Welcome To THE USSA

Sunday night the Progressive unilaterally forced America to the next big step to make us like the rest of the FAILED WORLD. Welcome to the United Socialist States of America. Think I'm crazy? I see in the news how several socialist countries have "congratulated" America in joining them.

Almost without ceasing since the Democrats raped the country I've heard Progressives say such stupid things as "I have a right to health care" or "I have a right to be healthy". How absolutely ridiculous. Let me ask you geniuses something...what's the difference between an inalienable right and a government-granted one? Huh? Stuck on that one? An inalienable right is God-given, and what God gives He doesn't take away. And mankind has no right to take it away, either, which is precisely why our founders put the phrase into our documents. Any right that a government grants can be taken away. But when we stupidly grant government the authority to usurp that of God we reap exactly what we sew.

Health is what it is, folks. You are born with certain strengths, weaknesses, propensities and resistance. Some of us are more susceptible to some kinds of illnesses than others. Come ON, people, wake up, here. If we had absolutely no doctors, no medicine, no hospitals, how exactly do you have a right to be any more healthy than you have control over, notwithstanding those who actually understand God's grace and that which believers have access to (though don't often operate in)? You who actually think you have a right to be health and, by extension, health care -- in whatever form that comes -- are saying that the very second someone comes up with a new drug, vaccine, procedure, prosthesis, whatever, you have a right to it.

Really? Are you KIDDING ME? That is no different from someone suddenly deciding that being able to scuba dive is a right. If those who feel they have this right feel that I'm somehow depriving them of the right to scuba dive, they will find a way to legislate it so that I can only charge what they feel is acceptable (if I get to charge at all). Oh, but what if I decide not to teach scuba diving anymore? Well, by their logic, I have the skill and I have no right to deprive them. I am a slave of their concept of what a right is.

Health care is NO DIFFERENT. And government has no right to declare it a right. Government has no right to declare that everyone purchase health insurance no more than they have a right to declare everyone has to become a scuba diver. It's forcing you to purchase something AND to purchase it based on GOVERNMENT'S qualifications.

What an absolutely disgusting concept. What exactly do I have a right to? The pursuit of happiness...not happiness, but the pursuit of it. There are no guarantees of happiness, no more than there are guarantees to good health. It is something I PURSUE. If I choose to eat lard-soaked food, not exercise, consume 12-packs of alcohol every other day (all of which I observe are FREQUENT past times in this area), then I have chosen every single one of the health PROBLEMS that come with those choices. Oh, but you Progressives think I have a right to any and all health care, regardless.

Unbelievable.

Now, where does government have a mandate? To make sure that those who engage in the BUSINESS OF HEALTH CARE do so fairly and with integrity. That's why such things as putting restrictions on arbitrary dropping of the insured or opening up competition between states or restricting companies from unceremoniously denying coverage to those with pre-existing conditions are rightly debatable remedies. But what the Progressives did was much, much more than that. It was all about leveling the playing field, redistribution of wealth, punishing the successful and those who take care of themselves, and otherwise creating this thing called "social justice".

Do you want to know what social justice is? "The wages of sin is death". That's social justice, kids. If you want to get right down the TRUTH, we all deserve to die. By God's standards, His standards of holiness, we don't have a right to live. How does that feel? But, He granted us free will and an opportunity -- and the freedom -- to make the choices: "I put before you life and death, blessing and cursing. Choose life".

What have we chosen? Slavery, and the mistaken idea that we have rights to THINGS. Why are you people so selfish and shallow, so entitlement-minded? I'm sick of people and their entitlements. SICK OF IT. How DARE you tell me I have to purchase something I don't want. How DARE you infect this country with the twin diseases of Social Justice and Economic Justice. True justice is found in Scripture, not government.

How Distorted The Left

I observed the following on the Comcast.net forums:

From someone called “Nullhumanoid”: "Why do you want our health care to fail? Please explain the logic behind it.”

From “Betterdaysahead”: "Yeah, that’s why the American Medical Association has been so supportive of reform efforts. And why so many surveys of physicians have shown that they view the current system as broken and unsustainable.”

From “Professor_Chaos”: “Medicare is not handled badly. That a silly Republican talking point. Try and find a senior willing to give it up. You can’t.”

Talk about “talking points”. Do you see how shallow and simple-minded these people are? They don’t have a clue how weak their points are. But, in case you don’t see it, let me walk you through them. In response to Nullhumanoid’s cliché’d argument, we conservatives DON’T want our health care SYSTEM to fail. What we do want to fail is the socialized health care that the progressives are shoving down our throats. Clearly there are a number of problems, but almost all of those problems stem from the COST issue. In fact, we wouldn’t need insurance at all if the costs were reasonable. And even to THAT point, the idea of “reasonable” is up for debate. When a doctor finally gets his/her license, do you have any idea the total expense that has been accumulated in the process? Apply that same question to any other professional field. I am a scuba instructor. By comparison, the cost to reach this certification has been small, but it has still been in the thousands of dollars to get here. Just to actually start up the business of teaching—purchasing training gear, compressor, training materials, diving and liability insurance, professional fees—also cost in the thousands. Add to that the exorbitant taxes, etc., the government confiscates, and I totally sympathize with doctors and others in the medical field. How much do you think a doctor, for example, should charge to begin to recoup the costs, pay current operating expenses (location, employees, equipment, insurance, etc.) and maintain a reasonable salary? Hmm?

