First of all let me apologize to my “thousands” of loyal followers (ok , both of you) for being gone so long. But I’m back and now ready to leave again. So much going on in Obamaland I don’t know where to begin. As an overall observation, I’m thinking back at how the Community Organizer (AKA, BO) was going to bring peace, love, prosperity and cooperation to all. He was going to “change the tone” in Washington. He was going to bring Democrats and Republicans together. There was to be peace and harmony forever more. The hatred and racism of the past would be buried forever as we elected our first black President.
Oh well. So much for promises from a politician. In my short 49 years, (OK, 56 short years), I’ve never seen or heard of so much name calling, charges of incivility, racism, and division in our great land. Of course all of this was predicted by my friend and mentor Rush L. He said during the election that if BO was elected, racism and division would increase dramatically. Once again, he was right. Why is it that when the Republicans or conservatives disagree with Team Obama they are labeled as racist, Nazi’s, and protests at town-hall meetings as originating from “astro turf;” not “grass roots”.
I have some first hand knowledge of a friend who recently joined in the Tea Party protest held on the mall in Washington. My thanks to Kate D. for taking the time to show her loyalties to our country and constitution. I’m planning on doing the same the next opportunity I have. I know her personally, and I know her kind. She’s not racist, not a bigot, not a kook, not part of any “astro turf” movement sponsored by an insurance company or hateful drug company. She’s not a Nazi. She is a concerned citizen that doesn’t want to see the government run everything from banks, to cars, to hospitals. She sees and hears, as I do the contradictions spewed from Team Obama 24/7. George Will described it this way:
He says America’s health-care system is going to wrack and ruin and requires root-and-branch reform—but that if you like your health care (as a large majority of Americans do), nothing will change for you. His slippery new formulation is that nothing in his plan will “require” anyone to change coverage. He used to say, “If you like your health-care plan, you’ll be able to keep your health-care plan, period.” He had to stop saying that because various disinterested analysts agree that his plan will give many employers incentives to stop providing coverage for employees.
He deplores “scare tactics” but says that unless he gets his way, people will die. He praises temperate discourse but says many of his opponents are liars. He says Medicare is an exemplary program that validates government’s prowess at running health systems. But he also says Medicare is unsustainable and going broke, and that he will pay for much of his reforms by eliminating the hundreds of billions of dollars of waste and fraud in this paragon of a program, and in Medicaid. He says Congress will cut Medicare (it will not) by $500 billion—without affecting benefits.
He says the nation’s economic health depends on controlling health-care costs. Yet so important is the trial bar in financing the Democratic Party, he says not a syllable in significant and specific support of tort reforms that could save hundreds of billions of dollars by reducing “defensive medicine” intended to protect not patients from illnesses but doctors from lawyers. He has said he will not add a dime to the deficit when bringing 47 million people into government-guaranteed health care. But Wednesday night, 17 million went missing: “There are now more than 30 million American citizens who cannot get coverage.” Almost 10 million of the uninsured are not citizens, and most of them are illegal immigrants. Presumably the other 7 million could get insurance but chose not to. Democrats propose fines to eliminate that choice. He suggests health-insurance companies are making excessive profits. But since 1996, profits of the six such companies in the S&P 500 have been below the 500’s average. He says a “public option”—a government insurance program—would not be subsidized to enable it to compete unfairly with private insurers. (The post office and the government’s transportation -“public option,” Amtrak, devour subsidies.) He says the public option is vital for keeping health insurers “honest”—but that it is only a wee “sliver” of reform. About that, Nancy Pelosi -disagrees.
The protests aren’t about one specific issue whether it be health care reform, taxes, banks, jobs. This isn’t about the color of some-one’s skin. Can we disagree and not be called a racist? It’s about keeping government small. It’s what our founding fathers had in mind.
We tax-paying citizens of the Peoples Rebuplic of Massachusetts have seen the sales tax increase 25%, and the sales tax applied to beer, wine, and liqour. All while the Governor, who was also elected on the ‘Hope’ platform has failed to deliver property-tax relief, a key talking point during his campaign. Now we hope a viable candidate from either party will supplant this charlatan.
apology accepted.
Thank you for the kind words. The protest in DC was truly inspiring, proving you really can’t fool all the people all the time. Let’s hope Sept. 12 is just the beginning of registering our dismay at what’s going on in Washington.