TightyRighty.net

This woman is second in line to be the President?  God help us!!!

Unemployment benefits create jobs faster than any other initiative you can name?

What a moron! The only thing scarier is the guy who is first in line!

It’s been thought that a politician’s stand on the matter of abortion was the litmus test on whether they are a true conservative or not.  I think we have a new litmus test:

Are you for Repeal of the health care bill or not?

As I was drowning my disappointment in passage of the health care bill in some heavy metal, I was reminded of the words of that noted Canadian philosopher Neil Peart:

“You don’t get something for nothing.
You can’t have freedom for free.
You won’t get wise with the sleep still in your eyes,
no matter what your dream may be.”

I think this puts the whole health care debate in context and provides us our marching orders.  The Democrats have promised us that health care costs nothing.  In fact, it will save us $138 Billion over the next 10 years and $1.2 Trillion over the next 20 years!  This is BS of the highest order.  In order to achieve these numbers, congress has resorted to financial gimmickry that would cause a private sector CFO/Controller (such as myself) to be thrown in jail, including, counting 10 years of taxes and 6 years of benefits, assuming a $500M reduction in Medicare costs by “elimination of waste, fraud and abuse”, having the “doctor fix” pushed into another bill so it is not counted as the cost of this bill.  That doesn’t count the impact of all the additional taxes, which clearly have a cost to the people paying them.

Neil is correct – we can’t have freedom for free.  This bill is going to deprive Americans of our freedom (to decide whether we need or want to pay for health insurance, to pick and choose the health care features we want, to choose the doctors we want, etc.) so we must fight for our freedom.  The only way to achieve this is to repeal the health care bill.  The bill is such a monstrosity, it can not be fixed – THE ONLY WAY TO FIX IT IS TO REPEAL IT!

Hence, the new conservative litmus test – Are you for Repeal of the health care bill or not?

We can not afford to put forth candidates who think they can negotiate with the Dems on this matter.  Candidates of this ilk brought us the Kennedy-McCain Amnesty Plan which was soundly defeated by the voice of the American public, and the Gang of 14, which organized themselves in order to avoid the constitutional crisis certain to develop from the Republican use of the “Nuclear Option” to free up judicial nominees held hostage by the Democratic filibuster.  (Do those guys look really stupid now?)

Barack Obama and the Democratic congress have played their cards and shown they are on a take no prisoners march to implement their radical leftist agenda, bi-partisanship and the will of the American people be damned.  These people can not be reasoned with.  They must be confronted, fought and stopped in their tracks.

We need to wake up to political reality:  The only way to do this is to elect conservative senators and representatives in 2010 and 2012 and a conservative president in 2012.  That probably means some RINOs are going to have to go as well as a lot of Democrats.

Hence the new conservative litmus test- Are you for Repeal of the health care bill or not?

As detailed in my Death of the American Dream post, with passage of the health care bill last night, Barack Obama’s strategy to transform America is hitting full stride.  A couple of great posts on what this transformation really means can be found here:

Why’s He Doing It? by Mark Steyn

and here:

Transformation by Andrew McCarthy

I couldn’t have said it better, so I won’t try (other than my comments in the post referred to above).

Last night at 9:45pm the American Dream died with the casting of vote number 216 in favor of the Obamacare health bill.  Thus begins the wussification of America.  Barack Obama’s strategy to transform America is hitting full stride with this wretched event.  I mourn for my children and their children.

Even though I have signed the Tea Party Patriot Repeal the Bill petition, I think the likelihood of repeal is fairly minimal.  We would either need a veto proof majority in the Senate in 2010 or a filibuster proof majority in 2012 with the ouster of Obama.  Both scenarios would require a Republican majority in the House.  The likelihood a Republican politician would have the stones to repeal this massive middle class entitlement is equally minimal.  Which is the last country to throw out government run health care?  Nada.  We do have some hope in that other than the taxes which fund this monstrosity, not much health care is actually dispensed under this bill for 2-3 years.  So perhaps it could be repealed, since nobody will feel much pain of lost benefits.  However, that likelihood is small in my estimation.

So what have Obama and the Democrats foisted upon us?  Euro-style mediocrity.  Whereas the United States, as Ronald Reagan so eloquently stated, is a “shining city on a hill”, now we are on our way to being another former world superpower like the French, the British, the Germans, the Dutch, etc.

At the individual level, once the entitlement mindset fully sets in, why would anyone strive to get ahead when the government will meet all of your needs?  Why try to be exceptional when the government is ensuring equality of outcomes?  Why risk starting a business when the government is going to tax you out the wazoo?  Why innovate when the reward for doing so is to be branded a robber-baron or elitist?  Why take a risk when you can be assured you will get by (just like everyone else)?

