A Few Thoughts on Pelosi’s USA Today Column

Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi co-wrote a column published in the Monday edition of USA Today. In it, she made a number of assertions:

1. An effort to obtain legislation that would provide for some form of universal health care coverage has existed since 1912.

2. A debate should be held on universal health care coverage.

3. “We” – our national legislators – should get universal health care coverage “right.”

4. Efforts to drown out the opposition are “un-American.”

I will not contest No. 1, although I do not concede it is true. It does not make a difference. I agree that at some point in our history, universal health care coverage was submitted as an issue and/or a proposal for legislation to the American public.

As to No. 2, yes, we should debate universal health care coverage. Implicit in Pelosi’s statement is that the debate be about how it is to be accomplished; not whether it should be accomplished. This is, of course, incorrect. Even liberal ormoderats (or conservatives for that matter) who may value a universal health care coverage ideal may believe it cannot or should not be accomplished in practice.

The debate is both whether universal health care coverage should be legislated and, if so, how it should be practiced. In this substantial disagreement exists, particularly now that details of the plan have become available in the deliberately thick and complicated legislative proposals that not evenPelosi has read.

A majority of Americans, and I would suggest a vast majority, do not want to pay for medical coverage for illegal aliens. In fact, Americans do not want to pay to educate or to anything for illegal aliens. Congress has deliberately avoided this issue, though the will of its People is clear. Until the illegal alien question is settled, paying for universal health care coverage that includes them is and will be objectionable and without enough support.

A majority of Americans do not want their tax dollars used to pay for abortions, which they consider to be unlawful killing. The inclusion of this item is spiteful and dismissive of the facts and of the will of the American People. Nearly all abortions are performed for convenience – and that is NOT a medical reason, nor should it be treated as if it were cancer or kidney failure or arthritis.

When Americans gravitated favorably toward the issue of universal health care coverage during last year’s election, they never – ever – wanted to lose or suffer adiminishment of, the benefits they already had.

I may want or wish that all people enjoyed employment, but I am not willing to give up my full-time job so that someone else may have some hours. I need and want my full-time job, and I have worked for it. To simply give someone my hours by arbitrary government fiat to “make things more equal” would be wrong and never anything I would support. Nor do I support the deliberate deprivation of benefits for some, in fact a vast majority of Americans, to provide benefits to a small minority.

If the American People want to allow their government to use their tax dollars to pay for those without – and who cannot afford – to have insurance, that is one things. But to force citizens to turn over their medical coveragedecision-making power to the government or some panel of government bureaucrats while losing benefits is not something anyone bargained for.

To sum up my reply to Pelosi’s second point: If there is a debate on universal health care coverage, then prepare to obey the will of the American People. That means you may lose. You should be willing to accept that. I think it is clear to most people, even those who agree with you, that you are not, that you do not care what the majority of Americans think and want. You are going to make them accept what you want. That is wrong. That isun-American.

No. 3. Yes, you should get it right, if that is what the American People want. However, you are part of Congress, a legislative body notorious for its deceit and failure to listen, as well as its propensity for exempting itself from the legislation it deems so important.

No. 4. The answer to this question depends. If a small number of people are plugging their ears and screaming so they do not have to listen to those who disagree; sure, that would be childish and unproductive, to say the least. That is not debate.

If, however, the drowning out is the result of an ocean of hundreds of millions of people sounding louder than the 15  or so million who may support universal health care coverage, then the problem is the deaf ears of those who refuse to listen to the American People. Pelosi is a member of the tone deaf.

The funniest, as in queer, thing is that some of the objectives Pelosi listed in her USA Today piece could have been accomplished without a universal health care proposal that runs a thousand pages long.

For instance, Congress could have legislated a ban on the use by insurance companies of the pre-existing condition disqualifier. Nearly everyone would love that! It would be a simple law everyone could understand. Coverage would have been expanded for a vast majority of American citizens and their health care costs diminished. So why hasn’t Congress done it – ever?

