Posted on 03/22/2010 10:04:01 PM PDT by rabscuttle385
Following months of heated public debate and aggressive closed-door negotiations, Congress finally cast a historic vote on healthcare late Sunday evening. It was truly a sad weekend on the House floor as we witnessed further dismantling of the Constitution, disregard of the will of the people, explosive expansion of the reach of government, unprecedented corporate favoritism, and the impending end of quality healthcare as we know it.
Those in favor of this bill touted their good intentions of ensuring quality healthcare for all Americans, as if those of us against the bill are against good medical care. They cite fanciful statistics of deficit reduction, while simultaneously planning to expand the already struggling medical welfare programs we currently have. They somehow think that healthcare in this country will be improved by swelling our welfare rolls and cutting reimbursement payments to doctors who are already losing money. It is estimated that thousands of doctors will be economically forced out of the profession should this government fuzzy math actually try to become healthcare reality. No one has thought to ask what good mandatory health insurance will be if people can’t find a doctor.
Legislative hopes and dreams don’t always stand up well against economic realities.
Frustratingly, this legislation does not deal at all with the real reasons access to healthcare is a struggle for so many – the astronomical costs. If tort reform was seriously discussed, if the massive regulatory burden on healthcare was reduced and reformed, if the free market was allowed to function and apply downward pressure on healthcare costs as it does with everything else, perhaps people wouldn’t be so beholden to insurance companies in the first place. If costs were lowered, more people could simply pay for what they need out of pocket, as they were able to do before government got so involved. Instead, in the name of going after greedy insurance companies, the federal government is going to make people even more beholden to them by mandating that everyone buy their product! Hefty fines are due from anyone found to have committed the heinous crime of not being a customer of a health insurance company. We will need to hire some 16,500 new IRS agents to police compliance with all these new mandates and administer various fines. So in government terms, this is also a jobs bill. Never mind that this program is also likely to cost the private sector some 5 million jobs.
Of course, the most troubling aspect of this bill is that it is so blatantly unconstitutional and contrary to the ideals of liberty. Nowhere in the constitution is there anything approaching authority for the Federal government to do any of this. The founders would have been horrified at the idea of government forcing citizens to become consumers of a particular product from certain government approved companies. 38 states are said to already be preparing legal and constitutional challenges to this legislation, and if the courts stand by their oaths, they will win. Protecting the right to life, liberty and pursuit of happiness, should be the court’s responsibility. Citizens have a responsibility over their own life, but they also have the liberty to choose how they will live and protect their lives. Healthcare choices are a part of liberty, another part that is being stripped away. Government interference in healthcare has already infringed on choices available to people, but rather than getting out of the way, it is entrenching itself, and its corporatist cronies, even more deeply.
No one has thought to ask what good mandatory health insurance will be if people can’t find a doctor.
Under the circumstances, Ron, I hate to argue, but the hell they haven’t. The people have examined the bill and asked all the pertinent, and impertinent questions, and gotten nothing in response but an ocean going tanker load of liquid manure.
LOLOLOLOLOL.
I can't find that pic of him with the stupid helmet. It needs a propeller on top, IIRC. LOL.
Secretly hoping some Republicans would break ranks and vote for it, so that all of a sudden, the libertarians would become the big heroes and we would beg for L. Ron Paul and his acolytes to swoop in and save the day.
Not gonna happen, L. Ron. You're not fooling anybody except that 5% - 7% that comprises your cult.
Also props to your AG, I wonder how the issue polls in Washington, which I always think of as a liberal mecca?
You could most certainly be right, Allegra!
Something kept him out of the fight that was custom made for Doctor Paul, but he was as quiet as a church mouse.
Perhaps he couldn’t find a conspiracy embedded in it, but Lord knows the overthrow of our Republic should have got his juices running, right? Nope. I guess he was too busy chasing ghosts in the Fed to bother with obamacare and it’s Constitutional perils.
He’s shameful and a coward.
“I think he’s right about a lot of things.”
Quite a few things domestically and economically.
Geeez....give the anti-Paul thing a break, would you? The man is right on target here.
Obviously he’s right. The biggest threat isn’t N. Korea or Iran. But our own Gov’t. Something he’s always talked about.
So, another NewBie, leftwing troll.
Quite the opposite, pal. All the hoopla over the deathcare bill was distraction from the real, more serious problems of nuclear Iran and spiralling deficit, not to mention an increasingly belligerent Russia. Now, ol' Cut and Run could care less about nuclear Iran or any of that foreign stuff but he should have been out front bleating about the spiralling deficit. He wasn't.
Come to think of it, what has RonPaul the Liebertarian ever actually accomplished? Nothing, that's what. He brings home the earmarks like so many other career politicians, all while fraudulently wearing the GOP label. I have asked his followers here countless times to name even one bill he has sponsored or passed --- during all the years off and on that he has warmed a seat in Congress --- that supports his call for "fiscal responsibility." No answer.
I really think it's up to some leading Republicans to speak up and call him out for the phony hanger-on that he is.
You are correct La E.
and Ron Paul who condemns and trashes Israel, our ally
just as the Left wing. The Republicans who stand in support of Israel as did the GOP candidates in 08.
Now Benjamin Netanyahu who is in the U.S. to explain why their settlements must be safe.
Netanyahu, a graduate of Cheltenham High School in Philadelphia and a Grad. of MIT in Massachusetts.
At least the Republicans support Netayahu while Ron Paul and the Far Left condemn him.
This is a hilarious statement. Perhaps you all should look at the damage that the neocons have done to the GOP and the country as a whole and see that they are the ones who have actually destroyed the GOP from within.
As usual, Rep. Paul is absolutely correct.
Having integrity and a consistent voting record that demonstrates opposition to massive government. No other Republican politician can claim to have anything close to that. The 'conservatives' just continue to grow government the way they like it.
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