The Patriot Post® · Chronicle

The Foundation

“Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state, an intolerable one.” –Thomas Paine

Editorial Exegesis

“From the congressional chutzpah department: Democrats say Republicans will balloon the deficit by repealing the new trillion-dollar federal health care program. There’s nothing wrong with your eyes: Dems claim that retracting Obamacare, which will spend about $1 trillion over the next decade, will add $230 billion to the deficit by 2021. They cite a Congressional Budget Office analysis, but it’s an inside-the-Beltway shell game. Watch closely. First, savings credited to Obamacare are based on data given to CBO numbers crunchers by the program’s proponents. CBO can only run estimates with the data it receives. Garbage in, garbage out. Only if you believe Obamacare is going to save money – as it adds 32 million people to the insurance rolls – would repealing the program increase the deficit. The idea that Obamacare will save money is crazy. Writing for National Review Online, former CBO Director Douglas Holtz-Eakin noted that in tasking CBO to project Obamacare’s price tag, proponents omitted $115 billion in implementation costs, counted $70 billion in premiums for long-term care insurance while ignoring the benefits it will pay out, and pretended that more than $450 billion in reimbursement cuts to Medicare providers will occur when everyone in Washington knows they won’t. Only through such budgetary gimmicks does Obamacare look like it would save money.” –The Oklahoman

Insight

“I cannot find any authority in the Constitution for public charity. [To approve this measure] would be contrary to the letter and spirit of the Constitution and subversive to the whole theory upon which the Union of these States is founded.” –President Franklin Pierce (1804-1869)

“I can find no warrant for such an appropriation [for charity relief] in the Constitution, and I do not believe that the power and duty of the General Government ought to be extended to the relief of individual suffering which is in no manner properly related to the public service or benefit.” –President Grover Cleveland (1837-1908)

Upright

“Often, in politics, it doesn’t matter what the facts are. What matters is how well you make your case to the voting public.” –economist Thomas Sowell

“[T]he prime feature of political decision-making is that it’s a zero-sum game. One person’s gain is of necessity another person’s loss. As such, political allocation of resources is conflict-enhancing, while market allocation is conflict-reducing. The greater the number of decisions made in the political arena, the greater the potential for conflict.” –economist Walter E. Williams

“America is on a path to bankruptcy. It’s easy to get bogged down arguing about lots of small cuts, but we’ll only make progress by abolishing whole departments and entire missions. I hope the public understands it has to be done.” –columnist John Stossel

“Unlike most of the 111 that preceded it, the 112th Congress must begin the process of restoring the national regime and civic culture the Founders bequeathed. This will require reviving the rule of law, reasserting the relevance of the Constitution, and affirming the reality of American exceptionalism. … The American Revolution was a political, not a social revolution; it was about emancipating individuals for the pursuit of happiness, not about the state allocating wealth and opportunity. Hence our exceptional Constitution, which says not what government must do for Americans but what it cannot do to them.” –columnist George Will

“The point Obama wanted to make [in his Tucson speech] was not that political rhetoric caused the violence but that such rhetoric – like, for example, criticism directed at Barack Obama – should be toned down. So even as he conceded that rhetoric did not cause the violence, Obama argued that it should be muted anyway. And he cloaked his appeal in so much emotionalism, in so many tear-jerking references to the recently departed, that some in his audience might not have noticed he was making the political point he wanted to make all along.” –columnist Byron York

“As many have observed, the coming-together moment in Tucson after the shooting wasn’t a memorial, it was an event. The White House put it on: ‘Together We Thrive – Tucson and America.’ T-shirts carried the message, and signs were placed on seats for Obama’s speech. To say this was in bad taste is an egregious understatement. Why didn’t they just call it a campaign whistle stop?” –columnist Jon Rappoport

Character: Robert E. Lee

Today we take a moment to remember the birth anniversary of Robert E. Lee (1807-1870), one of the greatest military commanders in American history. He was also a great man of faith who gave his all for the cause of liberty and states’ rights, which we at The Patriot Post hold so dear.

Read more and comment here.

Dezinformatsia

The BIG Lie: “[Republicans are] against reform because it would cover the uninsured – and that’s something they just don’t want to do.” –New York Times columnist Paul Krugman

Don’t know much about history: “We’re in the year 2011, we’re coming off the horrific, horrific event in Tucson, yet as we celebrate Dr. King’s Day, there’s still this very strange state – Arizona – that does not recognize it. Maybe is there a time for a shift here? Should they secede from the nation?” –MSNBC’s Donnie Deutcsh (Actually, Arizona DOES recognize MLK Day.)

Confessions: “[Jared Loughner] became intrigued by antigovernment conspiracy theories, including that the Sept. 11 attacks were perpetrated by the government and that the country’s central banking system was enslaving its citizens. His anger would well up at the sight of President George W. Bush, or in discussing what he considered to be the nefarious designs of government.” –The New York Times (If Loughner hated Bush, doesn’t that align him with the left and not the right?)

