American Elephants

As for not letting America pay its bills, I have to say, no Congress before this one has ever – ever — in history been irresponsible enough to threaten default, to threaten an economic shutdown, to suggest America not pay its bills, just to try to blackmail a President into giving them some concessions on issues that have nothing to do with a budget.

That was President Obama, last Thursday, out on the campaign trail, insulting Republicans,, as usual, and trying to sell ObamaCare to a public that clearly doesn’t want any part of it. The House of Representatives has the responsibility of managing the government’s  finances. They believe that it is prudent to delay ObamaCare for a year, since it is more obvious each day that Obama’s health insurance plan is not ready for prime time. Democrats have delayed all sorts of parts of it — everything except for ordinary citizens’ forced participation. They just delayed small business participation. The Republicans in the House are attempting to do a big favor for the Obama administration, in giving them more time to fix the plentiful bugs.

Republicans have also proposed eliminating the tax on “medical devices,” a tax everyone agrees was a stupid idea that has already had disastrous consequences. A medical device is everything from a stent, to a crutch, a hospital bed, a wheelchair, or any of the technological breakthroughs like laser-assisted surgery, new prosthetics that respond to nerve stimulus, and CT scans and the like. The companies that produce medical devices have laid off people, moved offshore, or shut their doors. The tax will stifle innovation, which means some new life-saving or life-enhancing devices will never be invented.

And “no Congress before this one has ever—ever— in history been irresponsible enough to threaten default, to threaten an economic shutdown.” The demagogue in full attack mode. Since 1975 we have had 17 government shutdowns, of varying lengths from two days to 32 days, and we have never defaulted on our debts. We have enough income to pay all our debts on time. For a little perspective on the defunding “battle” the Daily Caller has rounded up videos of some great parliamentary fights. And defunding the Affordable Care Act would not be the first law defunded.

Mr. Obama keeps telling his audiences that health care is a “right.” First of all, the government is not offering health care. ObamaCare is a system of government-run health insurance. It is NOT free health care. You have to pay for it, and it costs significantly more than under the previous system, which was far from perfect. As Thomas Sowell keeps pointing out, you can’t expect to add some hundreds of offices, agencies and bureaus on top of the cost of insurance and expect it to be more affordable. So if you have insurance, and are all paid up, and you can find a doctor willing to see you in a world of fewer doctors and longer waits — then you have a right to whatever sort of health care you can pay for. If you think a “right” to health care means someone else will pay so you can have the care you want — that’s not the way it works.

Kathleen Sibelius announced in the Detroit Free Press

Being a woman will no longer be a pre-existing condition. Insurance companies are forbidden by law from discriminating against a consumer or potential consumer just because she happens to be female.

Who knew? These demagogues attack insurance companies, yet clearly have no idea how insurance is supposed to work, nor why there are actuaries and what they do. Most of what was wrong with health insurance was because of government interference in the marketplace in the first place.

Medicine is far more an art than a one-size-fits-all situation. Each person is different. A pill that works for one person may not help another at all. Medicine is on the brink of all sorts of marvelous breakthroughs in learning how to tailor a medicine to a specific person through sequencing their DNA. The newest experimental prosthetics respond to nerve stimulus.We’re getting closes to a tricorder.

Everything about ObamaCare is in direct opposition to the free market, to innovation, to free people. It’s a cut-and-dried attempt at complete government control of you, your health and your person. These apparatchiks have no respect for real people. They believe you are dangerous and need to be controlled. Who knows what you might do? They really are afraid of you. That’s’ why they have the media in full cry  warning that those crazy Republicans want to shut down the government.

The House holds the power of the purse. It is their Constitutional duty to pass responsible spending bills.  It is the Democrats who ignore all constitutional checks and balances.  And the president of the United States states explicitly that he will negotiate with the despots who sponsor world terrorism and mass murder, but not with Republicans. Go figure.