Tag Archives: Authoritarianism

Obamacare A Success? Alas, Not Even Close!

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medicine_and_StethoscopeThe mainstream media is abuzz with the latest Obama care enrollment numbers as the last “official” enrollment day comes to a close. The administration touts that over 6 million people have now enrolled in Obama care and as a result the program is a success and should be claimed such by everyone involved, especially Democrats running for reelection. An interesting thought occurred to me as I listened to these numbers.

If the ACA shoe were on the other foot, what would the Democrats be saying was the real result of the healthcare law? We’ve been treated to so much deception regarding the number of “jobs saved or created” by Obama’s stimulus, unemployment figures, annual deficits and the national debt for instance that democrats would surely use more creative math to counter the 6 million figure. I suspect that they would argue the following.

The number of enrollees is only a very superficial measure to grade its success. Sadly this law was doomed from the beginning and its disastrous implementation has only been kerosene thrown onto a fire.

Note: Many people actually predicted that this would happen, but none of them were democrats.

Here’s the reality of that 6 million number and what’s missing in all the discussion, Democrats would say. Nearly 6 million people lost their insurance policies immediately after Obamacare was implemented. By those figures if we were to use Democrat math we have a net zero sign-up they would argue. The cost to sign up ZERO net people is $2 trillion across 10 years, or $200 billion each year. Democrats would say that some of those people who signed up are likely illegal aliens who are not eligible to sign up. In fact the administration has actively recruited the illegal alien population to sign up in order to bolster the numbers. They should be subtracted, and dis-enrolled we would be told! They’d also say that of the 6 million enrollees at least 20% have not paid. Subtracting that number out and we have a net of 1.2 million people who’ve lost their insurance.

Now here’s where the Democrats would focus the fight. They’d say “All of the experts report that there’s an eventual 100 million people who have yet to be impacted by this law because of the delays enacted by the President.”

Note: These delays were of course made by President Obama to protect democrats up for reelection. Many argue that he had no constitutional authority to do so.

Sorry for stating the obvious; now back to what the democrats would argue. Of those 100 million people who get their insurance through their employers, impacts will range from changes to their plans and providers to outright insurance cancellation. We must account for them and using democratic math, the real impact is a net loss of over 101 million people signed up for insurance or able to keep their policies. This is not quite the success story that the White House is touting, nor does it solve the problem of the 30 million uninsured that we were told was the reason to pass Obamacare in the first place.

Yes, they would say, the number that matters is 100 million Americans hurt by the ACA. Repeal the law and do the fair thing for the American people. If the situation was reversed, the Democrats would be right, just as Republicans are right to make, and keep making these points. Obamacare needs to be repealed, before it’s too late.

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Obama’s Foreign Policy Challenge

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Capital Building, Washington D.C.

Capital Building, Washington D.C.

President Obama largely gets a pass on his domestic policy. He receives near unlimited top cover from the American “Minion media” and pop culture who restate and reframe his mistakes, and distort legitimate policy and ideological criticism. Why are things so different on the foreign policy stage?

First, the fawning adulation President Obama receives from the domestic media is largely missing in the rest of the world. In fact it’s often the case that you’re better off following BBC reports to get accurate coverage of U.S. domestic news than reading the NY Times or watching CNN-NBC-CBS-ABC!

Second, President Obama and his foreign policy team are out classed. President Obama learned his leadership skills at ACORN. He’s up against people like Vladimir Putin who were schooled by the KGB, or the Iranian Ayatollahs. This is the equivalent of pitting a pop warner football team against the super bowl champions. President Obama has a ruthless streak, but it only comes out when dealing with the GOP, conservatives, TEA Party Patriots, police or Americas allies. The latest embarrassing example is the President’s bullying attacks on Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu. When it come’s to America’s enemies, his ruthless streak is Missing In Action.

Third, President Obamas domestic adversaries play by the rules. They obey the laws and adhere to basic rules of decorum. Obama is more and more unilaterally re-writing laws, ignoring those that he doesn’t like and using executive orders and regulations to create laws when he can’t get them through Congress. His latest power grabs include using the FCC to control the Internet, and ATF preparation to ban ammunition, in violation of the 2nd Amendment. America’s international adversaries don’t play by the rules, and it seems that Obama can’t keep up, anticipate or deal effectively as a result.

