Posted on 09/18/2007 11:21:00 AM PDT by ElkGroveDan
"Everything is on the table," said Governor Schwarzenegger yesterday, when asked whether he would support a statewide sales tax, in this case, as part of a massive government intervention into health care in California. The Governor said that he could support placing a tax hike on the ballot on which Californians can vote. Presumably the Republican Governor, after negotiating such a "deal" for California taxpayers, would then advocate its passage as well.
Shame on Arnold Schwarzenegger.
I don't know how to sugar coat this, so I will just say it like it is -- he lied. He lied to me, he lied to his supporters and he lied to all Californians. When he campaigned for re-election last year, he said he was "moderate on social issues, progressive on environmental issues, and conservative on fiscal issues."
I cannot remember a stump speech that the Governor delivered to Republican activists, and I heard quite a few as a grassroots supporter of his campaign, where he did not flat out state his opposition to raising taxes, period. There was no audible "asterisk" qualifying his opposition to new taxes. Schwarzenegger's firm opposition to increasing taxes, in contrast to billions in tax hikes being promoted by Democrat Phil Angelides, helped to keep the Republican base fired up for the Governor while he reached out to Democrat voters with his social and environmental views.
Along with all of my fellow Republicans, we have been trying to practice a terrible balancing act, perched precariously on the Governor's stool while it is has been balanced on just one leg -- solid opposition to new taxes. Well, the Governor has yanked that stool out from under us and we Republicans have now all fallen on the floor. I don't know if it is more embarrassing, frustrating, or upsetting. My Republican Governor has proposed taxes on hospitals, income taxes on medical professionals, and now he is "open" to supporting a statewide sales tax.
The mantra that the Governor has been spewing on healthcare is downright... liberal. He has wrapped himself around the banner of the notion of "hidden taxes" and articulating that there is a cost to all insurance-holding Californians to provide coverage to all of those who do not have health care insurance and that this justifies tax hikes. He is correct about insurance-holding Californians bearing the costs of the uninsured, though the experts at the Hoover Institute have released a study showing that this burden is much lower than has been articulated by the Governor. But the next step that Schwarzenegger takes is to say that we should, in essence, replace the so-called "hidden tax" with actual non-hidden, overt taxes. What the Governor proposes is no fiscally conservative solution. It is not even a moderate one. His proposals on health care "reform" are quite liberal, and are based around this left-wing straw man called "shared responsibility."
Shared responsibility is just another way to say government responsibility, and moves away from a bedrock American principle -- individual responsibility. There is a notion in America, unlike any other place in the world, that here you have freedom. Freedom to succeed, and freedom to fail. You have opportunity that is boundless, but that comes from the notion of a limited government, one that affords liberty to its citizenry. The price for this freedom and liberty is individual responsibility, and the Governor's direction on health care "reform" in California is counter to this philosophical approach towards the proper role of government in our society.
Today in the Wall Street Journal, former Presidential advisor Karl Rove has an outstanding opinion piece in which he articulates a broad number of market-oriented approaches that government can take to increasing the accessibility to and the quality of health care in America -- including leveling the tax playing field through tax deductions or credits, tax-free savings for health costs, increase competition by allowing insurance companies to offer policies across state lines, allow for greater pooling of risk by small companies, increase transparency of medical costs so that American consumers understand what they are paying for, and reigning in junk lawsuits that are driving costs up dramatically. These are just some areas where market principles can be applied to make our health care system in America better -- without attacking the core American principles of freedom and liberty.
Today there is a bold headline in the Los Angeles Times proclaiming "In Clinton Health Plan, Coverage Is Mandatory" -- referring to the latest "HillaryCare" proposal to massively increase the federal government's role in health care. I find it disturbing that both Hillary Clinton and Arnold Schwarzenegger have at the core of their respective proposals the notion that carrying health care insurance is no longer the responsibility of the individual, but is the role of the government. Both want to move us in the direction of European socialism, and this should be rejected from the outset.
I think Cheney and Halliburton are probably pulling the strings at Diebold. You know, like how they are controlling the billions spent on Iraqi reconstruction, only to enrich the greedy fat cat republicans, and on the New Orleans cleanup. A key piece of the VWRC which The Beast is standing up to.
ROTFL!
Thanks, I needed the laugh you just provided.
New York gave us Schumer and Hillary Clinton.
Anyone care to try and top that?
We New Yorkers are the best at everything, even when it comes to being the #1 worst. :-)
Pinging anyone from Massachusetts, who can give each of you very vigorous competition.. ;-)
Wrong. Arnold won in CALIFORNIA because he sold himself as a FISCAL CONSERVATIVE, not a RINO.
