Laura Hollis, Townhall, March 22: Procedure is all that protects us from dictatorship.
How much more do we have to witness before there is no more blather about Barack Obama as a “centrist” or a “moderate?” Yesterday’s legislative debacle was only the latest in a series of calculated, deliberate and premeditated steps by this President to dismantle the constitutional protections Americans have enshrined in our foundational documents and achieve complete government takeover of the reviled and envied private sector.
Consider what we have seen happen in a little more than a year: nearly the entire American automaking industry nationalized, with its CEOs thrown out at the will of the President. Private contracts with investors eviscerated to provide payback to the President’s political patrons. Whole segments of the financial sector beholden to the federal government at the will of the President. Health care – one-sixth of the U.S. economy - nationalized at the will of the President. Student loans nationalized at the will of the President. The country taken into deeper and steeper debt at the will of the President – debt which, as it has everywhere else, will cripple enterprise, impede entrepreneurship, raise unemployment, stifle innovation, destroy America’s world-class health care, and result in shortages, rationing, economic distress, and general misery which will – surprise! – result in calls for what? More government intervention.
People who treat this as an exception to Barack Obama’s moderate “centrism” or an unintended consequence of his skillful management of a crisis he inherited are inexcusably stupid.
Consider what we have seen happen in a little more than a year: nearly the entire American automaking industry nationalized, with its CEOs thrown out at the will of the President. Private contracts with investors eviscerated to provide payback to the President’s political patrons. Whole segments of the financial sector beholden to the federal government at the will of the President. Health care – one-sixth of the U.S. economy - nationalized at the will of the President. Student loans nationalized at the will of the President. The country taken into deeper and steeper debt at the will of the President – debt which, as it has everywhere else, will cripple enterprise, impede entrepreneurship, raise unemployment, stifle innovation, destroy America’s world-class health care, and result in shortages, rationing, economic distress, and general misery which will – surprise! – result in calls for what? More government intervention.
People who treat this as an exception to Barack Obama’s moderate “centrism” or an unintended consequence of his skillful management of a crisis he inherited are inexcusably stupid.
Charles Krauthammer, Townhall, March 26: The VAT Cometh.
American liberals have long complained that ours is the only advanced industrial country without universal health care. Well, now we shall have it. And as we approach European levels of entitlements, we will need European levels of taxation.
Obama set out to be a consequential president, on the order of Ronald Reagan. With the VAT, Obama's triumph will be complete. He will have succeeded in reversing Reaganism. Liberals have long complained that Reagan's strategy was to starve the (governmental) beast in order to shrink it: First, cut taxes -- then ultimately you have to reduce government spending.
Obama's strategy is exactly the opposite: Expand the beast, and then feed it. Spend first -- which then forces taxation. Now that, with the institution of universal health care, we are becoming the full entitlement state, the beast will have to be fed.
And the VAT is the only trough in creation large enough.
As a substitute for the income tax, the VAT would be a splendid idea. Taxing consumption makes infinitely more sense than taxing work. But to feed the liberal social-democratic project, the VAT must be added on top of the income tax.
Obama set out to be a consequential president, on the order of Ronald Reagan. With the VAT, Obama's triumph will be complete. He will have succeeded in reversing Reaganism. Liberals have long complained that Reagan's strategy was to starve the (governmental) beast in order to shrink it: First, cut taxes -- then ultimately you have to reduce government spending.
Obama's strategy is exactly the opposite: Expand the beast, and then feed it. Spend first -- which then forces taxation. Now that, with the institution of universal health care, we are becoming the full entitlement state, the beast will have to be fed.
And the VAT is the only trough in creation large enough.
As a substitute for the income tax, the VAT would be a splendid idea. Taxing consumption makes infinitely more sense than taxing work. But to feed the liberal social-democratic project, the VAT must be added on top of the income tax.
Ann Coulter, Townhall, March 31: Prescriptions for Disaster Now Covered Under Obamacare.
A few weeks ago, The New York Times ran an editorial noting the amazing fact that, by the middle of this year, there will be an estimated 6.8 billion people on Earth -- and 5 billion will have cell phones! (Even more astounding, at least one of them is seated directly behind me every time I go to the movies.)
