Welcome To The Era Of Ignorant Arrogance

As the Senate winds down with their plan to further destroy our economy with healthcare reform, they have thrown away any semblance of transparency or desire to actually reform healthcare. The pressure is turned up for every day that we get closer to Christmas. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid desires to pass any bill, whatever the cost, before Christmas to present to President Obama. All of this maneuvering is to enable the President to point to at least one accomplishment when he delivers his State of the Union speech in late January. After all it isn’t exactly a great accomplishment for the President to point to 10% unemployment, his historic spending deficits, or even the newly increased debt ceiling.

With just a week before Christmas, the final version of the 2000+-page bill has not even been released to the full Senate for them to read. The majority has rushed this bill to try to get it passed for not only the President’s own selfish reasons, but also because the longer this monstrosity of a bill sits out there, the less the American public supports it. As a matter of fact, there is less support among the public for this reform bill, than there was for Hillary-care back in the early 1990’s. The severe lack of support for this reform bill is more than likely the catalyst for Reid’s desire to keep this bill hidden until it is passed.

Even the amendment process is too politically charged for the majority to allow an amendment to be read aloud on the Senate floor. The admitted socialist from Vermont, Bernie Sanders, proposed an amendment to the bill that would supersede the entire reform bill and replace it with a socialist health care system. When Senator Cobourn of Oklahoma asked that the clerk on the floor read the 767-page amendment, Sanders came down to the Senate to break Senate rules and end the reading and remove the amendment. The break in rules came when Sanders removed his amendment and ended the reading. The problem is that once the bill reading had started, only unanimous consent can end the reading.

It is a rare moment when I praise Senator Olympia Snowe, but I find myself wholeheartedly agreeing with a recent statement that she made. “I don’t see anything magical about the Christmas deadline if this bill is going to become law in 2014.” Her words ring very true. What is the rush to pass this disastrous bill if none of the reforms actually take effect until 2014, conveniently after the 2012 elections? Of course the urgency of the matter has become the party line for all Congressman who have supported it. My own embarrassment of a Representative, Dutch Ruppersberger, explained in his form letter reply to my query about his vote that the urgency of the matter played a very large role in his decision to vote for it. I suppose that when a bureaucrat sees his political career coming to an end, his urgency may be a bit skewed. I believe it is time to end the era of ignorant arrogance.

Thousands Draw A Line On The Capitol Steps Over Health Care

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has decided to try to strong-arm through her plan to destroy our health care system, even in the face of overwhelming signals that she is fighting a losing battle. In the process she has continued her annoying little habit of breaking promises to the American people. She had promised to not hold a vote on the “health care reform” legislation without posting the final language of the bill online at least 72 hours prior to the vote. Apparently she is afraid that the final version of her 2000 page behemoth will further outrage the voting public.

The public has made their frustration and anger known all summer long, all the while congressional leaders have pretended to not hear them. The public outcry has prolonged the debate from something that the White House expected to be passed quickly and quietly by mid summer into an eternity for lawmakers. After the congressional switchboards were jammed with phone calls demanding that their elected representatives listen to them, the bureaucrats ignored their constituents. After millions of emails clogged the politicians’ inboxes, they sent out their canned responses claiming to represent their constituents. Tired of the unprecedented arrogance filling the Capitol Building, thousands of people showed up on the steps of the Capitol to hold a rally against the destruction of our health care system. After the rally they stood in line for hours to enter the Capitol to meet their elected representatives face to face. They wanted to ask one simple question, “Are you going to vote for this health care reform bill?” Several reports emerged showing the arrogance and superiority complex from which members of Congress are suffering. They could not spare even a few moments to “lower themselves” to the level of the common man.

It is most surprising that House leaders are pressing forward this week, of all weeks. Tuesday showed a dramatic reversal of the political leanings of the country. Democratic stronghold New Jersey saw their incumbent Governor Jon Corzine lose to Republican Chris Christie by 5 percentage points. New Jersey is a state that President Obama won easily by 20 points just one year ago. Virginia saw a political drubbing when Republican Bob McDonnell beat Democrat Creigh Deeds by 19 points. President Obama again won Virginia a year ago by 6 points. Right on cue, the White House downplayed the results saying that the outcomes had absolutely nothing to do with the President or his socialist agenda. The problem is that the President and his minions spent a lot of time and political capital in both states campaigning for both losers.