Belly Laugh of the Week: “I think the media and the politicians have behaved pretty well so far.” –Time Magazine’s Mark Halperin on the Tucson shooting

Race bait: “I think older Americans, older white people still have a problem with this guy [Obama]. … And I think that’s a generalization and I’ll stick with it. I think younger people do not see race as an obstacle. I don’t think – I think, they’re much more non-judgmental. In fact, about ethnicity, they just say that’s not relevant. In fact, they say it’s irrelevant and don’t even notice it, whereas older people notice it all the time.” –MSNBC’s Chris Matthews

The Demo-gogues

Good luck with that: “We may have passed a landmark reform bill, but many of us feel we ultimately lost a debate that was hijacked by Fox News, so-called ‘death panels’ and an unending stream of Republican misinformation. I’ll be the first to say that I thought we could have done a better job correcting public misconceptions about health care reform that linger to this day. That’s why the push to repeal health care is ultimately a Republican misstep and a Democratic gain. We’re going to get a second chance to explain to Americans why this bill benefits every man, woman and child in this country. We’ll have the opportunity to get the message right this time, and connect health care reform to our vision of how to build a stronger, more prosperous America.” –Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY)

Now they want bipartisanship: “I believe that we all remember that when we passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, we had to modify three or four times – it was done in a bipartisan way. Same thing with the Voting Rights Act. So let us modify the health care law in a bipartisan way. But this whole stuff of repealing it, throwing it out and starting all over, that’s not going to happen.” –Rep. James Clyburn (D-SC), who didn’t mind cramming ObamaCare through in the first place on a completely partisan vote

Now they don’t like the filibuster: “We have reached the point where the filibuster is being invoked by the minority not necessarily because of a difference over policy, but as a political tool to undermine the presidency.” –Sen. John Kerry (D-MA)

Converted supply-sider? “I am directing federal agencies to do more to account for – and reduce – the burdens regulations may place on small businesses. Small firms drive growth and create most new jobs in this country. We need to make sure nothing stands in their way.” –Barack Obama in a Wall Street Journal op-ed, claiming to be poised to reduce federal regulations (Obama very begrudgingly agreed to extend tax rates for small businesses – higher rates would have stood in their way.)

Village Idiots

Blame the instrument: “To me the more significant aspect is that we allow people to get guns so easily, and not just any guns but semi-automatics, which can kill a large number of people in a very short time. That seems to me to be completely insane, and the U.S. is the only developed country in the world that does it. I think the NRA has blood on its hands, clearly.” –Princeton professor Peter Singer, who says that mentally retarded humans are less human, and, by his own measure, has blood from abortions on his hands

Say what? “Because we don’t have government health care, that’s one reason why a crazy person gets a gun because, you know what, it’s hard for a crazy person to get a job, so therefore it’s hard for them to get heath care in a country that doesn’t have government…” –HBO’s Bill Maher, who never finished his incoherent thought

Pride in ignorance: “Now, I want you teabaggers out there to understand one thing: while you idolize the Founding Fathers and dress up like them, and smell like them, I think it’s pretty clear that the Founding Fathers would have hated your guts.” –HBO’s Bill Maher (Author and radio host Mark Levin responds.)

From the indoctrinator in chief: “I’m just convinced education is the civil rights issue of our generation and we have a lot of hard work ahead of us. If we want our young people to have a chance to enter the mainstream of society and pursue the American dream, they can only do that through education.” –Education Secretary Arne Duncan

Being green: “It was heartbreaking every time [I was away from my family]. In my second term of office, I did better. I tried to fly home every evening.” –former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who really had it rough

Short Cuts

“One friend says [Arizona shooter Jared] Loughner never listened to talk radio or watched the TV news. Throw in ‘never read books’ and you have the dictionary definition of a liberal. Being completely uninformed is precisely how most liberals stay liberal.” –columnist Ann Coulter

“Mental illness is the only disease that has an influential lobby devoted to not treating it.” –National Review editor Rich Lowry

“The American Bar Association reported Monday that the recession has resulted in fifteen thousand fewer lawyers in the U.S. They haven’t disappeared. Yesterday at McDonald’s the cashier at the drive-thru window spilled coffee on my lap, then offered to represent me.” –comedian Argus Hamilton

“Some people claim that liberals are just naturally more adept at spinning the news than conservatives, as if it were a gift, the equivalent of throwing a 98 mph fastball or hitting a major league curve. The sole reason that liberals have an advantage is because, as my friend Bernard Goldberg has been patiently pointing out over the past decade, the MSM widely circulates and gives credence to those on the Left, always ready and eager to pass off their baloney as filet mignon.” –columnist Burt Prelutsky

“Chinese President Hu Jintao will be at the White House [this] week. The good news is, he has no plans to foreclose. We can stay another month.” –comedian Jay Leno