Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Slow down and get it right

Rep. Mike Ross, D-Ark., says that Blue Dog Democrats like him are holding up healthcare reform in the House. "The American people want us to slow down and they want us to get it right." I agree, and it is good to see that common sense still exists amongst the Democrats.

I thought Obama's press conference this evening was just great, because it reinforced Mike Ross's view that Obama is pushing things too fast with little or no reason. As I watched Obama spend 5 minutes or more on each question, I kept trying to imagine George Washington spending that much time answering questions when he was President. Or Ronald Reagan. No, they would never have dredged up the travails of individuals struggling with a government-dominated system in order to argue for yet more government domination. They would have limited themselves to proposing a solution that came from the people, not from the government. From the free market, not from bureaucrats.

Time after time, Obama threw up straw men (e.g., we can't possibly continue with the status quo), in order to argue that his view (which is maybe the same as Nancy Pelosi's, but no one knows for sure, since it seems he is more interested in passing anything that gives more power to the government than passing something which makes sense) is far superior. And the reason for such haste? Because the government systems (Medicare, Medicaid) that have been distorting the healthcare marketplace for decades are bound to make things worse, and so we've got to change things immediately by giving government even more power over our lives. Huh??

Didn't anyone teach the brilliant Obama that one of the best ways to solve apparently intractable problems is to first question the assumptions inherent in the problems themselves? The alternative to passing the Democrat's half-baked healthcare reform is not to maintain the status quo, which stinks, but to do something that involves less government, not more. That was the big thing missing in tonight's White House press conference.

5 comments:

  1. Show me the Money!!!!

    Barack said he can produce savings equal to of 2/3s the cost of the health care package that he wants, by better managing Federal health care spending.

    I assume he is talking about Medi- care/caid and all the other government health care programs.I thought these were models of efficiency.

    The two statements don't add up something can't be a model of efficiency and waste $600 billion.

    I say show me the savings next year which ought to be about 60 billion and I'll sign onto your health care takeover lock stock and barrel.

    Since the savings are going to come from Federal programs this should be easy to do. We all know how good congress is at cutting federal programs, just look at the amazing progress they have made with the cuts to this years budget.

    He can just assign another Czar

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  2. Scott, re: the "brilliant" Obama, you might appreciate this:
    BARACK OBAMA, Nicolas Sarkozy and Dmitry Medvedev are looking at an island on a lake. The American president walks there across the water and waits for the others. Mr Sarkozy follows. The Russian head of state steps out too, but within a couple of seconds is up to his neck in water. “Shall we tell him where the stepping stones are?” asks Mr Sarkozy. “What stepping stones?” replies Mr Obama.

    from http://www.economist.com/displayStory.cfm?story_id=13402460

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  3. Scott:

    I have heard that Congress has exempted themselves from this "health plan". If this is true why has there been no outcry about this hypocrisy.

    Boston Tea Party

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  4. Jay: I have seen that claim also, but don't know if it's true. Tea Parties, regardless, are a good thing.

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