The Patriot Post Chronicle 4-7-2010

________________________________________
The Patriot Post Chronicle 4-7-2010
From The Federalist Patriot
Free Email Subscription
________________________________________

The Foundation

"In questions of power, then, let no more be heard of confidence in man, but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the Constitution." --Thomas Jefferson

The Demo-gogues
Rep. Phil Hare -- contempt for the Constitution

Pretty much sums it up: "I don't worry about the Constitution on this. ... What I care more about, I care more about the people dying every day that don't have health care." --Rep. Phil Hare (D-IL), on video talking about health care (He later issued a video response.)

The BIG Lie: "So now that this bill is finally law and all the folks who have been playing politics will finally have to confront the reality of what this reform is, they're also going to have to confront the reality of what it isn't. They'll have to finally acknowledge that this isn't a government takeover of our health care system. They'll see that if Americans like their doctor, they will keep their doctor. And if you like your insurance plan, you will keep it. No one will be able to take that away from you. It hasn't happened yet. It won't happen in the future. What this reform represents is basically a middle-of-the-road solution to a very serious problem." --Barack Obama

Kumbaya: "The loud minority made a lot of noise [opposing ObamaCare]. Now that the legislation passed, it's amazing how much different people's attitude is. ... So everybody acknowledges, with rare exception, that what we did was terrific and if there's some problems in the out years, we'll be happy to take a look at that." --Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV)

"The Tea Party emerges as not only outrageous, but they have turned up the volume in ways that even Code Pink have not been able to do." --Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA), classic hypocrite (warning: vulgar language in the linked video)

Big socialist lie: "The truth is, some of these comments, when you actually ask 'well, this is based on what? This notion that Obama's a socialist, for example?' Nobody can really give you a good answer." --Barack Obama

Spreading the wealth: "It's a simple proposition to us: Everyone is entitled to adequate medical health care. If you call that a 'redistribution of income' -- well, so be it. I don't call it that. I call it just being fair -- giving the middle class taxpayers an even break that the wealthy have been getting." --Joe Biden

More redistribution: "[Health reform is] an income shift. It is a shift, a leveling, to help lower-income, middle-income Americans. ... The maldistribution of income in America has gone up way too much, the wealthy are getting way, way too wealthy, and the middle income class is left behind. [The new health care legislation] will have the effect of addressing that maldistribution of income in America." --Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT), who knows how much money you need better than you do

Compassion? "Number one is that we are the only -- we have been, up until last week, the only advanced country that allows 50 million of its citizens to not have any health insurance." --Barack Obama on what he "allows" his subjects

Editorial Exegesis

"Here's a question of vastly more than theoretical importance to current and coming generations of Americans: How much longer can the U.S. economy continue to produce enough wealth to sustain a growing class of people who depend on government for some or all of their daily necessities? To pose the question another way: Are we nearing a point when there are no longer enough taxpayers to support all of the tax consumers in America? Such questions become increasingly important as Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, federal civil service retirement, and legions of state and local pension funds approach their days of reckoning as millions of retiring baby boomers demand far more benefits than those programs have been prepared to pay out. And don't forget the growing share of personal income that is derived from government transfer payments such as unemployment, veterans benefits, and the like. If these ruminations sound ominous, they should. ... As it happens, the Heritage Foundation's Index of Dependency on Government measures the relationship between net taxpayers and tax consumers, using 1980 as its baseline year with a value of 100 and reaching back to 1962. Heritage noted last month that the Dependency Index now stands at 240, up three points from 2007. It has grown 31.2 percent since 2001 when it stood at 183. ... These trend lines remind us of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's trenchant observation: 'The problem with socialism is that sooner or later you run out of other people's money to spend.'" --The Washington Examiner

Upright

"The founders of our great nation recognized that, after a few thousand years of civilization and multiple, painful attempts by governmental leaders to create 'fair' societies, the best hope for humankind was to construct a society of freedom, where individuals can freely chose to do business with one-another (or choose not to). This characterization of freedom and 'fairness' runs counter to the type of governmental constructs that Barack Obama grew-up with in Indonesia, and bares little resemblance to the world he knew in Chicago, but it is, nonetheless, distinctly American. I suspect that President Obama has no interest in this type of freedom and 'fairness.'" --columnist Austin Hill

"Far too many Americans are already willing to trade integrity for 'free' health care, a 'government modified' mortgage, or a host of other carrots held in front of them by a federal government whose resemblance to a pimp grows sharper every day. Much of human nature is about taking the path of least resistance -- which is why it is so important to resist such instincts, especially when they're portrayed as virtues." --columnist Arnold Ahlert

"This week the DNC group Organizing for America offered a commemorative certificate to supporters who helped pass the health care bill. The certificate said, 'We achieved the dream of generations -- high-quality, affordable health care is no longer the privilege of a few, but the right of all.' The privilege of a few? It is widely accepted that about 85 percent of all Americans have health care coverage, and the overwhelming majority are happy with it. There's simply no way anyone could plausibly claim that health coverage is the privilege of a few. " --columnist Byron York

"Tea partiers must be racist, Democrats imply, because why else would anyone oppose Barack Obama's agenda? But Mr. Obama's skin color was well known in 2008, when he was elected president by a comfortable margin, and at his inauguration, when he began his presidency with the highest approval rating (68 percent) since John F. Kennedy. What wasn't known by most then was that Mr. Obama is a left wing radical who is spending us into bankruptcy." --columnist Jack Kelly

"Accusing the [health care] bill's critics of racism and comparing them to the segregationist mobs of the 1960s is about silencing and delegitimizing them. It expropriates the unquestioned moral authority of the civil-rights movement and then uses it as a political bludgeon. It substitutes rhetorical thuggery for argument." --National Review editor Rich Lowry