The Health-Care Backlash

[Warrior-Mentor]

The Health-Care Backlash
Peter Wehner
12.21.2009 - 3:07 PM

Here are some thoughts on where things stand in the aftermath of the certain passage of the Senate health-care bill.

1. Few Democrats understand the depth and intensity of opposition that exists toward them and their agenda, especially regarding health care. Passage of this bill will only heighten the depth and intensity of the opposition. We’re seeing a political tsunami in the making, and passage of health-care legislation would only add to its size and force.

2. This health-care bill may well be historic, but not in the way the president thinks. I’m not sure we’ve ever seen anything quite like it: passage of a mammoth piece of legislation, hugely expensive and unpopular, on a strict party-line vote taken in a rush of panic because Democrats know that the more people see of ObamaCare, the less they like it.

3. The problem isn’t simply with how substantively awful the bill is but how deeply dishonest and (legally) corrupt the whole process has been. There’s already a powerful populist, anti-Washington sentiment out there, perhaps as strong as anything we’ve seen. This will add kerosene to that raging fire.

4. Democrats have sold this bill as a miracle-worker; when people see first-hand how pernicious health-care legislation will be, abstract concerns will become concrete. That will magnify the unhappiness of the polity.

5. The collateral damage to Obama from this bill is enormous. More than any candidate in our lifetime, Obama won based on the aesthetics of politics. It wasn’t because of his record; he barely had one. And it wasn’t because of his command of policy; few people knew what his top three policy priorities were. It was based instead on the sense that he was something novel, the embodiment of a “new politics” – matured, high-minded and gracious, intellectually serious. That was the core of his speeches and his candidacy. In less than a year, that core has been devoured, most of all by this health-care process.

Mr. Obama has shown himself to be a deeply partisan and polarizing figure. (“I have never been asked to engage in a single serious negotiation on any issue, nor has any other Republican,” Senator McCain reported over the weekend.) The lack of transparency in this process has been unprecedented and bordering on criminal. The president has been deeply misleading in selling this plan. Lobbyists, a bane of Obama during the campaign, are having a field day.

President Obama may succeed in passing a terribly unpopular piece of legislation – but in the process, he has shattered his carefully cultivated image. It now consists of a thousand shards.

6. This health-care bill shouldn’t be seen in isolation. It’s part of a train of events that include the stimulus package, the omnibus spending bill (complete with some 8,500 earmarks), and a record-sized budget. In addition, as Jim Manzi points out in the new issue of National Affairs:

[Under Obama] the federal government has also intervened aggressively in both the financial and industrial sectors of the economy in order to produce specific desired outcomes for particular corporations. It has nationalized America’s largest auto company (General Motors) and intervened in the bankruptcy proceedings of the third-largest auto company (Chrysler), privileging labor unions at the expense of bondholders. It has, in effect, nationalized what was America’s largest insurance company (American International Group) and largest bank (Citigroup), and appears to have exerted extra-legal financial pressure on what was the second-largest bank (Bank of America) to get it to purchase the *country’s largest securities company (Merrill Lynch). The implicit government guarantees provided to home-loan giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have been called in, and the federal government is now the largest de facto lender in the residential real-estate market. The government has selected the CEOs and is setting compensation at major automotive and financial companies across the country. On top of these interventions in finance and commerce, the administration and congressional Democrats are also pursuing both a new climate and energy strategy and large-scale health-care reform. Their agenda would place the government at the center of these two huge sectors of the economy…

Together, these actions tell quite a tale. Mr. Obama has revived the worst impressions of the Democratic party – profligate and undisciplined, arrogant, lovers of big government, increasers of taxes. The issues and narrative for American politics in the foreseeable future has been set — limited government versus exploding government, capitalism versus European style socialism, responsible and measured policies versus reckless and radical ones.

Barack Obama is in the process of inflicting enormous damage to his presidency and his party. And there is more, much more to come...

SOURCE:
http://www.commentarymagazine.com/bl.../wehner/202662

[Paslode]

Obama's antics have done severe damage in the tax payers eyes, but if they pass immigration reform the Dem's may produce enough new loyal voters to make it through the fire that awaits in 2010.

