Archive for July, 2009
Health Care: The Only Statistic That Matters
Tuesday, July 14th, 2009From Bruce Kessler of Maggie’s Farm:
Similarly, our increased national and per capita spending on health care is the cumulation of free individual choices. Polling shows the tilt against ObamaCare, regardless of all the underlying opposing and supporting statistics, actually not regardless but because they’ve been considered and synthsized by sane individual calculations. The core understanding of free people is increasing that the essence of Obamacare is neither cost reductions nor improved health care. Its essence is transferring our individual choices to the imperfect, impersonal, and – even with the best of intentions and efforts, though required rationing is always life endangering to at least some – naturally politicized and prejudiced hands of Washington bureaucrats and their NGO hanger-ons who gain power and profit from controlling our lives. There’s some nuggets within ObamaCare that may be worth further exploring or experimenting with, but ObamaCare buries them within a wholesale, rapid, complete takeover of America’s health care and rejection of other worthy but non-liberal nuggets.
ObamaCare’s polling rejection is a reliable statistic that cuts through all the other murkier ones. If we allow Washington politics to override that, there’s no going back, except maybe in a retrospective statistic of what we’ve irretrievably lost as life-saving and quality of life medical innovation and our rapid access to quality diminishes.
There is a vague, and valid, unease about the health care meddling. Government run health care looks bad where it’s implemented.
The only hope is that people pay little attention, including Senators. The only hope for the Obama administration is that people feel they will get something for nothing and that during this economic misery, people see government run health care as a way out of their troubles. That’s the only hope.
Job Losses Mount And Cap-N-Trade Will Lose More Jobs
Tuesday, July 14th, 2009There has been something I’ve been wanting to show you guys. It is so cool: A United States map that morphs over the years to demonstrate where jobs have been gained and lost. Go look and then come back.
Disturbing, right? Informative, too. See how Katrina blew up the economy of New Orleans? See how it hasn’t really substantially returned and probably never will? Notice the financial sector disaster in New York, self-inflicted, mind you. Notice how high taxation states like California and New York suffer. Notice how Florida still bleeds from overbuilding and overvaluing property. Like a wrecking ball, the economy swings due to lack of foresight and government interference. See how the whole country suffers now?
Layer on more horrible government interference into the energy and technology sectors, as Cap-n-Trade does and what will happen? Alaska Governor Sarah Palin explains in her Washington Post Op-Ed today:
Job losses are so certain under this new cap-and-tax plan that it includes a provision accommodating newly unemployed workers from the resulting dried-up energy sector, to the tune of $4.2 billion over eight years. So much for creating jobs.
In addition to immediately increasing unemployment in the energy sector, even more American jobs will be threatened by the rising cost of doing business under the cap-and-tax plan. For example, the cost of farming will certainly increase, driving down farm incomes while driving up grocery prices. The costs of manufacturing, warehousing and transportation will also increase.
The ironic beauty in this plan? Soon, even the most ardent liberal will understand supply-side economics.
The Americans hit hardest will be those already struggling to make ends meet. As the president eloquently puts it, their electricity bills will “necessarily skyrocket.” So much for not raising taxes on anyone making less than $250,000 a year.
Even Warren Buffett, an ardent Obama supporter, admitted that under the cap-and-tax scheme, “poor people are going to pay a lot more for electricity.”
So, the Health Care plan will hurt the working class because they’ll be stuck with government run health care. In addition, the same people will be paying more for energy costs. Worse, many of these same people, the guys who work in the energy industry will lose jobs.
If this seems outrageous to you, do something. Call your Senators. Call your Congressmen. The Trifecta of Doom(TM) is before them today. Right now, this instant, while everyone is diverted by Sotomayor, it’s health care. Time is short to stop this madness and the time to act is now. [More here.]
Canada’s Health Care Reveals What A “Public Option” Plan Really Looks Like
Tuesday, July 14th, 2009This Pajamas video by Steven Crowder is a must-see. It’s 20 minutes of human evidence about horrible health care. And remember, the rich will always be able to afford to pay for better care. The public plan forces middle and lower income people who have good medical care now, into a government-run abyss of waiting lists, rationing and outright denial of care.
And check out the facilities. No gleaming, beautiful waiting rooms. Cinder block, gray, socialist, misery.
President Obama Remaking America Into A Fair Socialist Nation
Tuesday, July 14th, 2009
It’s self-evident that the President’s intention to remake America economically does not mean that he wants the market to be freer. In fact, the exact opposite is the case. Not only does President Obama want the government to centrally control the economy, he wants to control what industries make up the economy of the future. How is that not socialism?
In my American Issues Project column today, I write:
This new socialist America, then, will be a more pastoral, gauzy utopia where energy isn’t consumed, the environment is pristine, and people will all be equally drone-like and miserable. That may be over-simplifying it some, but that’s what I read from Summer’s commentary.
