Harry Reid Gets It Backwards (As Usual)

December 7, 2009

So Harry Reid has come out of the lunatic closet and compared the opponents of health care reform to those advocating for the continuation of slavery, the opposition to women’s suffrage and civil rights.

Congratulations, Harry! You have won the award for the single stupidest statement made by a politician in 2009.

“Instead of joining us on the right side of history, all the Republicans can come up with is, ‘slow down, stop everything, let’s start over.’ If you think you’ve heard these same excuses before, you’re right,” Reid said Monday. “When this country belatedly recognized the wrongs of slavery, there were those who dug in their heels and said ‘slow down, it’s too early, things aren’t bad enough.'”

He continued: “When women spoke up for the right to speak up, they wanted to vote, some insisted they simply, slow down, there will be a better day to do that, today isn’t quite right.

“When this body was on the verge of guaranteeing equal civil rights to everyone regardless of the color of their skin, some senators resorted to the same filibuster threats that we hear today.”

My God, the idiocy of this man is overwhelming.

First off, it was Republicans who ended slavery. It was also Republicans who fought to overcome a filibuster sponsored by then-Democrat Strom Thurmond for the Civil Rights Act.

It sounds like things aren’t going particularly well behind the doors that Reid closed to Senate Republicans. This sort of shrill, hyper-partisan buffoonery is a pretty good indicator that Reid’s losing what few marbles he ever had. I can only wonder how Democrats like Ben Nelson, Evan Bayh, Mary Landrieu, Blanche Lincoln, and Dem-leaning independent Joe Lieberman feel about being cast as modern day Simon Legrees? And all you people out there…you know, the majority of Americans who don’t want this health care reform? Well, now you know what the Democrats really think about you when they’re behind closed doors. You should remember it at election time next year…if this is what Reid feels he can say in public, imagine what he thinks about you in private.

But there’s a larger point here and Reid has it completely backwards. This is a man who feels that a government takeover of 1/6 of the US economy will somehow free people when, in fact, it will do the opposite. A government that provides all that we have can take all of that away at any time. Making more people dependent on government for the necessities of life is a type of slavery. While it lacks the whips and chains, forcing people to look to the government to meet their needs is every bit as condescending, emasculating, and crippling as iron shackles. Slaves were the property of their owners; government-run health care makes those who accept it wards of the state. Reid views the American public as infants, children who need to be looked after from womb to tomb. His motives may be beneficent, but the end result is the same as slavery, creating a segment of the population who depend on you for everything while you sit in your Senate office growing fat off the fruits of their labors.

Who’s really interested in freedom here? I maintain it’s not Harry Reid.

UPDATE: Michelle Malkin has more. And now Hot Air weighs in.

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Posted by Blaknsam

There’s A Word For A Girl Like Mary Landrieu

November 20, 2009

There’s an old joke where a man walks up to a woman in a bar and says, “Will you sleep with me for a million dollars?” She thinks for a second and then says, “Sure.” The man smiles and says, “Will you sleep with me for one dollar?” The woman tosses her drink in the man’s face and says, “What kind of girl do you think I am?”

“We already know the answer to that,” replies the man. “Now we’re just negotiating price.”

Apparently, Senator Mary Landrieu’s price is $100 million dollars.

Michelle Malkin has lots more on…umm…”Senators of ill repute.”

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Posted by Blaknsam

The Slavery Of Government-Granted “Rights”

November 18, 2009

Over at the Washington Examiner, Iain Murray and Roger Abbott have an excellent op-ed addressing the notion of whether or not health care is a “right.” The whole piece is worth reading, but if you take anything away from it, it should be this chestnut from Alexis de Tocqueville:

“It’s not an endlessly expanding list of rights—the ‘right’ to education, the ‘right’ to health care, the ’right’ to food and housing. That’s not freedom, that’s dependency. Those aren’t rights, those are rations of slavery—hay and a barn for human cattle.”

Amen.

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Posted by Blaknsam

A Thorn By Any Other Name Will Hurt Just As Much

October 27, 2009

One of the aspects of political correctness that makes it so insidious is the manipulation of language. The term itself—”political correctness”—implies a wrong and a right way of looking at things. There are no differing opinions, each served by facts and data; there is only the right way and the wrong way. Wherever political correctness has gained a foothold, the first thing that came under assault were the words people used.