How did that happen without a Democrat president and Congress using bribes, parliamentary tricks and arcane non-voting maneuvers to pass a massive, hugely expensive National Cell Phone Reform Act?
How did that happen without Barney Frank and Henry Waxman personally designing the 3-foot-long, 26-pound, ugly green $4,000 cell phone we all have to use?
How did that happen without Obama signing the National Cell Phone Reform bill, as a poor 10-year-old black kid who couldn't afford to text-message his friends looked on?
The reason nearly everyone in the universe has a cell phone is that President Reagan did to telephones the exact opposite of what the Democrats have just done with health care.
Before Reagan came into office, we had one phone company, ridiculously expensive rates and one phone model. Reagan split up AT&T, deregulated phone service and gave America a competitive market in phones. The rest is history.
If you can grasp how inexpensive cell phones in a rainbow of colors and wonders like the iPhone could never have been created under a National Cell Phone Reform Act, you can understand what a disaster ObamaCare is going to be for health care in America.
How did that happen without a Democrat president and Congress using bribes, parliamentary tricks and arcane non-voting maneuvers to pass a massive, hugely expensive National Cell Phone Reform Act?
How did that happen without Barney Frank and Henry Waxman personally designing the 3-foot-long, 26-pound, ugly green $4,000 cell phone we all have to use?
How did that happen without Obama signing the National Cell Phone Reform bill, as a poor 10-year-old black kid who couldn't afford to text-message his friends looked on?
The reason nearly everyone in the universe has a cell phone is that President Reagan did to telephones the exact opposite of what the Democrats have just done with health care.
Before Reagan came into office, we had one phone company, ridiculously expensive rates and one phone model. Reagan split up AT&T, deregulated phone service and gave America a competitive market in phones. The rest is history.
If you can grasp how inexpensive cell phones in a rainbow of colors and wonders like the iPhone could never have been created under a National Cell Phone Reform Act, you can understand what a disaster ObamaCare is going to be for health care in America.
Mark Steyn, National Review Online, March 27: Obamacare Dystopia.
...right now the future lies somewhere between the certainty of decline and the probability of catastrophe. What can stop it? Not a lot. But now that your “pro-life” Democratic congressman has sold out, you might want to quit calling Washington and try your state capital. If the Commerce Clause can legitimize the “individual mandate,” then there is no republic, not in any meaningful sense. If you don’t like the sound of that, maybe it’s time for a constitutional convention.
Michael Barone, Townhall, March 25: Bond Markets Reflect the True Cost of Obamacare.
Not many people noticed amid the Democrats' struggle to jam their health care bill through the House, but in recent weeks U.S. Treasury bonds have lost their status as the world's safest investment.
The numbers are pretty clear. In February, Bloomberg News reports, Berkshire Hathaway sold two-year bonds with an interest rate lower than that on two-year Treasuries. A company run by a 79-year-old investor is a better credit risk, the markets are telling us, than the U.S. government.
The numbers are pretty clear. In February, Bloomberg News reports, Berkshire Hathaway sold two-year bonds with an interest rate lower than that on two-year Treasuries. A company run by a 79-year-old investor is a better credit risk, the markets are telling us, than the U.S. government.
Larry Elder, Townhall, March 25: Hope and Change ... the Constitution.
Ignoring the will of the majority of the American people, the discouraging experiences of countries with socialized medicine, and the already staggering amount of entitlement debt, President Barack Obama and the congressional Democrats "reformed" health care. Once a nation under a Constitution that restricted government intrusion, we now want government to provide for our "needs" by calling them "rights."
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We ignore the experience of price controls. Government can dictate prices, but cannot dictate costs. Price controls result in rationing, drive producers out of business and cause lower quality and less innovation. America, because its citizens enjoyed greater economic freedom, built a superior health care system -- which ObamaCare now threatens to dismantle.
