Posted on 02/22/2010 12:53:33 PM PST by Kaslin
Recently, President Barack Obama addressed a gathering of House Republicans at their annual retreat in Baltimore. This effort at cross-party outreach was somewhat marred when Obama accused the gathered Republicans of maliciously poisoning the public against his health care plan, complaining that they had portrayed it as a "Bolshevik plot."
Obama's address to the GOP retreat was a philippic, an accusatory and condemnatory speech. Obama said in essence to his political adversaries:
"The public would like my plan and it would succeed - if only you would stop lying about it." One common feature of these kinds of addresses is hyperbolism, the deliberate exaggeration of your opponent's point of view so as to paint it with ridicule.
"Bolshevism" is an antiquated term almost exclusively associated with the events and persons surrounding the 1917 October Revolution in Russia.
However, the political and philosophical fellow travelers of Bolshevism, socialism and Communism, are still very much with us: the United States even has a self-described 'socialist' serving in the Senate (Bernie Sanders of Vermont). And certainly, the President's health care plan has come under criticism for being socialist in intent and scope.
And not for nothing, one might add. In 2003, then state senator Obama was videotaped telling an audience "I happen to be a proponent of a single-payer universal health care program...A single-payer health care plan, a universal health care plan. That's what I'd like to see." Of course, now that he is president of a country half the population of which are virulently opposed to any such thing, Obama has wisely refrained from repeating such extreme sentiments.
"Single-payer" of course means "government payer." Universal health care by definition can only be imposed by government fiat; in a free market, there will always be some segment of the population who are unable to afford or unwilling to purchase private health insurance. Only government can afford to be a 'single payer' ¬ with public monies, of course. And it must be noted that the health system instituted by the Bolsheviks under the Soviet Union was a 'single payer,' and like most such systems was a bureaucratic nightmare characterized by shortages, rationing, and substandard care.
So how do you get to a single-payer system in America? Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) was singularly honest when he confessed, "I think that if we get a good public option it could lead to single payer and that is the best way to reach single payer." Both the House and Senate versions of ObamaCare contained a public option (though this was stripped from the Senate version at the insistence of moderates). Barney Frank knows, as the President surely must, that a public option would squeeze private insurance out of existence until government is the only game in town. ¬ Voila single-payer!
When discussing Obama's health care plan, it is wise to recall the President's economic philosophy as explained to Joe Wurzelbacher on the campaign trail in 2008: "When you spread the wealth around, it's good for everybody." Obama here clearly revealed his belief that "wealth" is not private property earned and owned by individuals, but the government's ¬ the collective's ¬ to distribute as they deem fit and fair.
If this is not socialism, then what is?
A Bolshevik is an early 20th century Russian revolutionary; a plot is a plan hatched in secret. Obama is not the former and has not engaged in the latter. However, the President and his allies have openly strived to socialize significant aspects of American society through health care reform. By fabricating a bogus "Bolshevik" charge, Obama cleverly avoided addressing the actual - and legitimate - charge of socialism.
I bid Communism. We are in a battle of Americanism vs Communism. The sooner the White House is back in American hands the better.
I think we can all agree with the fact that Obowmao sucks.
Ho hum.
Funny how Bawney was silenced after that statement. He'll emerge victorious if it gets implemented though.
We will soon be witnessing the rise and fall of the ProgRats.
Progressive’s/Democrats, Socialism, Marxism are incompatible with Capitalism.
“I think we can all agree with the fact that Obowmao sucks.”
Obama’s supporters never realized that when he promised to eliminate the deep partisan divide in Washington, it would take the form of near-universal consensus that a) Obama is unqualified to be president and should be tossed in 2012; and b) that his enablers in Congress likewise should be dumped in favor of Republican leaders in 2010. Who would have predicted that a single man could achieve so much change in public opinion just within the space of one year? He clearly deserves a gold medal in the Olympic Public Opinion Downhill event. I predict that this remarkable record will be unchallenged for decades to come.
