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Home Front: Politix
Health care bill woke a sleeping giant
2010-03-30
From lurker Arnold Kling:
For many Americans, March 21, 2010, is a date that will live in infamy. Unlike Pearl Harbor or the September 11, 2001, attacks, which offended nearly all Americans, the health care legislation only angered a significant proportion of the population. However, those of us who are outraged are motivated to wage a long fight, and out aims go much further than rolling back this one bill.

The health care legislation represents a culmination of a sequence of unpopular major initiatives from Washington. First, there was Henry Paulson's massive transfer of wealth from the people most hurt by the financial crisis to some of the people most responsible for it. Next, came the massive, ill-conceived stimulus bill, which was not timely, targeted, or temporary but instead a pure power grab by Washington. Health care legislation is merely the latest straw.

The American people are watching their country being transformed from an exceptional, vibrant free economy to a broken European welfare state, and many of us do not like the direction of change.

The elites have so mistreated the American people that we should declare that a state of war exists between America and Washington. Our goals in this war must go well beyond the repeal of this year's health care legislation. Here is a list of additional goals that I would propose:

1. End the current bailouts and prevent future bailouts. Starting immediately, limit the Federal Reserve to holding only Treasury instruments. The Fed needs to go back to being a central bank, not a piggy bank.

2. Cut the pay of civilian Federal workers by 10 percent. The private sector is making painful adaptations to hard times. The government needs to start doing what any other organization would do when its revenues are down.

3. Restructure entitlements so that the future path of spending is sustainable. Congressman Paul Ryan's "road map" is an example of what an honest budget would look like. If Democrats would prefer higher taxes to such a road map, then those taxes should be explicitly budgeted, rather than pretending that the funds for future benefits are going to appear by magic.

The point here is that health care legislation was just one battle. The overall war is larger. After Pearl Harbor, Japanese Admiral Yamomoto is reported to have said, "I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve." So it should be with us today.
Posted by:Nimble Spemble

#6  All the anti-Health care folks need to do is go to a few Democratic rallys and ask questions like: "Sure I love the health care bill, but I wonder, what will happen to my Health Care when an evil Genius like George W. Bush, or Cheney, or Rumsfield, or Palin is elected President. I mean all that power, they could just start killing old people and mixing up batches of soylant green and force feeding it to us."

Let that seed grow in the liberal minds. What happens when the other party has all that power, because it will eventually happen. Yes the conservatives are more likely to dismantle rather than misuse, but the power-hungry will not imagine others would not take advantage of the power and will soil themselves.
Posted by: rjschwarz   2010-03-30 15:45  

#5  The elites have so mistreated the American peopleÂ…

The little secret here is the HCR law is not as divisive as the media would have you believe. Some of my self described “Proud Democrat” friends are not just upset about this – their spittin’ mad. This boondoggle has brought strange bedfellows together united against the corrupt Progressive elites.
Posted by: DepotGuy   2010-03-30 09:42  

#4  The spider monkey rant Stihl? Pizza after 9:00 pm, not a good thing. :-)
Posted by: Besoeker   2010-03-30 06:35  

#3  Why I've this pic of Guliver in Liliputia---awakening to find out he's bound hand & foot, running through my mind?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru   2010-03-30 02:55  

#2  Health care bill woke a sleeping giant

Let's see if it rolls over and goes to sleep before midterm elections.
Posted by: gorb   2010-03-30 00:38  

#1  And Again, I'd sooner be trapped in a room with a spider monkey wielding a chainsaw than have the dipstick in the oval office dictating my health care anything.
Posted by: GirlThursday   2010-03-30 00:03  

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