Thoughts while shaving...
Mr President, please stop telling me about the problems you "inherited". Every President, and every Joe Six-Pack inherits problems when you take a new job. You've been in office for a year. You hold the White House, you hold the Senate, you hold the House, and you hold the media. It's your country. Quit whining.
Mr President, the Fort Hood massacre was not a "tragedy". It was a terrorist act. The killer had emailed an al-Qaeda recruiter in Yemen 20 times and then yelled "Allah Akbar" (God is great) while gunning down innocent people. He is a terrorist who murdered 13 people in the name of Jihad. Words matter. Calling this obvious act of terrorism a "tragic crime" insults our intelligence.
Mr President, in the latest poll, 61% of Americans disapprove of the Senate Healthcare bill. Further the US Agency that oversees medicare and medicaid services just released a report stating that the healthcare spending would rise $234 billion over the next decade under your "reform" and that the "savings" you have projected might never be realized. Isn't it time to use a scalpel and not a chain saw on healthcare reform?
I'm done shaving...

You want more government?

The Obama administration's attempt to jam down public option, government-run health insurance to, ostensibly, compete with private insurers is a huge deception. Have you seen how government runs things? Social Security, Medicare, Student Loans, IRS, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and the Post Office are just the top of the list of incompetently managed government-run programs that are neither efficient, user friendly, or profitable. They are only a few in a long trail of government-run failures, failures that we working citizens have to pay for without exception. The government does not pay for things, we do. To claim, with a straight face, that the federal government could run a healthcare system better and cheaper than the private sector, ignores history and is sheer fantasy. It's really not about healthcare at all, that's just a pleasant-sounding cover. It's about stealing about one-sixth of the US private sector in one quick swoop, a spectacular power grab, and the biggest liberty and freedom snatch ever seen in this country. It's the fastest and easiest way to herd more of us into dependence on the federal government, and, by definition, less freedom of choice. With the government in control of our health, it can regulate all aspects of our life by reasoning that what we do, eat, and where we live and what we drive, are all related to our healthcare costs, and must be tightly controlled. If the administration actually wanted to insure the uninsured, they would use a scalpel, not a chainsaw, to our healthcare system. To remake the entire healthcare applecart for everyone, for a promised benefit to a small minority of citizenry, is illogical and needlessly expensive. Remember, government spends the money of the people (you and me), it has no incentive to be either good or cheap. It's only incentive is to justify its existence. You want more government? Open your checkbook.

Nearly two years ago, I wrote on this blog that the Nobel Peace Prize had become a transparent fraud. Yesterday, the fraud became a further embarrassment when incredulously it was given to President Obama. The award continues its history of political and partisan intent. The further irony is that Obama's current principal preoccupation is deciding how and when to expand the war in Afghanistan. Obama has barely begun his period in office, let alone achieved any tangible results, yet the committee obviously cannot separate hope from achievement. It is preposterous that the award be awarded to someone who achieved nothing prior to his election, and nothing since. Seriously, what has he accomplished? Past worthy recipients such as Nelson Mandela and Mother Theresa have had their achievements diminished by this year's patronizing decision. The award is a mockery. Period.

Hollywood's immorality

International film makers and stars recently showed that they have nothing in common with the decent people who stuff their coffers with their entertainment dollars. There is now a Free Roman Polanski petition circulating with many well-known names on it, such as Woody Allen, Harvey Weinstein, David Lynch, Martin Scorsese, Terry Gilliams, Penelope Cruz, Deborah Winger, and Tilda Swinton. They are demanding the release of Roman Polanski from a Swiss jail after being apprehended for extradition back to the US. He has been on the lam since 1978 when he admitted raping a 13-year old girl. If you have forgotten, he drugged the girl with champagne and Quaaludes and tried to bully her into sex. She said no, but he raped and sodomized her anyway. He pleaded guilty and fled America before sentencing. Previously Polanski had dated Nastassja Kinski when she was only 15 and he was in his 40s. There is no surprise that Woody Allen is on board, granted that he married his adopted daughter, but to see the other famous film makers and actresses rally behind Polanski is a clear indication that they believe they, and he, are above the normal notions of morality and the legal process. That they lecture Americans about what is right and wrong only shows they have no idea what they are talking about.

