Monday, March 22, 2010

The End of the Beginning

This story from the MSM about the passage tonight of the gargantuan health care bill that no one has read in full, has collected over 73,000 comments in a few hours. A cursory look through a few pages shows most people to be unhappy with the news.

Till now we have been nailed to two unsustainable entitlement programs: Social Security and Medicare. Obama & Co. have just added a third: “universal” health care. It’s beyond sad for those of us who know that small government creates a healthy economy and legislation like this creates cancerous government growth where neither wealth is created nor health needs are addressed with any robust programs.

This will be efficient, compassionate health care in the same way that the Post Office is efficient and courteous in its mail delivery…you do remember that cost-cutting for the United States Post Office includes the closing of post offices on Saturday, right? They’re going to run Emergency Rooms the same way. UPS allows you to track your packages. The US Postal Service doesn't know how and isn't planning to learn. They don't have to care, and neither will the government health care.

Ask the “Native” Americans. Many of them have enough oil and casino money now to buy their own health care so they're ignoring what the Great White Father provides. Care so lousy and underfunded that monies to keep it in business never last a whole fiscal year. They sure tried to tell us not to buy this plan, lots of Greek choruses of "Youlll Bee Sorrryyy..." but when did politicians ever listen to Indians?

Our Congressional representative, who votes for these gargantuan government grabs, admitted recently that they’re stealing from us:


[If the video won't play, hit the You Tube connection, bottom right on the screen]

This cramming down our throats of a bill most Americans don’t want may have stalled the conservative energy for the moment, but it’s going to be a very long, very warm season between now and November. You can expect to see a lot of campaigning against legislators like Periello who grow government in spite of the stated wishes of the majority of their constituents.
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In the meantime, we have to be concerned about whether this will give these lawmakers big ideas about passing Cap and Tax in the Senate or ginning up another “stimulus” that provides more government jobs. For sure, this “insurance” program insures only the death of more small businesses and the loss of more revenue by the federal government. We will have higher taxes and fewer services or jobs. Plus inflation out the ying yang. And that's the good news.

We are seeing America’s bond rate drop in the face of our huge debt. Yet these crazy people keep piling it on. If we were members of the EU, we’d be ahead of Greece. Instead, our various sovereign states are already bringing the US government into Federal Court, questioning the constitutionality of some parts of this “overhaul”.

In the emails today came a chart from the blog Charlie Foxtrot, showing our debt after Obama finishes us off. It’s pretty appalling.

Debt tidal wave

This chart is part of a larger work [pdf] from Congressional Representative Paul Ryan. I suggest going to the last page on that pdf and enlarging it so you can see the engorgement of bureaucracy contained within the bill. He calls it 159 Ways the Senate Bill is a Government Takeover of Health Care. If anyone knows of a more legible copy of this last page, please let me know. It’s an image in its present form and even though you can enlarge it a great deal, it’s still hard to read.

Ryan’s alternative suggestions to the unpalatable and indigestible mess which just landed on our plate demonstrate his strength, which is economics. Far too many politicians are lawyers and it shows. Far too many come from within the revolving room of the Political Class who move from government to oh, maybe media or academia or Wall Street or lobbyist firms and then back to either appointed or elective office. Little Timmy Geithner is the most current example of this kind of government personage. Can’t pay his own tax bills, but he’s the Secretary of our Treasury.

Ryan is from a small town in Wisconsin. He went to a private school but not one of the Ivies. He’s smart, savvy, and articulate. In a debate, he could hand President Obama his lunch.

Instapundit has a good link to Dan Riehl, with a take-home quote:

DAN RIEHL: “You may have to wait for the GOP’s new Fire Pelosi site to open. It’s that jammed and donations are pouring in. . . . And we will win in the end. Too many solid citizens were already up in arms, taking to the streets before this. Those numbers will not shrink. They will grow exponentially. As the saying goes, this is not the beginning of the end. It is the end of the beginning.”

Indeed. However necessary it is to get rid of this woman, we must also be ready with people who give us hope for the future.

Representative Ryan gives me hope. Our district’s rep, the Yale lawyer Periello, does not engender the same feelings. In fact, I will meet with pleasure tomorrow the first person who has presented himself as a challenger to the Honorable Mr. Periello. And in the coming months, all the electorate in our district will be meeting other candidates, searching for someone to replace what we have. As I told Periello in writing, I haven’t ever gotten out and campaigned for anyone before. However, given his voting record, I will campaign for Daffy Duck if I must. In other words, anyone who will rid us of this problematic politician who thinks that the only solution to his tenure is for citizens to stop him and his confreres before they steal again.

