Letter From America

Top 10 Takeaways on Our New Health Care System

By David L Bahnsen on March 23, 2010

One of the most egregious acts of political bullying in American history was successfully completed Sunday night. “Bullying” is an inadequate word, because most bullies use a sort of intimidating force to get what they want, and leave lying and bribery (overt bribery) for people of less character. There is no such thing as “character” when talking about this Congress, and there is no such thing as “character” when talking about this President. Because my thoughts on all of this are not as connected as I want them to be, I thought a “top 10″ list may be more useful.

(10) Elections matter. And what I mean by this is easy: Electing a Democrat to any office, ever, is utter insanity. I have never said this before in my life. But one can look at the two most insidious, damaging, damnable pieces of legislation passed in my lifetime (last year’s stimulus bill, and this year’s health care bill), and they will be unable to draw any other conclusion. The “moderate” democrats are cowards and unprincipled windbags. The “pro-life” Democrats are sell-outs and liars. There is absolutely no excuse for voting for someone who lines themselves up with this Democratic party. This is not your Grandpa’s Democratic party. The moderates began their departure after Kennedy and Truman, and officially died when the Reagan Democrats of the 1980’s left office. What is left is an utter travesty.

(9) Hey Republicans – elections matter! This is not a repeat of #10; it is a twist. The success Democrats had in the last two elections caused them to pass this atrocity, and I lament the election of Democrats in my preceding point. But, and this can not be said emphatically enough, the Republicans lost in 2006 and 2008 because a great majority of them deserved to lose. The prescription drug benefit and No Child Left Behind are the two great travesties of the Bush administration, and they cost us office. We did this to ourselves.

(8) Hey Republican bashers – grow up! For those who think I give a pass to Republicans, see point #9. (or try reading one of my columns every now and then). But if you are not paying attention to what is going on now, you need to. More likely, you are paying attention, and you simply lack the integrity to admit how this GOP is behaving. How many Republican members of the House of Representatives voted for this health care debacle? ZERO. How many voted for the stimulus bill last year? ZERO.

There are plenty of GOP congressmen and women I could do without, but the bend of this Congressional minority is decidedly conservative, and their voting record so far has been remarkably improved. This is not the GOP of Denny Hastert. Mike Pence, Paul Ryan, Michelle Bachman, and Marsha Blackburn are now in charge. John Boehner is a changed man. Paul Ryan’s speech on the floor the other night was positively Reagan-esque. His distinguished comments to President Obama two weeks ago were platinum. I can sympathize with my tea party friends and Libertarian friends that just don’t want to let go of their Republican angst. But it is time to start giving credit where it is due, and see the fight for what it is. We have allies in the GOP right now; their continued efforts are the lifeblood of this fight.

(7) Hoper-Changers Laid Waste. Those who wanted a new kind of transparency and honesty in government, led by a new kind of hopeful leader in Barack Obama, should be devastated. Never in the history of American politics has a politician more successfully duped a group of trusting naivetes than in the Presidential election of 2008. It is only because of total ignorance as to how this bill was passed, and what transpired behind closed doors, that people are not demanding a resignation. Bill Clinton did not have 5% of the audacity and gall in his entire body that Barack Obama has in one finger.

(6) "Health Care Reformers" Skewered. Oh, there is another loser here: Those on the Left who wanted health care reform. Watching these statists chest-bump each other the last 48 hours reminds me of when I saw UCLA celebrating after winning the Eagle Bank Bowl. Let’s see: Public option for government insurance – dead. Mandate that employers with under 50 employees provide health insurance – dead. Allow generic drugs to come in from Canada – dead. The very cornerstones of the health reform these cock-eyed hyprocrites said they wanted are not in this bill. It would be humorous to watch these people celebrate if it were not so revolting.

(5) The Executive Order outlawing federal funding of abortion is a sham. Stupak is my #1 priority in taking out of office. #1. He is a mockery to the system of government we have, a gullible fool, and he will pay the price.

(4) Be afraid when their ideology trumps their political ambitions. What a bizarre thing for an ideologue to say, huh? With Bill Clinton, pragmatism oozed from his veins, and no blue dress was going to get in the way of his desire for American Idol popularity. I miss those days. BHO and his BFF, Nancy Pelosi, have no interest whatsoever in protecting their monopoly of power. They are here to do as much long term damage as they can, and by damage I mean, “irreversible policy shifts that look like Europe”.

(3) Ignorance Leads to Folly. The economic ignorance of our society is staggering. I truly believe that the IQ requirement necessary to understand that adding 37 million people to a system and mandating massive increases in coverage will not decrease costs is in the low single-digits. At its face, it is patently absurd (though not as comically absurd as President Obama’s assertion that employer premium costs would go down by 3,000%). Whether this bill had passed or not, we have reason to be afraid of a citizenry that could even momentarily be duped by such numerical idiocy. I am not concerned that Congress fell for it too, because, of course, they didn’t “fall for it”. They know it is a lie, which is why the benefits start now, but the costs start in 2014. Brilliant. Good moral compass, Jim Wallis!!

(2) If bribery were actually illegal the President and half of the Senate and Congress would go to jail. Bribery, though, when done by an elected official, is not against the law. I encourage you to spend time researching what back room deals were made to get this bill passed into law. I encourage you to question why, in a “health care reform” bill, banks are now outlawed from providing student loans (with the exception of one single bank in North Dakota). I encourage you to see what kind of pork was thrown out by this immoral President to buy the votes of week-kneed Democrats who fear political retaliation more than they respect the Constitution. Read this piece by Kimberly Strassel, and weep.

(1) The big losers are our children. $1 trillion more in government spending. Higher taxes. Medicare slashing. Price controls. A bureacracy so large it will trump every other government agency. The nature of the relationship between the state and its citizens has been forever altered. I do not believe a parent who fully grasps what happened this week and yet does not weep truly cares about his children or grandchildren. And I will not take that back – I mean every word of it.

This post is rough around the edges on purpose. It is time to quit being nice (I am sure this is a shock to those of you who were unaware that my prior writings were an attempt at being nice). The principles this country were founded on will be replaced by this narcissistic Euro-socialist administration over the dead bodies of many true patriots. It will not happen. Freedom is expensive to secure; judging by the actions of Bart Stupak and Ben Nelson, it is cheap to give away. May the voters of this country bring incredible wrath down on the evil people who have voted this atrocity into law come November. After that, let’s get out our shovels. There is a lot of horse shit to clean up.