What crisis?

What exactly is the crisis? The overwhelming majority of Americans do not face a healthcare crisis. Polls show that about 80% of Americans are either "very" or "somewhat" satisfied with their health plans, and approximately 90% of patients who experienced serious illnesses were satisfied with their health care. Only a small percentage of the uninsured (voluntary or not) are dissatisfied with the medical treatment they receive in other ways. In other words, most Americans are perfectly fine with the health care they currently receive. These facts alone strongly suggest a more incremental approach, such as adding coverage for the working poor, would be much wiser than trying to "jam down" federal legislation that would remake the entire American healthcare system for everyone at a cost that adds even more debt to an already bulging deficit. Reform should be focused like a laser on specific issues and specific uninsured groups, not given to Washington bureaucrats to take complete control over a system that needs tweaks not an ownership change. This "crisis", for the most part, is simply an inventive political tool to be used to eliminate personal choice and gain unimaginable federal control over the citizenry and its revenues.

Spending orgy

The following are sobering facts of what the future holds for all of us unless we stop it: This year, our federal government will spend nearly $31,000 per household, will tax each household about $17,500, and will borrow over $13,000 per household. The government will increase spending to 26% of our GDP (our spending was from 18% to 21% during the eight years of the Bush administration). Even worse, President Obama's budget plan is to borrow an additional $9 trillion dollars over the next decade which will result in America (that's you and me) spending about $800 billion solely on the interest just to service this unsustainable debt without even touching the principal of that back breaking debt. The new budget proposes massive tax increases that still will not be able to keep up with the highest spending and debt levels in American history. The public national debt will be more under President Obama than under every President in American history from George Washington to George W Bush COMBINED!!! President Obama claims that he inherited a 2009 budget deficit, but note that the deficit has increased by $400 billion (nearly quadrupling it in less than a year) just since his inauguration, and his whole point of the "stimulus" was to increase deficit spending to nearly $2 trillion on the dubious theory that it would alleviate the recession, suggesting that even if he had not inherited a deficit, he would have created one as a matter of policy. And now, on top of all this, the President wants to create a $1 trillion dollar healthcare entitlement program run by government bureaucrats (you know how well government runs things). THIS SPENDING INSANITY HAS TO STOP.

What is wrong with the truth?

There are a lot of reasons to be suspicious and angry at the White House and the majority party. They rammed the "stimulus" bills through with no political opposition support, claiming there was no time for discussion because the sky was falling. As it plays out, only a fraction of the billions has actually been spent (most going to banks), but the banks are not lending the money to Americans to "stimulate" the economy (gee, I thought that is what we were told), but instead using it as accounting counterweight to the overvalued assets on their books, the same toxic assets they created themselves with irresponsible lending. Now, the White House is telling us that the healthcare reform legislation must be passed immediately or the sky will fall again. They poo-poo the idea of actually reading the 1,000-page documents or carefully explaining the details to the citizens who they propose to saddle with the unimaginable longterm debt. The White House wants universal healthcare, a single payer system. Obama neatly dances around that characterization because it is the hallwork of socialism, but the written and video evidence of him both supporting and promising it in the past confirms his true agenda. But, rather than actually explaining the details of this breathless legislation, the White House instead attacks their critics and calls their dissent "un-American". That is not how honest people behave. They should be tripping over themselves to explain every detail of the bills. Aren't they proud of their work? That they are deliberately NOT explaining the details makes my radar rise. They claim there is no time for discussion and that this opportunity must be grabbed now or lost forever. That is how a timeshare salesman works. I am suspicious about an author of ideas who is not willing to have those ideas examined and debated, who calls questioners "un-American", and claims support that does not exist (see AARP's denial of its support). If these bills cannot withstand scrutiny, then they are not worthy of passage. I want the truth. The White House behaves like I can't handle it.