Had he not lied and obfuscated his true liberal intentions, he would have lost. Those who vociferously supported him are now calling him a liar. Had they wanted a RINO, they would be applauding his efforts.
Thanx, I try, but with all the BS out there, it is difficult keeping a smile on my mug.
I am in good humor today, having just watched the video of the guy getting tasered at the John Kerry event...
Hey, when your number two, you try harder....and smell worse.
No surprise here, and I always said Arnold was the only kind of Republican (RINO) that could win in Kalifornia.
Wrong. Arnold won in CALIFORNIA because he sold himself as a FISCAL CONSERVATIVE, not a RINO.
Had he not lied and obfuscated his true liberal intentions, he would have lost. Those who vociferously supported him are now calling him a liar. Had they wanted a RINO, they would be applauding his efforts.
Hmmmm. I’d say he changed after getting his butt kicked politically on those three propositions he campaigned for.
Bottom line is your state can’t right itself with the majority on the ‘left’ side of your ‘boat’.
I have relatives in Ohio and they arn’t happy with their blue state.
Ohio, RINO’s Lib Dems and corruption.
I have been to Ohio and if you like arm pits, rust belts,
and hicks, that is the place.
San Diego is the largest city in the U.S. with a Republican Mayor. 3 of our 5 congressmen are Republicans including Duncan Hunter.
‘I have relatives in Ohio and they arn’t happy with their blue state.
Ohio, RINO’s Lib Dems and corruption.’
No denying this one at all, I’ve noted the same in this and other forums repeatedly.
“I have been to Ohio and if you like arm pits, rust belts,
and hicks, that is the place.’
Okay, I’ll ‘play’...(chuckle)
I have been to Kalifornia and if you like HAIRY ARM PITS ON WOMEN, Spandex Belts on Men, and Gays, that is the place.
Checkmate.
When you compromise and elect big government statists with an R next to their name, why are you surprised when you get a big government statist with an R next their name? Remember that this time around in the Presidential election.
Then you haven't examined the record close enough. He has been governing as a LIBERAL since long before his propositions failed--and the proposition that he tried to sell as a "spending cap" was anything but (it just authorized more borrowing).
Bottom line is your state can’t right itself with the majority on the ‘left’ side of your ‘boat’.
Bottom line--our state can't "right itself" if out-of-staters and Rockefeller Republicans jump on the "Best you can do" bandwagon and help sell the electorate on the likes of Schwarzenegger.
BTW, the distribution of registered voters between left and right is not much different than it was when we elected Reagan (R), Deukmejian (R), and Wilson (R). So much for that theory.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
Do tell! What part of Kalifornia California do you choose to hang out in? And WHY?
“I really thought this is a guy who is NOT a career politician, and would stand behind his principals”
The pattern for Arnold is clear.
Personal success in all things Arnold.
His principals went out the door after the special election for all his propositions was such a disaster.
He is a huge disppointment in his caving in after that.
The choice we know now was jumping off a cliff with democrats or walking off the cliff with what morphed into a major rino.
Hopefully the next Governor will be an actual republican.
I have hope that if anything Arnold removed some of the fear Californians seem to have for voting for a republican in this state for a Governor, even if Arnold is a rino, it may help the next guy win.
All I can say is good luck to you in your efforts. I don’t see it, given your state is a magnet for the left of the political spectrum...but I hope you can in fact ‘right’ the state.
and Gays, that is the place.
Don’t care for their life style but know many who are republican and also in the military.
California - Voter Registration for Gubernatorial races: Year Democrat Republican Other Total 1966 56.6% 40.2% 3.2% 100.0% Reagan (R) 1970 54.9% 39.8% 5.2% 100.0% Reagan (R) 1974 56.6% 36.0% 7.4% 100.0% Brown (D) 1978 56.6% 34.2% 9.2% 100.0% Brown (D) 1982 53.2% 34.9% 11.9% 100.0% Deukmejian (R) 1986 50.8% 38.3% 10.9% 100.0% Deukmejian (R) 1990 49.5% 39.3% 11.2% 100.0% Wilson (R) 1994 49.0% 37.2% 13.8% 100.0% Wilson (R) 1998 46.7% 35.5% 17.8% 100.0% Davis (D) 2002 44.6% 35.2% 20.2% 100.0% Davis (D) 2003 43.7% 35.3% 21.0% 100.0% Schwarzenegger (R) 2006 42.7% 34.4% 22.9% 100.0% Schwarzenegger (R)
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