The death of the entrepreneurial spirit and innovation will cause our economy to stagnate and flatten out.  This in turn will lead to lower tax revenues and higher tax rates (which are already baked into the bill).  Higher taxes will severely limit the economy’s ability to recover from the current recession or to grow significantly after/if we do recover.  Eventually the government’s appetite for tax revenues and the citizenry’s ability to pay will reach equilibrium.  Before that happens, however, the government will have implemented health care rationing on a scale never before seen.  Additionally, as a much larger portion of our government revenues are turned inward to social programs such as health care, less money will be available for defense and protecting the world from terrorists, dictators and despots.  We will be vulnerable to nutcases such as Mahmoud Ahmadinejad or Kim Jong-il.

America has been a great country because anyone can be successful, because your destiny is on your own hands.  Hard work and perseverance payoff in America.  I fear this will no longer be the case.  Government control over all areas of our lives from the health care we receive to the earnings we are allowed to keep will bludgeon the American dream to get ahead into a just another wistful memory.

Mark Steyn has succinctly and cogently defined in his WHY’S HE DOING IT? piece what “Health Care” is all about.

“… the governmentalization of health care is the fastest way to a permanent left-of-center political culture.  It redefines the relationship between the citizen and the state in fundamental ways that make limited government all but impossible.”

This is why Barack Obama is significantly more concerned about health care than he is about jobs and the economy.  He is a big government ideologue who believes that more government is the solution to all of society’s ills.  This one step will put us much further down the road toward Euro-style government domination of every aspect of our lives, our economies, etc.

This fight is not about whether we provide health insurance for 30-45 million folks who do not currently have insurance or whether you can keep your own doctor (eventually, you won’t).  This is about whether you and I are responsible for our own success or failure in life or whether the federal government is the big nanny who will take care of each of us.  As Steyn aptly states,

“Because government health care is not about health care, it’s about government.”

And Steyn has not commented on the spiritual component of this matter.  Jesus said “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” (Mark 12:17)  If health care passes, very soon, everything will be Caesar’s.  And if the government is your source and provider, why do you need God?  Look at the de-spiritualization of Europe for a case in point.

No, this is not really about Health Care.

I heard Senator Mary Landrieu (D-La.) explaining to Greta Van Susteren why the “Louisiana Purchase” component of the Senate health care bill was not some special deal for Louisiana and not a payoff for her yes vote on the Senate bill.  The gist of her point was that as a result of all the dollars (mostly from the taxpayers) which flowed in to Louisiana after Katrina, the Federal gov’t incorrectly attributed 40% additional income to Louisiana residents which resulted in higher required Medicaid contribution rates from folks in Louisiana.  In effect, the Federal govt’s screwed up this issue and the special provision fixes it.

So Senator Landrieu is OK with the concept of including a provision which fixes a government screw-up in a bill which gives the government much greater power and control over one of the most important aspects of every American citizens’ life – health care.  Is there something wrong with this kind of thinking?

If the federal gov’t is not capable of correctly figuring our the income of the citizens across a single state, how would we expect it to properly administer the delivery of health care to all the citizens across the country?   I don’t get it, but perhaps Senator Landrieu can explain it to you.

This morning I heard a sound bite from President Obama, explaining why he was postponing his trip to to Indonesia.

“The most important domestic priority is health care…”

I would beg to differ.  By far the most important domestic priority of the American people is jobs and the economy.

But President Obama is an ideologue and he knows what is good for us better than the American people that he represents.  All hail King Obama!

What is it about this President that he just doesn’t get that the American people care about jobs and the economy, the economy and jobs.  And that is where the American People want him to focus his energies.

Health care reform is down the list, particularly the health care reform proposed by the House and Senate, which is strongly opposed by the public. This President is proving himself to be a far left ideologue with his continued push for the takeover of health care by the government. And to suggest that it can be rammed thru Congress via the reconciliation procedure demonstrates just how desperate he is to pass this legislation which will reduce the freedom of every American.

Like a moth drawn to the flame which will eventually burn it up, President Obama can not part from his socialist agenda to concentrate on the peoples’ business.

“Obama Says He’s ‘Fierce’ Free-Market Advocate”

Is this the same “Obama” who told GM to fire its CEO then took over GM and Chrysler?  Who implemented a Federal Paymaster/Compensation Czar to establish compensation practices for businesses?  Under whose Cap and Trade policy “electricity rates will necessarily skyrocket” which will make US businesses un-competitive, who has at various times villianized the health insurance industry, travel to Las Vegas, doctors, pharmaceutical companies, Wall Street ‘fat cat” bankers, etc.

What universe does this guy live in?

The Washington Examiner reported Monday that the Obama administration to set up new agency to study, monitor climate change. This comes as Washington and the Federal government is shut down by Snowmageddon – President Barack Obama’s words – not mine.

Today is the 3rd day the govt. is shut down as a result of two feet of snow rec’d this past weekend’s plus the foot or more of snow currently falling.

Do we really need another government agency?  What happened to that “fiscal restraint” thing we heard about during the SOTU speech?