Whether or not the President or Ms. Pelosi are able to twist enough arms on Capitol Hill this weekend to pass their health care debacle is yet to be seen, but the damage has been done. The voting public has awakened to the fact that after the numerous bailouts already this year, the government now owns or controls 30% of our economy. They also see that if the power hungry bureaucrats are successful in destroying our health care, they will add another 18% of our economy. That will give them power over nearly half of our economy and they are just starting to erode our economical freedoms.

Is The President Lying, Or Is He Just Clueless?

Since January 20, President Obama has made more than 110 speeches or remarks concerning his push for Health Care Reform. On Wednesday evening the President addressed a joint session of Congress to once again plead for support for his unprecedented and unconstitutional power grab. His speech was heralded both before and after as providing clarity on the details of his proposal. Not surprisingly though the speech was basically a rehash of everything he has said over the past 8 months.

He continually perpetuates the same tired lies that his administration and the congressional leadership have been pushing since the debate began. He claimed that, “We are the only advanced democracy on Earth – the only wealthy nation – that allows such hardships for millions of its people.” Are these the same hardships that the citizens of Canada and the United Kingdom endure under their state-controlled health plan? DO we have 4000 women giving birth in stairwells, bathrooms, and broom closets as they do in the United Kingdom because there are not enough rooms for these women?

He claims that the reforms will not cover illegal immigrants, but yet 2 separate amendments were offered up in the House that added specific language to exclude illegal immigrants. Both amendments were voted down along party lines.

He claims that they are open to any and all reasonable ideas on reform, but yet the President last met with any Republicans on the issue of health care reform in April. That would be a full 3 months before the push started in Congress. The Republicans have offered options that would call for Health Savings Accounts, Tort Reform, and making health insurance portable among other ideas, but yet none of their options have been made part of the bill.

He claims that abortions will not be paid for with government money, but yet again the President is not being truthful. Again amendments have been offered that specifically added language to the bill that forbade abortions being paid for with tax dollars. Predictably, the amendments were defeated along party lines. In fact, they added an amendment that required that at least one insurer in the federal plan would cover abortions.

He claims that the reforms will be deficit neutral, but this claim has been proven time and time again to be false. The Congressional Budget Office looked at the proposal and concluded that the proposal would add at least $245 billion to the deficit. Of course, after his economic policies have added $9 trillion to the deficit, I guess it is easy to discount $245 billion as being insignificant.

The President is trying to sell the health care reform to not only the American people but also to his own party. The President does not need a single Republican to vote for this bill for it to pass, but yet he is trying to sell the notion that the evil Republicans are standing in the way of his socialist utopia. He has been unable to convince his own party to back him unconditionally in this fight. What he fails to realize is that the American people do not want this reform. They have read the bill and we know what is in the bill. We do not want to give away our rights and freedoms so that he can build a socialist legacy. His assertions throughout his speech are patently false, so we are left to assume he is either grossly misinformed about on which Congress is working or is boldly lying to the American people. Maybe it is time his health care proposal takes the blue pill instead of trying to revive it once again.

The Democrats ARe Becoming Desperate Over Health Care Reform

As I returned from vacation last weekend I became aware of the desperation of the Democrats and the White House over their socialist takeover of our health care system. After weeks of plummeting poll numbers and running scared at town hall meetings the administration and the Democratic leadership have resorted to the same tired tactics they have used for years. The politics of fear and race baiting has returned in full force in a feeble attempt to resurrect the health care power grab.

The Colorado Democrat Party headquarters in Denver was vandalized this week and immediately state party officials attempted to spin in into an attack by political opponents of the health care reform proposed by their party. Unfortunately the facts of the case tell a slightly different story. One of the two vandals was caught shortly after the attack and his name is Maurice Schwenkler. He worked in the 2008 elections for a Democrat running for the Colorado state house. He has a history of working for liberal 527 groups and was arrested for unlawful assembly outside of the Republican National Convention in 2008. Of course the Colorado Democrat Party Chairwoman was quick to back away from her initial statements accusing Republicans of the vandalism.

New York Governor David A. Paterson blames racism for his unpopularity in the sate of New York and added that President Obama will be the next victim of racism. They believe, or are at least trying to convince the public, that the reason for the disapproval among the voting public is that we are not comfortable with a black man in power. They want us to forget that the health care reform proposal is an unconstitutional power grab and will further drive our country into economic disaster. Governor Paterson is presiding over a state that is in dire economic straits, but he wants us to believe that it is not his fault but the fault of his racist political opponents. I have been called a racist more times in the past year than in my entire life; all because I have not supported Barack Obama. I have not and will not support any candidate or politician that I do not agree with on the issues. Was I a racist when I supported Michael Steele for Lt. Governor and Senator in Maryland? I supported Steele based on the issues, but because he is a Republican, the left believes that he has betrayed his race.

