risk takers. We now stand on their shoulders. There is no land to conquer. We’re rich and entertained. We have movies, music, books, TV, video games, computers, iPod, iPads, and travel. Even the poor in this country are rich compared to the rest of the world or our ancestors.
In the 1800s, most Americans would never “go on vacation” and the idea of retirement didn’t exist. Over Thanksgiving weekend it’s good to remember how great things are compared to the past. Go to any graveyard that’s older than 100 years. Tombstones are riddled with wives who died in childbirth or of disease. Many young children died of diseases that are completely preventable today. There’s something about the human condition that quashes achievements in order to find new things for which to complain and worry.
Do we really care enough to do anything about the problems our nation is facing? Are we really serious? I’m not so sure. I got to thinking about this after watching the last GOP debate. In the debate Newt Gingrich was asked about Iran and its nuclear ambitions. Gingrich’s answer was obvious:
“We ought to have a massive, all sources energy program in the United States designed to once again create a surplus of energy here,” said Gingrich. “So we could say to the Europeans, pretty cheerfully, that with all the various sources of oil we have in the United States we could literally replace the Iranian oil.”
I don’t think anyone could disagree with his assertion, but the reality is that the United States is incapable of this approach. Good ideas die because of the well funded opposition. We could produce enough oil to satisfy Europe and drive down our gas prices. If we were serious it could be done in a decade. Unfortunately the organized left is philosophically opposed to oil. They believe in the “sustainable energy” fantasy. They believe that the world is warming at unprecedented levels. Neither is true, but liberals in science, government, higher education, and journalism believe that green energy is real.
Thanks to naive liberals in Congress the green energy fantasy has created another dependency group: the big farm industry in the Midwest that loves ethanol subsides. Subsidizing ethanol isn’t green, it’s not good for consumers, and it’s driving up food prices. Why are we doing this? It’s an unholy alliance between the “land of make believe liberals” and farmers who love subsidies. Both groups will fight change until the bitter end.
A similar problem exists on the right with the issues of illegal immigration, Medicare and defense. The list goes on and on. Everyone pays lip service to “change” but don’t you dare touch my Social Security, Medicare, subsidy, tax break, or other pet project. The reality is things aren’t bad enough. We’re in a recession, but the threat of starvation isn’t in the picture. Americans are still looking forward to the next movie, gadget, book, concert, or football game. There’s nothing inherently wrong with any of those things, but as long as Americans are consumed by the next distraction there will never be any serious reform.
Most Americans can’t name their senators or representative in Congress, but they can name their favorite TV show, movie, musician, book, or sports star. Sure, Americans have opinions on energy, war, and taxation, but it’s not much more than talking points they heard on TV. Hey, I’m not indicting anyone. I’m as guilty of distraction as the average American, but I don’t see how the current society can rise to the call. In 2008, the left had a religious experience around Barack Obama and they best he could muster was ObamaCare? That’s the great cause on the left? A nation on the brink of bankruptcy and all they have is another entitlement?
The answer to the United States’ problems isn’t a new leader. The current occupant of the White House is clueless, but he’s as clueless as the people he represents. The American people are the ones that need to wake up. The smartest man in the world could be elected next year and it won’t solve the problem with apathy.
It’s no secret that I don’t like Eugene Robinson. He’s an opinion writer for the Washington Post who never analyzes his opinions. Robinson is a simple liberal with simple arguments. The rich should be taxed more simply because the government needs more revenue. It’s maddening how shallow liberals are about politics and economics. They’re like sports fans. You can’t convince someone not to be a Red Sox fan.
Today Eugene Robinson is all over Herman Cain. It’s great day to do it. Politico ran a story today about alleged sexual harassment. It’s the type of story you would never see on a Democrat running for president, but since Cain is a black man running for the GOP nomination, and one of the front runners to boot, all bets are off.
Cain’s policy positions range from the ignorant to the unworkable to the just plain goofy — and yet he is running first or second in most polls for the Republican presidential nomination. He trumpets his utter lack of government experience as a selling point and boasts of not knowing foreign leaders’ names. If through some bizarre series of events he were actually elected president, the result would surely be an unmitigated disaster.