But best of all, the majority of the economy will be controlled by guys like Larry Summers, neither vetted, nor confirmed as a cabinet member–a Czar among Czars. When asked about his role by the FT, he says:
“It is certainly incredible, as intellectually challenging as anything I’ve ever done … What makes it so challenging and exciting, as well as exhausting, is the range of subjects.”
So, like Russia, or any other good socialist state, the country is to be run by intellectuals eager to try their, in this case, tested and failed theories out on the plebeian masses. The greatest capitalistic country in the world has become Professor Obama’s workshop for socialist fantasies, because socialism is all about implementation. It just hasn’t been done right yet.
In another column at American Issues, Thomas Sowell writes of “inequities” for inequities and the oft repeated unfairness is what President Obama hopes to cure with socialism:
The problem with trying to equalize is that you can usually only equalize downward. If the government were to spend some of its stimulus money trying to raise my basketball ability level to that of Michael Jordan, it would be an even bigger waste of money than most of the other things that Washington does.
So the only way to try to equalize that has any chance at all would be to try to bring Michael Jordan down to my level, whether by drastic rule changes or by making him play with one hand tied behind his back, or whatever.
The problem with this approach, as with many other attempts at equalization, is that it undermines the very activity involved. Basketball would be a much less interesting game if it was played under rules designed to produce equality of outcomes.
Attendance would fall off to the point where neither Michael Jordan nor anyone else could make a living playing the game.
The same principle applies elsewhere. If you are going to try to equalize the chances of women getting jobs as firefighters, for example, then you are going to have to lower the physical requirements of height, weight and upper body strength.
That means that you are going to have more firefighters who are not capable of carrying an unconscious person out of a burning building.
Besides lowering individual standards, certain industries of the government’s choosing will receive preferences. So, in a backward world, a government rooting for fairness will unfairly promote ideas and businesses that would otherwise fail. Enter Cap-n-Trade. Rick Moran, again at AIP, talks about how it failed in Europe and why:
It’s like the old medieval Catholic Church practice of selling indulgences. Energy companies, as well as any company that uses energy, will be able to buy their way out of carbon hell by purchasing carbon credits at auction. Presumably, these will be so expensive it will force innovation down the throats of business, and hence, reduce the amount of CO2 pouring into the atmosphere…in theory.
Also in theory, the government could have asked all 300 million of us to hold our breath for 5 years, which would have been cheaper and accomplished exactly same thing; which is to say, absolutely nothing. Actually, cap and trade will make some people quite wealthy as well as enrich the government at our expense, so you can’t really say “nothing” will be accomplished. It just won’t do what the government says it will do.
They have already discovered this in Europe where the European Union initiated a cap and trade scheme back in 2005. Ben Lieberman, who is Senior Policy Analyst in Energy and the Environment in the Thomas A. Roe Institute for Economic Policy Studies at The Heritage Foundation, testified before the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee on July 8 where he gave our senators an earful on the total, unmitigated disaster experienced by EU economies as a result of cap and trade.
Lieberman began by highlighting the Heritage study on the probable costs of cap and trade here in America: a whopping $3,000 increase in energy bills for a family of 4, while sucking $9.4 trillion out of the economy by 2035. And in this deep recession, Heritage estimates a million jobs will go down the tubes.
So, in a socialist’s paradise, less talented people and losing ideas aren’t elevated, talented people and winning ideas are persecuted and sit out. That’s the only way for socialism to work. Because the ideas and people the government chooses to subsidize can’t make it on their own record of achievement.
Capitalism can be tough. Thomas Sowell was not born with the gifts to play basketball like Michael Jordan. Why? He was given other gifts. He chose to use them. With capitalism there was no guarantee of success, yet there were no limitations, either.
President Obama wants guarantees for people and those come, inherently, with limits. That’s socialism.
Who Runs The Republican Party & Why Doctors Leave Medicaid/Medicare
Tuesday, July 14th, 2009In this show, John Hawkins and I discuss how moderates run the Republican Party. In the second half, we’re joined by Dr. X, a physician who discusses how patients act differently depending on how they pay, or if they pay.
Melissa’s show can also be found on RFC Radio every Monday and Wednesday night at 10:00 pm Eastern.
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When Melissa isn’t on the radio, you can find her at melissaclouthier.com and on Twitter. Her username is MelissaTweets.
Being President Is A Tough Job & Who Cares About Staffers?
Monday, July 13th, 2009Good grief! President Barack Obama takes the mantel of the American presidency and suddenly it dawns on him and the press that it’s a “grueling” job and grueling for the staff, too? Where’s my violin when I need it?
