Another Health Care Bill "Told Ya So!"

CBO:  Health Care Bill Will Cost $115 Billion More Than Previously Assessed

This news comes from the last reporter in America, Jake Tapper, bravely doing the job that the rest of the American press just won't do.

CBO had originally estimated that the health care reform bill would result in a net reduction in federal deficits of $143 billion from 2010-2019; this revised number would eliminate most of that savings.

This is just the tip of the iceberg.  Add in "Doc Fix" (paying doctors a decent reimbursement rate) and they've exploded the deficit further.

How many more financial landmines lurk just below the surface?  Democrats have proven themselves irresponsible and unfit for governing.  They are following the European model.  Anybody notice which way the welfare states of Europe are heading?  It ain't up...

The Great Divider

"We will fundamentally change America."
-- Barack Obama

President Obama will go down as the most divisive president in American history.  He makes Bush like like a Kumbaya campfire counselor. 

Now that Bart Stupak has sold out, here's what's on the horizon:

$ Energy market shakedown:  Cap and Trade
$ Democratic Party voter program:  Immigration Reform
$ Democratic vote buying disguised as "Education Reform"
$ Another "Stimulus" to reward Democratic constituencies 

Oh yeah, American. With this health care success, the Dems have their mojo back! A strong wind is in their sails and they'll use this momentum to steamroll their way to transforming America into their liberal utopia, just as candidate Obama promised.

And get used to the racist insults.  They will only increase as the Democrats continue dividing us and pitting us against one another.

Goose Stepping Towards Gomorrah

Sinclair Lewis (no relation to C.S. Lewis) has been misquoted as saying something like "if fascism comes to America it will come wrapped in the flag and whistling 'The Star Spangled Banner.'"  Liberals have been repeating it ever since.

Who thought it would come riding on a donkey?  

But seriously, the democrats are not fascists, and Lewis' sentiment doesn't apply anymore, since the US populace is no longer as susceptible to patriotic or religious appeals, and thank God for that.  Have any two ideals been more abused by politicians?  Nowadays, fascism would have to be wrapped in hundred dollar bills, porn, botox and free stuff for all.

Here's a more appropriate quote from a different Lewis:

"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. 

It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. 

The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience."
-- C.S. Lewis

It's About Ideas--Republicans just happen to be on the right side this time

For three straight days I've attacked Democrats, and this after I proudly told some liberal bloggers I respect that I don't engage in partisan political arguments, I'm about ideas.  Well, this is about ideas.

Shall we be free to make our own choices and live our own lives, free even to fail?  Or will we allow a nanny state government to infest every last corner of our lives?

They are not Nazis

A commenter yesterday obliquely accused me of calling Democrats Nazis, but I'm not doing that at all.  Despite the Leni Reifenstahl propaganda and public displays that border on deification of Obama, it is not appropriate.  Obama is not Hitler and the Democratic party in no way resembles his horrible ideology.

It's Not Socialism

Obama's coterie includes some socialists and Chairman Mao fans, but they are not implementing socialism or communism either.  This despite the cult of personality, the artwork and the iconography.  Socialism dictates that the state seize the means of production.  They are not doing that.

 It's Called STATISM

They are statists.  Statism does not advocate seizing the means of production, but rather using the power of the state to manipulate them.  This leads to crony capitalism where companies curry favor with a corrupt political class that routinely milks them for money to pay for voter freebees.  In return, favored companies are allowed to make money in a rigged market while calling themselves capitalists.

Statism is better known as fascism, but that is a European concept that rightly conjures ugly, murderous thugs.  ACORN and SEIU aside, it doesn't fit here, so I prefer to call them statists.  And there are plenty in the GOP as well, they just don't have any power right now. 

Statism includes:

 

* Grab the corporations by the throat and challenge them: You're either with the state or you're against us!