It’s sickening. Americans agree on so many things, but Congress ignores those agreements. Instead, they dredge up these monstrous, ginormous proposals that stir controversy and strife among the People. They try to change the Universe by setting off an earthquake and a tsunami instead of in steps, allowing Americans to get their feet wet to see if THEY like what is happening.

Pelosi cannot emerge from the prison of her partisanship. She cannot lead. Neither can Obama. They will only create bitterness and discontent. They do not respect the nation’s traditions and foundations. And they do not respect the will of the American citizenry.

How disappointing our national leadership, or lack thereof, has been the last several years, be they denominated conservatives or liberals. They are Americans first. They have forgotten that. It’s all about winning, not about governing.

Down With Obama’s National Health Scam!!!

Would you want to be hit by a tornado? Yes? Then mindlessly support the health deprivation legislation being crafted by the socialists within the Democratic Party.

If you like the idea of killing the elderly or denying them health care to survive, then support Obama’s health deprivation legislation.

If you want to finance government counsel that will direct the elderly to forgo treatments and accept their impending deaths, then support Obama’s health deprivation legislation.

If you support the government – that’s right, the government, the same government that tortured your fellow citizens for years by denying social security disability payments – deciding what health care options you have and which treatments you may choose from, then support Obama’s health deprivation legislation.

If you want to deny life-saving treatment for the elderly so that younger citizens may be treated at your expesne because they are more socially valuable under a “social justice” principle (yeah, right!), then support Obama’s health deprivation legislation.

If you want to take $500 billion from Medicare, reduce Medicare benefits, and move it over to the limited government insurance options, then support Obama’s health deprivation legislation.

If you want to divert public insurance funds to pay for abortions – almost entirely abortions of convenience – instead of actual medical procedures that affect people’s health, then support Obama’s health deprivation legislation.

If you want higher taxes because Obama does not have enough  money in the budget to pay for public insurance, then support Obama’s health deprivation legislation.

If you want the United States government to use your hard earned tax dollars to pay to insure aliens who live and work illegally in this country, and thus to offer fewer health options to actual citizens because a few basic ones are being paid for so Obama can say his plan covers everyone, then support Obama’s health deprivation legislation.

If you want a public insurance plan that is so sucky your own congressmen and senators have exempted themselves from it in all the legislative proposals, then support Obama’s health deprivation legislation.

If you want the government to have even more of your private health information, so that the government knows enough about you to exercise control over you, then support Obama’s health deprivation legislation.

Obama’s proposal is not one of health care reform. It is a proposal crafted to satisfy the demands of his extremist political philosophy, regardless of the impact on Americans.

Only a small number of Americans will benefit from Obama’s proposal. Tens of millions of Americans will suffer a loss of tax dollars, privacy, and health care coverage while helping to give the government a monopoly in insurance.

Down with the elitists (Obama, Pelosi, and quisling Spector) who give themselves the best health care coverage in the world – at taxpayer expense – but offer crumbs to their electors!

Down with the fools (Pelosi and Spector) who think we are beholden to them, rather than them to us!

Down with the high and mighty (Obama, Pelosi, and Spector) who would dare to make us government welfare addicts they can control!

Down with the politicians who sleep with lobbyists and create unnecessary programs for which there is not sufficient funding!

And down with those politicians who say it is not the American people who are raising their voices against this foolish, elitist, socialist Obama proposal DESIGNED to provide less health care for the vast majority of people and to marginalize and exterminate the elderly for the sake of the young while robbing Americans of their privacy and dignity.

You work for us; we don’t work for you. You accept what we want; we don’t accept what you want. Do what we say, or we will use our votes to remove you from the offices we permit you to hold.

We will not be fooled. We will not be sold swamp land. We will not have our tax dollars misused in a national health scam, with funding moved around by sleight of hand.

Newsweek Resurrects The Straw Man

SEBRING, April 29, 209 – We have two major military actions in the Midde East, the threat of a nuclear test from North Korea, a deadly strain of flu, and an economy swirling down the drain, to name a few of our problems.

Newsweek is worried about hatred being rebranded.

