MORE GOVERNMENT DOES NOT EQUAL 'REFORM'

As we continue to battle the assault of government intrusion, it sometimes helps to take a look back and add up the assaults. One by one by one does not, in itself, appear to be intrusive, but the sum of the parts is now awakening the 'sleeping giant', with government run healthcare being the 'straw that broke the camel's back'.

Talk about mixing metaphors. Bernard Chapin of PajamasMedia explains:


More Government Does Not Equal ‘Reform’
By Bernard Chapin, August 15, 2009

We live in interesting times. The America of 2020 will be radically different than the America of 1920. Just as Europeans attempt to liberalize their markets, we, in the United States, endeavor to (further) socialize ours. The Increase the Size of the Federocracy Plan — a.k.a. the stimulus — imperils our ability to ever get out of debt while cap and tax seeks to punish citizens as a means to atone for environmental variation. Inadvertently, the carbon scheme will enable China to become the world’s dominant economic power and lead to an even greater loss of our nation’s manufacturing base.

The latest assault on our institutions and freedoms comes from the Democratic Party’s health care initiative. Polling data suggest that most Americans are not in favor of Congress’ vague but extensive restructuring venture (disguised as reform), as 89 percent of us are satisfied with our own medical care.

No matter, the Democrats see another area of our lives to subject to their dreams of domination and have seized the day. As with the economy and climate change, they manufactured a health care crisis to ensure that they “never let a serious crisis go to waste.”

Republicans are “nearly united” in opposing it, but, alas, the left has the votes to push some kind of counterproductive measure through — even if it’s not totally transformative — without their assistance. Indeed, even if the GOP fights like paratroopers stranded in Bastogne, the much-heralded conservatives of the Democratic Party appear to be more lapdog than blue dog.

Should the weaker elements on his side wobble, President Obama created a new website, “Organizing for Health Care,” to assist politicians in battles with their constituents. The new web portal harkens back to the feel-good days of 2008 when the campaign ran “Fight the Smears” — established to prevent the general public from discerning the vast expanse existing between who Barack Obama actually was and who he pretended to be.

The odds may be against conservatives, but all is not lost. Positive signs abound as more and more citizens are ending their passivity. They’re standing up to their rulers and presenting them with the Obama kryptonite of “no, no, we can’t.”

The left could acknowledge the very real concerns of half the nation, but they’ve chosen to go into war-room mode. It appears that Democrats ardently believe in the opposite of Occam’s razor — the most convoluted and dramatic explanation for an event is the one that is most believable.

To leftists, only a sucker accepts that actual Americans complain or speak out when they witness detestable government action, so rather than comment on reality they conjure up conspiracy theories.

The DNC wrote off the protesters as “angry mobs of a small number of rabid right-wing extremists funded by K Street lobbyists” while an upper-class toff in the Senate lamented the number of “well-dressed people” storming the “town hall meetings.” Ah, there it is. What else is a clubman to do, between regattas in August, besides make spontaneous visits to his congressman?

Less humorously, the speaker of the House accused critics of “carrying swastikas” to their rallies, but this was a bizarre and unsubstantiated slur. If any of them did carry swastikas then, in all probability, they would be Pelosi — or Rep. John Dingell — supporters, as one can’t simultaneously hate socialism and support fascism. Perhaps her time would be better spent lecturing her own side about their choices in fashion accessories.

President Obama warned his flock about “misleading information” and “outlandish rumors.” This amounts to suggesting that Americans should accept his promises concerning the future rather than study the actual stipulations of the 1,000-page health care monstrosity. After all, why swim in substance when you can float on fluff?

Obama loyalists were also asked to forward to the White House information regarding health care that “seems fishy.” Which means what? And what are the authorities going to do with the information they gather?

Nobody knows. Some sources hold the request to be illegal. Senator John Cornyn penned a masterful response arguing, “As Congress debates health care reform and other critical policy matters, citizen engagement must not be chilled by fear of government monitoring the exercise of free speech rights.”

No, muscling us won’t work. Americans don’t take kindly to pressure from those who purport to serve, and the last thing we need is a vain, bully of a leader. No paranoia or conspiracy theory pushed by the Democratic Party alters this truth, as our populace does not yearn for a socialist Big Brother.

Only deception will snooker us into surrendering the rest of our freedoms, which is precisely why the Obama administration is trying to win the debate by making sure that there isn’t one.

To many people, the deceitful nature of our politicians becomes most evident when their spin contradicts something you know to be true. With the health care rallies, just as with the April tea party, I was informed of a downtown gathering not by an insurance company or medical organization, but by meetup.com, where I am a member both of the Chicago libertarian and conservative action groups.

I received an email stating:

"A pro-national health care rally is being held downtown today at 4:30 p.m. If you can, please click on the link below for information and join the counter-rally. We need everyone’s voice in this. Hope to see you downtown! Quality Time with Jan Schakowsky — Rally for Health Care Reform! — Federal Plaza Tuesday, Aug. 4."

The counter-demonstration consisted of a bunch of citizens reaching each other for free via a social networking site. There was no hocus pocus, big business, fat-cat lawyers, pay-for-play promises, or knee-destroying Astroturf involved. Attendance relied neither on donors nor manipulation.

Even though I am a political conservative who is leagues from being a “moderate” on the issues, most Americans agree with my stance on ObamaCare and are turning against it. The president and his followers may disseminate the buzz phrase that “the status quo is unsustainable,” but the only thing life has taught us is that it is government programs that are unsustainable.

For a start, Medicare and Social Security are going broke while the U.S. Postal Service continues to lose billions. Further, with Amtrak remaining the sick(est) man of the federocracy, we should change the government’s motto to “bankruptcy or bust.”

It takes no special interest groups or necromancers to make Americans realize that “free” and “government-provided” are antonyms. Government initiatives have never saved money and they consistently manage to deplete the U.S. Treasury at a much faster clip than legislators initially presume.

For his part, President Obama pretended that the backlash stemmed from Republican operatives or possibly CEOs of HMOs, saying, “I don’t want the folks who created the mess to do a lot of talking. I want them just to get out of the way so we can clean up the mess. I don’t mind cleaning up after them, but don’t do a lot of talking.”

Heaven forbid we question this man. How dare we! Yet dare we must. Given that the best predictor of future performance is past behavior, no precedent exists for presupposing that the Democratic Party — or the government in general — can “clean up” any fiscal disaster.

Indeed, federal intervention invariably exacerbates the social problems it deigns to address and the debt from its undertakings endangers our future. Barack Obama responded to George W. Bush’s enormous budget deficits by making them worse.

Indeed, with the budget itself, after his inauguration, Obama called his predecessor’s unwieldy $3.1 trillion raise and re-raised him $400 billion. The president’s claim that “for all the scare tactics out there, what is truly scary is if we do nothing” is bogus.

What truly horrifies is the thought of giving Washington, D.C., any more control over our lives. Yes, health care in America can be improved, but only by decreasing the amount of influence that federal regulators have on it.

In the end, government “reform” is no reform at all. They’ve made a labyrinth of everything we’ve asked them to “solve” in the past. If anything, let’s learn from our mistakes and slash government’s role in the health care sector further.