TightyRighty.net

The WaPo is reporting that the Obama Administration’s next target of reform is Housing Finance.  My first thought was here comes another big government program to provide everyone and their dog a new house with a gov’t subsidized mortgage.

Surprisingly, it appears that is not the case.  It appears that the Obama Administration has recognized a common sense fact – not everyone should be a homeowner.

There is a lot to be concerned about in this article, including “a new housing finance system” and “make more workable rental housing programs”, but the realization that not everyone should be a homeowner is a very good start.

Hurray for them!

During the health care debate, President Obama stridently stated that the individual mandate is not a tax.  As originally reported by the WSJ and as reported by the NYT:

“For us to say that you’ve got to take a responsibility to get health insurance is absolutely not a tax increase,” the president said last September, in a spirited exchange with George Stephanopoulos on the ABC News program “This Week.”

When Mr. Stephanopoulos said the penalty appeared to fit the dictionary definition of a tax, Mr. Obama replied, “I absolutely reject that notion.”

Now that the constitutionality of this penalty is being challenged, the Obama Justice Dept. is now claiming that the penalty is a tax.

Do you think that President Obama and his team had not thought this through at the time he made the statement above.  Either do I.  He has know this is a tax all along.

My guess is that there a good number of folks who make less than $250K who’s going to have to pay this tax.  Looks like a couple of lies to me.

Politico.com is reporting that the White House has begun a new campaign to convince America that President Obama and his administration are not anti-business.

Is this the same President Obama who said that this is not the time for Wall Street to make profits?

Here is a newsflash for you Mr. President:  Companies exist to make profits.  The more profit they make, the more money they have to reinvest in the company (thereby creating jobs), or distribute to their shareholders, or God forbid, pay bonuses to executives, who can then spend the money and juice the economy.

You do not need a campaign to convince us that you are not anti-business Mr. President.  You need to hire a few senior folks in your administration who have actually run a company, worried about making payroll, etc. who can help you understand the way business and the free market economy work and keep you from saying such stupid things.

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.

The first day of Spring in Texas:

Good thing I rode yesterday.  Looks like a Snap (BORING!!) day.

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.