Disregarding the massive and evolving economic fallacies and failures of Obama Care, this position seems to also fail on every dimension of our Founding Fathers' intentions:
- Life - Obama Care will set up an independent, unaccountable panel of currently unnamed bureaucrats that will determine what treatments Medicare will and will not fund for senior citizens. The potential for these 15 people to focus only on costs and not life could very easily result in the so-called "death panel" mentality that many of us worried about in the past. Thus, surrendering your ability to choose what treatments you want and may need later in life, just to hit an overall Medicare cost target, is potentially dangerous to your life.
- Liberty - forcing any American to purchase a product or service, like Obama Care does in its requirement that every American purchase health care insurance, is not consistent with the Founding Fathers' concept of liberty. Forcing any American or American organization to forego their religious freedom and freedom of speech, like Obama Care does to Catholic religious organizations with regard to birth control, is not consistent with our Declaration of Independence and Constitution. Whenever the words government and force are used in the same sentence, freedom usually suffers.
- Pursuit Of Happiness - Obama Care is written so poorly that it could have serious financial implications on Americans' decisions when it comes to marriage, retirement, health care availability, and other life changing situations. The "pursuit of happiness" in this country should not be driven by a massive government bureaucracy's rules and regulations.
This statement left me with the impression that not only should the bill be passed so that Americans could see what is in it but it needed to be passed so that those in Congress could actually see what was in a 2,500 page piece of legislative monstrosity. Very scary stuff that our elected representatives need to pass legislation before they can explain it to their constituents.
But scary statements from our political class are not confined to Ms. Pelosi. Numerous times over the past few years, Democratic politicians have gone on record with some of the most preposterous, empty, inane, and just plain stupid statements and positions imaginable. It makes you wonder how did out political processes get so broken that we ended up with the current set of Washington politicians and their less than stellar views and abilities.
Staying with Obama Care, consider the words of Congressman John Conyers explaining why he did not bother reading the legislation before he voted on it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ACbwND52rrw
His arrogance, and ignorance, is quite unbelievable. What else do members of Congress do in Washington except to research, write, READ, and vote on legislation? One would have hoped that READING any legislation BEFORE voting on that legislation would be a basic requirement of the job. Given how poorly Obama Care is turning out, this condescending attitude of Conyers and probably many other members of congress is not surprising, as is the many failures of the Obama Care legislation that they did not read.
If you think it is unbelievable that a long term Congressman finds it below himself to read a major piece of legislation that will impact most Americans, consider the lack of understanding that Congressman Hank Johnson has on geology. The following video is real, it was not a joke or a mock up fake.
The Congressman, speaking at a Congressional hearing concerning the U.S. Navy's presence on the island of Guam, actually worries that the island of Guam could tip over if too many more Navy resources are stationed on it. Yes, that is a correct statement, you cannot make this stuff up, as the Congressman explains his concern of the island tipping over in the middle of the Pacific Ocean:
http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=congressman+htnks+guam+could+tip+over&view=detail&mid=C7FF551F39BE3D728B81C7FF551F39BE3D728B81&first=0&qpvt=congressman+htnks+guam+could+tip+over
If you look at the expression on the admiral's face, you can see that he is trying to figure out if the Congressman's concerns are real or this is a Candid Camera-like stunt. The sad part of this affair, is that it is my understanding that this Congressman actually got reelected even though he obviously is very out of touch with reality and the basic tenets of geology. Again, you cannot make this stuff up when it comes to dopey political class statements.
Sometimes the timing of politicians' statements make them look dopey. Case in point: in late February, 2012 President Obama gave a speech where he talked glowingly about sitting in a Chevy Volt, GM's highly touted electric car:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jOoUwJV8WY8
Seems he really likes the car, if only to help justify wasting tens of billions of dollars of taxpayer money to bail out GM.
