Worse Is the New Normal (Mark Steyn)

National Review Online ^ | September 27, 2013 | Mark Steyn

[neverdem]

Mid-20th-century assumptions of generational progress no longer obtain.

A few years ago, after the publication of my book America Alone, an exasperated reader wrote to advise me to lighten up, on the grounds that “we’re rich enough to be stupid.” That’s to say, Western democracies and their citizens are the wealthiest societies ever known, and no matter how much of our energies are wasted on pointless hyper-regulation for the business class and multigenerational welfare for the dependency class and Transgender and Colonialism Studies for our glittering youth, we can afford it, and the central fact of our wealth will ensure that our fortunes do not change. Since the collapse of Lehman Brothers in 2008, we have been less rich, and our stupidity ought in theory to be less affordable. Instead, it’s been supersized. To take only the most obvious example, President Obama has added six-and-a-half trillion bucks to the national debt, and has nothing to show for it. As Churchill would say, had his bust not been bounced from the Oval Office, never in the field of human spending has so much been owed by so many for so little...

--snip--

George Orwell, after attending a meeting of impoverished but passive miners, remarked sadly that “there is no turbulence left in England.” The Democrats, and much of the Republican establishment, have made a bet that there is no turbulence left in America, and the citizenry will stand mute before Obamacare’s wrecking ball. Unless they’re willing to accept a worse life for their children and grandchildren, middle-class Americans need to prove them wrong.

[Intolerant in NJ]

The Democrats, and much of the Republican establishment, have made a bet that there is no turbulence left in America, and the citizenry will stand mute before Obamacare’s wrecking ball...at seventy-five, for the first time in my life I'm content to have no grandchildren - hopefully there's enough left to see my daughter through her time here - after that, I don't want to think about what's going to be happening, but I am glad my heirs won't be living through it....

[JLS]

Mark Steyn ping.

Freepmail me, if you want on or off the Mark Steyn ping list.

Thanks for the ping neverdem.

[Rummyfan]

Beyond the president’s characteristically breezy lie that “if you like your health-care plan, you will be able to keep your health-care plan” is the sheer nuttiness of what’s happening. For years, Europeans and “progressive” Americans have raged at the immorality of the U.S. medical system: All those millions with no health coverage! But Michelle Malkin had coverage and suddenly, under what Obama calls “universal health care,” she doesn’t. The CBO’s most recent calculations estimate that in 2023, a decade after the implementation of Obamacare, there will still be over 30 million people uninsured — or about the population of Canada. That doesn’t sound terribly “universal,” and I would bet it’s something of a low-ball figure: As many employers are discovering, one of the simplest ways “to meet the requirements of the new laws” and still stay just about solvent is to shift your workers from family plans to individual plans, and tell their spouses and children to go look elsewhere. Does it achieve its other goal of “containing costs,” already higher than anywhere else? No. Avik Roy reports in Forbes that Obamacare will increase individual-market premiums by 62 percent for women, 99 percent for men. In America, “insuring” against disaster now costs more than you’d pay in most countries for disaster.

I think it's time to start the revolution.

[Forward the Light Brigade]

I have been poor, I have been on the dole, no one would want that kind of life. It changes people for the negative. No poor person wants such a thing—yeah a few leaches exist —but most have under the table jobs like selling dope or something—But honest folk hate Welfare and hate being on the corupt system. 90% would rather have a job of some sort.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

Those who HAVE tasted success? Sure! Those that are generational moochers? Notsomuch.

[autumnraine]

Excellent article.

I am becoming convinced that Obamacare will be the downfall of our country. Seriously.

[autumnraine]

Thank you for that. Many here can’t or won’t see it. The project welfare lifers are a minute percentage of over all welfare spending.

[autumnraine]

Yes but there has to be jobs for them and the ki.d to sustain themselves and their families.

[Safetgiver]

90% would rather have a job of some sort....UHHH....I respect you, but I believe you are misguided or simply naive.

[ez]

When will a leader step forth and promise to do that which needs to be done, which is to start dismantling the entire apparatus. We can start by getting government completely out of healthcare, and dissolve Obamacare, Medicare, and Medicaid.

[Valpal1]

[stanne]

Well, If you’re Romney, you bring light to them and the situation, and then run behind the debate podium and apologize for bringing it up.

[PLMerite]

“I am becoming convinced that Obamacare will be the downfall of our country. Seriously.”

Seriously on purpose. This is all by design. This stage of the plan is not supposed to work. The end goal is a government-run all inclusive healthcare system. Womb to tomb. All your healthcare are belong to us.

[neverdem]

The Senate was never going to vote for cloture. It was really just a question of how many senators would vote with the people, and how many would do as they normally do and vote to screw everybody else. Well, we got our answer: 19 voted with the people, which is actually 4 more than I expected.

Roll call vote

Here's those 19 and two weasels.

NAYs ---19 Crapo (R-ID), Cruz (R-TX), Enzi (R-WY), Fischer (R-NE), Grassley (R-IA), Heller (R-NV), Inhofe (R-OK), Lee (R-UT), Moran (R-KS), Paul (R-KY), Portman (R-OH), Risch (R-ID), Roberts (R-KS), Rubio (R-FL), Scott (R-SC), Sessions (R-AL), Shelby (R-AL), Toomey (R-PA), Vitter (R-LA)

Not Voting - 2

Flake (R-AZ), Hatch (R-UT)

IMHO, those who don't vote for the people should be primaried. I didn't think we had so many RINOs.

[Servant of the Cross]

Obamacare is something new in American life: the creation of a massive bureaucracy charged with downsizing you — to a world of fewer doctors, higher premiums, lousier care, more debt, fewer jobs, smaller houses, smaller cars, smaller, fewer, less; a world where worse is the new normal. Would Americans, hitherto the most buoyant and expansive of people, really consent to live such shrunken lives? .....

... the Republican establishment, have made a bet that there is no turbulence left in America, and the citizenry will stand mute before Obamacare’s wrecking ball.

Mark Steyn has just described the "vision" of Lindsey Graham and his pal John McQueeg .... We feel confident that we can squash the rebellion and return the republic to status quo.