A post by Maynard
Some conservatives are saying we’ve dodged the bullet of nationalized healthcare. I’m not so sanguine. At least, not yet.
Obama wants power over life and death of every American citizen. He wants this a lot. (This excellent Drudge-linked WSJ editororial notes that “White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said [Obama] was ‘quite comfortable’ with the idea that sticking to his agenda may well mean ‘he only lives in this house’ for one term.) Obama knows this is his best shot. It looks like he’s going to give it everything he’s got.
A practical politician would work for incremental change. A practical politician, whether of the left or of the right, would be more focused on the catastrophic budget projections. But Mr. Obama is driven by his agenda, and to hell with the consequences.
President Obama is now retreating into Fort Democrat and relying on his own party members to jam through health care legislation. With 60 senators and a 76-vote margin in the House, he need not compromise or even listen to Republicans. He can invoke the so-called “nuclear option” and pass his bill in the Senate with just 50 votes and no possibility of real debate, much less a filibuster.
So no matter how low Obama’s plan sinks in the polls, he feels that he can rely on his loyal troops to march in lockstep and pass his health care proposals.
The firestorm of protest his possible abandonment of the public option set off represented a signal to him from the party’s left: We will stay with you through thick and thin, just don’t compromise.
Can he pull it off? Probably he can.
That’s very scary. I consider this no less vital than the right to bear arms. If Obama gets his way, America is lost. We’re no longer adult individuals; we’re children who go crying to nanny to fix our ouchies. And when nanny runs out of money or is busy with the other babies that cry louder than we do, we’ll die. In the meantime, we’ll live as children live, without control and without dignity.
What will stop Obama? We have our outrage, and it must be channeled productively (how to do this is not my area of expertise, so I’ll try to make myself useful to those who know what they’re doing).
The other factor that stands against Obama is simple pragmatism, which will appeal to those Democrats who live, more or less, in the real world. Aside from the civil war that Obama will bring upon the country with his intrusive divisiveness, there’s the horrendous and ever-worsening deficit, and the obvious and undeniable fact that Obama’s healthcare framework would mushroom that even more. (In order to get a doubtful Congress to vote his way, Obama would presumably do the usual horse trading…give me your vote and I’ll build you a bridge, a Federal building, whatever. That’s why the healthcare bill, aside from being a fiscal catastrophe in itself, would also act as a significant enabler for non-healthcare spending. That’s the way it works in Washington, and that’s why so few legislators stand on principle: If you do the right thing, you and your district will suffer, while everyone else eats your share of the pie. Cronyism is rewarded and integrity punished…and then we wonder why dysfunction is the order of the day. On the other hand, maybe some of these nitwits will comprehend the gravity of the situation, and will choose not to preside over the death of the nation.)
It will be an ironic twist if it’s a practical detail, rather than moral outrage, that ultimately thwarts Obama’s appetites. Will Obama fail, not because he’s recognized as a dangerous maniac, but simply because the stars, once so favorable, turned sour as he moved to moved to ravish his supine victim? Such are the quirks of history.
(Flashback: One of the points of the Republican’s 1994 Contract with America was a Balanced Budget Amendment. In 1995, this amendment passed the Republican House but failed in the Senate by a single vote. I find it horrifying to consider that a one vote failure allowed the Republic to set out upon this suicidal path.)
Hey guys, Please watch and remember this is what we are fighting against: http://attacked911.tripod.com/
I have been thinking that despite the chorus of protests that it is more than possible this insane and self-destructive bill will be passed. I believe that our side needs to DEVELOP A PLAN to deal with this eventuality. I am not saying I know what this is, but I really think we need to be thinking “tax revolt” or some other form of visible resistance to this onslaught. And, if I were a medical professional with money, I would be thinking right now about how to buy an island somewhere and turn it into a health retreat. I am just sayin, we need to be thinking in re: Plan B, a strategic, visible and effective Plan B.
If obama manages to pull this off, then no congressman who voted for this should be spared the political onslaught it will engender. None. The protests should go on until they pay the price. Any means to starve the beast of tax money will become legitimate.
People should approach this as if it were the right to keep and bear arms which means NO COMPROMISE.
On healthcare, the republicans are missing the boat. They need to call Obama out in the public square and say they will agree to the government insurer option — only if it is entirely self supporting from payroll taxes of those insured with that option. In other words, if you are on a private plan, the feds cannot collect taxes on your pay for healthcare (insurance), and if if you go tho the pubplic plan, only public plan participants can be taxed, and the taxes must be the sole support of the plan. NO general fund infusions, and no tax support from non plan participants. If the government can save so much money, those simple rules should be no problem. They can take 8% in tax, and provide the taxed with healthcare. Of course, the goverment can’t run a business, and the government run plan will see rate hikes out the wazzu. A no subsidy rule would force Obama’s hand.