Dogs and Cats..Oil and Water etc.
I wish it was only Obamacare that was Socialist. The last year of Bush’s presidency was Socialism. Now we have it on steroids with Obama. The country is moving toward state control very quickly.
“Funny how Bawney was silenced after that statement. He’ll emerge victorious if it gets implemented though.”
This is the problem with progressives. They are so arrogant, they just can’t keep their mouths shut. Frank’s foolishness was matched only by Pelosi’s aide, who just couldn’t help boasting about plans to end-run public opinion by using reconciliation to passed the stalled health reform. He said this even as Obama was trying to convince Republicans to come to his Jan. 25 summit. Rather than shut the clown up, Dems then proceeded to take a page from this aide’s playbook by endlessly leaking the details of the reconciliation “Rahm-through.”
It’s like signaling in advance to the opposing football team that in a 4th down and 25 yard do-or-die play with only 2 seconds left on the clock you plan to execute a tight end dump right. When the tight end gets mauled, everyone will blame everyone else for losing the game.
SET THEIR LOCAL AND DC LINES ON FIRE!
Sen. Scot Brown's number is 202-224-5443
Rename, repackage, rewrite it a tad smaller, and sell another pig in a poke.
Tennessee has joined several other states in trying to pass a Health Care Freedom Act. NO COLAs for granny, retired Military or retired fed employees. BIG NEW fees for Tricare for Life retired over 65 Military's secondary health ins. (DOD bill already passed, delayed but goes into effect 2011)
http://www.navytimes.com/news/2009/10/military_tricarefees_blocked_100709w/
New Dem mantra: Woof, woof eat dog food granny....ala let them eat cake.
Friday, February 19, 2010
Obama says slight fix will extend Social Security
http://townhall.com/news/us/2010/02/19/obama_says_slight_fix_will_extend_social_security
TRI CARE FOR LIFE This from a google search:
http://economicspolitics.blogspot.com/2009/05/tricare-for-life-is-obama-trying-to.html
This option would help reduce the costs of TFL, as well as costs for Medicare, by introducing minimum out-of pocket requirements for beneficiaries. Under this option, TFL would not cover any of the first $525 of an enrollee’s cost-sharing liabilities for calendar year 2011 and would limit coverage to 50 percent of the next $4,725 in Medicare cost sharing that the beneficiary incurred. (Because all further cost sharing would be covered by TFL, enrollees could not pay more than $2,888 in cost sharing in that year.)
http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/99xx/doc9925/12-18-HealthOptions.pdf
http://www.vawatchdog.org/09/hcva09/hcva110609-1.htm
Bill Would Restrict Veterans’ Health Care Options 11/06/09
Buyer and McKeon Offer Amendments to Protect Veterans and TRICARE Beneficiaries
Congress plans to block Tricare fee increases
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2009/10/military_tricarefees_blocked_100709w
By Rick Maze - Staff writer, Oct 7, 2009
Tricare fee increases imposed last week by the Defense Department will be repealed by a provision of the compromise 2010 defense authorization bill unveiled Wednesday by House and Senate negotiators.
Snip
The fee increases were announced on Sept. 30 and took effect on Oct. 1, but the defense bill, HR 2647, includes a provision barring any fee increases until the start of fiscal 2011.
Snip
Retired Army Maj. Gen. Bill Matz, president of the National Association for Uniformed Services, said the announcement of fee increases was shocking considering that the Obama administration promised earlier this year to hold off on any new fee Tricare fee increases until fiscal 2011.
“President Obama and DoD assured NAUS and the entire military family earlier this year that there would rightly be no increases in any Tricare fees” in fiscal 2010, Matz said. “We took them at their word, and I can’t believe that a co-pay increase like this was allowed to go forward,” he added.
Bambi doesn't keep his promises...so buyer beware.