It’s everywhere today. “Illegal alien” has been replaced with the more benign-sounding “undocumented worker.” You see? He’s not a law breaker, he just doesn’t have his papers. For young people today it’s probably difficult to imagine when people said “I’m black and I’m proud.” “Black” has fallen out of favor, replaced by the awful and clunky “African-American.” “Handicapped” people are now “differently able.” “And since “global warming” really isn’t working out quite like they expected, it’s now “climate change.”

What the merchants of PC groupthink understand is that controlling the language controls the debate. Today we’re seeing this with health care reform. Nancy Pelosi has decided, correctly, that the “public option” has become synonymous with “government-run health care,” and “government-run health care” is synonymous with “socialized medicine,” and “socialized medicine” is synonymous with “really bad health care.” What to do, what to do…

The solution, of course, is to change the language. If the tree is bearing poisonous fruit, you can change the name of the tree from “Poison Fruit Tree” to, say, “deliciously good fruit tree.” People will then merrily pluck and eat the fruit because, after all, progressives like Pelosi think that we’re all a bunch of stupid rubes.

According to the Associated Press, Pelosi wants to change the name of the “public option” to the “competitive option” or the “consumer option.” Well that makes all the difference! Quick, hand me some of that deliciously good fruit while I wait for the doctor to see me!

Quoth Nancy:

“You’ll hear everyone say, ‘There’s got to be a better name for this,'” Pelosi said. “When people think of the public option, public is being misrepresented, that this is being paid for with their public dollars.”

Pelosi said that was a misconception and that any taxpayer money used to start up the public option would be repaid. She also said such an option would ultimately drive down government health care costs.

Note to Nan: Every single thing government does is paid for with our public dollars. Every $500 hammer ordered by the Pentagon, every bloated bureaucrat’s salary, every “Your Stimulus At Work” road sign, every piece of tile in the Capitol’s ladies room, every blade of grass on the Washington Mall, every piece of junk mail you send to your constituents, every benefit in your Congressional benefits package, every dime you put into the bank from your salary, every trip home to your district in your Congressional jet, every flight on Air Force One, every stimulus check that’s sent to the recently deceased, every first-time home buyer’s tax credit…my God, the list is endless. Everything you do is paid for with our money. Washington D.C. is a city that would turn into a ghost town overnight if not for taxpayer dollars.

The whole notion that the government is going to set up a plan to insure millions of people and administer that plan out of offices in Washington D.C. and that it won’t cost the public anything is ridiculous. It’s beyond patronizing; it’s absolutely insulting. This shouldn’t surprise anyone. Every bleat that comes out of Pelosi’s mouth is an insult to people whose thoughts extend past the bumper stickers on their cars.

So go ahead, Nan. Change the name. Call it the “competitive option” or the “consumer option.” You can call it “Gypsy Sun and Rainbows” if that’s really what you want. You’re not fooling anyone.

Hot Air has more.

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Posted by Blaknsam

Fraudulent Waste Removal

October 24, 2009

The Democrats in Congress and the Administration are currently trying to finalize their planned overhaul of the healthcare system in America. President Obama has promised that he will not sign any plan that adds one dime to the defecit, so there are going to be all sorts of fantasias spun when the price tag for this is released.

One of the current Democrat talking points is that we can pay for a very large portion of this by eliminating waste and fraud in Medicare. Medicare is over 40 years old now, and the Administration is quick to promise that, unlike past Administrations and past Congresses, the new breed in Washington are very fiscally aware and able to root out waste and fraud.

One need look no further than the stimulus plan that was proposed and pushed by Obama, and passed by the Democrats in Congress, to see the lie here.

Of the money spent in the stimulus package, approxiately:

  • 10,000 stimulus checks were sent to dead people
  • There are about 100,000 suspicious claims from home buyers who are looking for the $8000 first-time buyer tax credit, including hundreds of illegal aliens, at least one four-year old child, and approximately 19,000 people who claimed the credit and never bought a home
  • Nearly 10,000 Medicare prescriptions were written out to dead people
  • The Wall Street Journal estimates that as much as 50 billion dollars in stimulus money will be used for fraudulent purposes.

Remember this when the Democrats talk about eliminating fraud from Medicare in order to pay for healthcare reform: it will never, ever happen.

The “savings” generated from eliminating fraud should not be considered as any part of the budget scoring for this plan because those savings are based on nothing more than empty promises belied by past actions. This is a shell game, and the stakes are enormous. Call your representatives and senators. Tell them to vote no on healthcare reform. Many of them won’t listen (I know mine won’t), but some of the ones who are on the fence need to be persuaded.

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Posted by Blaknsam

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