And say as expected the Dem's get thrown to the curb, how long is it going to take to undo all that has been done? Is it even possible considering Obama has Veto power?

In my mind we're in for one big shit sandwich no matter what.

[afchic]

Is the bill anywhere we can look at it? My bet is not, and that the full vote will be called, and the bill will not have been available to even the Senate for them to read before voting.

And can anyone explain to me that if overhauling the Health Care system is SOOOOOOOO important, why does it not take effect until 2014????

[dadof18x'er]

Originally Posted by Warrior-Mentor

The Health-Care Backlash
Peter Wehner
12.21.2009 - 3:07 PM

Here are some thoughts on where things stand in the aftermath of the certain passage of the Senate health-care bill.

1. Few Democrats understand the depth and intensity of opposition that exists toward them and their agenda, especially regarding health care. Passage of this bill will only heighten the depth and intensity of the opposition. We’re seeing a political tsunami in the making, and passage of health-care legislation would only add to its size and force.

2. This health-care bill may well be historic, but not in the way the president thinks. I’m not sure we’ve ever seen anything quite like it: passage of a mammoth piece of legislation, hugely expensive and unpopular, on a strict party-line vote taken in a rush of panic because Democrats know that the more people see of ObamaCare, the less they like it.

3. The problem isn’t simply with how substantively awful the bill is but how deeply dishonest and (legally) corrupt the whole process has been. There’s already a powerful populist, anti-Washington sentiment out there, perhaps as strong as anything we’ve seen. This will add kerosene to that raging fire.

4. Democrats have sold this bill as a miracle-worker; when people see first-hand how pernicious health-care legislation will be, abstract concerns will become concrete. That will magnify the unhappiness of the polity.

5. The collateral damage to Obama from this bill is enormous. More than any candidate in our lifetime, Obama won based on the aesthetics of politics. It wasn’t because of his record; he barely had one. And it wasn’t because of his command of policy; few people knew what his top three policy priorities were. It was based instead on the sense that he was something novel, the embodiment of a “new politics” – matured, high-minded and gracious, intellectually serious. That was the core of his speeches and his candidacy. In less than a year, that core has been devoured, most of all by this health-care process.

Mr. Obama has shown himself to be a deeply partisan and polarizing figure. (“I have never been asked to engage in a single serious negotiation on any issue, nor has any other Republican,” Senator McCain reported over the weekend.) The lack of transparency in this process has been unprecedented and bordering on criminal. The president has been deeply misleading in selling this plan. Lobbyists, a bane of Obama during the campaign, are having a field day.

President Obama may succeed in passing a terribly unpopular piece of legislation – but in the process, he has shattered his carefully cultivated image. It now consists of a thousand shards.

6. This health-care bill shouldn’t be seen in isolation. It’s part of a train of events that include the stimulus package, the omnibus spending bill (complete with some 8,500 earmarks), and a record-sized budget. In addition, as Jim Manzi points out in the new issue of National Affairs:



Together, these actions tell quite a tale. Mr. Obama has revived the worst impressions of the Democratic party – profligate and undisciplined, arrogant, lovers of big government, increasers of taxes. The issues and narrative for American politics in the foreseeable future has been set — limited government versus exploding government, capitalism versus European style socialism, responsible and measured policies versus reckless and radical ones.

Barack Obama is in the process of inflicting enormous damage to his presidency and his party. And there is more, much more to come...

SOURCE:
http://www.commentarymagazine.com/bl.../wehner/202662

How much of this can be undone after these fools all commit political suicide?

[zpo]

Originally Posted by Paslode

Is it even possible considering Obama has Veto power?

Yes. A two-thirds majority will pass the bill into law after vetoed.

[TOMAHAWK9521]

Originally Posted by dadof18x'er

How much of this can be undone after there fools all commit political suicide?

That's the problem. The liberals are so fanatical about their agenda they don't care about their political careers as long as their life long goals to transform America are brought to fruition. One might compare them to Al Qaeda or any one of the Islamo-fascist organization. Well, their actions are definitely fascist and they are radical zealots for their ideology.