President Barack Obama said last week that there is a “right wing conspiracy” to defeat his health care reform proposal. It is interesting that he would use those words to describe the opponents of socialized medicine. It is interesting because Secretary of State Hillary Clinton referenced a “vast right wing conspiracy” while she was the First Lady to explain the accusations of infidelity against her husband President Bill Clinton. Of course a few weeks later her husband had to admit his extra-curricular activities with a White House intern. I know the same is true in the current reference to a conspiracy. The facts are that the current health care reform will ration medical care, raise costs, reduce the quality of care, and will give the federal government unprecedented and unconstitutional power over our lives. I do think it is funny that they will try to pin this on the Republicans, but yet they do not need a single Republican to support it for it to pass either chamber of Congress.

The most disturbing, but not surprising ploy being used by the Democrats to force through this debacle is the death of Massachusetts Senator Ted Kennedy. No more than 2 hours after his death, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was calling for the reform to be passed as a tribute to Kennedy. They are hoping that they can guilt the “Blue Dog Democrats” into supporting the legislation despite the growing dissatisfaction with the proposal. It is ironic that they would seek to tie this reform to Kennedy who sought out the best treatments and doctors available for his disease, but he would not have had that opportunity if the current proposal were passed into law. The attempt to capitalize on the Senator’s death does bring to mind a similar attempt in 2002 when the Democrats tried to turn a memorial service for Senator Paul Wellstone into a political pep rally. The result was a defeat for the Democrats. The early reports of the coverage of Kennedy’s death have shown that the ratings numbers are very low, which points to the public’s cynicism over the political class trying to push this albatross onto our backs.

A side note to the death of Senator Kennedy; in 2004 Kennedy sought to have Massachusetts law changed so that a vacant U.S. Senate seat would be filled by a special election to be held within 5 months of the vacancy. He fought to have it changed because he was worried that Senator John Kerry would win the presidency and Republican Governor Mitt Romney would fill the vacant seat with a Republican. Now that there is a Democrat in the Governor’s mansion, Kennedy wrote a letter state legislators before his death to have the law changed so that Governor Deval Patrick could fill the vacancy immediately. I believe the frenzy to change the law and name a replacement will be more entertaining than any of the mind-numbing reality TV shows currently on the air.
As the summer recess winds down, the race baiting and fear mongering from the administration will continue to heat up and the politicization of Senator Kennedy’s death will reach nauseating levels. I fully expect President Obama to turn the eulogy on Saturday into a campaign-style stump speech for health care reform in memoriam for the good Senator. I also believe that the American public has wised up to the empty promises of the President. They see the economic trouble in which the country finds itself. They hear the reports that the federal deficit has quadrupled since President Obama was sworn in as President. The heard the administration admit that their estimates of the federal deficit’s growth was off by $2 trillion to a total of $9 trillion. They are unable to understand why we need to rush this legislation through now, when it will not even take effect until 2013. The more the public learns about the health care reform proposal, the lower the approval numbers drop for the President and the Democrats. The problem for the White House and the Democratic leadership is that they have sold themselves for this reform to the point that they are unable to stop now. I believe that 2010 will be a very bad year to be a politician in D.C..

The Dog Days Of Summer Are Hard On The Politicians

August is turning out to be a very hot, and uncomfortable month for the White House and especially the Democrat-led Congress. Members of Congress have been met with outrage and frustration over the rush to socialized medicine. Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, and the White House have tried to spin the opposition as anything from Nazi-like to “Astroturf”. Throughout it all the public has continued to voice their displeasure over the sudden and severe hearing loss that has gripped Washington DC.

President Obama’s approval rating has dropped to a new low for him, down to 47%. His Presidential Approval Index has been hovering in the negative range for several weeks and currently sits at a –8, with a mere 29% strongly approving of the President and 37% strongly disapproving. His plummeting poll numbers are a result of several factors, but his push to socialize the health care system is the main catalyst for his decline.

Another factor for the public’s growing discontent is the unprecedented spending that the Congress and the President have engaged in over the past 7 months. The Treasury Department released it’s latest figures that showed that the Federal Government has spent $3 trillion in the past 10 months. Before my Bush-hating readers start to scream, allow me to say that Bush started this idiotic spending spree late last fall, but the current administration has more than followed suit. This year’s Federal deficit is projected to be 4 times that of last year’s deficit. Instead of working to reduce the deficit and release us from the stranglehold in which our creditors have us, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner went to Congress to raise the Federal debt limit above the current $12.1 trillion limit. The administration has further driven our country into bankruptcy and instead of changing their drunken-sailor spending habits; they ask to increase their credit limit. I suppose they need to raise it in order to pay for the economic fiasco known as health care reform. The American taxpayer had to work nearly an entire month longer than last year to pay for the ludicrous spending habits of Washington. The cost of government is 61.9% of our national income and these politicians want to raise it even higher.

