Aug 20 2009
I Am My Brother’s/Sister’s Keeper!
President Obama came out today in another lame attempt to guilt Americans into giving up their premier health care system to bungling DC bureaucrats (remember, we would be trading FedEx/UPS for the USPS). His efforts involved invoking a Judeo-Christian belief we serve best when we serve each other. Fine, I am my brother’s/sister’s keeper.
But I am not some lazy, elite liberal who offloads his responsibilities to some inept bureaucrats who will be deciding who is worthy and who is not. In America only the lazy shirkers use the government to perform their civil or spiritual or personal responsibilities. This under arching nature of Americans to do for themselves and their neighbors is why America is the best in the world at what we do across the board.
We don’t send out the hired help to do our jobs. It is insulting to propose Americans ‘watch out’ for our neighbors by lazily tasking bureaucrats to play Scrooge and lower all our health care to the bare minimum. Only a liberal would claim it is better for the government to be responsible instead of ourselves.
This ridiculous attempt to shame us into throwing away our medical edge and premier health care system is just another in an endless line of examples which illustrate how sick the liberals in DC see this country and their role in it.
We will take care of our seniors and their needs, we will not offload them onto a faceless, penny-pinching, unaccountable bureaucracy and then claim we have done our duty. Â DC liberal elites may find that satisfying, the rest of America is shuddering in horror at the concept.
“One of the traditional methods of imposing statism or socialism on a people has been by way of medicine. It’s very easy to disguise a medical program as a humanitarian project. Most people are a little reluctant to oppose anything that suggests medical care for people who possibly can’t afford it.”
-Ronald Reagan-
Everything that Obama and the progressive Dems have been doing to try to shove this thing down our throats whether we like it or not to achieve their bigger goal (government run single payer health care) stinks to high heaven.
And, what is wrong with our country?
Two teachers go to jail for saying a meal prayer at an honors dinner; but, if the President prays for Health care reform in teleconference call from the white house (with religious organizations) it is ok?
I think people will see through this lame attempt to use religion and a guilt trip (especially after that campaign remark about some people clinging to God and guns).
As far as I am concerned it would be immoral to force people into a government nightmare and death panels. It takes away part of our God given rights.
I hope Americans continue to fight this fight.
And just where did this hypocrite get his religious guidance from—-why Rev Wright’s Church of Racism and House of Pancakes of course. Liberals long ago lost the priviledge of being heard on religious matters or moral matters or economic matters or scientific matters or anything else that really matters.
Great comments, AJ. Exactly how I have felt for years. And there are the facts to prove that conservatives give more than liberals, I seem to recall.
I have been active in my communities all my life giving, not only giving my money, but more importantly my time, my presence. Being with people, letting them know that they matter is very important, not just throwing money at them. And look at the education system: millions thrown at it and what to show for it?
I suppose most leftists look at themselves and think we are all like them.
What’s so disgusting about this is that he’s throwing around quasi-religious words and phrases because Axelrod’s told him “Just use the right language, those right wing religious clowns will eat it up.”
They don’t have a clue.
A.J., this is perfectly said. Should be the last word on the subject. Thank you.
Thanks SallyVee!
Flash from the past:
Obama White House ordered coverup of religious symbols for Georgetown speech
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/2009/04/obama-notre-dame-georgetown.html
It is shameful that Obama uses religion this way.
I believe at same call he also stated “we are God’s partners in matters of life and death”
http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0809/A_call_with_the_rabbinate.html
Partners with God?
Not sure what church teaches that. Intruments of God, Yes, plenty of theology to support that.
Simply stated, all men are equal before God. It is not all men are in partnership with God.
Actually – I don’t recall God partnering with anyone. Can you imagine if Bush had had a conference call with 1000 preachers days before Christmas or Easter to make sure the preachers included language that would softly support No Child Left Behind? Or The Iraq War? Or The Prescription Drug Plan? The ACLU would have gone nuts. As would the left. I am so fed up with the double standard in the media. They would be SCREAMING separation of church and state from the roof tops.
On second thought, I’m feeling better and better about this. If this Jimmy Carter crap is all he can come up with to try and pass his bill, this thing is in bad, bad trouble and they can’t think of anything that will actually work to pass it.
Oh, and the reconciliation threat is a big bluff and farce as well. The Senate won’t dare to try it, and even if they did it wouldn’t work.
If there is a moral imperative for government to provide, why didn’t the “stimulus†just give everybody a new American automobile, an endless supply of gasoline, an X-box, a boat, a free lifetime pass to Burger King and no taxes ?
“Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s: and to God the things that are God’sâ€
Is it God’s wish that “Caesar†should keep you from “God’s†domain ?
AJ,
“We will take care of our seniors and their needs, we will not offload them onto a faceless, penny-pinching, unaccountable bureaucracy and then claim we have done our duty. DC liberal elites may find that satisfying, the rest of America is shuddering in horror at the concept.”
I read this comment and fell out of my chair laughing.
Our seniors are covered by Medicare – a government run health care program. The vast majority of seniors rely exclusively or primarily on this program for their health care needs, and are fiercely protective of maintining this program. So in one breath you claim that the government cannot effectively provide health care for Americans and that only lazy people expect the government to take care of them, and in the next breath you tout how our lazy seniors will be adequately taken care of by the faceless, penny-pinching, unaccountable bureaucrats that run Medicare. That is priceless!
