The Foundation

“I think we have more machinery of government than is necessary….” –Thomas Jefferson

For the Record

“‘We allow the insurance industry to run wild in this country,’ President Obama declared [last] Monday. ‘We can’t have a system that works better for the insurance companies than it does for the American people.’ Yet Obama’s plan to tame health insurers would boost their business, protect them from competition and guarantee their profits, all at the expense of consumers and taxpayers. It is therefore not surprising that the insurance companies, while they object to the president’s rhetoric and quibble over some of the details, are happy to be domesticated. … As he himself notes, ‘They’re going to have 30 million new customers,’ thanks to the government’s mandates and subsidies. To distract us from the favor he is doing for insurers, Obama claims to be getting tough with them by demanding that they take all comers and charge them all the same rates, without regard to health. While abolishing risk-based pricing contradicts a basic principle of the insurance business, the industry has to weigh the loss of that freedom against the gain of government-guaranteed revenue. Despite his talk about reining in ‘excessive’ premium hikes, Obama’s plan commits him to keeping insurers financially sound so they can provide the coverage he is promising. … In essence, then, Obama’s plan would use money forcibly extracted from taxpayers and policyholders to keep insurers healthy.” –columnist Jacob Sullum

Opinion in Brief

“For Congress to guarantee a right to health care, or any other good or service, whether a person can afford it or not, it must diminish someone else’s rights, namely their rights to their earnings. The reason is that Congress has no resources of its very own. Moreover, there is no Santa Claus, Easter Bunny or Tooth Fairy giving them those resources. The fact that government has no resources of its very own forces one to recognize that in order for government to give one American citizen a dollar, it must first, through intimidation, threats and coercion, confiscate that dollar from some other American. If one person has a right to something he did not earn, of necessity it requires that another person not have a right to something that he did earn. To argue that people have a right that imposes obligations on another is an absurd concept. A better term for new-fangled rights to health care, decent housing and food is wishes. If we called them wishes, I would be in agreement with most other Americans for I, too, wish that everyone had adequate health care, decent housing and nutritious meals. However, if we called them human wishes, instead of human rights, there would be confusion and cognitive dissonance. The average American would cringe at the thought of government punishing one person because he refused to be pressed into making someone else’s wish come true. None of my argument is to argue against charity. Reaching into one’s own pockets to assist his fellow man in need is praiseworthy and laudable. Reaching into someone else’s pockets to do so is despicable and deserves condemnation.” –economist Walter E. Williams

The Gipper

“Welfare is another of our major problems. We are a humane and generous people and we accept without reservation our obligation to help the aged, disabled, and those unfortunates who, through no fault of their own, must depend on their fellow man. But we are not going to perpetuate poverty by substituting a permanent dole for a paycheck. There is no humanity or charity in destroying self-reliance, dignity, and self-respect … the very substance of moral fiber.” –Ronald Reagan

Liberty

“It’s all supposed to be voluntary, those ‘home visits’ that are tucked into the mammoth Obamacare bill. If you have a strong stomach, and a stronger bottom, you can find home visitation on pages 568-595. That’s Section 2951 of H.R. 3590, the Senate [health care] bill…. The bill provides for federal funding and supervision for this vast expansion of government intrusion into family life. This is the Nanny State on steroids. Is your family being ‘targeted’ for such home visitations? Let’s see if you fit into one of these very broad categories: Families where Mom is not yet 21. (No mention here whether she is married or not.) Families where someone is a tobacco user. (Does this include the White House? Watch out, Sasha and Malia! Does Grandpa, whom you love and have taken in, enjoy his after-dinner pipe?) Families where children have low student achievement, developmental delays, or disabilities. As if that list were not wide-ranging enough, here’s the net that can encompass tens of millions: Families with individuals who are serving or formerly served in the armed forces, including such families that have members of the armed forces who have had multiple deployments outside the United States. [Emphasis added.] … Do you spank your children? You should know that HHS bureaucrats think you are an abuser. Do you support the Second Amendment? How would you like HHS bureaucrats asking your children if you maintain firearms in the home for family protection? Do you home-school your kids? Take care. Members of Congress who have tried to abolish home-schooling are big backers of this health care bill. Do you wonder why? … One thing is clear: For life and liberty, we must defeat ObamaCare.” –columnist Ken Blackwell

Government

“The most disturbing part of the ObamaCare debate is not about where Republicans and Democrats disagree, but where they agree. Take this issue of those with pre-existing illnesses. Many Republicans actually support government action to prevent insurance companies from refusing to insure them. Ignoring the benefits of cost-lowering free market competition and the role of charity, many Republicans believe it acceptable to force an insurance company – in business to insure against unknown risks – to ‘insure’ someone currently experiencing a known risk. … But this should not surprise anyone who observes the allegedly ‘fiscally conservative,’ ‘pro-free market,’ ‘limited government’ party in action. From the acceptance of the New Deal to government bailouts of private industry, Republicans – sooner or later – go along. … The entire ObamaCare debate starts off in the wrong place – with Republicans agreeing that ‘reform’ is necessary, health care ‘costs too much’ and that government must ‘make health care more affordable.’ But it is because of government – laws, regulations and policies – that users pay more for services and drugs than they otherwise would.” –columnist Larry Elder