Communism collapsed under the romantic but bankrupt notion of "from each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs." Taking from the productive and giving to the unproductive does damage to the incentive of both parties. European countries -- "social justice" democracies -- produce comparatively few private-sector jobs. Europe suffers from high taxes, choking union agreements that make it virtually impossible to fire unproductive or unneeded workers, and government policies that mandate paid vacations and other job-killing benefits.
Into this statist abyss we willingly jump.
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So, the Constitution must be changed. It must be amended to make what was once clear absolutely, positively, unavoidably clear. Two-thirds of the states can call for a constitutional convention, where an amendment can be proposed to prohibit the forced purchase of health insurance. Three-fourths of the states could then ratify it.
Implausible? So was ObamaCare.
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We ignore the experience of price controls. Government can dictate prices, but cannot dictate costs. Price controls result in rationing, drive producers out of business and cause lower quality and less innovation. America, because its citizens enjoyed greater economic freedom, built a superior health care system -- which ObamaCare now threatens to dismantle.
Communism collapsed under the romantic but bankrupt notion of "from each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs." Taking from the productive and giving to the unproductive does damage to the incentive of both parties. European countries -- "social justice" democracies -- produce comparatively few private-sector jobs. Europe suffers from high taxes, choking union agreements that make it virtually impossible to fire unproductive or unneeded workers, and government policies that mandate paid vacations and other job-killing benefits.
Into this statist abyss we willingly jump.
---
So, the Constitution must be changed. It must be amended to make what was once clear absolutely, positively, unavoidably clear. Two-thirds of the states can call for a constitutional convention, where an amendment can be proposed to prohibit the forced purchase of health insurance. Three-fourths of the states could then ratify it.
Implausible? So was ObamaCare.
Mike Adams, Townhall, March 29: Civil Disobedience.
I’ve long said that there would not be legalized abortion in America were it not for the Democratic Party. But, in a post-3/21 world, there can be no federal funding of abortions without the complicity of pro-life Republicans. If you think I’m hinting at the prospect of civil disobedience, you’re right. But that isn’t our first line of defense.
Republican Attorneys General around the nation are correct to challenge the legality of the national health care legislation passed by Congress on 3/21. If these suits are successful, we may be able to dismantle the legislation using the courts of law – long after it was dismantled in the court of public opinion. But if we fail in court, what is next?
The necessity of having a backup plan in the event of failed litigation efforts was made clear to me just one day after the congressional vote. The first Democrat friend I saw after 3/21 greeted me by saying, “F*** all you f***ing Republicans.” It is clear that you can only say “no” so many times when dealing with legislative rapists. It is equally clear that the time for reasoned discourse has passed and the time for civil disobedience is drawing near.
I would not likely enjoy spending time in prison. But I simply cannot imagine paying federal taxes that could be used to fund abortion. I just cannot resign myself to complicity in the murder of the unborn. I can more easily see myself going to trial and throwing myself on the mercy of a jury of my peers.
Jury nullification was used to end the Salem witch trials. Maybe it can stop federal funding of the murder of unborn children.
Republican Attorneys General around the nation are correct to challenge the legality of the national health care legislation passed by Congress on 3/21. If these suits are successful, we may be able to dismantle the legislation using the courts of law – long after it was dismantled in the court of public opinion. But if we fail in court, what is next?
The necessity of having a backup plan in the event of failed litigation efforts was made clear to me just one day after the congressional vote. The first Democrat friend I saw after 3/21 greeted me by saying, “F*** all you f***ing Republicans.” It is clear that you can only say “no” so many times when dealing with legislative rapists. It is equally clear that the time for reasoned discourse has passed and the time for civil disobedience is drawing near.
I would not likely enjoy spending time in prison. But I simply cannot imagine paying federal taxes that could be used to fund abortion. I just cannot resign myself to complicity in the murder of the unborn. I can more easily see myself going to trial and throwing myself on the mercy of a jury of my peers.
Jury nullification was used to end the Salem witch trials. Maybe it can stop federal funding of the murder of unborn children.
Our new slogan at our Commie Obama hat store: You have the healthcare. Now get the hat.
Should we rename our blog slogan to "Ushanka.us: Documenting the End of America"?
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