Difficult to argue against
There is one thing about the healthcare bill that is difficult to argue against.
You can easily argue over its ingredients. For instance, 150 new government agencies. To decide matters to do with you and your doctors.
You can argue over the 16,500 new IRS agents. They will audit you and businesses. To make sure you and they pay up or be fined.
You can argue about your loss of freedom. You will be forced by government to buy something. Government will have access to your health records.
You can argue about how Congress and the President exempted themselves and staffers from this. The guys who wrote it made sure they don’t have to live by it. Talk about a privileged class.
You can argue about the billions this will cost business. Caterpillar calculates they will pay an extra $100 million first year. Small business will be whacked up side the head with new costs, fees, penalties. They employ 70 percent of our workers.
You can argue about Medicare funds getting slashed $500 billion a year. Or how you will pay new taxes for four years before any benefits arrive.
You can argue about the fiscal tomfoolery, secret deals, kickbacks, tawdry carve outs, bribes and threats that were employed to create this bill.
You can argue about how this explodes our national debt. And burdens us with $600 billion in new taxes. And destroys our student-loan industry. So that government can take it over and use the profits for healthcare.
You can argue the bill will ultimately mean taxpayers fund abortions. No matter what flimsy executive order the President signed.
You can argue this is a giant step toward a European-type welfare state.
You can take either side on those issues. But here is an issue more difficult to argue against: This was clearly against the will of the people, by a substantial margin.
Poll after poll told us a big majority of Americans opposed the bill. Poll after poll told us 75 to 85 percent of us are happy with our existing health plan. The more the President pitched the bill, the more the resistance.
The President and Congress jimmied through a bill that most Americans do not want.
By the time November rolls around, tempers may have cooled. Threats to vote these congress people into oblivion may end up as nothing more than talk. In which case, voters will deserve this healthcare. Because they did nothing to get rid of it.
But if voters are still angry over this, a lot of congress guys may lose their jobs. And the President may lose a lot of his supporters in both houses. And if the Republicans take over Congress, remember re-districting comes up in 2011. Whoever controls Congress will reshape districts to suit themselves for the next decade.
If some or all of this happens, the guys who voted for this deserve it. They will deserve any punishment voters dish out. They made a farce of what representative government is supposed to be.
In his victory statement the President said “We proved that this government – a government of the people and by the people – still works for the people.”
Huh? These words could have come straight out of George Orwell. Or from Alice in Wonderland.
“When I use a word,” Humpty Dumpty said, “it means just what I choose it to mean …”
“The question is,” said Alice, “whether you can make words mean so many different things.”
“The question is,” said Humpty Dumpty, “which is to be master – that’s all.”
From Tom ... as in Morgan.
For more columns, for Tom’s radio shows and new TV show (and to write to Tom): tomasinmorgan.com.
You can easily argue over its ingredients. For instance, 150 new government agencies. To decide matters to do with you and your doctors.
You can argue over the 16,500 new IRS agents. They will audit you and businesses. To make sure you and they pay up or be fined.
You can argue about your loss of freedom. You will be forced by government to buy something. Government will have access to your health records.
You can argue about how Congress and the President exempted themselves and staffers from this. The guys who wrote it made sure they don’t have to live by it. Talk about a privileged class.
You can argue about the billions this will cost business. Caterpillar calculates they will pay an extra $100 million first year. Small business will be whacked up side the head with new costs, fees, penalties. They employ 70 percent of our workers.
You can argue about Medicare funds getting slashed $500 billion a year. Or how you will pay new taxes for four years before any benefits arrive.
You can argue about the fiscal tomfoolery, secret deals, kickbacks, tawdry carve outs, bribes and threats that were employed to create this bill.
You can argue about how this explodes our national debt. And burdens us with $600 billion in new taxes. And destroys our student-loan industry. So that government can take it over and use the profits for healthcare.
You can argue the bill will ultimately mean taxpayers fund abortions. No matter what flimsy executive order the President signed.
You can argue this is a giant step toward a European-type welfare state.
You can take either side on those issues. But here is an issue more difficult to argue against: This was clearly against the will of the people, by a substantial margin.
Poll after poll told us a big majority of Americans opposed the bill. Poll after poll told us 75 to 85 percent of us are happy with our existing health plan. The more the President pitched the bill, the more the resistance.
The President and Congress jimmied through a bill that most Americans do not want.
By the time November rolls around, tempers may have cooled. Threats to vote these congress people into oblivion may end up as nothing more than talk. In which case, voters will deserve this healthcare. Because they did nothing to get rid of it.
But if voters are still angry over this, a lot of congress guys may lose their jobs. And the President may lose a lot of his supporters in both houses. And if the Republicans take over Congress, remember re-districting comes up in 2011. Whoever controls Congress will reshape districts to suit themselves for the next decade.
If some or all of this happens, the guys who voted for this deserve it. They will deserve any punishment voters dish out. They made a farce of what representative government is supposed to be.
In his victory statement the President said “We proved that this government – a government of the people and by the people – still works for the people.”
Huh? These words could have come straight out of George Orwell. Or from Alice in Wonderland.
“When I use a word,” Humpty Dumpty said, “it means just what I choose it to mean …”
“The question is,” said Alice, “whether you can make words mean so many different things.”
“The question is,” said Humpty Dumpty, “which is to be master – that’s all.”
From Tom ... as in Morgan.
For more columns, for Tom’s radio shows and new TV show (and to write to Tom): tomasinmorgan.com.
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