[zpo]

Originally Posted by dadof18x'er

How much of this can be undone after there fools all commit political suicide?

Can-all. Will-? Is this enough to get the nation off its collective ass? I doubt it, but I don't count for much.

[Paslode]

Originally Posted by zpo

Yes. A two-thirds majority will pass the bill into law after vetoed.

Too much wrangling and formality involved for my palette...

[lindy]

Is the bill anywhere we can look at it?

Here's the bill for the cryppies out there (this MUST be written in code or something).

http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d111:H.R.3590:

Where is this talk of a veto coming from? The Dims have the votes to put His desk and then bam: we'll all be paying taxes for something that doesn't even go into effect for another 4 years.

Obamacare BOHICA. Merry Christmas. Oh, Congress will also raise the deficit ceiling so your dollar will be worth even less. Nice.

[zpo]

Originally Posted by lindy

Where is this talk of a veto coming from?

Hope for the future. Same as the zombies, emp, and rocks falling.

[Paslode]

Originally Posted by lindy

Here's the bill for the cryppies out there (this MUST be written in code or something).

http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d111:H.R.3590:

Where is this talk of a veto coming from? The Dims have the votes to put His desk and then bam: we'll all be paying taxes for something that doesn't even go into effect for another 4 years.

Obamacare BOHICA. Merry Christmas. Oh, Congress will also raise the deficit ceiling so your dollar will be worth even less. Nice.

'IF' the Dems get thrown out, B-HO will still have the ability to slow any reversal through his Veto until 2012. In addition SCOTUS and all the other Courts will be swamped from both sides of the fence crying foul.

And while all that goes on, it is likely nothing will be accomplished, the new body will look like fools and will be ousted in the next election......and the process repeats itself.

There will be no quick and easy way out of this tangled mess.....at least in the accepted law abiding sense of things.

However reversal could happen quickly if people like Pelosi, Reid, Rangel, Frank, Chris Matthews, Keith Oberman and the Elite scum were rounded up for treason and sedition, and then quickly taken to the nearest tree of justice.....but then you might be categorized in the same light as Pol Pot depending on who is writing the history books after such a purge.

[Costa]

While driving home listening to AM 580, people were calling in asking these same sorts of questions. One guy even asked what the penalty would be if roughly 30% of Americans who opposed to the bill didn't pay the tax. People are now getting desperate and the divide is now very apparent.

I found myself thinking about the line in the film "The Patriot": "Why would I trade 1 tyrant 3000 miles away for 3000 tyrants 1 mile away?"

Will the Tea-party gain more speed? Will the Republicans win majority in Congress?
Will crime rates increase as people become more financially desperate? Will someone assassinate the POTUS? These are all topics I hear discussion on just about every day.

Historic time? You betcha.

[lindy]

Careful Costa...INTERPOL is watching you.

[FCWood]

While the dems are making a lot of enemies, the American people have a history of forgetting. As mad as everyone was in August about death panels you barely hear talk about it now. If congressional elections were held August '09 then a lot of conservative dems would've been home before Thanksgiving for good. However, time will cause many to forget.

One reason the bill is soooo important to pass? So that there's time between it's passing and congressional elections to be forgotten in part. The Senate's makeup, given the current situations, will not change in Nov of '10. If the dems can get health care done soon then they will lose seats in the house, but might just survive with a slim majority.

Why? Because those that elected Obama still love him though maybe a little less. Those same voters are going to go back to the polls to keep dems in power if but barely. Of course the moderates are key. With a water-down health bill they may stomach voting for a dem once more mainly because of the repubs lack of ideas.

Unless the repubs decide to start giving alternate ideas they will continue being seen as "the party off no." Obama's goals may energize the repub base, but they will fail to secure a majority if they can't convince the moderates they have good legislation of their own.

[GratefulCitizen]

Falling back to the next line of defense:

http://www.azleg.gov/legtext/49leg/1....HCR2014NB.pdf

Time to test the 10th amendment.

Whatever happened to the real ID act?