Take a black president and throw in a few handfuls of backwoods beings from the fringe, and suddenly you have the threat of a racial conflagraion. You also have a media outlet insulating the president from potential criticism of his policies.

We don’t think that’s appropriate.

Hatred has been around for millenia. It’s not going away anytime soon. If we want to sound the alarum, a much wider scope is needed. Hatred of any kind, by any person or group – be it homosexual, Jewish, black, Chinese, Islamic, atheist, etc. (pick your name) - is wrong. We might as well conduct a closer scrutiny of those groups as we do of the stereotypical Klansmen. We certainly do not expect a Klansman to ply the trade of the educated rhetor and rationlist with presentation of a cogent argument.

The problem with bigotry and prejudice is that no one, or no group, wants to see themselves as the prejuiced bigot. The spotter of bigotry is usually blind to his or her log-in-the-eye. So the same stories keep getting printed while others do not even make it to the copy room floor.

We hear over and over again about the genocide of World War II. Mass, organized pain, suffering, and death did not begin in 1939 nor end in 1945. Have we forgotten the brutal mass murders of believers in the Messiah by Jews and pagans in the early A.D. centuries of the first millenia? What about the devastation wrought by the Mongols? The brutal exterminations of Celts during the Anglo-Saxon invasions of Brittania? The Christian witchhunts of the medieval ages? Have we forgotten two million Cambodians slaughtered by the Khmer Rhouge? Have we forgotten the TENS of millions butchered by the atheistic governents of the Soviet Union and Red China (in a crafty bit of human wisdom, poliical genocide is not genocide under International Law)?

We have clamored against the extremism of Islamics only to turn our backs on Jews discrimnated against by the Israeli government because they accept that Yeshua is the Messiah. When will that bigotry and hatred stop?

In a stroke of divine brilliance, Jesus stated that all peoples are sinners, that they “miss the mark,” and that he does not want anyone to perish. His exemplar of goodwill? The Good Samaritan, the one who actually exercises the charity, the goodwill, of God.

May we accept that as our standard and never see ourselves as above the fray.

Meanwhile, real problems need to be solved. While we maintain our vigilance over ourselves as much as others, let us not be distacted from the debilities and vulnerabilities of our nation. Lots of people need lots of help right now. Let us have no commerce with hatred of any kind, but neither let us be overwhelmed with fear and prejudice.

Neither the president nor his staff are special. They are public servants, our public servants, and they better be ready to give an account of their stewardship.

2008 ELECTION: The Fallacy of the Wasted Vote

In the many political discussions with family, friends, acquaintances, and even strangers, I must have heard at least a dozen times, if not more, that my vote would be wasted on a third party candidate.

That’s because I usually throw into these discussions that I may vote for a third party candidate. In my case, that would mean Chuck Baldwin, who runs under the banner of the Constitution Party. For those of you who may want to learn more about that party, here is the link: http://www.constitutionparty.com/

Frankly, the idea that my vote would be wasted is fallacious when one considers how many votes were wasted on Mr. George W. Bush, Mr. Kerry, Nancy Pelosi, and the rest of the Democrat-controlled Congress.

That’s my point. Why do people keep drinking the sand when there is a glass of water sitting on the table?

We narrow our choices to two parties, and in the case of the presidency, at least, to two candidates, neither of whom is usually the cream of the crop. We think we have something special in the two-party system, yet every election at least half the voters say they vote for “the lesser of two evils.”

The party manipulators tell us the country has to be governed a certain way. If you are an Obama-ite, you think you have to tax the filthy rich and spend any amount to overcome world poverty. My question is, why haven’t the supporters of those ideals been doing that already? Why hasn’t Warren Buffet eliminated poverty? Why must American taxpayers, most of whom are not filthy rich, bear that burden? And why must American government, established for the common welfare of its citizens, be the manipulator and conveyor of such money and practice?

Is redistribution of wealth overseas really our top priority, or is there some other reason, some evil or malpractice endemic to the peoples of other countries, that interferes with their prosperity?

