Friday, March 26, 2010

Dems: 1, Americans: 0

Well, the health care issue took a turn for the worst. Some people had thought that Obama would get how unpopular federal mandates are and reject this. I knew better, and I've posted as much. Obama is so convinced that Socialism is the way to go, that he thinks once Americans experience it, they will like it as much as he does. I don't fault him for this. I feel that conservativism is so good, most people will like it if they experienced it. Unfortunately, we keep getting Republicans that are not conservatives.

In terms of the game of politics, this was a good move for Obama. It gives him the ability to say he's actually accomplished something. And it gives him momentum. Of course, the health care bill isn't the end of the changes. It's going to get more and more radical as time goes on. They'll be tweeking it more until the Dems get voted out. What's somewhat unfortunate is that many of the Dems that voted for it, don't actually like it. They made a political gamble. That's pretty sad to think about it. I mean, this should be about what's best for the American people. But that's been lost. It's a game.

The Republicans are in a difficult bind here too. Though the overall bill is unpopular, many parts of it are well liked by most Americans, including Republicans. After all, the Republican health bill and Obama's did have some of the same goals. It reminds me of what happened during the Great Depression. FDR, who was also a Socialist, massively expanded government. The Reps ran against him, but supported many of the same ideas FDR was using to get us out of the Depression. The Reps had their hands tied. The "guy that got us into this mess," was Hoover. Hoover was a Republican who was not a Conservative. Hoover cut taxes, but didn't cut spending. In fact, Hoover greatly increased spending--Hoover Dam, for example. So despite actual real conservatives running against FDR, voters were still mad at Hoover (seeing all Republicans as all the same). And of course, FDR managed to stay in power, getting re-elected 4 times.

Fast forward to today, Bush cut taxes but didn't cut spending. Now people are mad at the Republicans and a socialist was able to get in the white house. Real conservatives are coming forward to oppose him. Will Newt Gengrich, Mike Huckabee, or Mit Romney be able to beat him in 2012? Or will we see more socialism until we're on the brink of collapse?

It's interesting that Dems often get unfairly labeled as "Tax and Spend Liberals," when there's a few republican presidents who've been spenders too like Hoover and Bush. The Rep and Dem labels, perhaps, aren't as important. Maybe we should be lumping people by conservative or liberal.

Now, I've been a Republican all my life. But if I saw a Conservative Democrat like JFK on the ballot against a Progressive Republican like Hoover... yeah, I think I'd have to go with the Conservative in that case.

Anyway, back to the health care thing. So Obama and the Dems gave the Congressional Budget Office a bunch of bad numbers and highly hypothetical cases and asked them to score it to see what the healthcare bill would cost. The CBO wasn't given the whole bill. That's too much to read. They were given "what the bill will do," crib notes. The Dems didn't like the answer, so they kept going back--not changing the bill each time, but changing the crib notes. Finally, they got an answer and now claim the bill will actually lower the national debt. Yeah. No one with a brain actually believes this. I highly doubt even Obama believes this claim. The CBO says the bill will cost almost a trillion dollars, but will save slightly more than it costs. Keep in mind, the Dems went to the CBO years back to get Medicare passed. The CBO scored what the bill would cost years later. The real numbers of what it really cost ended up being 13 times what the projected costs were.

Now, we spend 43 cents of every dollar paying off the national debt. Imagine it the Dems projections for the Healthcare bill is just as off from reality as it was for the Medicare bill. So instead of a trillion, the bill costs 13 times that. That would double our national debt.

So instead of paying 43% of tax dollars just paying off the debt, we'd be spending 86%. That would absolutely bankrupt this country. Now, of course even the Libs wouldn't want that to happen. So if they stayed in power, they'd have to do what Liberals always do when their grand utopia ideas end up not working in the real world--massively raise taxes, massively cut services, or commit genocide(as the most infamous of Communist / Fascist leaders have done).

Obviously, I don't think we're going to be committing genocide in this country(again). So where does that leave us? Let's look at a Conservative approach instead. Cut spending by a lot. Before FDR, federal taxes were around 5%. Now they're around 35%. 7 times more taxes, government spending has gone up more than 7 times. Here's what I think. Massively cut government spending by privatizing schools, medicare, and social security. Eliminate the Post Office too.

Elementary schools get paid money based on performance and attendance. Parents can choose which schools to send their kids to(it's free to them), so those schools had better make those parents happy if they want government money. Schools might even advertise on tv to attract more numbers. Imagine that. Opening up a well run school would even be profitable by the educators who were really good at it. Keep in mind, good neighborhood or bad wouldn't matter. The money comes from the government--not the community. This is important because a lot of intelligent, talented kids grow up in bad neighborhoods with little to no opportunity to escape poverty. This is why African Americans are disproportionately represented in sports, dance, and music. Not because they're not smart enough to be physicists and doctors--but because they either don't have the opportunity, or have lost hope to try, so they feel basketball and rapping is their only option.

Statistics now say that most newborns in this country are not white. This means if half our population will grow up feeling discriminated against, we're throwing away half our leaders, scientists, teachers, innovators, etc. Think of what well funded schools in poor neighborhoods could do for this country 20 years from now.

With a richer, better educated nation, we wouldn't need socialized medicine because more Americans would be able to afford it on their own.

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