The Baron says “Repeal It or Feel It”. Of course they won’t repeal it. They’re socialists and they want to impose that view on a center-right electorate. So they’ll feel it: the ones who don’t decide to strategically retire into lobbying or gobbling up some state money at an institution of higher learning are going to be walking on red hot coals through the next election cycle.

Despite this horrid experience, I have hope for the system still. Yes, it’s broken, but it’s not beyond repair. Americans want self-governance, not a handout. In that sense, this new law is most un-American. There hasn't been anything this bad since Lyndon Johnson's huge and ill-considered campaign to "end" poverty. What he did was enlarge the underclass and destroy families. Sure, he meant well. But his pork barrel politics frayed a large part of our social fabric and with government in the way there does not appear to be any way to mend it.

Never again. Not this time. They will not succeed.

24 comments:

PatriotUSA said...

All I can say is that we call this
coming November, "Bloody November."
I am just so pissed off
I am leaving for 24 hours from any
further posts or comments. Joining
many other bloggers in doing this.

Dymphna said...

Can't say I blame you. The feeling of betrayal is immense for many people.

But spend some time reading the good blogs. It'll give you (and me) some perspective.

You have the triple whammy of this bill and the stupidity of your state referenda, designed to drive out businesses, raise taxes, and leave your state poorer. Of course the pensions for the govt workers will be more secure...but you have to wonder, when do they become pariahs in their neighbors' eyes, when will the word job description "teacher in a govt school" become something shameful to admit to?

If we don't recoup our ability to self-govern, folks like that will be in social trouble.

EscapeVelocity said...

This is Leftwing nirvana.

It promotes all of their broad goals and agendas simultaneously.

Dymphna said...

Nirvana? Indeed.

However, there are lots of people who understand what johnson's well-intentioned nirvana wrought. We won't go as easily into that good night again...

...people are taking a breath before they jump back into the fray. We may not prevail entire, but we will roll back some of the worst of it.

I am heartened that my own state -ahead of the vote -- has already appealed to the judiciary to find some parts of this bill unconstitutional. Lots of it is, but it's good to start somewhere.

Anonymous said...

It was just the import of 10 million illegal (illiterate) immigrants that caused this law :-(

heroyalwhyness said...

Feds Move to Break Voting-Machine Monopoly
Citing anti-competitive concerns, the Justice Department sued Election Systems & Software in order to force the company to divest itself of the voting machine assets it obtained from Premier Election Solutions last year.

The department’s antitrust division, along with nine state attorneys general, filed the civil antitrust lawsuit (.pdf) in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., charging that the acquisition threatened competition. The department proposed a settlement that, if accepted, would dissolve the merger and force ES&S to sell its Premier business to a buyer approved by the Justice Department.

“The proposed settlement (.pdf) will restore competition, provide a greater range of choices and create incentives to provide secure, accurate and reliable voting-equipment systems now and in the future,” said Molly S. Boast, deputy assistant attorney general for the antitrust division in a statement.

The nine states that joined the suit are Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Mexico, Tennessee and Washington.


read the rest at the link

Anthony said...

I opposed the bill for fiscal and philisophical reasons, but can we all get a bit of perspective please? We are talking about a fiscal and government boondoggle, not the Enabling Act here.

Ex-Dissident said...

what will these looters enact to protect themselves from us?

Baron Bodissey said...

Ex-Dissident --

I'd say, at a guess, statutes to ensure voting machines that are compliant with their wishes.

Papa Whiskey said...

Dymphna --

I must respectfully take issue with your use of the term "Native Americans" in referring to the tribal peoples whose ancestors migrated across the Bering land bridge long ago. This usage is a verbal construction of race-shaming Marxists, intended to convince native Americans such as myself -- who were born here, whose fathers were born here, and whose forefathers were born here -- that they somehow do not belong here because their ancestors came from Europe instead of Eastern Siberia. I not only reject this PC verbal convention, I scorn it -- and urge you to do likewise. (If the inaccurate but longstanding term "Indian" grates, use "tribal people" or simply "tribals.")

Baron Bodissey said...

Papa W --

"Indigenes" and "autochthons" are out, for the same reason. "Aboriginals" would be good, except the Indians weren't the first ones here. Their migratory wave supplanted the earliest settlers, a genetically distinct group that arrived here 10-20k years earlier. If I remember correctly, the "Folsom Man" is a fossil representing the real aboriginals.

