THE FOUNDATION

“Measures which serve to abridge … free competition … have a tendency to occasion an enhancement of prices.” –Alexander Hamilton

EDITORIAL EXEGESIS

“According to President Obama, government health insurance will create competition in the health insurance industry. … During a town hall meeting last week at Portsmouth, N.H., Mr. Obama pointed to the U.S. Postal Service as evidence that private companies don’t need to worry about competition from the government. ‘If you think about it, UPS and FedEx are doing just fine, right? No, they are. It’s the post office that’s always having problems.’ If the president considers the Postal Service as an example, we should all be scared. The Postal Service is a classic example of both inefficiency and extreme monopoly power. The Postal Service has staunchly resisted competition from UPS and FedEx since their infancy. … Despite numerous advantages that FedEx and UPS could only dream of having, the Postal Service loses money. In addition to direct subsidies, the Postal Service is exempt from paying state sales, property and income taxes. It uses some of the most expensive real estate in the country rent-free. Perhaps Mr. Obama has not noticed, but nobody else but the Postal Service is allowed to deliver regular first-class mail, and only the Postal Service has access to Americans’ mailboxes. The Postal Service has not managed to kill off UPS and FedEx because these private companies have better on-time delivery and much lower costs. But that is not because the government postal business did not try to squeeze out the competition. … The competition that Mr. Obama envisions between government and private insurance companies won’t be fair. Many proposed regulations, such as eliminating caps on what insurance companies will pay out or preventing insurance companies from discriminating against those with pre-existing conditions, will eliminate private insurance. But even if the government only tilts the playing field partially in favor of a government insurance plan, making it artificially cheaper, a lot of Americans will give up their private insurance to save money. Government insurance gradually will take over, and service will deteriorate.” –The Washington Times

UPRIGHT

“Because ‘government-run health care’ – both the phrase and the actuality of the idea – go over like a lead balloon with the American people, the Democrats have chosen new language hoping to obscure their intent to remake the health care system. The new language key word: ‘reform.’ … Language is important. In the policy debates, it matters how words are used. Words used accurately clarify and inform. Words can also deceive and obscure the truth. The true reformers need to point out that the current Democrat plan is not health-care reform, it’s government-run health care and it’s an overhaul.” –columnist Melissa Clouthier

“When it comes to civil liberties, liberals are often distrustful of government power. But, for reasons that baffle me, they are quite comfortable with Uncle Sam getting into the business of deciding, or providing ‘guidance’ on, which lives are more valuable than others. A government charged with extending life expectancy must meddle not just with our health care, but with what we eat, how we drive, how we live. A government determined to cut costs must meddle not just with how we live, but how we die. That sounds scary and un-American to me.” –columnist Jonah Goldberg

“In reality, the entirety of the congressional health care plan is a ‘public option.’ It is all about one thing: putting government in control of health care. In doing so, it will necessarily increase the government’s influence over some of the most morally significant decisions you will ever make about your own life and the lives of your loved ones. … Americans can either be self-reliant and free or reliant on government and not free. Choose freedom.” –columnist Terence Jeffrey

“Obama has said his opponents were trying to ‘scare and mislead the American people,’ when in fact his opponents are the American people whom he is trying to scare and mislead.” –columnist David Limbaugh

“Nazi Germany is a useful historical example of socialism run amok. The genocide and terrorism ultimately practiced by the Nazis were horrible – that goes without saying. But National Socialism went on for a dozen years, it was the last stage in a progressive nationalization of German society, and there was a lot more to it than genocide and terrorism. It cannot be that because there was genocide and terrorism, the socialist aspects of National Socialism are outside the lines of acceptable political discourse.” –columnist Andrew McCarthy

“Now we say goodbye to Robert Novak, who passed away early Tuesday morning at the age of 78. Yet another conservative icon has left us. He was a good friend and an amazing reporter. In fact, I believe he was the best reporter of his generation, which spans all the way back to the Dwight D. Eisenhower years.” –economist Lawrence Kudlow

“It took cancer longer than a year to kill Bob Novak, and actually, this was the fifth cancer that tried to kill him. Let that stand as testimony as to how tough this guy was. He was very tough. …[H]e earned the widely known sobriquet ‘The Prince of Darkness,’ which was nonsense. He was tough, but he was fair, objective and a thoroughly decent man.” –columnist R. Emmett Tyrrell