We do need to redistribute wealth in this country, not by force or contrived policies, but by purposeful creation of high quality, high paying jobs. Internationalism must end. The American government exists for the American people. Let others get their houses in order – we must take care of our own while promoting altruism as a civic virtue to be practiced privately with all circumspection and responsibility.

Hardheaded Republican or Conservative ideology is no less to held in disregard. The notion of trickle down economics, which I once embraced foolishly, must be avoided at all costs. Republicans speak out of both sides of their mouths, demanding your vote so they can give you a tiny tax refund “because its yours,” then making the average American slavishly dependent on how a few mega-corporations and gazillionaire profiteer lenders fare in the marketplace.

Make America strong with a strong American middle class. Let Americans earn their money, a fair wage for hard labor. Create laws that protect private, individual creativity and which prevent companies from hoarding, and often shelving forever, ideas and designs and mechanisms that improve our lot and which earn money for the individual. Companies should be forbidden to be the sole patent holder – the individual who created the idea, design or mechanism should also hold the patent, or the team of individuals, so that those with wealth cannot prevent others from becoming wealthy.

That’s the free market, not the kind of economic plutarchy and oligarchy we have developed in this country.

And the worst of all is the system of credit which has become embedded in our individual psyches and business practices, credit with its usury now made into law by a Congress contemptuous of God, the individual American, virtue, and common sense, whereby a creditor can at will charge someone 30% interest. It’s a disgrace, and our forefathers would have been sick to their stomachs to see and hear the lack of Christian and civic virtue this country now has.

Credit must end; cash only!

As a Christian, I revolt at the idea that God’s word is the foundation for capitalism or liberation theology or anything else created by sinful, fleshly man. It’s not a manual for the greedy or selfish practice of business, nor is it a manual for violent or coercive redistribution of wealth. It’s about faith, hope, love, and justice seasoned by mercy.

Our political and financial and mercantile systems should embody those virtues and be channels of grace. They should not be instruments of oppression, instruments used to break our fellow men and women into pieces.

I look for a candidate that lives those Christian virtues and who would practice them in his civic life. On the traditional tickets, only Sarah Palin begins to come close. My inclination, however, is to seriously consider Baldwin and to give him a vote.

Therefore, we come back to my question, or a form of it. Why would anyone vote in people who lack the Christian virtues that ennoble man? As one person put it to me recently, as a people of God, do we vote in the man, or woman, with the most ability and talent and hope he is a man of God, or do we vote in the man of God and watch the Lord bless him with the spirit, equip him with what he needs to lead our country in the midst of the world’s thorns, within and without?

For Christians, it’s the day of reckoning within the political sphere. Do we vote what we believe or do we vote our fleshly politics? Do we trust in God, or do we trust in Man?

We can waste our votes on another one of the two parties who dominate politics but who never really do anything for us except as a concomitance to something else.

Or you can make your vote count by ignoring the pundits and party hard-heads, the blind ideologues, many of whom are professing Christians, and voting your conscience and your faith. Oh, you have been voting your conscience and your faith? Funny how your conscience and your faith always comes down to two parties, or even one.

Let a little fresh air in! Heck, let a lot of it in!

Psalm 46:1-2a

God is our refuge and our strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore, we will not fear… .

No Pleasure in Tranquil Peace

Hear these words, my fellow citizens, echoes from the past:

“This people could not take pleasure in tranquil peace or be satisfied by liberty with weapons untouched. That was the cause of passions quickly roused, of crime despicable urged by want; it was an honor great and to be sought by [violence] to have more power than the state; the yardstick of legality was violence – hence the forcing through of laws and rulings… all alike disrupting justice; hence the… office seized by bribery, the people selling its own votes, corruption bringing death [to the land]… hence ravenous money-lending, interest greedy for its appointed time, and credit shaken and war advantageous to many.”

If our people and our land do not honor the Most High, his Messiah, and his message, who and what do we honor? If we do not hold to that which is true, to what do we hold? If we do not preach and practice liberty, justice, honesty, equality, and mercy, what do we preach and practice?

If we lose our spiritual anchor and our civic sense to a sense of financial profit, what do we have left? Must we not be more than a community of profiteers?