* Drastic decrease in strikes--The state is looking after the worker now. Unions are only allowed to march on companies the state has declared evil.  The federal government, through a Department of Labor, intimidates uncooperative businesses to get in line
 

* Central control by the state of everything, from schools, to commerce to public health.
 

* Manipulation of societal institutions such as church, family and community

Our government bears all of these marks, and it's only getting worse.  

I put Soviet hats on Democrats not because I think they are communists, but because they have come to resemble a Soviet Politburo, binding all states together tightly, snuffing all differences and applying top-down, one-size-fits-all solutions that vast majorities do not want.

Call it what you want, but it doesn't look American.

Democrat BS and Fantasy-Based Rhetoric is Wearing Thin

David Broder counts the ways the Republicans are beating the Democrats in the health care debate. Poll after poll shows a public overwhelmingly simpatico with GOP ideas. Obama's latest foray didn't help matters. He looked more like a Chicago ward boss than President of the United States.

The major dem talking point that rankles me is how this multi-trillion spendfest is "deficit neutral." I understand political talking points, but the press used to throw the BS flag at such flagrant abuse of the truth.

The other issue I see getting completely distorted is cost versus availability. This is not Broder's sin, he is merely reporting on the one area where Dems have a slight but eroding advantage:

Another basic difference was highlighted by Obama when he contrasted the 3 million uninsured Americans who might get coverage from the main Republican alternative bill with the 31 million made eligible for insurance by the Democrats. (David Broder - WaPo)

I we can make it cost less through market forces, won't that in turn make it available to people who previously could not afford it? Isn't that the goal, to make it affordable so people can be self-sufficient?

The Democratic party and its hordes of supplicant voters reminds me of a dysfunctional relationship between a mama and her grown-up child who can't cut the apron strings.

Dems on a Greased Rail to Hell

Why are Democrats determined to pass health care that voters don't want?

Conservative Ed Morrissey does an excellent job explaining why Democrats are still trying to pass a grossly expensive, highly unpopular health care bill despite opposition from a clear majority of Americans.  It actually makes political sense, in a liberally twisted kind of way.   

Here are a few excerpts, but I highly recommend you read the entire article.

Quoting Andrew McCarthy:

They know America doesn't want this, but they've factored that in already

I hear Republicans getting giddy over the fact that “reconciliation,” if it comes to that, is a huge political loser. That’s the wrong way to look at it.

The Democratic leadership has already internalized the inevitablility of taking its political lumps. That makes reconciliation truly scary.

Since the Dems know they will have to ram this monstrosity through, they figure it might as well be as monstrous as they can get wavering Democrats to go along with.

It's about power and control

Dems know Republicans will not be able to dismantle the monstrous bureaucratic beast (and the hundreds of thousands of government positions that go with it) once they get it in place.

They want socialized medicine and all it entails about government control even more than they want to win elections.

After all, if the party of government transforms the relationship between the citizen and the state, its power over our lives will be vast even in those cycles when it is not in the majority.

This is about power, and there is more to power than winning elections, especially if you’ve calculated that your opposition does not have the gumption to dismantle your ballooning welfare state.

Still, it's not a done deal

They will put their heads down and go for as much transformation as they can get, figuring that once they get it, it will never be rolled back.

The only question is whether there are enough Democrats who are conventional politicians and who care about being reelected, such that they will deny the leadership the numbers it needs.

Gotta give the Dems Credit.  Unlike Republicans, they are willing to go down in flames for their political convictions:

Dennis Prager Agrees:

Most people on the Left are True Believers. This is critical to understand. They are willing to lose Congress; Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid are prepared to lose both houses to get this through.

Why? Because losing an election cycle means nothing compared to taking over more of the American economy.

Wouldn't it be great to have some true believers on the conservative side?

* - DISCLAIMER:  I do not think the democrats are nazis, just your garden variety North American statists.  I just think this picture from The People's Cube is incredibly funny, and quite apropos, nazi references aside.