Surely Ye Jest Mr. President
July 22, 2009
|
Posted by Michael S. Langston
Mr. President, are you kidding?
I listened intently to your entire speech and for a gifted speaker, all I heard were disjointed platitudes, class warfare rhetoric, and a little political bashing just for good measure.
Let’s start at the top (all quotes are paraphrased, not direct quotes):
Obama: As a result of the actions taken in the first weeks of my administration, we stabilized the housing market, saved jobs – created new ones, and gave tax relief to millions.
Wow! I wasn’t aware the government was this powerful. Maybe unicorns really do exist?
Seriously though, first, the housing market is still declining. It is not stabilized yet and in some parts of the country is still losing quite a bit of value.
Second, I’m not sure what a “saved” job is or how one would go about calculating it, but what we do know is that on net, jobs continue to be lost. So growing jobs is absolutely incorrect and saving jobs is a feel good phrase that would be impossible to prove (or disprove).
But who cares about little things like facts when you’re trying to take credit. By the way, who’s really to blame?
Obama: Through the last few decades of unprecedented growth, only a small minority of wealthy people actually saw their incomes grow, while the economy was not making good paying jobs or green jobs like it should’ve.
Oh, ok. So it’s the rich’s fault? They should have to pay!
Come on Mr. President, this is class warfare and theoretically beneath someone who promised to usher in “Hope & Change” and a new kind of politics. Just to clarify for you Mr. President, class warfare has existed for centuries. It’s not new and it’s not built on a foundation of “Hope & Change”.
But why do we need this Mr. President?
Obama: Because middle class families have been struggling due to the constant rise in health care costs. They have had wage increases, but due to increasing health care costs, the wage increases were offset. This is also causing employers to not be able to afford health insurance anymore either.
So, the government medaling in health care through medicaid, medicare, FDA, and the myriad of laws that cover things such as, what qualifies a surgeon, what kind of needle can I use to draw blood, what drugs have to be based on prescription, and ever other intrustion they’ve made have pushed costs higher and higher.
Additionally,
Obama: I’m confident that when people look to see the costs of doing nothing at all, the people will support me.
Mr. President, if you’re not aware of the current level of intrusion into the current health care system, then it’s possible GWB might have a lead in the IQ race.
We’ve tried. & time and time again, health care has become harder to deal with and more expensive. Each time the government does something like this, it costs more than they thought it would, usually by multiples of at least 10, and the savings they say they’ll get never materialize. But this time will be different. Why? Cause I’m Barak!
How will we do it?
Obama: First, the government will not get in between you and your doctor. What we will do is pass a bunch of laws that change the way insurance decisions are made, work towards decisions on “end-of-life” care, put limits on the amount of money a person will pay out of pocket, and many other laws.
But this is definitely NOT government interference.
Mr. President, congrats. I have to applaud you as I couldn’t have said all that with a straight face. You deserve an Oscar for logic twists needed for this.
What will it cost?
Obama: Nothing of course. We will save billions by fixing existing inefficencies and taxing the top 1% just a little bit.
So, we get everything we want and it costs hardly anything? Someone once told me about things too good to be true, but I’m so enamored now by his speaking ability that I forgot. But basically he seems to believe that to fix government intrusion into health care, more government intrusion is needed.
He seems to believe that while every time the government has gotten into health care or retirement funds or any other social spending they’ve always gotten the numbers wrong. But this time is different.
What’s stopping you?
Obama: I heard a Republican strategist state that it’s better to go for the kill against Obama than pass meaningful reform. I heard a Republican Senator state, we want him to fail.
So… you have the executive branch, the House by a good majority and a filibuster proof majority in the Senate. But the Republicans are causing problems?
Categories: Economics, Politics, free market
| 
Tags: Critical Thinking, Economics, Health Care Reform, Obama Administration, Politics, Stimulus, Unemployment
|
Leave a reply
What a great article, I to watched his speech and didn’t understand a word he was saying, my head was spinning at the end of it. On the job front unemployment went up by 30000. I am so glad you wrote this article because all I would have been able to write was CLAPTRAP!
I’ve seen other articles/blogs that claim the reason people didn’t get it is because the President was using big words and describing complex issues which we are just too stupid to get.
Of course it has always amused me at the self serving nature of believing your side has a lock on intelligence or the truth. It was only odd in the number of places I saw examples of this – not odd that it happened.