Hmm, if a vastly unqualifed person was elected president “the result would surely be an unmitigated disaster.” Eugene Robinson just explained why electing Barack Obama in 2008 was such a bad idea. Robinson hasn’t thought that far ahead (or behind for that matter). Robinson characterizes Cain’s ideas as “ignorant,” “unworkable,” and “just plain goofy.” This is coming from someone who supported ObamaCare and the President’s stimulus bill. Robinson is an expert at supporting inexperienced candidates and unworkable legislation. I guess Cain’s ideas are horrible simply because Robinson believes there are. Amazing!
The greatest causality in the information age is rational thinking. Paul Krugman gets a pass for his hypocritical ravings because he won a Nobel prize in economics for his work in new trade theory. Apparently winning the prize 30 years ago means he can say whatever he wants, and we’re supposed to believe its gospel. I’m not sure why we’re supposed to take Eugene Robinson seriously, but sadly too many people read his crap and think it’s logical.
This picture got me thinking. How many babies will Romney have to see over the next 16 months?
The only thing more annoying than a politician announcing the formation of an exploratory committee is the inevitable announcement they’re running for president. Today Mitt Romney declared his candidacy for presidency. If you’re anything like me you didn’t know he wasn’t already running. He’s been running since he endorsed McCain in 2008.
Romney’s biggest challenge to secure the GOP nomination is RomneyCare. ObamaCare is toxic and Romney’s greatest legislative achievement while he was governor of Massachusetts was a healthcare overhaul suspiciously like ObamaCare, and almost as crappy.
RomneyCare isn’t working and Romney won’t distance himself from it. I’m not sure how Romney runs a successful race with this albatross. The one thing Romney has going for him is that he’s the safe choice. If no other candidate comes forward that captures the imagination of GOP voters Romney suddenly becomes the John Kerry candidate.
Being the next John Kerry isn’t much to get excited about, but if the economy continues to drag on into next year Obama faces a very difficult reelection. If the economy gets worse Obama could be facing an electoral disaster. Simply securing the GOP nomination may be enough to get in the White House. It will be interesting to see if this week’s bad economic data forces some potential candidates to rethink their 2012 strategy.
Mitt Romney is the candidate no one really loves, but the candidate everyone might settle for if there’s no other choice.
Please Don’t Panic: I’m happy that Homeland Security had gotten rid of the confusing color coded terrorism alert system. It was always a bit of a farce. The new big idea is to send a mass text message to those who are in harm’s way.
A new national alert system is set to begin in New York City that will alert the public to emergencies via cell phones. It’s called the Personal Localized Alert Network or PLAN. Presidential and local emergency messages as well as Amber Alerts would appear on cell phones equipped with special chips and software.
Ah yes, I can see it now. Can you just image the chaos if the government sends a mass text to everyone riding the subway in New York? It would be a huge panic scene. I’m very interested to see how this works. Right now it seems like a good way to start a stampede. Why not just send a mass text to the entire nation that says “FIRE! RUN LIKE HELL!!” This clip below from Seinfeld is how I imagine the system working
Allies? It’s bad enough that Pakistan has nukes and that the nation is full of Islamic fundamentalists. Now they’re thinking about cooperating with the Chinese on the downed helicopter we left after the Osama Bin Laden raid. Apparently the United States’ helicopters are equipped with some kind of anti-detection technology. Obviously China is interested in getting their hands on the technology.
I’m confused as to what the United States policy is on Pakistan. They didn’t help us find Osama Bin Laden after 10 years and we had to invade their nation to take him out without authorization. The U.S. was afraid that someone in the Pakistan government would tip Osama before we got there. It’s been a bad PR week for Pakistan. Handing over this helicopter to the Chinese isn’t going to help things.
RomneyCare/ObamaCare 2012: Mitt Romney is set to give a speech tomorrow on the issue of health care. Romney hasn’t backed down from the health care reform he passed in Massachusetts while he was governor. Going into 2012 this is a huge problem for Romney because RomneyCare looks a lot like ObamaCare. Plus, RomneyCare is having all kind of problems in Massachusetts (shocking).