What a bunch of pansy asses. Of course the job is tough. There are like, you know, lots of responsibilities, when you’re like, so totally the President and you know, leader of the free world. Like, duh! It’s also, I mean, seriously, tough to work, in such, freaking pressured-filled support roles.
See, being President is rigorous. Every moment is scheduled. All the decisions have potentially profound consequences. Words matter. Actions matter. Protocol matters. Precedent matters. Staff matters.
And you know what? No one wants to hear about how tough the job is. You wanted it. You got it. It makes you sound weak when you’re pissing and moaning five minutes into the job about how tough it is.
The whining also makes America sound weak. We’re not. While the relentless travel schedule, jet lag, weird food, strange customs, incessant coverage, arcane rules, tiresome protocols are no-doubt arduous, it’s embarrassing to hear you you complain about them. You wanted the job. There are people who would love to be tired from their work–if they could find a job.
Man up. Try to find some sort of dignified stiff upper lip. And then spare us your kvetching over your self-induced misery. It smacks of ingratitude and incompetence. Only six months in. Only six months in.
The Sotomayor & Franken Party
Monday, July 13th, 2009Might as well relax and take it people, the confirmation of Sonia Sotomayor is as good as done in the same way everyone knew that Franken would win the Minnesota Senate race even 600 votes behind. Like gravity and other forces of nature, Democrats march on ideologically while Republicans weakly offer limper versions of the real, statist deal. And Ms. Sotoamayor is the real deal.
Yes, Ms. Sotomayor will make policy. She’s said as much:
Yes, Ms. Sotomayor defines her worldview through her ethnicity. She’s said as much.
Yes, Ms. Sotomayor is a radical liberal. She’s made no effort to hide it.
No, she doesn’t seem that bright. She’s not a conservative like Harriet Meier.
No, Americans don’t think she’s qualified. Doesn’t matter. My only regret through the hearings? Missing Joe Biden and Arlen Specter pontificate. Ah, the good old days.
She will be confirmed anyway. The whole confirmation process will be a silly circus. Best not to waste your energy or emotion.
It’s politically expedient. The Republicans want to look good. Remember, that’s the one goal these days. They haven’t got into the spirit of being the opposition party quite yet. The Republicans still operate under the delusion that if the press likes them, they’ll receive better treatment, get re-elected, yada, yada.
Anyway, it’s going to happen.
Meanwhile, there’s an issue that does matter and needs to be fought this week and it’s Health Care. Cap-n-Trade, the biggest tax hike in history is like unto it. These abominable plans, along with Card Check should strike fear in every freedom-loving American’s heart. The passage of these bills would decimate industries and actually harm Americans.
Something can be done about these terrible policies. Americans need to do what they can to kill these bills. More on that later. In the meantime, Sotomayor will be the newest addition to the Supreme Court: One Wise Latina slot filled.
P.S. I wonder how many identity-politics choices need to be made so the white American majority is no longer cast as racist rednecks? When whites are in the minority will they still be the racist majority?
Updated:
Here’s the live feed. Watch and weep: [Note: Code doesn't work. Will try to find other.]
Focus People: It’s Health Care & Cap-n-Trade
Sunday, July 12th, 2009The only issue before the American people right now is the state of the state. That is, how much more they will allow the state to intervene in their affairs. The issues: health care and taxation.
There is nothing else worth paying attention to this week. Certainly not the nonsense the Obama administration is cooking up about torture. Rick Moran is vehemently against the Bush Administration’s choice to use controversial methods to extricate information from terrorists but says this:
Prosecutions would no doubt please some on the left who want a pound of flesh from Bush administration officials. But is the administration really that keen on reigning in Holder and preventing him from looking at this “dark chapter in our history?”
Methinks the Obama administration doth protest too much. A distraction like this is just what the doctor ordered to take people’s minds off the fact that the stim bill isn’t working, that there is a growing call from Obama’s left flank for a second stimulus measure, that his cap and trade bill is in big trouble in the senate, and that it is far from certain that his his health care plan will come out the way he wants – with a public option that will be paid for without taxing the middle class.
Rallying his base to the cause of prosecuting Bush administration officials for torture will also take their minds off how he has betrayed them on a host of issues from gay rights to his agreement to indefinite detentions of terrorists.
So might this unleashing of Holder on Bush era torture crimes be nothing more than a distraction from the woeful economy that is resisting the president’s importunings to improve? Obama wouldn’t be the first president to use the tactic and he wouldn’t be the last if that is his game.
A good old fashioned investigation with strategic leaks and the spectacle of Bushies marching into the Justice Department to testify would serve as excellent bait for the media who no doubt would go overboard in their coverage of the hated Bush administration’s torture policies.