The bad part for the President is that within days after he made these complimentary comments about the Volt, GM decided to shut down production of the car, likely due to fire problems and the fact that most other people in America had decided against buying the car, it is a dud. Sort of makes the President look out of touch with reality. One would have thought his press and PR people would have been sure that the Volt was going to continue to be made BEFORE the President went on about how great the car is three days or so before production was halted.
This would have been the equivalent of President Eisenhower extolling the virtues of Ford's Edsel just days before Ford cancelled its production. The word "Edsel" has gone on to become synonymous with failure, a potential fate of the Volt and what turned out to be a dopey Presidential statement.
Moving on, let's talk about the failed attempt to pass a massive cap and trade energy bill a few years ago that would have been a disaster for the American economy and consumer without solving either the global warming or energy problems. The chairman of the committee writing the bill at the time was Congressman Henry Waxman. Waxman was one of the main sponsors and primary writers of the legislation.
However, much like John Conyers admitting that he had not read the Obama Care legislation, in the following clip we find out that Waxman had not read his OWN piece of legislation when he seems stunned that something was in the proposed law that he did not know about, requiring him to turn to his legal advisor for clarification:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X3zIoiJc3Xc
Again, one would think that a veteran Congressman like Waxman would know what is actually in a piece of legislation he supposedly wrote. Unbelievable, what do these people do with their time and our money while in office if they do not write or read their proposed new laws?
Let's talk about my home state of new Jersey. There had been Federal plans to built a new rail tunnel between New Jersey and Manhattan to help make it easier for commuters and visitors to get into New York City from New Jersey and would theoretically produce a lot of construction and permanent jobs for the state.
However, despite getting a lot of Federal funding for the project, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie killed the project, citing escalating construction costs that would have been the responsibility of the state's taxpayers. According to an Associated Press article at the time, the project's cost started at $5 billion in 2005 and grew to $8.7 billion by 2008.
By 2010, Federal Transit Administrator Peter Rogoff has made public statements that put the price tag between $9 billion and $10 billion. Christie said his advisers put the costs at $11 billion to $14 billion. Thus, within five years, the projected cost had grown between two and three times what the original cost estimate had been, BEFORE substantial work had even begun. This process is reminiscent of Boston's "Big Dig" transportation project where the initial cost had been a mere $2 billion or so but the final cost had been well over $20 billion.
U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J. viewed Christie’s cancellation of the project as “one of the biggest policy blunders in New Jersey’s history.” Lautenberg had helped secure federal funding for the project. However, according to the AP report, his dopey statement followed when "Lautenberg acknowledged that cost overruns on a project of the tunnel’s size were inevitable, but said Christie’s numbers are inflated."
Think about how stupid that view is: cost overruns are inevitable. Why, then, should a taxpayer trust any politicians' estimate of a major program when the chance of taxpayers paying more for what they sign up for is "inevitable?" Even if you believe this, why would a politician openly state that we cannot believe what they tell us a project or program will intially cost?
When it comes to joe Biden we could probably devote several days of posts to his dopey statements. My favorite is when he talks about leadership and how FDR was a leader when he went on television to explain why the stock market crashed in 1929:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Jf17Yo7hBM
Two problems here from this leader. First, FDR was not President of the United States when the stock market crashed in 1929. Second, television did not exist in 1929, no one in the country owned a TV, they all owned radios. Makes you feel kind of uneasy that the second in line to lead this country is so ignorant when it comes to our country's history.
Again, we could go on and on about dopey statements form the Vice president. Many of these include dropping the f-bomb in public, certainly not a very mature or leadership-like trait to have. If you access the above YouTube link to see his FDR/television comment, you should be able to access other inane comments from the Vice President.
