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Tough Medicine to Swallow
Health care for clunkers. Global normalcy. Insurance devils, and much more.
HEALTH CARE FOR CLUNKERS?
Re: Ryan L. Cole’s The
Reformer’s Folly:
Thank you Mr. Cole, for your detailed history of health care “reform.” It makes clear this is not so much reform but a steady march towards socialization. It also truly shows that there is nothing new, especially so-called “progressive” ideas, under the sun. Indeed, I’ve held for decades now that the greatest impediment to America’s progress has been such outdated and hoary ideas that are much more akin to religious tenets than practical policy ideas. Social Security and Medicare going bust at 74 and 44 years, respectively? Too bad, we cannot change them. A 100-plus year-old German model of public schooling stalling out at dysfunction junction? Tough luck, we cannot change it. Progressive tax rates counterproductive? So what, we cannot change them. And so on and so on with our so-called “progressives” whose eternal answer to all of their past miscalculations and failures to progress is more of the same. More sincerity, more good intentions, more money and more government and it will work out this time. Given the average age of their big ideas and countless examples of their failure the world around, there are no reactionaries quite like our progressive reactionaries.
As an aside, I thought one line in particular gave a clue as to
why this is so until I realized I was in error, sort of.
“Senators Robert Wagner and James Murray and Rep. John Dingell
(who had previously collaborated on an insurance proposal)…(in
1945)” I thought, “yikes, can it be the same John Dingell, patron
saint of another dinosaur, the UAW and who today still pushes the
same ancient ‘progressive’ ideas?” I mean, I knew he’d been there
a long time but Holy Cow. After a google search I determined that
the current Dingell is the son and namesake of the Dingell
mentioned in the article and took his father’s seat 10 years
later on the senior Dingell’s death. This was equally, if not
more, dispiriting because it shows the socio-religious fruit does
not fall far from the tree and gives “progressive” ideas a
half-life long, long past their dotage. So what does this portend
for our future with millions of upcoming political and historical
illiterates cultivated in leftist college hothouses by doddering
“progressive” gray-heads?
—Marc Shepler
Jupiter, Florida
Thanks, Mr. Cole, for that pointed analysis. Here’s mine:
Hope springs eternal, then lands in reality.
Anyone who has the delusional notion that the federal government can administer a national “health care system” involving virtually every American (and quite a few non-American “visitors”), costing trillions of dollars, and lasting on even beyond the foreseeable future, should have a look at the C.A.R.S. program (disrespectfully called “Cash for Clunkers”).
The feds can’t even administer a 3-4-month program involving a few thousands of Americans and a billion dollars. Less than a month into the program, it is already all tied up in Gordian knots made of red tape and administrative bungling.
And the very same know-it-all tinkerers out there want to be trusted with the health care of a nation when they can’t even run a used car lot.
And I’m offended when they call my beloved old pickup truck — more a family member and a faithful friend — a “clunker.” How dare they?
Come to think of it, if they get their “clunker health care”
plan, they’ll think of beloved old me as a “clunker” fit only for
the junkyard.
— A. C. Santore
FOOLED 55 PERCENT OF THE PEOPLE ONE
TIME
Re: Philip Klein’s
Everything That Rises Must Converge:
How did America get where we are today? Certainly, President Bush
did the spade work of extending intrusive government reach, but
with President Obama and the Democratic Congress, we have been
watching our economy, and more importantly, our freedoms,
threatened as never before. Were Americans fooled into this
imperial presidency? The American people are generally a trusting
people, especially in “fly over country,” sometimes to our
detriment but more often to our gain. The majority of voters were
tired of many of President Bush’s policies. Senator McCain put on
one of the worst campaigns since Adlai Stevenson. Senator Obama
was able to fake right and left at the same time. Add in that
“hope and change” made for such a euphonic vibe, giving The One
the presidency just felt right to the majority of American
voters.
Now that hope and change have arrived, the American people are
finding that the Wizard is really a man behind the curtain and he
not all that good at running the machinery.Obama likes to compare
himself to the other president who came from Illinois.
