Words from Obama to Joe Buck in the broadcast booth of last night's All Star Game. Clearly the Dems say he was joking in response to Buck but it's one of those unintentional lapses into the truth politicians sometimes wander into, and in this case it couldn't have come at a better time:House Democrats today unveiled legislation totaling about $1 trillion that would expand health care to millions of Americans over the next decade by raising taxes on the wealthiest households. The Senate has yet to agree on a bill as Democratic lawmakers struggle to get Republican support.The full court press is on, with Democrats working hard to demonize the insurance industry in their ongoing war on capitalism.
There's technically no way for the GOP to stop this if the Dems want to collectively walk out on the plank and take full responsibility for any chaos that ensues from health care reform, but it's likely a bluff. They NEED GOP cover on this issue going forward.
It's interesting that nobody has seriously studied the Tennessee health care plan. TennCare was an utter disaster, which resulted in major fraud and several politicians going to jail:
Part of the story those who favor some sort of government run health care repeat is that private health care is very costly. They point to the costs incurred by the U.S. compared to other countries such as Canada, the U.K., etc. They note that the U.S. pays much more per person but supposedly gets lower health care outcomes (measured rather dubiously via things like life expectancy).We've now got a Chicago politician running America, a "hello" moment if there ever was one.
The problem I have with this narrative, aside from the rather dubious reliance simply on published cost figures from these governments and the reliance on statistics like life expectancy, is the idea that government is suddenly going to be more efficient than the private sector. Government’s primary job is the creation of “red tape”. The idea that we can actually switch to the government and get less costs strains credulity past the breaking point.
Which sets up a fork in the road for Republicans. They can roll over and help the Dems get this through with amendments designed to protect big donors, which will give the liberals the cover they need. Or, they can stand firm as a body, including the RINOS in the northeast, and force the Dems to take full responsibility for their change.
If they take the bi-partisan cave-in route on a bill their opponents are now threatening to force through on a party line vote many conservatives might well find themselves in a third party come 2010, or in the least voting for an entirely new crop of Republicans. Palin's name keeps bouncing around for some reason in all of this. Not sure why or where, though.
3 comments:
The reason "we're out of money" is due to the fact that we invaded the wrong country and the second reason is due to the huge Bush tax breaks for the wealthy. When are we going to start taking care of our own people in the USA?
Aside from the boilerplate about Iraq, which most Democrats supported (not to say you are a Dem), have you seen proceeds to the Treasury lately, Patricia? They ebb and flow with the business cycle and during the Bush years they reached RECORD LEVELS. That's what happens when they give us back our money--we tend to spend it. And when people are making money, they pay more in taxes overall.
I'd say the reason we're out of money is the borrowing over both Iraq and Afghan (which also occurred during WW2--go back and compare the debt to GDP), the bailouts, the Stimulus Bill, a bloated Federal Budget, and the further spending Obama is planning down the line. When your household is out of money, do you grab and credit card and head to the mall?
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