Culture

“It was once the proud declaration of many educators that ‘We are here to teach you how to think, not what to think.’ But far too many of our teachers and professors today are teaching their students what to think, about everything from global warming to the new trinity of ‘race, class and gender.’ Even if all the conclusions with which they indoctrinate their students were 100 percent correct, that would still not be equipping students with the mental skills to weigh opposing views for themselves, in order to be prepared for new and unforeseeable issues that will arise over their lifetimes, after they leave the schools and colleges. Many of today’s ‘educators’ not only supply students with conclusions, they promote the idea that students should spring into action because of these prepackaged conclusions – in other words, vent their feelings and go galloping off on crusades, without either a knowledge of what is said by those on the other side or the intellectual discipline to know how to analyze opposing arguments. … A philosopher once said that the most important knowledge is knowledge of one’s own ignorance. That is the knowledge that too many of our schools and colleges are failing to teach our young people.” –economist Thomas Sowell

Faith & Family

“If anyone was looking for a self-righteous extreme feminist, they found one in Angie Jackson. This is a woman who was so proud she was aborting her baby that she announced she would ‘tweet’ her chemical-cocktail abortion live, as it happened, on Twitter. The liberal media found this made-for-TV slaughter fascinating, and not at all a controversy worthy of discussing with two sides. Newsweek’s Sarah Kliff proclaimed: ‘One hundred thousand people have watched Angie Jackson’s abortion. Late last month, Jackson posted a video of herself to YouTube, recorded after she took RU-486, a medication used to end pregnancies.’ Kliff asked only ‘why shame remains’ about the act of killing one’s baby. Jackson was honored for her courage in ‘demystifying’ and ‘destigmatizing’ the procedure: ‘We need 10,000 more of her,’ proclaimed Peg Johnston, chair of something called the Abortion Care Network. This desire for 10,000 more unashamed abortions is what ‘pro-choice’ is all about.” –columnist L. Brent Bozell

Reader Comments

“Mark Alexander’s essay, ‘When Debating a Liberal…,’ was excellent analysis. Thank you! It is very helpful to understand the futility of arguing with the ‘radical left.’ I have been naive enough to believe that surely they, too, sought truth and that a logical presentation of truth would change their minds. I have been beating my head against the wall. I look forward to less knots on my noggin now!” –Anne

“The ‘Slaughter Solution’ will result in the slaughter of the Dim’s at the polls. It unfortunately will destroy the America health care system first. A bigger tragedy, of course, would be the decimation of the Constitution. I could not sleep last night contemplating the consequences of such a move by the duly elected representatives. This proves that the more local the Govt the more accountable it is and opens new vistas of remedies for such traitorous behavior.

"For the census I will answer only the one constitutionally mandated question (see Article 1, Section 2, Clause 3) the number of residents in the home. If they want any other questions answered they should follow the Fourth Amendment and present a warrant. And if they press further I will follow the Fifth Amendment and refuse to answer. Patrick Henry call your office.” –Howard

Political Futures

“Republicans were fired from their control of the U.S. House of Representatives in the election of 2006 for a number of reasons. Spending too much generally was one of them. Bloating appropriations bills with ‘earmarks’ to reward friends and supporters was another. Iraq was certainly a major contributing factor. But, what weighed House Republicans down like an anchor around their collective necks was: Scandal. Duke Cunningham’s written menu of acceptable bribe amounts. Jack Abramoff buying Members and staff like heads of romaine lettuce at Whole Foods. And the father of all the scandals, Mark Foley. I won’t regurgitate the whole sordid Foley story here … but it involved the Florida Republican having inappropriate text-message conversations with a 16-year-old male page; the House Republican Leadership knowing about it; and nothing being done. The implication was that Speaker’s office thought it was more important to protect the GOP brand than to protect a teenaged page from the predations of a Member of the House. Foley became the shorthand for everything voters disliked – hated – about Republicans in the House. … It is important to remember what that felt like, four long years ago, because House Democrats [now] find themselves in much the same position.” –political analyst Rich Galen

The Last Word

“‘Maybe it will take a woman to clean up the House,’ Nancy Pelosi boasted before the 2006 midterm elections. Looks like those XX chromosomes didn’t give her much advantage over the old cleaning crew. … On Thursday afternoon, by a vote of 402-1, the House overwhelmingly passed a privileged resolution offered by the Republican leadership demanding a formal House Ethics Committee investigation of Pelosi and her (mis)handling of harassment allegations concerning disgraced former New York Rep. Eric Massa. The soft-on-corruption ethics panel (see under ‘Rangel, Charlie’) had decided to shut down its investigation after Massa abruptly resigned on Monday. But with reports piling up on how Massa kept a Capitol Hill playhouse filled with young, low-paid male staffers, and how Pelosi’s office had fielded complaints of his bizarre and inappropriate behavior back in October, the House decided to pry the lid back open and put a stop to what the resolution calls the ‘public ridicule’ the seeming cover-up has invited. Housecleaner Pelosi cannot be pleased by the second-guessing of her handiwork. Color her an un-merry maid. Even Democratic Rep. Patrick Kennedy, fresh from his raving House floor meltdown over media coverage of the Massa mess, voted for the GOP-initiated House resolution. Finally: Bipartisanship we can believe in!” –columnist Michelle Malkin