The Patriot Post® · Tuesday Short Cuts

Insight: “Equality, rightly understood as our Founding Fathers understood it, leads to liberty and to the emancipation of creative differences; wrongly understood, as it has been so tragically in our time, it leads first to conformity and then to despotism.” —Barry Goldwater (1909-1998)

Upright: “Every Republican tax-reform plan should be rooted in this reality: If you are going to have federal spending that is 21 percent of GDP, then you can have a.) taxes that are 21 percent of GDP; b.) deficits. There is no c. If, on the other hand, you have a credible program for reducing spending to 17 or 18 percent of GDP, which is where taxes have been coming in, please do share it.” —National Review’s Kevin Williamson

For the record: “Most of the 193 countries that belong to the U.N. are not run by representative governments, but rather by thugs of various hues. … The rules of human history were not suspended with the arrival of the U.N. seven decades ago, and the prevention of a third world war has nothing to do with anyone being dissuaded from aggression by peacekeeping troops sporting sky-blue helmets, or by speeches before the General Assembly.” —Investor’s Business Daily

Braying Jackass: “[C]hanting ‘death to America’ does not create jobs or make Iran more secure.” —Barack Obama at the UN (We can hear Iranians quivering in their boots from here.)

Make America grate again: “Everybody’s got to be covered. … I am going to take care of everybody. I don’t care if it costs me votes or not. … They’re going to be taken care of. I would make a deal with existing hospitals to take care of people. And … the government’s gonna pay for it.” —Barack Obama Donald Trump offering ObamaCare 2.0 (“Government’s gonna pay for it” is called Medicaid, which was greatly expanded under ObamaCare.)

Admit nothing, deny everything, make counter allegations: “It is clear that [the Center for Medical Progress] acted fraudulently and unethically — and perhaps illegally. Yet it is Planned Parenthood, not [CMP head David] Daleiden, that is currently subject to four separate congressional investigations. … Planned Parenthood is proud of its limited role in supporting fetal tissue research.” —Planned Parenthood CEO Cecile Richards in congressional testimony

The meaning of “is”: “I think we did the right thing in the right way. We are, even our critics say [the Clinton Foundation is] much more transparent than most similar foundations.” —Bill Clinton (That’s like saying Planned Parenthood is more transparent than most other abortion providers.)

And last… “How about that? A robot will be one of the featured speakers at a Clinton Foundation event. Must’ve figured they needed someone with more warmth and sincerity than Hillary.” —Fred Thompson