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.

Why settlements?

I don't understand why the American media continues to refer to portions of Israel as settlements. When Israel's enemies attacked the country, it fought back and won the war. Part of its winnings was land. Nothing different there, it's how every country in the world wound up having its present dimensions. The American media makes it sound like Israel is only borrowing the land until the rightful owners come back for it. By that logic, California, Texas, and Arizona are settlements too. And, the media continuing to refer to terrorists as freedom fighters or militant activists whenever possible is equally deceptive.

Universal healthcare

President Obama and the Democrats want universal health coverage for Americans. They claim that medical costs are destroying the economy. Interesting, because I thought it was the toxic assets held by banks, high unemployment, and loss of retirement funds on Wall Street. Medical costs did not contribute to any of those. Universal health coverage is simply another way to produce more revenue for the government through taxing the middle class and small business that can be used for any purpose by the government. In truth, if you really wanted to actually decrease medical costs, you would work on the insane costs and arbitrary rewards of our malpractice system, and the hidden cost of defensive medicine: tests and procedures that doctors order for no good reason other than to protect themselves from lawsuits. How much unnecessary medical cost is incurred with an eye, not on medicine, but on the law? When a surgeon pays $200K a year for malpractice insurance before he opens his doors, it is the patients who pay through higher doctor fees to cover the insurance. Tort reform would yield tens of billions in savings, yet there is no mention of it in any of the Democratic bills under review because they are hugely dependent on huge donations from trial lawyers. Seriously, this healthcare or health insurance reform nonsense is nothing more than a money grab by the administration and the most serious attempt at controlling its citizenry in memory.