Jeremiah Gets Health Care Reform...But Doesn't "Get" Health Care Reform

I've been keeping an eye out for Jeremiah's pronouncements and, doubtless, many misconceptions about the new health care legislation. I guess in the wake of the actual vote he may have transformed into a centipede for a time (not unlike C.S. Lewis' character Screwtape), because it took until today for him to hit the keyboard. And I do mean "hit," literally! Follow along as we document the disinformation.

To quote, paraphasingly, the Congresswoman Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee. "Freedom dies a little bit today," and of course, that puts into perspective lightly, the challenge that we now face with Obamacare poised to bear down hard on the small-business sector, middle-class families. Some $200 billion dollars in extra taxes as I understand it.

Clearly, Jer does not understand it. Either that, or he thinks that the tax credits being made available to families earning up to 400% of the poverty level - which would be $88,000 per year, which I would certainly classify as middle-class: probably even upper-middle in many parts of the country - are actually taxes. Same for those tax credits of 35-50% of insurance costs for small businesses. Who will taxes go up on? Individuals making more than $200k or couples making more than $250k per year. I'm here to tell you that this does not equate to "middle-class," Jer, and if you think it does I've got a great deal for you from McCain to go pick lettuce in Arizona for the apparently "starvation" wage of $50/hour.

The United States of America, my dear friends, cannot afford this mockery of our economic system. This will destroy capitalism and the free-market. Of course, the free-market is a joke to the communists who control Washington D.C., like Ron Bloom, Obama's Manufacturing Czar, who said in early 2008...

We all know the free-market is a joke... Ron Bloom February 28, 2008

At least Mr. Bloom thinks so ... but do you agree with him? If you do, you must not be familiar with America's way of doing economics, the kind of economics that made this country great.

Destroy capitalism? Wreck the free market? Yeah, a bill that hands 30+ million new customers to non-government companies, with a mandate to purchase their product, that's really going to bring the engines of commerce to a grinding halt. Also, you've got to love how much Jer and his crowd adore free enterprise today, after two terms' worth of no-bid contracts that you'd think they could have mustered a teensy bit of outrage for.

If you agree with Mr. Bloom, you are probably more familiar with European socialist form of economics. If you lived through the holocaust, then you're probably familiar enough with socialism that you don't want to see anymore of it. You know what it's like.

The Holocaust and socialist economic theory? Kind of a reach, there, Jeremiah. The German government did funnel an incredible sum into their own war-making machine, striving for economic independence from a global economy (the kind of thing you'd think Jer would root for, isolationist that he is). But, on the whole, the economic foundation for the ongoing Nazi regime was the exploitation of the people and resources of conquered territories.

And, seriously? Jer ought to be ashamed for trying to leverage Holocaust survivors and putting words in their mouths in this vile manner.

History is the best guide and teacher, if need be, to help us in this area, because, as the saying goes, "Those who forget their past, are doomed to repeat it." And we surely don't want to do that.

Brave words from someone who forgets the past with regularity, superimposing his preferred vision on top of reality.

Mr. Obama and our current crop of elites governing Washington are doing just that, they are disregarding our past, with all the suffering and misery that was directly attributable to programs just like the one Mr. Obama signed into law yesterday, Big-Government Universal healthcare. A single-payer system, which means the government has complete control over every aspect of your healthcare needs ... they make your choices for you, and if you have a special need that needs immediate attention? You may or may not get the assistance that you need.

Did he grab your attention with the dog-whistle words "Washington elites"? (Funny how badly that jibes with the disparagement of "community organizers" during the campaign, isn't it?) Because after that it turns into a sludge of inaccuracy. First, let's hear about all this big-government suffering and misery - maybe from a gang of Tea Partiers on their way to cash Social Security or disability checks or to check in for a Medicare-covered appointment. Single-payer? Flat out WRONG. Government making your health care choices for you? Again, BS, big-time. Can you read, Jeremiah? Have you actually looked at the legislation or done any research outside your own head? *Sigh* Never mind. I know the answer.

By the way. It's President Obama. Not Mister. P-r-e-s-i-d-e-n-t. I know you don't like it, but that's the way it is. Cope.

What this bill will do, in essence, is give many incentive to retire early, and when this happens, then the number of people who are already on some form of government subsidy, subsidized by taking more from the American taxpayer than is already the case, then you add the new retirees to this number and you have an system that is overloaded demand-wise ... and when demand becomes more than supply, then they will ration the healthcare, based on the person's income, including other things that will likely be factored in as part of this administration's agenda, like age, gender, race.

OK. First of all, the people this bill will be of most help to are those already living on the edge. When you fall behind with every paycheck, this doesn't constitute anything close to an extra incentive to retire. There's a reason you see all those grandpas and grandmas passing out carts at Wal*Mart, and it's not recreational in nature.

