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.
The more someone urges you to trust him, the more cautious you need to be.
“I cannot listen to a single syllable from the silvery lips of Obama.
He is such a 100% deceitful lying Marxist, that he is intolerable and deeply offensive.”
That’s the way I feel. I found him repulsive months before the election.
Obama also wants all of his big takeover government plans to pass before the 2010 elections when America will send the Dems packing and bring back a Republican majority.
Thanks for the ping.
Beautifully stated. You can always count on this man to see clearly and deliver a just sentence. He’s a treasure.
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?
Conservatives are starting to ask better questions ---
“I thank God every night for voices like Thomas Sowell. May God bless him always.”
And Beck and Savage and Hannity and Limbaugh and Coulter and Elder and Palin and Medved and the other truth-sayers I can’t remember the names of right now, and The Canada Free Press and the Eastern Europeans and Russians and Ukrainian refugees from Socialism who come here and tell us what they see that is going on!
God bless and protect them, each one!
You mean a mosque, don't you?
I'm sure there must be a couple of Black Liberation Theology "churches" in DC, SE.
I'd guess it's his elitism that keeps him from making the drive. Or, do you suppose the Secret Service would consider itself potentially overwhelmed protecting 0 among a few hundred Van Joneses?
We've noted he's gone to foreign countries to visit with other Muslims, but when the taxpayer is picking up the tab for the 747, AF1, what's another junket in air-conditioned comfort?
HF
Wow, you can say that again! He effortlessly zeros right into the very heart of darkness of Obama's strategy & NAILS it with just a few words arrayed in a way that any American can instantly understand. I'm clipping & bookmarking this excerpt for handy future reference on my ping page:
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.
BTT!!!!!!!
“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. “
There it is, folks. The Man never misses!
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”
Obama, the greedy pig, blew it. If he had just hired even a dozen communist henchmen, we might not have noticed. But the piglet hired well over thirty, and it is now impossible not to notice the most flagrant abuse of the constitution in U.S. history.
Sure sure, economics is called the “dismal science”, and boxing is also called the “sweet science”. Neither one is.
That is a salient fact. Thank you Doctor Sowell. I seem to recall Obama lecturing that ‘the time for talk was over.’ What a phony. He creates a false sense of urgency to get laws passed that cannot pass on their own merit.
Nor can I. I can't bear to even watch him speak with the volumn muted, such arrogance.
In Thomas Sowell’s hands, economics are as close to a science as it can be. The reason is that he doesn't fake his numbers or sources. Honesty helps the accuracy in every area of academic study, even the soft ones.
John / Billybob
FUBO.
Quite sincerely. ‘Pod.
An excellent dissection of the situation. Probably the best piece Sowell has written in the last two years.
Preach it, brother!
Sorry, but I object to political ‘scientists’ calling themselves a science, even a “soft” one.
Hopefully the answer to your “Is Political Science a Science?” book was a resounding no.
Honesty and accuracy are the hallmarks of good science, just as a watertight hull and being less dense than water are the hallmarks of a good boat. But being honest and accurate no more makes economics a science than making my car watertight and less dense than water makes my car into a boat.
I realize that science is the “new hotness” while most everything else is the “old busted”; but must even your shampoo be ‘scientifically formulated’?
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