The only true, identifiable aboriginals in the world that I know of are the Australian aborigenes. They were the first humans to settle Australia, about 60,000 years ago. The rest of us -- even the Irish! -- are descendants of racist genocidal invaders who supplanted someone who arrived earlier.

Eskimos may be another aboriginal group, but I'm not sure about that one. Also maybe the Basques.

Unknown said...

As someone has already said on another blog; they won the battle but not the war. Even if this bill passes unscathed through the Senate, there are all those lawsuits by the states and a possible constitutional challenge. This isn't over yet.

EscapeVelocity said...

I strongly disapprove of those who are intolerant of other peoples culture, and the Dutch!

Anonymous said...

I haven't been following this issue very thoroughly. Can anyone point me to a reasonably synthetic link, which would take into account the arguments of both sides ?

Dymphna said...

Gerard-

That's why this is just the first act of a long drama complete with alarums and exits stage left. IOW, it is the end of the beginning.

====

Anthony--

We've already had two "Enabling Acts" that mandate unsustainable pay outs. This one is another. And if you don't get that then you haven't been reading the bill, have you?

Want some "perspective"? Look at the chart image from Rep. Ryan's briefing on the effects of this 'health' 'care' 'plan'. Ryan has the correct perspective.

No one is being hysterical here, just determined to roll back as much of this harm as possible. Otherwise we will look like Big Greece in oh, about 5 years.

I don't understand your scolding tone, and I sure don't get your "perspective"...I suggest you read up on the effects of the last large government gobble, i.e., Johnson's "War on Poverty".

The effects of that legislation are still with us and they continue to degrade our culture a little further every year. We have a much larger underclass than we'd ever have had if they'd done incremental legislation. Or if they'd simply done nothing and gave folks a chance to catch up on their own.

This horrible bill will cripple small businesses. If you owned one or were employed by one, perhaps you'd have a clue as to the radical damage that lies ahead. Small business is the spine of this country and that backbone has just been steam-rollered by the Political Class.

Johnson's legislation eventually played out into failed cities like Detroit. And the Feds are busy eating up the remains of that war zone. It is the American version of Chernobyl...large tracts of wasteland that can't be put to any good use so the mayor is going to raze the lead-painted, asbestos-filled abandoned buildings. In their place he's going to plant trees and flowers. Sure can't plant anything one could eat; the land is contaminated.

What part of "disaster" don't you understand?

Dymphna said...

Papa Whiskey: I used "Native American" because it was the easiest phrase for the sentence. As you know there are two meanings for "Indian". I wanted to be clear I wasn't talking about the other one. However, to make it clearer, I've just added scare quotes to "Native".

Most American Indians prefer the appellation "Indian" and they dislike the pc move to erase them by removing their names and symbols from our culture in the usual short-sighted pc language contortions.

However, have you noticed that the p.c. thinkers don't engage with the subjects of their beneficence? At least not with anyone who isn't already under the p.c. thrall. The latter are themselves engaged in the money-making scams such professional grievance attitudes provide.

===
Escape Velocity -

Hey, that goes double for the Dutch. Or maybe we should pick on Austria instead. Always good for a sucker punch, those Austrians.

dienw said...

Pop quiz:

How many generations or thousands of years passed before the Mongolian immigrants became "Native Americans" instead of racist, genocidal invaders?

Proud Infidel said...

An excellent post, Dymphna. As bummed out as I am over the passage of the health debacle, I find myself energized for the fight ahead. Those of us who love our country can't afford to give up. This is only one battle in the larger war, hopefully the State Attorney Generals planning to file suit against Obamacare will succeed. But what ever we do we musn't give up, otherwise the Communists will have won. Resistance isn't futile, it's mandatory and neccesary.

And remember, come November we vote the Commiecrats OUT!

no2liberals said...

"The only true, identifiable aboriginals in the world that I know of are the Australian aborigenes."
Baron, there are Filipino aboriginals known as negritos.

Dymphna, excellent post on a horrible subject. This attempt to plunge us into the dark abyss of socialism will be met with much resistance, and if all legal remedies fail, non-compliance.
Pondering the pending vote yesterday, I was reminded of a post from last year at another blog, Russia’s Appalling Soviet Medical Legacy, as well as an article by Milton Freidman.
For a look at the numbers, my friend John Goodman at the NCPA posted this today.
Stay fired up and purposeful, it is less than eight months til the elections.

mace said...

Dymphna,

I wouldn't presume to comment on America's internal politics.However, as a general observation(from a perspective outside the US)it's difficult to understand the strong objections,of many Americans, to more government intervention in your health system.
Most Western countries developed national medical systems generations ago and spend much lower percentages of their GDPs on health than the USA and usually with better overall health outcomes for their populations. Is your objection to Obama's scheme- (1)ideological, in the sense that the government has no business interferring in citizens' health decisions,ie outcomes are not relevant, or (2)motivated by current budget considerations?