Seriously, do you not understand that Medicare is a government run and funded program? I understand that health care reform is a complicated issue and there are legitimate questions about how effective a public option plan would work, but when I read comments like yours I truly wonder if people on the right have become so wound up by the health care debate that they forget that our seniors, the most vulnerable and costly segment of our country with respect to health care needs, have been covered by the government for over 40 years.
Our seniors ARE NOT covered by Medicare, and I know from personal experience. Seniors have tons of gap insurance they pay for to fill their needs.
Again Conman, one wonders what horrible planet you come from?
AJ,
If you are against allowing the government to decide “who is worthy and who is not,” why are you okay with private insurance companies making that choice? Private insurers get to decide who they will cover and what premiums they will charge. For those Americans with more serious health problems, and therefore the greatest need for health coverage, private insurers are far more likely to not provide them coverage, exclude pre-existing conditions and/or charge them much greater premiums. Why is that okay?
AJ,
Seniors with gap insurance are covered by Medicare. All seniors are covered by Medicare. Many seniors rely exclusively on Medicare because they cannot afford gap insurance. Some seniors choose to SUPPLEMENT their medicare coverage with gap insurance, but that doesn’t mean they are not also covered by Medicare. The price of gap insurance is far less than what it would cost for a 65+ year old to obtain full coverage through a private insurer.
This is yet another example of your contradictory statements on this issue. You’ve been claiming that seniors should be afraid of the public option plan because it will lead to cost reductions in Medicare, but now you are claiming that seniors are not even covered by Medicare? You claim that a government funded program will destroy the private industry, but now you are claiming that the private industry is thriving with seniors notwithstanding a government funded health care program. So which is it AJ? You can’t constantly flip-flop on issues without losing credibility.
Conman let me inform you of a few real life facts.
People buy insurance without ever reading what they are actually insuring themselves for. A big mistake.
Anyone who owns a home or property of substantial value should carry Health Insurance to protect their investment. You insure your home, not for broken windows, but for a catastrophic event. You insure you car, not for a dead battery, but for a catastrophic event. If you take the same point of view about your life and health you would insure it for a catastrophic event. If you have ever had a few car accidents, or claims against your home owners insurance, you will notice that your insurance goes way up or they drop you and you have to hunt for a company that will insure you at a high risk rate. I wonder why?
In Colorado there are 5 or 6 insurance companies to choose from and a gazillion plans to chose from. If you don’t like one company or a plan you can choose another. In a government plan you can’t. Just like Medicare and Medicaid if you don’t like the plan you are stuck for the rest of your life.
The government mandates that insurance companies insure for a whole litany of things, this is what makes insurance so expensive. Why not make the insurance companies insure for those with preexisting conditions, and give each self insured a $3000 rebate or tax deduction. Problem solved, don’t need a government run plan. Allow self insured to buy across state borders, then people would have more choices, and it would lower the cost.
Just where do you think that the government is going to get the money to pay for pre-existing conditions? Do you think the government has a never ending pot of money to take care of everyone to their hearts desire?
The only choice that is “moral” is the one that a person makes to take care of themselves and their family.
PS, AJ, well said.
My three primary issues with Obamacare:
1. New workers entering the workforce will not be able to choose a private plan offered by their employer. Only those people already on a private plan when the law takes effect may keep that plan. New workers, not already on a private plan, must take the “public option”.
2. Workers changing employers may not choose a private plan offered by the new employer. According to the House bill, once the law takes effect, no new policies can be written. If you change jobs you must take the “public option”.
3. If you opt in to the public option, there is no way to opt back out if you find that it does not met your needs. Once you give up the private plan you were on, there is no getting it back.
Urge your member of Congress to support a bill that preserves choice for ALL workers. The President’s rhetoric of “if you currently have a plan that you like, you can keep it” while true is subtly misleading. Everyone that doesn’t already have a plan has no choice and if you are ever forced to give up that plan you like due to a change of jobs you have no choice and once you are in, you are in for life with the public plan.
People should not be forced to stay in a public plan if they don’t like it. They should be able to “opt out” without a fine.
PS Conman………do you realize that with every pay check I received in the last 40 years I paid for the Medicare I now receive. I paid into a program for 40 years that I never used a drop of, as well as I bought, out of my pocket, insurance for me and my family that I did use. So for 40 years I paid for 4 insurance programs of which I used 3.
All seniors are covered my medicare, not all doctors or hospitals take medicare patients. To insure that I have better choices I buy a supplemental insurance policy that pays more to doctors and hospitals then Medicare does so if I need care I won’t be turned away. I think many seniors do the same.
One Paragraph Summation Of The Health Care Proposal
Posted on August 20, 2009 by 84rules
I don’t know who authored this, but it really says it all:
Let me get this straight. We’re going to maybe have a health care plan written by a committee whose head says he doesn’t understand it, passed by a Congress that hasn’t read it but exempts themselves from it, signed by a president that also hasn’t read it and who smokes, with funding administered by a treasury chief who didn’t pay his taxes, overseen by a surgeon general who is obese, and financed by a country that’s nearly broke.
What could possibly go wrong?