MintJulep
03-28-2010, 02:01 PM
A long but excellent read. Here's an excerpt.
The Democratic Left is fond of invoking history and thus heralds its new "comprehensive national healthcare reform" bill as "historic. That it is.
But the historical comparison that may be most apt isn't Social Security or Medicare, both of which were enacted into law with bipartisan majorities. This latest "reform" initiative, by contrast, hasn't gotten a single Republican vote.
No, the more apt historical analogy may be the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854, which, by allowing for the expansion of slavery into new federal territories, led to the Civil War.
Of course, there is no likelihood that the United States will become enmeshed in a literal or violent civil war. Our republic, though young, is far too mature and well established for that. In America, we settle our domestic disputes not through bullets, but through the ballot box.
There also is no racial aspect to this new civil war. Black and white, North and South alike -- we're all on the same team; we're all on the same side.
However, with healthcare about to become a highly regulated state-administered (http://townhall.com/columnists/JonahGoldberg/2010/03/24/the_reality_of_obamacare?page=full&comments=true) utility (http://www.outsidethebeltway.com/archives/obama_socialize_health_insurance/), there is a real likelihood that the United States will become enmeshed in a modern-day economic and generational civil war (http://article.nationalreview.com/print/?q=YTZiMzNkYmM2MDJiZTdkOGNiYzlkYWM2YmUyZDRiNWI).
That's because just as the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 promised to perpetuate slavery in the United States, so too, does "comprehensive national healthcare reform" promise to create a new form of economic slavery in America.
The new slaves will be young, working Americans, especially those aged 30 to 50, forced to pay the crushing debt created by this massive new entitlement program.
And these who ostensibly benefit from this entitlement won't really be free because they'll soon be consigned to government-run healthcare, with all that that implies: rationed and substandard care; highly constrained choices; long waiting periods; a limited availability of doctors and physicians; and a lack of medical dynamism, innovation and progress.
Sure, Obama and the Left promise that "comprehensive national healthcare reform" will save money, but such a contention is a ludicrous and nonsensical.
After all, every other national entitlement program, from Social Security to Medicare to Medicaid, has ended up costing hundreds of billions of dollars more (http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=YWU5ZjM2NmY0MWZkYWExNDhlMDVmMjNmMjc1YWMyYzQ=) than the politicians had promised. And now these programs are fast driving America into bankruptcy and economic ruin.
Indeed, our entire national experience with massive government-run programs has been a fiscal and financial disaster. Yet, Obama and the Democrats promise us that this time things will be different. This time, "reform" actually will save money.
Nonsense. The price tag for this latest monstrosity will be exorbitantly expensive -- on the order of $2.5 trillion to $3 trillion over the next 10 years, according to analyst James Capretta (http://healthcare.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MGFjNWZiMDBjY2RkY2QyZjc0MDhlMGQ5NmMyNTUwZWM=). The result will be to again divide America into a nation that is half slave and half free. But as Lincoln observed, "a house divided against itself cannot stand."
And so this abomination, this act of economic and generational theft, cannot stand. Because like the literal act of slavery that preceded it, "comprehensive national healthcare reform" is incompatible with American liberty and the principles of freedom upon which America was founded.
That's why the healthcare reform debate, far from ending, has instead really just begun.
http://spectator.org/archives/2010/03/26/the-civil-war-history-of-obama
The Democratic Left is fond of invoking history and thus heralds its new "comprehensive national healthcare reform" bill as "historic. That it is.
But the historical comparison that may be most apt isn't Social Security or Medicare, both of which were enacted into law with bipartisan majorities. This latest "reform" initiative, by contrast, hasn't gotten a single Republican vote.
No, the more apt historical analogy may be the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854, which, by allowing for the expansion of slavery into new federal territories, led to the Civil War.
Of course, there is no likelihood that the United States will become enmeshed in a literal or violent civil war. Our republic, though young, is far too mature and well established for that. In America, we settle our domestic disputes not through bullets, but through the ballot box.
There also is no racial aspect to this new civil war. Black and white, North and South alike -- we're all on the same team; we're all on the same side.
However, with healthcare about to become a highly regulated state-administered (http://townhall.com/columnists/JonahGoldberg/2010/03/24/the_reality_of_obamacare?page=full&comments=true) utility (http://www.outsidethebeltway.com/archives/obama_socialize_health_insurance/), there is a real likelihood that the United States will become enmeshed in a modern-day economic and generational civil war (http://article.nationalreview.com/print/?q=YTZiMzNkYmM2MDJiZTdkOGNiYzlkYWM2YmUyZDRiNWI).
That's because just as the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 promised to perpetuate slavery in the United States, so too, does "comprehensive national healthcare reform" promise to create a new form of economic slavery in America.
The new slaves will be young, working Americans, especially those aged 30 to 50, forced to pay the crushing debt created by this massive new entitlement program.
And these who ostensibly benefit from this entitlement won't really be free because they'll soon be consigned to government-run healthcare, with all that that implies: rationed and substandard care; highly constrained choices; long waiting periods; a limited availability of doctors and physicians; and a lack of medical dynamism, innovation and progress.
Sure, Obama and the Left promise that "comprehensive national healthcare reform" will save money, but such a contention is a ludicrous and nonsensical.
After all, every other national entitlement program, from Social Security to Medicare to Medicaid, has ended up costing hundreds of billions of dollars more (http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=YWU5ZjM2NmY0MWZkYWExNDhlMDVmMjNmMjc1YWMyYzQ=) than the politicians had promised. And now these programs are fast driving America into bankruptcy and economic ruin.
Indeed, our entire national experience with massive government-run programs has been a fiscal and financial disaster. Yet, Obama and the Democrats promise us that this time things will be different. This time, "reform" actually will save money.
Nonsense. The price tag for this latest monstrosity will be exorbitantly expensive -- on the order of $2.5 trillion to $3 trillion over the next 10 years, according to analyst James Capretta (http://healthcare.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MGFjNWZiMDBjY2RkY2QyZjc0MDhlMGQ5NmMyNTUwZWM=). The result will be to again divide America into a nation that is half slave and half free. But as Lincoln observed, "a house divided against itself cannot stand."
And so this abomination, this act of economic and generational theft, cannot stand. Because like the literal act of slavery that preceded it, "comprehensive national healthcare reform" is incompatible with American liberty and the principles of freedom upon which America was founded.
That's why the healthcare reform debate, far from ending, has instead really just begun.
http://spectator.org/archives/2010/03/26/the-civil-war-history-of-obama