Progressivism is a kindred ideology to communism that seeks a lesser degree of the same, authoritarian government.

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Victims Of Their Own Successes

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The crisis in Ukraine underscores the fact that Pres. Obama and the Democrats are victims of their own successes. It was President Obama’s goal since his campaign leading up to the 2008 election that the United States should be reduced in stature around the world. Democrats believed since the Soviet Union fell that the world was destabilized with United States as the loan world superpower. It was the goal of both Democrats and Barack Obama to reduce the influence and power of the United States by deconstructing its superpower status. Their goal was to eliminate American leadership on the world stage so that it was no more influential in the world than any other country.

The means for minimizing the United States required shrinking the size and strength of America’s economy, and in turn weakening its military. These two elements of national power are critical to creating the power vacuum, which enabled Putin’s invasion in Ukraine.

As evidenced by the crisis in Ukraine it’s clear that they succeeded. What remains to be seen is how far Russia will go? Once Putin has Ukraine, will he go beyond it into other countries that used to make up the Soviet Block? If the US responds with military forces to bolster the defenses of its allies, like Poland, it will stretch to a breaking point. Will this embolden China on the other side of the Earth to take the Shikoku Islands? Stern warnings don’t intimidate tyrants. Strong warnings, backed up by overwhelming capabilities and credibility do. Sadly, President Obama and the Democrats gravely reduced America’s military and economic capabilities, and squandered the credibility of response bought by blood and treasure. The power vacuum that they created is in the process of getting filled.

Rising Fear

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There’s an ominous new phenomenon in the United States and it is fear of our government. The world is being turned upside down by the progressive and ever more authoritarian Obama administration.  The double tragedy is that as we begin to fear the federal government here at home, our enemies have begun to laugh at us abroad.

We should be feared by oppressive regimes such as North Korea, Iran, Russia, and China, but instead they realize that they can effectively operate throughout the world without American opposition.  In a similar tragedy, there are many that are breaking the laws here in America that also no longer fear the United States.  Illegal aliens, who broke our immigration laws freely to come here, roam across the United States without fear that they will be held accountable for breaking those laws.  Not only are they no longer afraid, but they are even emboldened.  In rising numbers, they demand things from our government and the American people.  Despite promises to the contrary, illegal aliens are actively being sought by Covered California to sign up for Obama care, a program that legally they cannot participate in.  As an aside, I wonder how many of the enrollees that the Obama administration reports are actually illegals who should not be signing up at all?  We will probably never know.  Even if the government does, they certainly won’t tell us.  And that brings us back to fear.

Those of us who are American citizens have seen the erosion of our God given liberties and our protection under the Constitution.  We now have reason to fear the federal government! From IRS intimidation, proposals of new regulations that would institutionalize those intimidations and crush free speech, suggestions of FCC meddling in what stories the media is able to present, each day brings new examples of why we have reason to fear our government.  How long will this go on?  How many more liberties will we lose?  Is there a turning point where the American people will stand up with one united voice and say enough? We all need to pray that the path President Obama and the Democrat Party put us on is reversible.  We all need to pray that the Republican Party will stand against it and not surrender as they often do.

Since its inception the United States of America has been the single greatest defender of and hope for liberty here and around the world.  America’s form of government is the “exception” in the history of mankind.  I pray, as should you, that American “exceptionalism” doesn’t perish under this growing cloud of authoritarianism, intimidation and fear.

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Utopian Folley

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America is the most “exceptional” nation in the history of mankind. Putin recently said that there is nothing exceptional about the U.S. I suspect that Bob Costas and most of the progressives in America would agree. They would be dead wrong. America is exceptional. It’s founding was a miracle. Prior to our founding history consisted of endless governments that existed to rule their people. Totalitarians, kings, pharaohs, dynasties one after another came and went. The people were there to serve the government. Our founders broke that mold, and created a government meant to serve its people. Our founding documents guaranteed these fundamental, God given rights. Why would anybody, as President Obama stated, want to “fundamentally” change something so unique?