It doesn’t appear as though Romney is going to back away from his legislative failure. In other words, his candidacy is dead on arrival. President Obama’s most significant legislative achievement is a dismal failure and a dramatic overreach by the federal government. If it’s not overturned by the courts voters are going to going to have it abolished. I’m not sure how Romney can dance around this problem.
Religion of Peace News: Mark Steyn over at The Corner points out the absurdity of the mainstream press when it comes to covering crimes by Islamic extremists.
A 28-year old Yemeni man boards a flight to San Francisco in Chicago, and shortly before landing charges the cockpit while shouting “Allahu Akbar!” Authorities say they “do not yet have a motive.”
By the way, this is from the evil FOX News network. It should be pointed out that when Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords was tragically shot a few months ago the press had no problem attaching Sarah Palin to the story. When Jared Lee Loughner started shooting he didn’t yell “you betcha” or “for Palin.” Over the last twenty years the list of attacks that started with “Allahu Akbar!” are too numerous to mention, but the press can’t speculate on a motive unless it’s Sarah Palin.
This is non-breaking news: Mitt Romney is running for president… again. Today he announced he’s launching an exploratory committee. I’m not sure what he has to explore since he ran four years ago. There’s something very inevitable about this candidacy… John Kerry if you will.
The video isn’t quite as exciting as Tim Pawlenty’s visual masterpiece. I voted for Mitt Romney during the 2008 Florida primary. How bad was the field for the GOP in 2008? Romney was the best choice available.
In 2012, I’m not sure Romney has a chance. Things have changed. ObamaCare looms over the political landscape like a steaming pile of dung. Romney greatest political accomplishment is passing RomneyCare in Massachusetts. Much to the surprise of no one it hasn’t worked. For whatever reason Romney has refused to distance himself from it and thus it sits as the proverbial albatross around his proverbial neck.
If Romney is the GOP’s best choice for a second consecutive election cycle then President Obama really is the luckiest man alive.
So it begins… President Obama is kicking off his bid for reelection. The first priority is to get the grassroots fired up. What is going to be Obama’s campaign theme? His presidency has been a failure by almost any measure. The only thing he’s delivered is ObamaCare and even the few people who still support it admit it has to be reformed. Here’s his grassroots video.
In my lifetime there hasn’t been a President as disorganized or so devoid of leadership. I like President Obama, but the last three years have proven he’s not up for the job. His only hope now is that the business cycle saves his presidency. I’m not sure that will even do it. If the President was serious about the economy he wouldn’t have pushed another new entitlement down our throats. He’s had three years to develop an energy policy and has failed. He’s has three years to reduce wasteful spending and has failed.
What is Obama’s big idea? In 2008, he didn’t have one. His campaign was about “change” or as Club Soda put it in 2008 “nothing.” President Obama might be able to convince enough people that the status quo is enough to get reelected, but that says more about the electorate than it does about the man. It’s been four years of flowery speeches and missed opportunities for the President. He doesn’t deserve more time.
The Democrats did a masterful job of deception doing last year’s health care books. They used bizzaro math and rigged scenarios to get the CBO to punch of the numbers they wanted. At the time those who weren’t willfully ignorant realized every talking point the left used to justify passing ObamaCare was based on fantasy.
Yesterday Rep. John Campbell asked CBO director Douglas Elmendorf about this claim:
“It’s about jobs. In it’s life, it [the health bill] will create 4 million jobs — 400,000 jobs almost immediately.” – Nancy Pelosi February 25, 2010
How does this claim hold up?
Campbell: You just mentioned that you believe—or that in your estimate, that the health-care law would reduce the labor used in the economy by about one half of one percent. Given that, I believe you say, there’s 160 million full-time people working in 2021, that means that, in your estimation, the health-care law would reduce employment by 800,000 in 2021. Is that correct?Elmendorf: Yes. The way I would put it is that we do estimate, as you said, that household employment will be about 160 million by the end of the decade. Half a percent of that is 800,000.
Oops! ObamaCare is probably going to be repealed one way or the other. For President Obama he’s probably better off if the courts do the job before his reelection. There’s just no possible way to defend his chief legislative monstrosity. It was passed in the most deceitful way imaginable. The White House lied about the bill before and after and Americans are still upset by the process.