The answers will determine the future of our country, which already looks bleak.

The Global Poverty Act

It is a bill pushed by Sen. Barack Obama. It would make it law that the United States conduct the foreign policy of the elimination of poverty and extreme poverty from the globe in union with the United Nations. Some folks estimate the bill could cost American taxpayers $845 billion over the next several years.

I believe the purpose of the American government is to represent Americans. Government policies should promote the life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness of Americans.

It is not the job of the American government to make the world perfect. Individual citizens can and should make charitable contributions to causes they deem worthy and in accord with their privately held principles. But the American treasury common to its citizens is not the bank of the world. American money should be used to benefit Americans but should not be subject to a law that says we must give to foreign peoples.

What’s more, America is no longer the economic giant it once was. At least, the average American is not as financially strong as he or she once was. To send money overseas when we suffer at home under the weight of inestimable debt is wrong. We have not even made our own country perfect, much less the world.

Besides, those who monitor money programs to poor nations know that simply doling out funds does not improve the economic situation of the country or its people. Moreover, foreign regimes often take or block receipt of any financial aid and even such things as food and medical supplies.

It’s time for the world to wake up to its own sinfulness. It is long past time for other countries besides the United States to commit their immense wealth to helping others, countries such as Red China, Saudi Arabia, Iran, and the Russian Federation. but they are too busy enriching a few princes and political bureaucrats or building up their nuclear arsenals and/or militaries to lend a hand. Let Red China rid its country of extreme poverty instead of trying to build nuclear missiles and lasers and cyber-weapons and missile cruisers.  Let the rotten Saudi sheiks share their multi-billion dollar wealth with the rabble of their country and with the Palestinians they keep foisting on the Jews.

Down with Obama’s proposal! Down with all the misguided Democratic Party and Republican Party policies that help a select few or select class. Down with the lack of nationalism and patriotism and the failure of folks from either party to put America first. We are the United States of America. I don’t want to be one world. Respect each country and each culture and each ethnicity, but allow them to live discretely without a world domination. Let each people take care of itself and improvement will follow. But as long as greed, pride, envy, and a lust for violence remain, no peace or prosperity will ever live for long.

Protests Mount Against Red China

Protesters in France continued to harass the Olympic torch run as it made its way through Paris this week. The flame was extinguished – not by the protesters – but by the authorities worried that the protesters would succeed.

The protesters succeeded in interrupting the run through the city toward a stadium. Nervous officials crammed the torch into a bus and drove much of the route.

The complete article by the Associated Press can be found at this link:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080407/ap_on_re_eu/olympic_torch

A passion for liberty and justice for the Chinese people and for the Tibetan people motivates the protesters. Many of them bore witness to Red China’s flouting of human rights, a chief ingredient of its brand of brutish communism. Red Chinese officials treat dissenters to imprisonment, torture, and death when they feel their bony grip on government is threatened. They use the military to crush popular revolutions for democracy and human rights reform.

Thus, many of the protesters called the Olympic torch “the flame of shame.”

“It is inadmissible that the games are taking place in the world’s biggest prison,” one French protester said.

Perhaps Americans should think twice about watching the Olympics. How can we rejoice in sport when more than one billion Chinese live under the boot of an oppressive dictatorship? Is not the Red Chinese system opposed to our own love of freedom and individualism?

The “Red” in “Red China” Stands for Blood

Do You Trust Red China?

Let’s see.

Red China tries to kill our kids with lead-filled crayons. They send us tainted food products. They send us tainted pharmaceuticals. They launch massive cyber-attacks on our sensitive military, intelligence, banking, and power grid computers. They are making an all-out effort to penetrate our intelligence and confidential business information with plants and bribes and turned agents. They are buying up the Panama Canal zone. They own a big chunk of our debt. They have taken probably millions of jobs from Americans and effectively lowered our standard of living. They now have hundreds of billions of American dollars to engage a massive military buildup to match, then surpass our own security forces.

Do you trust Red China?

What do you think of your elected leaders who have promoted this situation? Did they represent what you wanted? Or did they betray your trust?