The GOP contingent should include Senator Tom Coburn who, of course, is a practicing physician.
Coburn has been great on TV, knows every issue inside-out, and won’t be intimidated by BO at all.
No, Mr. President, is good for everybody is liberty and opportunity to acquire wealth by honest, hard work. That's the premise underlying the economic dimension of liberty envisioned by the Framers of our Constitution, and it's what brought America from a wilderness people using crude axes and hoes to a great and generous nation feeding hungry people and sheltering oppressed people for over 200 years.
This essay excerpt from "Our Ageless Constitution," addresses the philosophy of our Constitution:
Tired of having the fruits of their labors confiscated by an overpowering British government, America's Founders declared themselves free and independent.
Most American schoolchildren can recite their claim that ". all men are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights ... to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." Less familiar, however, are these lines from their Declaration of Independence:
"He ( King George III ) has erected a multitude of new offices, and sent hither swarms of officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance .... He has combined with others to subject us, ... imposing taxes on us without our consent."
What, then, did the Founders consider to be the real cornerstone of man's liberty and happiness? On what basic premise did they devise their Constitution? Let them speak for themselves:
| John Adams |
"The moment the idea is admitted into society that property is not as sacred as the laws of God ... anarchy and tyranny commence. PROPERTY MUST BE SECURED OR LIBERTY CANNOT EXIST"
|
| James Madison |
"Government is instituted to protect property of every sort .... This being the end of government, that is NOT a just government,... nor is property secure under it, where the property which a man has ... is violated by arbitrary seizures of one class of citizens for the service of the rest." |
Their guiding principle was that people come together to form governments in order to SECURE their rights to property - not to create an entity which wilt, itself, "take from the mouths of labor the bread it has earned." What was wrong for individual citizens to do to one another, they believed, was equally wrong for government to do to them.
The right to own property and to keep the rewards of individual labor opened the floodgates of progress for the benefit of the entire human race. Millions have fled other countries to participate in the Miracle of America.
Footnote: Our Ageless Constitution, W. David Stedman & La Vaughn G. Lewis, Editors (Asheboro, NC, W. David Stedman Associates, 1987) Part III: ISBN 0-937047-01-5
Great post!
>> “When you spread the wealth around, it’s good for everybody.”
Interesting you quoted that line.
We have the ability to fix any financial problem providing we have the desire. Socialist and Communist scumbags want your hope. They want to break your will.
When Obama leaves office all he will leave is a massive loan and Socialism for everyone. What a mess!
Republicans should harp on the fact that Democrats themselves have said people shouldn’t worry too much about any minutiae in the current bill, since the real details will have to be hashed out after it passes. While Democrats generally lie, I think Republicans should take them at their word on this point: they intend to implement something other than what they pass. Republicans should start calling this the “bait and switch” bill, regardless of any changes the Democrats make.
“I bid Communism. We are in a battle of Americanism vs Communism. The sooner the White House is back in American hands the better.”
We are in a battle of Liberty vs Tyranny.
liberty is individual choice free of government dictates, tyranny is big government control, suppressing freedom, allegedly for the “common good”(Communism).
The cold war has come home... The battle for American Freedom has begun in our own backyards!
Steve King from Iowa is owning Moabama right now. He read the socailist party platform right on the floor of the house, and just outright called him a Marxist.
I've said it before and I'll say it again: We are in a Cold War with Obama. His continued push for socialized medicine despite the recent elections and the wishes of the American people tell you what he is, a socialist/communist. If they somehow pass this monstrosity of a health care bill, that will be the beginning. Then comes Amnesty for illegals, Cap and Tax, Card-check, and Gun Control. More centralized big government which always leads to Tyranny and guess who wants to be King? Well, that happened once before in 1773 and the people said No!
Obama, we have drawn the line in the sand. Push Health Care and we shall Revolt! 200 Million of us are Mad as Hell and ready to drive to D.C.. . . It's your call!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.