The President has tried to portray his “townhall meetings” as open and fair minded, but yet there is never anyone who is opposed to his health care nightmare. Meanwhile, every member of Congress that goes out to meet the voters is met with overwhelming opposition. A recent Rasmussen poll has shown that 53% of voters are opposed to the Health Care Reform plan. Worse yet for the politicos in DC is that the much-coveted “independents” are opposed to the plan by a wide margin. President Obama has even tried to assuage our fears about a government run health care system putting private insurance out of business, by equating it to the post office. He said that UPS and FedEx are doing fine, it is always the post office that is in trouble. Can the President be that naïve? Does he really believe that the American public want a health care system that runs as efficiently as the post office?

The White House and Congress have severely overestimated the charm of President Obama. They believe that when the President speaks the public all feel a tingle running up their legs and they forget all about the actual words that he is speaking or the actions they are undertaking. The public is smarter than for which the bureaucrats in Washington give them credit. The public knows what is in the legislation that Congress is considering. The Congressional switchboards and email servers are being stretched to their limits with opposition calls and emails, but yet our elected representatives ignore our wishes and vote for the socialist agenda of the President. I believe the folly of the White House and Congress will be shown in next year’s midterm elections.

Was Orwell's Vision Off By 25 Years?

The debate surrounding the Obama administration’s and Congress’ plans to reform our health care system has exposed the folly of the media proclamation of the President as some sort of messianic figure. They have built him up to the pinnacle of power in the world, only to have his approval numbers rapidly fall due to the public growing weary of his socialistic “hope and change.” The American people in poll after poll have stated that they absolutely do not want the government to run our health care system. The disapproval of the reforms is growing on a daily basis as more of the details become known.

Congress is becoming aware of their constituents’ displeasure over the proposals currently being worked on in Washington. As the members of Congress travel home for the summer recess, they are being met with a voting public that knows more about the reforms in Congress than the President claims he knows. The American people have informed themselves on individual aspects of the bill, such as the fact that Congress has specifically exempted themselves from the government plan. Another aspect is that the government plan will force all private insurance out of business, by setting prices at such a level as to make it financially impossible for private insurance companies to make a profit.

The President claims that he does not want to take over the health care system, but unfortunately the President seems to suffer from memory loss. In March of 2007, then Senator Obama proclaimed that it was his goal to have “Universal Health Care for all” by the end of his first term in office. He also stated in 2003 that he is a proponent of a “single payer universal health care plan”.

Congressional leaders are vilifying the American people, who are voicing their opposition at the town hall meetings. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said this week that these citizens were waving swastikas at the town hall meetings. The White House is asking people to email them about anyone who are “telling lies” about the Health Care proposal. It has been a few years since I read George Orwell’s classic 1984, but I seem to recall Orwell writing about children turning in their parents to the government for “thought crimes”. Isn’t the administration asking for names of people discussing the plan, even in casual conversation, sound eerily similar to Orwell’s vision?

Congress is in for a very rude awakening in 2010, especially if they pass this disastrous plan. The Democrats are running themselves right out of office and all the Republicans need to do is stay out of the way. There are a few Republicans that seem to believe that compromising with the Democrats on this plan is the best course of action, but a compromise that produces bad legislation is never a good idea. There are Republican proposals out there that actually will reduce costs and actually provide meaningful reform, but Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid would rather claim that the Republicans are the party of ‘No’, than to actually allow any of their proposals see the light of day.

The voters are more aware right now than at any point in recent history. They have watched the Congress pass a monstrous “stimulus” bill, and spend more than a trillion dollars more than the government will collect in tax revenues, all against their expressed wishes. They have seen the House of Representatives pass the “Cap and Trade” bill that will stifle the economy more than they already have, again against the will of their constituents. It is time Congress is asked the question, whom exactly are they representing? Were they elected to carry out the extreme socialist agenda of the President? Or were they elected to represent their constituents? I believe in 2010, there will be many members of Congress looking for a new career.

The President's Health Care Reform Nightmare

The Health Care Reform debate was ordered to be complete by the August recess of Congress. President Obama declared that Congress needed to pass Health Care Reform by the time that they departed Washington for their summer recess. He has placed urgency on the reform stating, “If we fail to act now, we will lose an opportunity that only comes around every few generations.” My cynicism impels me to ask; of what opportunity does the President speak? Is he speaking of our impending national bankruptcy?