The United States Constitution is a wonderful document. Part of the reason it’s been so successful over the past two centuries is because it’s easy to understand. Well, it’s easy for some people. On the left it’s a little more difficult to understand because they want the Constitution to mean different things. The right to privacy is a great example. Another good example is the Establishment Clause, which the left still doesn’t understand and continues to refer to as the “separation of church and state,” though it clearly does not say that.
Ezra Klein took to the Washington Post today to do what every good liberal does… call Republicans stupid.
In reality, the tea party — like most everyone else — is less interested in living by the Constitution than in deciding what it means to live by the Constitution. When the constitutional disclaimers at the bottom of bills suit them, they’ll respect them. When they don’t — as we’ve seen in the case of the individual mandate — they won’t.
This is part of Klein’s reaction to the future of ObamaCare. Wouldn’t his time be better spent discussing how the President of the United States sold his bill. While Obama was trying to pass his colossal Heath Care overhaul he took to the airwaves and said that the mandate wasn’t a tax. Now that the mandate is tied up in courts for Constitutional reasons, the Obama administration is arguing that the mandate is a tax. The President and his cronies are hypocrites of the highest order, but all Klein can whine about is the confusing Constitution. He also took his cringe-inducing argument to the echo chamber over at MSNBC. The Right Scoop has all the details, but here’s an excerpt of what Klein had to say on MSNBC:
The issue with the Constitution is not that people don’t read the text and think they’re following it. The issue with the Constitution is that the text is confusing because it was written more than a hundred years ago.
This issue here isn’t that the right is stupid; it’s that the left doesn’t get it. The Constitution is a protection from the government. The Constitution wasn’t created to be a Toys R’ Us of guaranteed benefits (I don’t want to grow up, etc., etc.). Free speech is a right that was given to us by our Creator, not by some bureaucrat. Having a place to eat and sleep is important as well, but those are the responsibilities of the people, not the state. What we have now is a government that increasingly takes care of everything. That’s not in the Constitution, and the left wants to blame stupid Republicans and the Constitution for being too old.
There was a darn good reason the Founders didn’t want the state to take care of every one of life’s inconveniences. Their wisdom about the dangers of an ever-growing and intrusive centralized federal government, clearly communicated in the Constitution, are being borne out in places like Greece and California.
Election season is almost over. I can’t wait until I can turn on the TV without the constant barrage of television campaign advertisements. I have seen three ads so far this season that have taken the cake. The first one I have paid for indirectly and against my will. Evidently the White House is using tax funds to air a series of propaganda ads about ObamaCare. They even have a celebrity endorsement. Good old senile Andy Griffith tells senior citizen the new health care “reform” bill is good. Come taste the government approved, poll tested kool-aid.
Imagine if Bush used tax funds to run a series of Social Security ads? The list of outrageous spending by the Democrats is endless. I can’t even keep up with it all, but this ad is especially terrible because is so blatantly erroneous. I thought the Andy Griffith ad was as bad as it gets until I saw this little gem:
This should be called “to hell with my grandchildren.” This ad is ripe for parody. The ad is for Congressman Mike McIntyre who is considered a “blue dog” Democrat. He’s served seven terms and won the last election with nearly 69% of the vote. The NC 7 race is one of the most bitterly contested House elections in the United States. Polls are showing a dead heat so I guess it’s not surprising McIntyre is trying to use scare tactics against his opponent Ilario Pantano. Who knew that Pantano had the power to privatize Social Security? Does anyone actually believe the Republicans have the guts to push that?
As far as the advertisement itself the entitlement mentality is alive and well. These seniors don’t seem to give a damn that “their money” is way more than they paid in and also bankrupting their grandchildren. Damn, that pyramid scheme is nice when you’re going to die before the economic reckoning.
The final television ad comes from our good friends up North. I think this one speaks for itself:
Now that’s a great ad. I’ll never forget it, but I’m not sure I can hate on a guy for accidentally kicking a kid in the face. The face kicking shot is almost like a twist ending. I wonder if M. Night Shyamalan directed the advertisement. The only way to top this ad would to be showing a politician punching a baby in the face.
Recent Comments