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Saturday, February 27, 2010

Whatever It Takes

A few days ago I wrote that Obama had declared legislative war in signalling that budget reconciliation would be the way to go to pass Obama's health care plan. The doomed-to-fail health care summit was just a justification.

The signals today are even clearer. Democrats assert that they will do whatever it takes to pass sweeping health care legislation which will transform one-sixth of our economy into a tightly controlled government program, with private interests playing a role which will decrease over time.

Use whatever analogy you want -- Trojan horse, foot-in-the door, etc. -- the point for Obama is to get in place a legislative scheme which will then allow Obama to implement regulations which will achieve the vision of single-payer health care by squeezing out the private sector over the next three years.

Andy McCarthy makes that point today, which has been made before, that passing Obamacare is so important to Obama that Obama is willing to lose control of the House, and possibly (but unlikely given the math) the Senate, in the process.

Obama said it himself, he would rather be a one-term President who accomplishes what he wants, than a two-term President who does not.

And what Obama wants is to transform our economy into a West European-style economy where free enterprise is minutely regulated from the central government and extraordinarily high marginal tax rates are used to feed government redistribution of wealth in the form of social programs. The fact that West European economies have chronic double-digit unemployment rates as a result of these policies matters not.

Obama has signalled that he will do whatever it takes legislatively to get his foot in this door.

Republicans in Congress need to do whatever it takes legislatively to slam the door shut. Any and every legislative tactic must be used to stop the Democrats.

November is too far away to think that elections will matter.

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Related Posts:
Now Is Not The Time For Weakness
Obama Declares Legislative War
U.S. Hits Highest Unemployment Rate Since ... Europe

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12 comments:

  1. What can be done? Pelosi can buy off whoever she wants and then they only need 50 votes in the senate. Prof. Jacobson, I'm not sure we can stop this unless we file lawsuits to hold it off until after the midterm elections.

    Besides writing letters and making phone calls is there anything you suggest we do?

    ReplyDelete
  2. "What can be done?"
    If the Dems press ahead with this, nothing much can be done now, except to draw up plans to use reconciliation against the Dems in the future to cancel this Healthcare Insurance Destruction Bill before it is implemented and to delete the other crazy Dem schemes now ongoing.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I remain unconvinced that the Dems are really going to march off the cliff on this reconciliation deal. Talk is cheap, and that's all that is currently taking place. I think they are, again, trying to create a sense of inevitability, hoping to create a sense of momentum. But the people who matter in this, comprised mostly of reluctant House dems in vulnerable districts, are not (as far as I can tell) showing signs of movement toward enactment.

    ReplyDelete
  4. If they persist and they pass this, then we simply walk down to the capitol the day after and remove every member of congress who votes for this bill.

    Call it the 10M man march. We will simply 'cloward-piven' the authorities' ability to police and jail all of us. We will bring no guns. We will bring no weapons. We will simply walk in en mass. The police will be left with a choice - start violence or let us TURN THEM OUT.

    No one wants anything like this. Violence is dispicable. However, our founders realized there are some points in the history where passive aggressive and aggressive agressive action are needed.

    With millions upon millions marching, all will have to choose between Liberty and Tyranny. Based on all I have seen living near Washington - few inside Washington understand how angry this liberty loving population is. It will take organization to accomplish this March & sit-in.

    We'll have to sit there and wait them out. We have already seen in town halls, retired military who have made it clear they take their oath to protect the constitution seriously. We will need their support and they will have remain passive in the face of reactionary orders. We will have to truck in food & water to Washington. We'll need to mange porta potties and all that that entails. With all of those people marching in Washington, it will effectively result in a nation wide shutdown of the country.

    For those who cannot goto Washington, we act locally in every state. Nothing moves except to support the 10M and the others who protest locally. In every state, we interdict the offices of every totalitarian who votes for this legislation. NOTHING MOVES except to help the peaceful protestors who are stopping the country until this Congress is no longer able to destroy America.

    Once we physically remove the congress people from their offices, we restart the government with new elections for congress in every state. We petition and amend the constitution of every state to have 'recalls' for all congressmen and Senators. Never again do we allow a McCain or a Bob Bennett or an Evan Baye to promise one thing and 4 years later reneg on promises. Never again do we let a Charlie Rangel remain where the man who writes tax law does not obey tax law.

    We will NOT be turned into federal slaves subject to A Washington DC elite who no longer believes in our Americn values.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I think there's procedural things that the opposition can do that effectively shuts down the government. (Someone more knowledgeable than I must confirm this) They haven't used them yet because it hasn't quite been worth it because of the incredible political risk that comes with ultimate obstructionism. I believe the case can now strongly be made to use every and all things to shut down both houses of Congress, damn the consequences. If the Dems are going to act like November isn't happening, then the Republicans must act the same way.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Europeans suffered through two wars that destroyed the continent's infrastructure over a period of less than 50 years. Rebuilding after WWII, they chose to sacrifice freedom for the security of the welfare state. Had I gone through a similar experience, I may have made the same choice. But now those socialist welfare states are, literally, on the verge of collapse. Wall Street calls them "two eyed pigs", or PIIGS. That's an acronym for Portugal, Italy, Ireland, Greece, and Spain. They have accumulated so much debt, in part honoring welfare commitments, that investors are spooked those countries may soon default on thier sovereign debt obligations.

    In spite of not having experienced a war on our shores that destroyed our country's infrastructure, two Democrats who were advocates of a big socialst welfare state, FDR and LBJ, have put us on the exact same path as the PIIGS. Paul Ryan said at the healthcare summit that Medicare is underfunded by $38 trillion.

    Our government is borrowing money from whereever it can to pay existing welfare payments. Yet, ignoring the current crisis with the PIIGS and our own crisis with social security and medicare they want to create an even bigger socialist welfare state.

    I don't understand any of it. How can they be so morally bankrupt that they are willing to leave this gigantic mess they are making to their/our children and grandchildren.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Reconciliation allows unlimited amendments. If the Republicans can keep it together they can grind the Senate to a halt.

    God help us all.

    ReplyDelete
  8. How long will it take to organize a ten-million-man Tea Party rally in DC? THAT is how we will stop this.

    ReplyDelete
  9. "Besides writing letters and making phone calls is there anything you suggest we do?" asked Justin above.

    Pray. Fast. Read Scripture. Offer up your suffering and your gratitude to God. Get better by getting better said Father Benedict Groeschel. Speak clearly when you defend charity, purity,chastity,continence. Change yourself as in stay away from the things that harm you, embrace the things that feed you.

    Be thankful for the good that happens when you do and for the feedback from others that see the improvement with the lack of swearing, cursing, rationalization, justification and cynicism.

    Do these things. All are free of charge! You will reap a harvest the nature and scale of which you would never have guessed.

    Thank you, Professor.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Maggot, this is what I make of it:

    Proponents of the massive welfare state have convinced themselves that they are morally superior. Having established that, they feel free to do anything they want.

    For them, feelings are all that count. At the Health Care Summit, the Dems'arguments appealed to feelings of "compassion," proving that they are the "good guys." (Buy that woman some properly fitting dentures, right away!)

    The Dems' arguments didn't go near reason or logic, which they have been trying to relegate to the trash heap of history as powers that appeal only to bad guys. Thinking through problems is the biggest threat to their comfortable moral superiority.

    Anyone interested in cause-and-effect sooner or later will read a balance sheet. That's only a step or two away from the realization that the road to hell really is paved with good intentions.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Well........I pray, I fast.

    But I can do that while blockading Congress w/9,999,999 other actual men.

    ReplyDelete