The Observer said...

I don’t believe Americans in general are outraged by this new bill. Remember that Obama had this as an election campaign promise and no matter how you twist and turn it he did get the majority vote in the last presidential election. As in regards to the American people strongly rejecting this bill because of the financial repercussions on the American economy, the same thing can be said about the invasion of Iraq which is rumoured to cost the American taxpayers nearly 3 trillion dollars. Wasn’t the decision to invade Iraq also a decision which was unfairly placed on the American taxpayer’s shoulders? I’m sure that a large proportion of Americans are/were equally opposed to this war just as some Americans are opposed to the introduction of this new health bill. It works both ways doesn’t it? Only time will tell if this is going to ruin the American economy or not. Sure a lot of people are coming up with a lot of different financial predictions, but unless you’re in the possession of a crystal ball and you have the ability to look into the future these are only speculations. A judgement can only be passed on this bill after it has been implemented and up and running for a couple of years.

EscapeVelocity said...

I just wanted to say, that Im pro reforms in health care insurance and delivery. However, what we got was a big gigantic nonsensical turd. We could have had 10 to 20 great reforms...

like these...

 Remove the legal obstacles that slow the creation of high-deductible health insurance plans and health savings accounts (HSAs). The combination of high-deductible health insurance and HSAs is one solution that could solve many of our health-care problems. For example, Whole Foods Market pays 100% of the premiums for all our team members who work 30 hours or more per week (about 89% of all team members) for our high-deductible health-insurance plan. We also provide up to $1,800 per year in additional health-care dollars through deposits into employees' Personal Wellness Accounts to spend as they choose on their own health and wellness.

Money not spent in one year rolls over to the next and grows over time. Our team members therefore spend their own health-care dollars until the annual deductible is covered (about $2,500) and the insurance plan kicks in. This creates incentives to spend the first $2,500 more carefully. Our plan's costs are much lower than typical health insurance, while providing a very high degree of worker satisfaction.

• Equalize the tax laws so that employer-provided health insurance and individually owned health insurance have the same tax benefits. Now employer health insurance benefits are fully tax deductible, but individual health insurance is not. This is unfair.

• Repeal all state laws which prevent insurance companies from competing across state lines. We should all have the legal right to purchase health insurance from any insurance company in any state and we should be able use that insurance wherever we live. Health insurance should be portable.

• Repeal government mandates regarding what insurance companies must cover. These mandates have increased the cost of health insurance by billions of dollars. What is insured and what is not insured should be determined by individual customer preferences and not through special-interest lobbying.

• Enact tort reform to end the ruinous lawsuits that force doctors to pay insurance costs of hundreds of thousands of dollars per year. These costs are passed back to us through much higher prices for health care.

• Make costs transparent so that consumers understand what health-care treatments cost. How many people know the total cost of their last doctor's visit and how that total breaks down? What other goods or services do we buy without knowing how much they will cost us?

• Enact Medicare reform. We need to face up to the actuarial fact that Medicare is heading towards bankruptcy and enact reforms that create greater patient empowerment, choice and responsibility.

EscapeVelocity said...

Those are from John Mackey, CEO of the posh organic and hippie granola green Whole Foods Grocery Stores.

I might add another, in concert with the Tort Reform, the expansion of the use of lessor trained primary care givers, Registered Nurses as practicing health care providers, that sort of thing.

EscapeVelocity said...

A Canadian crows in a letter to the editor of the New York Times:

-----

Congratulations on a historic moment in your society. This reform was long overdue: as a Canadian I was dumbfounded by a country as wealthy and prosperous and innovative as the United States that discarded so many. For us, universal health care is as inalienable a right as your right to bear arms.

This is not about big-government intrusion as the Republicans would have it; it is about the well-being of human beings. Along with the passing of this bill, there should be a serious dialogue on nutrition, responsible eating and exercise.

David Duranovich
Toronto, March 22, 2010

----

Of course, Canada's "universal" health care often means waiting lists and denied treatments. Canadians frequently come to the U.S. for treatments they can't get at home. Where will Duranovich go if he gets sick after ObamaCare kicks in?

And Duranovich's call for "a serious dialogue on nutrition, responsible eating and exercise" belies his claim that "this is not about big-government intrusion." When your personal habits affect the federal budget, this will be as much a "dialogue" as an IRS audit is.