President Lincoln sagaciously stated, “You can fool all the
people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but
you cannot fool all the people all the time.” The American
public, despite the sycophantic mainstream media mob’s mantras
and misrepresentations, are beginning to see The One and his
intentions clearly at last. Yes, the economy is recovering, but
it is a jobless recovery and the true and debilitating effects of
Obamanomics are only now beginning to be understood by the man on
the street. Many of the people who voted for Obama are too young
to remember stagflation; ironically, it is a term their children
may know too well. The Left’s intrusion into health care is
also coming into focus and people do not want the government
between them and their doctors. Green House Effect? More and more
scientists are finding the data to come out and state the sky is
not falling.
Letter to the Editor View all comments (12) | Leave a comment
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Rocco| 8.3.09 @ 7:01AM
Mr. Martell:
I see you're back. I recall your being maligned in the past for somewhat unpopular views. However, your post above is right on. Today's Republican Party (our reps, not rank and file like you or me) is one of two sides of the same coin. I used to be a dedicated Repub, from the time of Nixon, but left the party shortly after 9/11. I found the Repubs lost the strength of their convictions and were becoming worse than what they had replaced. And Pres. Bush's somewhat limpwristed approach after 9/11 (yes, yes, he did go full force into Afghanistan and later into Iraq) turned me off. He lost a great opportunity to really mobilize the country behind him by failing to forcefully declare war and get the country behind him. Yes, Congress passed resolutions and all, but it wasn't a declaration of war on al-Qaida. This, I believe, laid the groundwork for his later political problems, and failure to get the military ramped up (I was still active and astounded to find the military still on a peacetime footing - no mobilization curricula put into effect in the military training and education system, etc). I can go on and on.. I have opted for the Constitution Party, but consider Libertarians from time to time. The Republican party has completely lost me, and will continue to do so, until they close their primaries and get off of this "my turn" kick which brought us ineffective candidates such as Dole and McCain (both of whom I do deeply respect for their personal sacrifices in the military), and finally, get back to the small government, free enterprise and constitutional principles which brought them victory after victory.
Big J| 8.3.09 @ 8:04AM
Trudy,
Stay tuned, young lady. Some of us are trying to gather such a march on our treacherous "leaders" in Washington. Probably around September 12.
It's not good timing for me financially, but it is important enough to grin and bear it.
Michael L. Hauschild| 8.3.09 @ 8:33AM
As far as Stein goes I hope he is a better manager of personal finance than he is as an “economic commentator.” My advice to you Ben (and unlike your own insights, it won't change) is, “Hide your money."
VIRUS MISSING in USA| 8.3.09 @ 12:38PM
April 22, 2009 -- Updated 0050 GMT (0850 HKT)
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Army: 3 vials of virus samples missing from Maryland facilityStory Highlights
Venezuelan Equine Encephalitis samples missing from Army facility
Virus sickens horses, can be spread to humans through mosquitoes
Investigators say vials may have been in freezer that was destroyed
So far, investigators have found no evidence of criminal activity
Next Article in U.S. »
From Larry Shaughnessy
CNN Pentagon Producer
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Missing vials of a potentially dangerous virus have prompted an Army investigation into the disappearance from a lab in Maryland.
Fort Detrick is the home of the Army's top biological research facility.
The Army's Criminal Investigation Command agents have been visiting Fort Detrick in Frederick, Maryland, to investigate the disappearance of the vials. Christopher Grey, spokesman for the command, said this latest investigation has found "no evidence of criminal activity."
The vials contained samples of Venezuelan Equine Encephalitis, a virus that sickens horses and can be spread to humans by mosquitoes. In 97 percent of cases, humans with the virus suffer flu-like symptoms, but it can be deadly in about 1 out of 100 cases, according to Caree Vander Linden, a spokeswoman for the Army's Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases. There is an effective vaccine for the disease and there hasn't been an outbreak in the United States since 1971.
The vials had been at the research institute's facility at Fort Detrick, home of the Army's top biological research facility, for more than a decade. The three missing vials were among thousands of vials that were under the control of a senior scientist who retired in 2004. When another Fort Detrick scientist recently inventoried the retired scientist's biological samples, he discovered that the three vials of the virus were missing. The original scientist's records about his vials dated back to the days of paper-and-pen inventories.
During the investigation, the retired scientist and another former Fort Detrick researcher cooperated with investigating agents and, according to Vander Linden, they came back to the facility to help look for the vials
Hardius| 8.3.09 @ 3:56PM
Mr. Martell and Rocco all I have to say is AMEN.