“One irony of Robert Novak’s long and admirable career as a journalist is that he wasn’t a curmudgeon, though he played one on TV. In person, he was warm, loyal to friends and especially generous to young writers, even if he was fearless and unsparing toward the public officials he devoted his life to covering – or, to put it more accurately, uncovering. Novak, who died yesterday at age 78, was among America’s greatest political reporters.” –The Wall Street Journal

DEZINFORMATSIA

Cat out of the bag: “[W]e’ve got two problems here. ‘We’: I should say the administration or Democrats have two problems.” –Washington Post editorialist Jonathan Capehart letting slip the Leftmedia’s partnership with government

The meaning of cruel: “The cruelty inherent in scaring the elderly to score political points is beyond reprehensible…. [T]he sort of scurrilous campaign they are conducting – the seditious fear-mongering that is the main staple of their public diet – is a matter of profound disrespect and incivility toward the individuals whose rights they claim to cherish.” –Time magazine’s Joe Klein

Horrors!: “A man at a pro-health care reform rally … wore a semiautomatic assault rifle on his shoulder and a pistol on his hip…. [T]here are questions about whether this has racial overtones…. [W]hite people showing up with guns.” –MSNBC’s Contessa Brewer, fretting over ObamaCare protesters legally carrying guns, but neglecting to mention the man she described was black

Contract on America: “I was at a town hall yesterday, and I really had to take some people to task. They were using those buzzwords that I don’t think people realize all the time, like ‘real Americans’ or ‘give me back my America’ was one of the songs or ‘take back America.’ It was like, what do you mean by that?” –CNN’s Don Lemon

Spelling Left relief: “For the third time in five days, Barack Obama used the presidential bully pulpit on behalf of what he’s now calling health insurance reform. No more letting the angry opposition control the agenda.” –CBS’s Martha Teichner

Do not pass “Go”: “Let’s start by making sure people understand exactly what we’re talking about when we say this public option. This is a government-run insurance agency that would give people greater choice, some say break the monopoly held by the private insurers and, thus, drive down costs.” –NBC’s Matt Lauer (A monopoly is control by one company, not a whole list of companies.)

Defeat capitalism: “We talked to several health care experts today, and they all said if you take out the public option in terms of insurance, there’s going to be no restraints on the cost of insurance.” –ABC anchorhead Charles Gibson

Except for that thing called the Internet: “An intense period of corporate consolidation over the past 25 years, aided and abetted by deregulation by the Federal Communications Commission, has reduced to a mere handful the sources from which most Americans get their news.” –former CBS anchor Dan Rather, who must have entered a time warp back to 1974

Newspulper Headlines:

Our Fearless Independent Media:
“Obama Takes On Health Care Critics” –NPR.org
“Obama Takes On Health Care Reform Critics” –Voice of America Web site
“Obama Takes On Health Care Critics” –Associated Press
“Obama Takes On Health Care Critics” –USA Today
“Obama Takes On Critics at Town Hall Forum” –Chicago Tribune
“Obama Takes On Health Care Critics” –Slate.com
“Obama to Take On Health-Care Critics” –Washington Post

Famous Last Words: “End-of-Life Dialogue Stifled in Healthcare Reform Debate” –Miami Herald

Where’s the Death Panel When You Need It?: “Momentum Builds for Postal Service Relief” –NationalJournal.com

Look Out Below!: “White House Appears Ready to Drop ‘Public Option’” –Associated Press

Everything Seemingly Is Spinning Out of Control: “Jesse Jackson Named Prince of African Tribe” –Daily Telegraph

News You Can Use: “The Earth Is Warming? Adjust the Thermostat” –The New York Times

We Blame Global Warming: “2 Thrown Out of Heated Meeting on Health Care Reform” –WEWS-TV Web site (Cleveland)

Bottom Stories of the Day: “Democrats Plan Rally to Support Obama’s Health-Care Plan” –Jackson (MI) Citizen Patriot

(Thanks to The Wall Street Journal’s James Taranto)

THE DEMO-GOGUES

Playing head games to achieve his goal: “All I’m saying is, though, that the public option, whether we have it or we don’t have it, is not the entirety of health care reform. This is just one sliver of it, one aspect of it.” –Barack Obama

Teleprompted crowd: “Somebody here who, uhh, has a concern about health care that has not been raised or is skeptical and suspicious and wants to make sure that – because I don’t want people thinking I – I – I just have a bunch of plants in here.” –Barack Obama to a bunch of plants at a town hall meeting in Portsmouth, New Hampshire

“You are absolutely right that I can’t cover another 46 million people for free. Two-thirds of the money we can obtain just from eliminating waste and inefficiencies.” –Barack Obama (Note the use of the word “I”.)