What people like the above are saying is that the government knows better what that should look like. What right does the government have? What this health care bill strives to do is CLAIM to reduce COST, but in fact is only reducing the PRICE. The COSTS aren’t affected. It’s a little trick called “Price Controls”. Professor_Chaos claims Medicare isn’t handled badly. Well, of COURSE it is! First off, it’s an entitlement, which automatically makes it a bad thing. Second, it is based on price controls. Ask any physician what they think of what they receive to treat those on Medicare. Most of them can’t make a living off it. So, where to they supplement this measly compensation? Higher prices in other services. And, again, the ignorance of Professor_Chaos’ argument “find a senior willing to give it up” should be obvious. Once you hook people on an entitlement, regardless of how horrible, they almost never want to give it up. Which is WHY we must fight this health care bill so vehemently. Once it’s passed and people are stuck on it you will find it impossible to repeal it.

As for Betterdaysahead’s sophomoric attempt at an argument, the fact is that we ALL are supporting some sort of reform. We all agree that the current system is broken, though whether it is “unsustainable” is still debatable. The ISSUE is to get to the real problem: COST. Look at homeowner’s insurance. First, you aren’t required by the federal government to have homeowner’s insurance. Show me anyone who has homeowner’s insurance when they don’t own a home. And, in fact, if you own your home outright, you don’t have to have homeowner’s insurance then, either. But ask yourself: Why do you have homeowner’s insurance? Do you pay for every little thing you do to your home via an insurance claim? I sure don’t. We had nearly our entire roof rebuilt and didn’t try to claim it on insurance. You know what I have my insurance for? Those catastrophic events that would normally be beyond most folks’ capacity to pay for at once. And when I do need to do maintenance on my home and I’m paying out of pocket for it, what do you think I do? I SHOP AROUND. Most people who bother to actually talk with their health care providers usually are able to avoid paying for procedures or treatments unless they’re truly needed. They usually avoid paying for the high-end versions of medicines in favor of generic brands or different medicines altogether.

But all of this goes back to the cost of doing business. It is just plain stupid to ignore the real root cause of the cost issue and just focus on enslaving all Americans to a “single-payer system” that the government owns, creating yet more government agencies and government employees to waste our tax dollars.

One last piece, one that I have brought up before and will continue to. Health care is not a right. The poorest of the poor always have ACCESS to treatment when it’s really needed. They can’t be turned away. But ultimately you do not have the right to demand that a person be a doctor. You do not have the right to demand that a doctor treat you when you want. Being a doctor or nurse or hospital worker is a profession, a job. You have no more right to health care than you do to being trained to scuba dive. They are SERVICES that we CHOOSE to provide. If I choose to only teach six students once every year, that is my choice. If a doctor only chooses to see patients one day a week, same thing. If we have no other way to produce income, then we must logically choose to establish availability of services and rates we charge for those services that makes it worth our time and investment. If I charge more than someone in San Antonio for scuba training, you have the right to shop around. I’ll either find a way to cut my costs or go out of business. We need to find out why it costs so much for health care to be provided. Conservatives have already started to look at some of that, and even some liberals have. NONE have done a lot of true root cause analysis. I can promise you the progressives have not. But ask a doctor what his/her biggest expenses are that he/she has to cover. Then you might have a starting point.

Solving our broken system requires you to be much less shallow and lazy than the people I quoted above. And get off the entitlement mindset….you aren’t entitled to squat.

Relieve Us Of Our Struggles?

You know you're a Socialist when...

Can you believe Mr. Obama? The entitlement mentality, the socialist drive is inescapable with this guy. The desperation of Progressives is palpable. President Obama is trying every angle he possibly can, including encouraging Congress to create new—and arguably unconstitutional—rules to let them get away with passing this debacle of so-called “health care reform” without actually voting on it. Of course, he and his cronies are screaming “We need and up or down vote”, but aren’t willing to actually HAVE that up or down vote. Hypocrites. One of Obama’s strong-arm tactics has been to throw his arm over the shoulder of the remaining Democrat hold-outs and badger them mano-a-mano into voting “yes”. Take Dennis Kucinich of Ohio, whom Obama took along on Air Force One to a rally. When Obama introduced Kucinich at the rally, someone in the audience shouted “Vote yes”. As if on cue (which it probably WAS), Obama turned to Kucinich, “Did you hear that, Dennis?” Tagging out his speech, the President recounted for his adoring, shallow, deceived fans something he allegedly said to Kucinich: “You know what? It’s been such a long time since we made government on the side of ordinary working folks, where we did something for them that relieved some of their struggles”.