The President has applied more pressure on Congress to pass Health Care Reform as more and more Congressman express their concerns over passing such an expensive power grab. He has repeatedly expressed that more than 46 million Americans are living without health insurance. The number in and of itself is staggering, but it is a fabrication on the part of the administration. Investors Business Daily recently published an editorial exploring the facts behind the 46 million uninsured figure. Roughly 10 million of the uninsured are not U.S. citizens and about 17 million of the uninsured reside in households whose annual income is more than $50,000. The editorial further explains that 40% of the uninsured are between the ages of 18 and 34 and simply choose not to spend money on health insurance because they are young and healthy.

President Obama has also provided some enlightening clues as to where his vision for Health Care Reform will take us. In a town hall meeting in June, he was asked about a woman’s mother, who at the age of 100 her doctor informed her that she would need a pacemaker. 2 doctors refused to do the surgery to implant the pacemaker because of her age. The third doctor, after meeting the patient, realized that the woman had a zest for life and performed the surgery. That was 5 years ago and she is still going strong. The President was asked whether under his plan, she would have been allowed to receive the surgery. Would the plan take into account a person spirit and will to live? The President eloquently said that the plan could not evaluate a person’s spirit, but perhaps they would be better off taking medication to dull the pain. His plan is to provide “end of life” counseling instead of senior care. So we can expect that after we reach the government determined age, we will be evaluated on our viability before we will be treated.

Who are the people who are pushing to control our health care? President Obama has a record of voting in the Illinois Senate for allowing babies who were born alive after a failed abortion to die alone in a dirty linen closet. Supreme Court Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg recently said that she understood that the Roe V. Wade decision was decided to control “populations that we don’t want to have too many of.” Former Vice President Al Gore said during the 1990’s that one of the best ways to control “global warming” was to establish an aggressive abortion policy in the third world. His words are chilling, “it is time to ignore the controversy over family planning and cut out-of-control population growth.” President Obama’s Science Czar, John Holdren, has made similar statements regarding population control. In 1977 he wrote, "It has been concluded that compulsory population-control laws, even including laws requiring compulsory abortion, could be sustained under the existing Constitution if the population crisis became sufficiently severe to endanger the society." I realize that these will not be the same people actually making the decisions, but they all share the same twisted view on life. Who are they to decide who lives and who dies?

As a side note, I do find it a bit amusing that the abortion rights advocates have for years been crying to keep your laws off of my body, but yet now they are crying that the government needs to control every aspect of our bodies.

The administration has repeatedly asserted that no one will be required to join the government run plan. They claim that they are merely providing a government option to compete with the private market. The problem is that there is no government program that has ever produced a profit. For those less economically inclined, the government plan will not be required to provide services at a fair market value. This will then cause private market competition to either close before bankruptcy or operate at a loss to try to compete that will inevitably cause them to go bankrupt. For those citizens who choose not to enroll in the government plan or any private plan, will be fined by the federal government about $2500, or whatever it would normally cost to buy health insurance, a year for every year you go without health insurance.

This Health Care Reform debate is turning quite embarrassing for the Democrats and the administration. The President is taking the prospect of his proposal falling to defeat rather personally. He is repeating the statements from Republicans about defeating his plan as an attempt to rally support for the reform. He is apt to refer to Republican opposition to his proposal, but the truth is that the President does not need 1 Republican to vote for the measure for it to pass. He has enough Democrats in both chambers of Congress to pass this debacle, but yet he points to the Republicans as standing in the way of his power grab. The truth is that all members of Congress are hearing from their constituents and they do not want this plan. An increasing majority of Americans do not want any type of government run health care plan and they are expressing their displeasure over this proposal. Politicians, from both parties, are all generally the same. They all are worried about their next election. When public outcry reaches a point where the politicians realize their political career is on the line, they tend to take notice.

The Senate has postponed any vote on Health Care Reform until at least September and the House will more than likely follow suit. The administration’s push to pass the enormous measure while we are already operating under historic deficits is ludicrous. They are working under the assumption that, “It is better to beg for forgiveness, than to ask for permission.” They believe that we will forgive them for further destroying our economy and our country. They need to realize that if they act with that philosophy within their marriages, they will soon find themselves in Divorce Court. The same holds true for the political realm, if they follow through with this unconstitutional eroding of our personal freedoms, they will soon find themselves as unemployed politicians.