However, the queen of all dopey statements from the political class has to be Nancy Pelosi. Consider:
1) According to Ms. Pelosi's understanding of basic economic theory, the more people that are unemployed in this country and the more people that collect unemployment benefits, the more jobs will be created. Thus, in her world, if everyone was unemployed, more and more jobs would be created. But everyone would be unemployed so who would fill the newly created jobs? Dopey economic reasoning certainly not of this world.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xdAj8zui6ss&feature=related
2) The former Speaker also believes that food stamps are a better economic stimulus than tax cuts. Thus, why not give everyone food stamps, not just the unemployed, doesn't it seem to reason that the economy would be so much better off?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=omxQuDtF1ZM&feature=related
3) Ms. Pelosi was so funny when she said that she would not allow any extraneous or nonessential programs to be loaded onto the economic stimulus legislation. Either she was not able to attain that objective or she considers funding research of insects on an island off the coast of Africa as essential for job creation, she considers replacing windows in a closed and extinct visitor's center at Mt. Saint Helen's essential for job creation, she considers the replacing of windows in a Wyoming Catholic church as essential for job creation (I never knew window replacement could be such a great economic stimulus), and she considers replacing a heating system in an Indiana Methodist church as essential for job creation, etc. You get the message. It was a ludicrous statement to make, given the hundreds of billions of dollars of waste that unfolded from the stimulus program:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JwMHH2ONtbw&feature=related
4) In Ms. Pelosi's world, the counting system is entirely different, if you believe her numbers. In the following YouTube clip, the frantic Speaker boldly states that every week, 500 million more Americans lose their jobs. In our world, there are only about 310 million total Americans in the country, including kids and infants, making it impossible for 500 million Americans to lose their jobs in one week, never mind many weeks. However, in her world, the counting process must be different in order to count 500 million job losses a week.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-UR5M5teyQ0
If people like these Democrats did not have such wide control over our lives, our freedoms and our wealth, they would be prime material for a Comedy Central sitcom show. Unfortunately, they have way too much control. Maybe that is why the country is in such sad shape.
When our so-called leaders from the Democratic Party do not know how to count, they do not know basic facts about our nation's history, the f-bomb is a normal part of their everyday vocabulary, they do not read the laws the enact, they endorse products that the rest of the country knows are modern day Edsels, they have bizarre and inaccurate understandings of basic economics and basic geology, and most importantly, do not even realize how dopey their statements are, it should not surprise us that the economy is in shatters, the country is divided, and major problems go unresolved for decades.
In light of these statements from Democrats in Washington, the case for Step 39 from "Love My Country, Loathe My Government" has never stronger. Step 39 would impose strict term limits on any politician running for national office. Allowing these long term politicians to stay in office (Biden, Pelosi, Conyers, Waxman, etc.) results in not only these dopey statements but their dopey non-solutions to our problems. How much dopier could it be if we required term limits on all Washington politicians? (please visit the following site to actually sign a petition in favor of term limits for all Federal politicians: http://www.unitedstatesofpurple.com/united_states_of_purple_015.htm)
Note: I would be happy to do a ROPES post in the future where it covered Republicans Offering Preposterous, Empty Statements if enough episodes of Republican dopiness are identified. However, dopey statements from people such as Sarah Palin, George W. Bush, and Dick Cheney would not be included since these people have no impact on our lives anymore, unlike Pelosi, Obama, Conyers, Johnson, Waxman, and Biden.
We invite all readers of this blog to visit our new website, "The United States Of Purple," at:
http://www.unitedstatesofpurple.com/
The United States of Purple is a new grass roots approach to filling the office of President of The United States by focusing on the restoration of freedom in the United States, focusing on problem solving skills and results vs. personal political enrichment, and imposing term limits on all future Federal politicians. No more red states, no more blue states, just one United States Of America under the banner of Purple.
The United States Of Purple's website also provides you the formal opportunity to sign a petition to begin the process of implementing a Constitutional amendment to impose fixed term limits on all Federally elected politicians. Only by turning out the existing political class can we have a chance of addressing and finally resolving the major issues of or times.
Our book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at www.loathemygovernment.com. It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.
Please visit the following sites for freedom:
http://www.cato.org/
http://www.robertringer.com/
http://realpolichick.blogspot.com/
http://www.flipcongress2010.com/
http://www.reason.com/
http://www.repealamendment/
No comments:
Post a Comment