Posted on 09/07/2009 9:06:20 PM PDT by jazusamo
The most important thing about what anyone says are not the words themselves but the credibility of the person who says them.
The words of convicted swindler Bernie Madoff were apparently quite convincing to many people who were regarded as knowledgeable and sophisticated. If you go by words, you can be led into anything.
No doubt millions of people will be listening to the words of President Barack Obama Wednesday night when he makes a televised address to a joint session of Congress on his medical care plans. But, if they think that the words he says are what matters, they can be led into something much worse than being swindled out of their money.
One plain fact should outweigh all the words of Barack Obama and all the impressive trappings of the setting in which he says them: He tried to rush Congress into passing a massive government takeover of the nation's medical care before the August recess-- for a program that would not take effect until 2013!
Whatever President Obama is, he is not stupid. If the urgency to pass the medical care legislation was to deal with a problem immediately, then why postpone the date when the legislation goes into effect for years-- more specifically, until the year after the next Presidential election?
If this is such an urgently needed program, why wait for years to put it into effect? And if the public is going to benefit from this, why not let them experience those benefits before the next Presidential election?
If it is not urgent that the legislation goes into effect immediately, then why don't we have time to go through the normal process of holding Congressional hearings on the pros and cons, accompanied by public discussions of its innumerable provisions? What sense does it make to "hurry up and wait" on something that is literally a matter of life and death?
If we do not believe that the President is stupid, then what do we believe? The only reasonable alternative seems to be that he wanted to get this massive government takeover of medical care passed into law before the public understood what was in it.
Moreover, he wanted to get re-elected in 2012 before the public experienced what its actual consequences would be.
Unfortunately, this way of doing things is all too typical of the way this administration has acted on a wide range of issues.
Consider the "stimulus" legislation. Here the administration was successful in rushing a massive spending bill through Congress in just two days-- after which it sat on the President's desk for three days, while he was away on vacation. But, like the medical care legislation, the "stimulus" legislation takes effect slowly.
The Congressional Budget Office estimates that it will be September 2010 before even three-quarters of the money will be spent. Some economists expect that it will not all be spent by the end of 2010.
What was the rush to pass it, then? It was not to get that money out into the economy as fast as possible. It was to get that money-- and the power that goes with it-- into the hands of the government. Power is what politics is all about.
The worst thing that could happen, from the standpoint of those seeking more government power over the economy, would be for the economy to begin recovering on its own while months were being spent debating the need for a "stimulus" bill. As the President's chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, said, you can't let a crisis "go to waste" when "it's an opportunity to do things you could not do before."
There are lots of people in the Obama administration who want to do things that have not been done before-- and to do them before the public realizes what is happening.
The proliferation of White House "czars" in charge of everything from financial issues to media issues is more of the same circumvention of the public and of the Constitution. Czars don't have to be confirmed by the Senate, the way Cabinet members must be, even though czars may wield more power, so you may never know what these people are like, until it is too late.
What Barack Obama says Wednesday night is not nearly as important as what he has been doing-- and how he has been doing it.
Correct, he doesn’t know how any of the proposed bills will affect us and he definitely lies.
We simply do not believe you. That is something you will never be able to retrieve.
Welcome to the Sowell ping list, you’re on.
If this is such an urgently needed program, why wait for years to put it into effect? And if the public is going to benefit from this, why not let them experience those benefits before the next Presidential election?
These are obvious, basic questions that the Democrat "mainstream" reporters - - the only "journalists" who have direct access to Gibbs, Ubama, and the White House - - will never ask. Why do you suppose that is?
Pretty much says it all.
I swear, Hillary would have been an improvement over Obama.
IMO the enemedia is going to regret the day they’ve supported this fraud unconditionally.
Thomas Sowell rocks
“Whatever Obama is, he is not stupid.”
Well, he’s not very bright, either.
Everything he has was handed him because he (a) has negro blood, (b) can speak English without sounding like an American negro, and (c) is a leftard.
This is huge if Sowell is right ...
Where does it say implementation doesn’t happen soon?
That is a brilliant conclusion why socialized medicine is not to implemented until 2013. I didn’t tie it to Obama’s expected 2nd term (which will never happen).
Sowell has a brilliant mint. Now I understand.
Good article. Thanks.
You mean a mosque, don’t you?
I like Sowell and think he is brilliant. Therefore, I must be racist. /sarc
Thanks for the post and ping jazusamo.
I said the very same thing tonight to my husband regarding the talk to the children on Tuesday. It was in reference to this post he received on his Facebook page:
Ok, I might lose friends & alienate some people, but I have to vent--Why is America so afraid of a positive msg to our students in schoools? Does it really matter who is giving the positive msg? Would America be "afraid" of the msg if... it was anyone else giving the msg? If you're so worried, read the speech on the White House's website. Dont' make your kids miss out on an important msg from our ELECTED Leader!!
It always shocks me when I encounter such a true believer--either in person or through Facebook or some such. I know they exist, but it's still a shock.
You may be right that they don’t trust us - but they don’t need to or care to. They only want to control us, and to do that, trusting us is irrelevant.
Their way to gain control is to decive Americans by not explaining their true agenda. Look at that demon Ayers, he hated America enough to blow up government buildings. They HATE the establishment, they always did, and they will lie to those who they perceive to be their foe (sp?) in order to gain control.
I believe nothing that comes out of the WH; I only keep tabs on their bullshit so I’ll know what propaganda they are spreading to the sheeple.
You know, I totally agree with you.....I don’t believe them and I don’t trust them.
I sent numerous letters to my congress people (I’m stuck with rats) and I thought their answers ran the spectrum from laughable to basically telling me that they knew best (so shut up already).
They are no longer public servants.
I’ve used this as a tagline for a long time, but it sure fits and it’s from a Democrat — THE Democrat at one time:
“A liar in public life is a lot more dangerous than a full-paid-up communist, and I don;t care who he is.” - Harry
S. Truman
Truman had his baggage, as all politicians do, but he hit the nail on the head with that one.
I think the understandable and commendable outrage and rebellion of black Americans to slavery and Jim Crow and the widespread racism in the fifties and sixties was heartlessly exploited by white leftists. They established "revolution", Marxism, as the paradigm for black strength and progress.
Rice, Thomas, and Sowell are supposedly "sell-outs" to the resistence, lackeys of the white power structure, when in reality the Van Joneses and Barack Obamas are doing the bidding of the white leftist establishment. It's a tragic irony.
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