Obama: “The stars are aligned” to destroy American health care, the economy
posted at 5:40 pm on May 13, 2009 by Allahpundit
In fairness, the economy’s already well down the road to ruin so we shouldn’t blame health care overly much for that. A minor detail per today’s NYT number-crunch: Insuring the uninsured will cost $120 billion a year — assuming the program runs as efficiently as they’re hoping, which it won’t — and they’ve only come up with, er, $30 billion so far. Possible solutions include tax hikes (“probably necessary” in the short term), cutting tens of billions in wasteful spending (good luck), or rolling back part of the deduction for employer-provided health insurance, which could help if not for the fact that it was McCain’s proposal during the campaign and would therefore require The One to swallow part of his ego. I.e. forget it. Ah well. I’m sure they’ll figure something out. Maybe later, after the bill’s already passed.
Anyone else get the feeling that not only is the GOP demoralized on this issue but worrisomely disorganized too? They only way they’ll have any leverage over the final product is to wage an exceedingly shrewd media campaign about universal health care’s weaknesses. Instead, radio silence thus far. Gulp.
Blowback
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Looks like these Leftist Totalitarians will have destroyed American Democracy in just over 6 months by time they are done. They will have the banks, auto industry, the media and now health care. If ACORN does the Census coupled with the GOP not taking back at least the Senate then forget about 2012. Who will Obama threaten with pitchforks next? My guess eventually the Church, Protestants and Catholics. I think it was Einstein who noted that it was only in the Church that a stand was taken against Germany’s Totalitarians aka Nazis.
Blue Collar Todd on May 13, 2009 at 6:49 PM
My theory on why the RNC is quiet?
They’re big government statists as well. They have just as much to gain from this massive government takeover as the Dem’s do. More power, more influence, more ways to enrich themselves, their families, and their friends.
If the Dem’s do it, they have more to gain then lose.
That’s the only logical rationale. If they truly oppose this stuff, they can’t be as utterly incompetent as they appear.
p0s3r on May 13, 2009 at 6:49 PM
Millions of Americans will die years before their time.
But deadbeats will have fee health care.
notagool on May 13, 2009 at 6:50 PM
All conservatives should get behind John C. Goodman’s ideas.
jgapinoy on May 13, 2009 at 6:50 PM
The stars are aligned. Must be the belt of O-bama-rion in the southern sky.
And the cost of Porkulus was ECLIPSED by that of Barack-care.
Oh well. Rationed health care for the elderly get them to Heaven earlier.
Steve Z on May 13, 2009 at 6:53 PM
All Hail the Tyranny of the Irresponsible!
Day 112.
djtnt on May 13, 2009 at 6:54 PM
Google: The Obama Deception. See facts that make this irrelevant.
volsense on May 13, 2009 at 6:55 PM
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!ATTENTION!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
To all Hot Air Crew:
The U.S.S. Hot Air will not tolerate Demoralization,
nor depression during this poltical voyage!
And those crew members know who you are!
With a Liberal President,Senate and House and
Bipartisanship dead,and complete control of the MSM,
the facts speak for themselves!
Be alert and vigil!
Back to your posting stations!:)———-(Snark).
canopfor on May 13, 2009 at 6:57 PM
If the Republican party cannot come up with a coherent, feasible alternative to Nationalized Health Care, then the party should just be dismantled and buried, with salt poured over the soil to ensure that it never rises again. Bring back the Whigs!
melchitt on May 13, 2009 at 7:10 PM
They haven’t a clue as to how their gonna pay for it. Any planning they’re doing should be entitled “Winging It 101″.
GarandFan on May 13, 2009 at 7:11 PM
socialized medicine will hurt old people. but AARP has been inching towards out & out endorsement of it for years. does this seem counter-intuitive?
kelley in virginia on May 13, 2009 at 7:12 PM
they don’t care how they are going to pay for it. the administration & congress throws out a few figures on a daily basis, very few of which are legitimate, all along knowing that none of their SH*T can ever be paid for.
they don’t care. none of them care. they are doing this on purpose.
kelley in virginia on May 13, 2009 at 7:13 PM
http://cprights.org/
Go here. Donate, if possible. These people are excellent (know them personally). They are putting out some great commercials showing patients from Canada and England telling “universal health care nightmare stories.”
stenwin77 on May 13, 2009 at 7:15 PM
The scary thing is that they think they know what they are doing.
rockhead on May 13, 2009 at 7:17 PM
How about the opposite, a nice fat tax break for employers who put all employees on their insurance, which would have the benefit of putting more people on full time, cut bureaucracy costs immensely and avoid at least a certain amount of socialism.