Did he miss the CBO scoring? The deficit reductions? Productivity savings in Medicare?

And as for his paranoia about age, gender and race...Jer, that quasi-eugenics fearmongering just makes you look like a worse conspiracy theorist than you are. You might as well be talking about profiling by shoe size. It's embarrassing, OK? It also uncovers that you are speaking from the viewpoint of barely-closeted racism. Quit being so damned scared of anybody who isn't a middle-aged white male, will ya?

This country will look really weird in a few years from now, a lot weirder than it already is with the multiculturalism and political correct dogma that is spouted daily in our colleges and universities.

Ooh, that scawy, scawwy educashun! How dare young people actually aspire to learn something, to improve themselves and maybe the world? It would be so much better if we all looked like we came out of the same rundown trailer park, complete with our beer guts, poorly-fitting bermuda shorts, and cowboy hats with flag bandannas on them. But you can still flee from all that "weirdness" you so fear, Jeremiah. I'm sure there's a Tea Party event in your neighborhood with your name on it, and an incendiary sign provided by FreedomWorks for you to hold while you screech incoherently.

You see, this administration's goal is the elimination of charity altogether. They are following the lead of one of their greatest idols, Margaret Sanger.

Are you following the train of thought here? Health care opportunity leads to multiculturalism leads to abolition of charity leads to Planned Parenthood?

Nope, I'm not following it successfully, either.

With the elimination of faith-based charities, then they will have successfully cut off the financing of God's kingdom. The Church is responsible for the charity freely given from the heart that has helped so many in this country through numerous natural disasters, wars, famines, etc, etc. It's what has made our country great. Made us rise to the top. However, many have taken it for granted, and decided to trust more in the government than in their Christ-like neighbor, or community Church.

Ah! Now it's just faith-based charities the eeeevil Obama wants to get rid of. Did you see that not-so-subtle pivot on Jeremiah's part? Never mind that this administration has not only continued Dubya's program of "faith-based and community initiatives," but expanded it. Mustn't allow the facts to interfere with the rhetoric.

And just what is it that has made America "great," Jer? Free market economics, as you stated above? Or religious charities (presumably, religions you favor)? As Stephen Colbert would say, "Pick a side; we're at war."

You see, God's people are there to help when there is a desperate need...there to pick you up when you are down, and this is in the Spirit of Christ. So, then, you can go on and help yourself...and whenever you are doing well, there may come a point in time when you see someone who is down, and you remember how the church helped you, and so you continue that work on in their lives, by helping them.

And Jeremiah embodies this principle by disinforming the world on his blog - well, the handful of people who actually stop by, which must be a number I inflate by double- or triple-digit percentage points whenever I pop in - and doing his best to make you afraid, reactionary and paranoid. Very Christian indeed of you, Jer.

The government on the other hand, they're not like that ... the government wants to take other peoples money...tear them down, and then ration it out to you, just enough to keep you satisfied with little, but not beyond what they deem necessary, so that you will put more trust in them than you do God to supply your needs.

Government is constituted BY people, Jeremiah. It works to coordinate common necessities that allow a society to function and thrive. Call me silly - I'm sure you will - but I would rather live in a society where air traffic safety, interstate commerce, food and drug inspection, clean water standards, and even simple local services like providing a fire department and repairing potholes are things under the control of a government, as opposed to God, or even the church down the street. Even the Christ you claim to revere told his followers to "Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's." That sounds to me an awful lot like an admission that faith cannot do everything well, but has its own sphere, just as does government.

Well, if all goes as the Democrats are planning for it to, then many people are going to find out just how much they are able to trust in the government, and they may just get a big surprise. Many people, I'm afraid, don't even realize how badly it's going to hurt this country's working middle-class.

Yeah, that elimination of pre-existing conditions, that's going to be a low blow to average families. And they're just going to despise the ability for kids to be covered on parental insurance policies until age 26. Clearly, the end is nigh.

The fact of the matter is, Jeremiah? This isn't perfect legislation. Of the majority of Americans who approve of it, a fair percentage say that it doesn't go nearly far enough to solve the problems so many families and individuals face, and I agree with that sentiment. But once people begin to receive the benefits it provides, even the naysayers will begin to concede that the sky has not fallen, the economy has not collapsed (at least, not from health care reform: we'll leave Wall Street mendacity for another time), their burdens are eased and some of their anxieties mitigated. Those people will sit up, shake themselves, wonder why on earth they ever even listened to, much less believed, all the tripe you and your camp have been dishing up about Death Panels and so forth. And the narrow-minded cabal you support, that lines their pockets with lobbyists' cash while working to persuade poor schleps like you to vote against your own best interests through cynical ploys and whip-up-the-crowd malarkey? They will be seen through, and sent packing.

Maybe even by you. I don't hold out great hope...but I am sure you would be the last person to tell me that miracles never happen.