A BIG uh-oh moment: “Everybody here who still has – who has currently private insurance, you know, you would more than likely still be on your private insurance plan.” –BO (emphasis added)

They still know what’s best for us: “I am more resolved than ever. I love debating … but I personally believe the American people still want us to deal with tough problems.” –Sen. Ben Cardin (D-MD) after facing a town hall full of protestors

Taxpayer funding of abortion: “Abortion will be covered as a benefit by one or more of the health care plans available to Americans, and I think it should be.” –Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA)

Tone deaf: “You don’t trust me? … I don’t understand this rudeness. … Do you all think that you’re persuading people when you shout out like that? I don’t get it.” –Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO) at a town hall meeting

Non Compos Mentis: “Climate change is very real. … Global warming creates volatility. I feel it when I’m flying. The storms are more volatile. We are paying the price in more hurricanes and tornadoes.” –Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-MI)

Isn’t that nice: “The president considers himself a son of Africa.” –Secretary of State Hillary Clinton

VILLAGE IDIOTS

It’s not “reform,” it’s a takeover: “You can’t really have reform without a public option. If you don’t want to have the public option, … just do a little insurance reform … and then we’ll tackle health reform another time. But let’s not pretend we’re doing reform without a public option.” –head of the grass-roots group Democracy for America Howard “The Scream” Dean

It’s all politics: “Put a bill out there, make [Republicans] filibuster it, make them be what they are, the Party of No. … Let ‘em kill it. Let 'em kill it with the interest group money, then run against them. That’s what we ought to do.” –Democrat strategist James Carville

Non Compos Mentis II: “You would have a greater chance of being killed by a Death Star in one of the Star Wars movies than you would being killed by a government-run death panel, which is to say they don’t exist.” –University of N. Carolina professor Jonathan Oberlander (An entire planet resembling earth was destroyed by the first Death Star. Perhaps not the best analogy in support of government-run health care.)

Heaven help us: “We have entered a new era of progressive politics which, if we do it right, can last 30 or 40 years.” –Bill Clinton, the same guy who in 1996 declared, “The era of big government is over”

End of the world: “We must seal the deal in Copenhagen for the future of humanity. We have just four months. Four months to secure the future of our planet.” –UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on the global warming summit in Copenhagen in December

SHORT CUTS

“No shouting. Congressional representatives cannot sell Obamacare with mobs of unruly senior citizens and small-business owners interrupting to press them on specific sections of the bill. Limit your objections to a library whisper and only challenge your lawmakers with hushed, dulcet tones. Otherwise, you will scare them, and they will be forced to hide behind teleconference calls, sick children at hospitals or union bosses. If, on the other hand, you are attending a presidential town hall to show your affection and approbation, 'spirited’ chanting is acceptable.” –columnist Michelle Malkin

“Judging by the organization’s enthusiastic support of ObamaCare, which should really be called ObamaDoesn'tCare, it’s obvious that the only old people AARP gives a hoot about are Robert Byrd, Arlen Specter, Ted Kennedy and Harry Reid.” –columnist Burt Prelutsky

“We are far from convinced that the White House takes online privacy very seriously, although we will concede that the White House takes the perception that the White House doesn’t seem to take online privacy very seriously, seriously.” –Wall Street Journal columnist James Taranto

“The only thing growing faster than the federal deficit and debt is Chris Matthews’ man crush on Obama.” –Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty

“President Obama tried to sell health care reform at a town hall Tuesday. He is not getting a lot of help from allies. He walked outside thinking he’d made the case for government-run health care when Cuba announced they were out of toilet paper.” –comedian Argus Hamilton