How about cutting the hell out of overhead by stopping all but emergency services to the foreign allied citizens, IE: if you don’t have a legal right to be here get your hang nails trimmed and squirt out puppies in your own country.
Speakup on May 13, 2009 at 7:25 PM
A little over a year ago, I went to the emergency room at the medical center in Houston, Texas. The next day a surgery was performed to remove a gall stone. While removing the gall stone, a tumor was discovered. The next day they performed a Whipple, where they removed my gall bladder, one third of my pancreas, the tumor and part of my common bile duct. My doctor said that I was on deaths door step when I came into the hospital. My Blue Cross paid for seventy-five percent and the hospital and doctors are letting me pay the remainder in monthly installments. The bottom line is, if I would have had socialized medicine, I would be dead now. Socialized medicine, ” Over my dead body”.
Johan Klaus on May 13, 2009 at 7:35 PM
f
Dpet on May 13, 2009 at 7:35 PM
.
Amen!
rcl on May 13, 2009 at 7:36 PM
The GOP establishment is probably aware of the financial ruin to come and is just waiting for that to get some power back reversing the tide is not of interest to them, power is what they want. Better start getting with the program Allahpundit, Toomey is all you’ve got.
Theworldisnotenough on May 13, 2009 at 7:36 PM
“as ALL Americans know, our healthcare is BROKEN”
and our government is working just fine? All Americans also know that Al Gore’s theory of global warming (or cooling) are also 100% true.
All Americans know that Evolution is a fact (just ask Chris Mathews)
Dpet on May 13, 2009 at 7:37 PM
“Happy to oblige”
//Ogabe, Pelosi, Reid and liberals
sven10077 on May 13, 2009 at 7:37 PM
Does anyone know how much the UK spends per year for health care?
I took the UK GDP and multiplied it by 8% (percent of economy used on health care) and got $222 billion.
And Obama is going to do it with $120 billion…?
Glenn Jericho on May 13, 2009 at 7:39 PM
Did you forget that all his promises have expiration dates?
My leftist relatives and friends like to say “No, he’s not creating nationalized healthcare! He’s creating an inexpensive health insurance plan!”
Ok, but the ultimate goal of leftists is “universal health care.” How do you do that when the American people overwhelmingly oppose it?
1) Create an “alternative insurance program” that promises you can keep your own doctor and insurance through your employer, if you want to.
2) Other free market competitors have to drop out because they can’t compete with government rates.
3) Tax the hell out of your employer’s health care costs, forcing them to drop health care coverage for you, or increase your costs so you drop it, or lay you/your coworkers off. Any of those three ways, more people, most likely you, have no choice but to buy into government care to be insured.
4) Now if you campaign on restoring the right of businesses to write off health coverage as an expense, you’re a heartless fiend who wants to decimate the health care system and leave millions uninsured, especially women and minorities.
5) America’s economy continues to decay, further killing revenue, so the rationing board starts forcing old people to die . . . and VOILA! Social Security and Medicare are FIXED!
As a bonus, since the older you get the more likely you are to vote conservative, the number of conservative voters dying from Obamacare now start to equal the number of liberal voters killed in the womb, while those in between become more and more dependent on an insolvent government!
PastorJon on May 13, 2009 at 7:41 PM
Oh, and Tom Price is leading a Republican Study Committee that yesterday when I heard him sounded like it was on the right track with a health care fix
PastorJon on May 13, 2009 at 7:45 PM
Give me a call when they release:
The NEW DOLLAR.
Sapwolf on May 13, 2009 at 8:05 PM
Dear Nancy,
Medicare and Medicade came into law through the Social Security Act of 1965. Hence it was not around in the 50′s!!!