Bread and circuses worked for the Roman pro-consuls who used the spectacles to distract a populace constantly on the verge of starvation.
Why not Obama?
Oh yes, yes. A show trial would be great fun for the 10% of the crazy leftists who would relish every moment of seeing Dick Cheney squirm. The other 90% of Americans would be disgusted at more government nonsense in the face of the economic crises that Biden admitted was worse that the administration thought.
But really what the Holder threats are all about is a distraction from something Americans are finding more ominous than the economy: more debt in service of more government programs no matter how well-intentioned. Americans are nervous about the spending, even spending that they’ve been told will benefit them. (A lie, but whatever, people believe it, because it’s pleasing to believe it.)
Erick Erickson notes this well:
Don’t play the game.
Sonya Sotomayor will be confirmed. Ignore that ball as best you can.
Dick Cheney will need some help, but we don’t all need to focus on that ball.
The interrogators will not be prosecuted. It is a ruse. Do not be distracted.
Cap and Trade and Obamacare are the balls in play. Keep focusing on them.
We cannot afford to be distracted from these two policy initiatives. They are trying to distract us. We must target Congress on healthcare and cap and trade.
It is a telling point of the game’s existence that the Democrats have not revealed the terms of their healthcare legislation. They want us fully distracted by these other matters before they do and rush it through.
Focus people. The rest of these trivialities will suck up media time because it’s fun and it’s gossip fodder. They also play the game and know that the enormous tax increases involved in these two monster issues are boring and fear-inducing to people. The press, liberals almost entirely, want these policies to pass. The only way for that to happen is if people remain ignorant. They’ll do their part to make that happen.
Focus. The whole of the future of America rests on the decisions the next couple weeks. After this, President Obama will have spent his arsenal. Democrats are looking for reelection and need time and space between these votes because people are going to be furious when the reality of the taxes and reduced benefits hit their lives.
Obama wants to remake America into a state-run, workers paradise. He wants to redistribute wealth–that’s his notion of fairness. He will have to make this new state on the backs of those who contribute and produce. They have to give approval for this to happen.
The people must rise up now and stop them if they value capitalism and liberty, for the two go hand in hand.
You Don’t Twitter Enough
Saturday, July 11th, 2009At least 50% of people who join Twitter never tweet. What’s up with that? And then, a few people do all the Tweets. It’s even worse than the 80-20 rule on Twitter. You know, 20% do 100% of the work. If you’re on Twitter and don’t Tweet, what’s the deal? Do you not come across helpful information? Do you not have funny thoughts to share?
My problem with Twitter right now, is the lack of diversity of thought. Yep, you read that right. Part of it is my own dang fault. With Tweetdeck, I filter people through categories like Technology, Politics, better friends, Celebrities, etc. So, guess what? I’m reading about technology, politics, celebs and my friends. I need more.
I’m curious about people with a variety of interests. Learning new things and finding informational jewels is one of the delightful parts of Twitter. When people don’t tweet or tweet once, they deprive the world of their expertise and loves.
Also, people need to feed their blog posts through Twitter. Some people find this annoying. I don’t. Sure, I have an RSS feed. But there is nothing like connecting the original content from a person with them as a person. You start seeing a person’s thoughts in context of their personality. It’s profoundly enjoyable to learn about ideas and people this way. It’s akin to learning in a college class. The professor is there to answer for his inane theories.
There has been some discussion about blogs, too. Are they obsolete? Are they dead? Like Sarah Palin’s career, the death of the blog is vastly overstated. In fact, the blog’s function is morphing as time goes on, but it’s still here.
There’s the Twitter-Blog symbiotic relationship, as mentioned above. When done right, both user experiences can be enhanced. Blogs are and always have been social media, so it’s not so strange. What are comment sections but a place to gather and rant?
Also, Twitter has become the confessional blogging used to be and is now again. Ultimately, our writings reveal us whether we intend it or not. And even impersonal blogs are personal.
Finally, blogs and Twitter and social media bypass the normal media channels. What you want people to know, you share. Blogs are the new press release, indeed. In fact, a smart public figure of any sort has little need for the press at all except for the huge, vast platform called TV that reaches the masses, many of whom are passive recipients of what is spoon fed.
That’s changing though. Most people are on the internet. Most people have Facebook accounts. Some people have Twitter accounts–they tend to be the influencers. Many have blogs but don’t use them.
So, if writing some long thing is too difficult, at least Twitter. And if you’re on Twitter, Tweet. The world needs what you uniquely offer.
Newsweek: President Obama Represents Catholics Better Than The Pope!
Friday, July 10th, 2009Seriously, Newsweek has an article stating, “Why Barack Obama represents American Catholics better than the pope does.” Um, what?
So, in the spirit of Newsweek’s completely unbiased opinion, I’d like to run a poll.