The answer is that progressives strive for an unreachable utopia. They are quick to criticize America, always comparing it to an unreachable, perfection. They never compare other countries to their utopia. How would the Soviet Union stack up? How about Cube, China, or North Korea? They all embodythe left’s core principle of an all controlling government. The problem is, the world is full of powerful, authoritarian governments,and utopias don’t exist.

Nothing men creates will ever be perfect, but as far as real world governments go, the one created by our Constitution is as close as it gets. Its a shame that the politicians keep ignoring their role. They exist to serve, not to rule!

Why strive to kill the one “exception”? If you don’t like it here, move to Venezuela. Pack up and go to Cambodia. Defect to China, and don’t forget to write.

 

 

Obama Care and the Sochi Winter Olympics

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What do Obama care and the Sochi Olympics have in common?  On the surface you would think nothing at all, however you’d be mistaken.  In fact there are many commonalities between Obama care and the Sochi Olympics, and their foundation is government control.

It was at roll out when Americans learned that Obama care’s website was a complete disaster.  Despite the taxpayer cost of over $500 million to develop the website, it’s fraught with problems, not the least of which is a complete lack of security.  Experts warn that anyone who puts their private information into the site is risking the loss of all of their personal information.  In addition the site has no back end able to transmit data to confirm payments were made, nor can it give anyone who signs up assurance that they will in fact be insured when they show up at a doctor’s office.  New failures pop up each day, but President Obama and Democrats call them glitches, and “all is well”.  Reality check – big government doesn’t work.

Canadian Olympian, Sebastien Toutant, tweeted this picture of Sochi toilet rules.

Canadian Olympian, Sebastien Toutant, tweeted this picture of Sochi toilet rules.

At the start of the Olympics we are all just now learning of the problems in Sochi. Despite assurances from Putin that “all is well”, people are getting surprised when checking into rooms.  Some when told that they are still under construction. Some rooms have no water.  Some visitors are told not to allow the water to touch their faces because of its dangerous contents. Many rooms were missing combinations of furniture, curtains, light bulbs, TVs and shower curtains.  Locals were told to surrender their pillows to athletes whose rooms didn’t have one.  Hotel lobbies are missing as are floors.

It’s been interesting so far to see the fawning coverage given to Putin, and Sochi by Bob Costas and NBC.  I guess the mainstream media has so much practice spinning for big government progressives in America that it’s a natural transition to praise a full-blown totalitarian.

Another link is traffic.  Very few tourists are showing up to actually see the Olympics so far.  Many are likely scared away by the threat of terrorism, just like very few previously uninsured Americans are signing up for Obama care.  Many of them are likely afraid of the threat of personal data theft.

Sadly, both the ACA (not just the website) and Sochi are well over budget.  The Sochi Games cost Russia an estimated $51B, the most expensive games in history.  Obama care will cost U.S. taxpayers over double its original estimate of $900B over ten years, and that doesn’t account for the increased cost to Americans of insurance plans, co-pays and deductibles.

The lack of preparation of the Obama care website, it’s roll-out and the entire so called “Affordable Care Act”, for that matter, and the Sochi Olympics have another common feature:  they were the by products of massive, intrusive government.  In the case of Sochi, it’s Putin, an ex-KGB officer who wants to return Russia to its former glory.  He’s is an authoritarian, a communist “once KGB-always KGB”, and it’s clear to see that despite the fall of the Iron Curtain, the failures of the old communist system are still in effect.  In the case of Obama care it’s an unprecedented level of massive, intrusive government led by Barack Obama and the Democrats intent on expanding the role and power of our government.  Don’t forget that Obama care gave the federal government control of over 20% of the US economy.  Government’s gain is liberty’s loss.

Hopefully, the athletes at the winter Olympics won’t be distracted from achieving their dreams, despite the situation in Sochi.  Sadly for America, the reality of Obama care is quite different for it’s doomed to fail.  The Law was fundamentally flawed, rushed through in the dead of night without a single Republican vote.  It’s real objective is to fail SLOWLY and move the USA into a government controlled and dictatorial health care system.  One major difference between the Olympics and the “Unaffordable Care Act” does bear highlighting though:  the Olympics will end in a few weeks, but to stop Obama care, we must repeal it!