Butters on May 13, 2009 at 8:06 PM
The GOP is completely disorganized on this issue, which is very bad news indeed. Saying ‘national health care sucks’ over and over again isn’t going to get the job done. It may be true, but it won’t do you any good in the long run, on either policy or politics.
I’m still wondering about letting people deduct their health insurance costs from their taxes, the way you do with your mortgage interest. Actually create some incentive for people to do something with their money other than buy a plasma tv. Combine that with some ‘loser pay’ lawsuit legislation and I think the GOP could have a program that works on both policy and politics.
BadgerHawk on May 13, 2009 at 8:08 PM
Liberty is secured until morale improves..The tree of liberty is bleeding..Money is a hootMan…having a hard time here….
Ah! Now I remember:
You can’t get fooled again.
BobMbx on May 13, 2009 at 8:16 PM
Wasn’t Bush’s more limited prescription drug plan supposed to cost only 40 Billion a year, and that’s way out of control now and above estimates. This 120 billion number to cover the fifty million (supposed) uninsured would work out to 1500 a year or so. Most health insurance costs 400-500 a month, or about 6,000 a year, times the fifty million would be about 300,000,000 (300 Billion per year). However, if employers decide to dump their employees into the government health pool, so that 150 million employees are now covered together with another 100 million pre existing americans that would raise the costs to over a trillion dollars a year. And that’s just for policy costs, not the coverage of the costs of the procedures desired by those suddenly insured individuals. How much of a bite are all those CT scans, MRIs, surgical procedures, preventative procedures going to cost and how are they going to be paid for, the dems are silent about.
eaglewingz08 on May 13, 2009 at 8:25 PM
Death in the family (mother-in-law)
heroyalwhyness on May 13, 2009 at 9:21 PM
I read that Sen./Dr. Coburn and someone else are working on Republican alternatives that allow free-market choices and a more accountable system.
We do have Republicans working hard behind the scenes, and we need to familiarize ourselves with their ideas. If they are good, we need to get behind them.
onlineanalyst on May 13, 2009 at 9:39 PM
Whenever I’m depressed by another thing from our new Democratic Overlords, I cheer myself up for a few minutes by making a small donation to SarahPAC.
The lady is gotta be swimming in $$$.
Jimmy Doolittle on May 13, 2009 at 10:08 PM
A bankrupt government dreaming up massive new entitlements. This is Bizarro world.
ddrintn on May 13, 2009 at 10:12 PM
Insurance should only be purchased for things you cannot otherwise afford. Insurance costs money in transaction costs, profit, administrative overhead etc. Everybody should buy a catastrophic health policy to cover anything over what they can afford to pay out of pocket and cut the insurance industry out of most minor health transactions. The government can credit part of the cost of the catestrophic policy on income tax returns on a sliding scale based on income. The indigent are already on medicaid; so why would this not be feasible. Why do we need government in the actual health care business?
KW64 on May 13, 2009 at 10:20 PM
Is it 2010 yet?
pilamaye on May 13, 2009 at 10:53 PM
Yeah, if you count the White House, Congress and the Senate as the “stars”.
4shoes on May 13, 2009 at 11:42 PM
I guess when you run out of scapegoats, you start blaming the stars….
ThereGoesTheNeighborhood on May 14, 2009 at 12:06 AM
When B.O. says “The stars are aligned”, he must be referring to Janeane Garafalo and Sean Penn.
pilamaye on May 14, 2009 at 6:50 AM
Nancy Puloshit was so happy President Obombem mentioned her name she became giddy. Watch how fast her eyes flutter and the animation of bowing to the crowd.
MSGTAS on May 14, 2009 at 10:35 AM
Why not just borrow the money and stick our heads in the sand. It seems to have worked for years now. What could go wrong?
PersonalLiberty on May 14, 2009 at 11:57 AM
Frank Luntz has a strategy (pdf):
THE 10 RULES FOR STOPPING THE “WASHINGTON TAKEOVER” OF HEALTHCARE
Rae on May 14, 2009 at 4:09 PM
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