Say what? What in blazes does he call Social Security? Medicare/Medicaid? Welfare? I could go on with the list, but the audacity and outright deception of the President is breathtaking. But more importantly, precisely what gives him or the government the right to “relieve our struggles”? Nowhere in the Declaration of Independence or the Constitution do you see any mandate for government to do any such thing. In fact, contrary to the CLEARLY STATED INTENT of our forefathers, the government has done more to get in the way of citizens relieving THEMSELVES of struggles than anything else. Scripture tells us that in this world there WILL BE STRUGGLES. Exactly what does Obama and the federal government think it’s even capable of doing to actually remove them? Do you realize what happens when you remove all “struggles” from people’s lives? They get fat, lazy, complacent, demanding to be taken care of and coddled. They become unproductive and useless. They get sicker. Yes, yes, there is such a thing as overwhelming adversity. And that’s where WE come in. Not the government, but US. The average citizen. If all you Progressives are so philanthropic, why don’t you take a page from the New Testament and give away all YOUR earthly wealth for the benefit of those in need around you? The fact is, you are the LEAST likely to be so generous. You are more likely to be generous with everyone ELSE’s earthly goods than your own. Oh, to be sure, the Church has long fallen down on the job in these areas, but even that’s beginning to change.

What these Progressives don’t like is the fact that there is a fundamental disagreement here. We believe, as did our founding fathers, that certain inalienable rights were endowed to us by OUR CREATOR. THEY believe they are granted to us through the benevolence of forward-thinking government leaders. At this point, I am convinced that a majority of the Progressives would much prefer we throw out our Constitution and create a new one. In fact, Glenn Beck revealed writings and videos of prominent Progressives, ones who have connections to President Obama, who advocate exactly that course of action.

Ladies and gentlemen, it’s time we got off of our complacent hind ends and stood against efforts of government leaders determined to “progress” us into a more tyrannical form of government.

The Audacity of Hype

The hyperbole of both sides of the aisle is off the scale, but I'm continuously amazed at the back-and-forth of Obama, Reid and Pelosi on the health care bill. Obama has finally gone completely off the rails with his latest tyrades in public speeches. He's essentially daring the House to go ahead and vote on the bill. And Pelosi and Reid keep talking about all these things that are, or will be, different in the bill....as if the current bill is mutable! The bill that currently sits on the table, waiting for a vote from House, is the Senate bill. It cannot be altered at all.

Now, depending on the poll, between 60 and 70 percent of Americans do NOT want this horrid excuse for so-called “health care reform”. Sadly, I’m betting too many of you don’t really know what’s going on with this bill, and only are hearing something like “The Democrats are trying to pass a comprehensive health care reform bill and the Republicans are blocking it”. If that’s all you know about it, then shame on you. First of all, it’s a lie. The House of Representatives—of which Ciro Rodriguez is our liberal representative—narrowly passed a version of this legislation. The Senate passed a different version with JUST enough to beat any filibuster. The thing is, there is enough difference between the two bills that quite a few of the Democrats in the House do not like the Senate version.

All of the battles have been within the Democratic camp, with Republicans being stuck on the sidelines. What Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi is trying desperately to do is create enough backroom deals to convince the Democrats to accept the Senate version as-is, with the HOPE that a bill to “fix” the differences would be passed later.

The process known as “reconciliation” was originally created via the Congressional Budget Act of 1974 and had a very narrow budget-only use (Wikipedia has a fair description of its use and history). Both houses of Congress and both parties have stretched its application since then, even though the adopted “Byrd Rule” (submitted by Democratic Senator Robert Byrd) had established a more limiting use. Pelosi has been working feverishly to work deals to get enough Democrats to vote to accept the Senate bill and then vote on the reconciliation bill (containing the changes). This use is arguably OUTSIDE THE BOUNDS for appropriate use, and the types of items that would need to be reconciled (e.g., public funding of abortion – aka killing of the unborn) cannot be constitutionally addressed this way.

But now it gets even more dangerous. It’s called “The Slaughter Solution”. House Rules Chairman Louise Slaughter is submitting a rule that would dictate that the Senate version of the bill is “automatically passed” or “deemed to have passed” once the House passes the reconciliation bill. In other words, NO ACTUAL VOTE happens on accepting the Senate version of the bill! This is blatantly unconstitutional. The fact that President Obama and our House Representative, Ciro Rodriguez, want to push through this massive, deficit-expanding takeover of health care in spite of a growing public voice that wants reform approached using more sense (and less dollars), means they are willing to try every unethical, shady trick to make it happen, no matter the cost.

I implore you to put the pressure on your Representatives to fight against this. Most of us want health care reform. The real agenda of Progressives like Rodriguez is to socialize it. The true solution is to solve the problems of why it costs so much. Call the office of Ciro Rodriguez and put a stop to this huge mistake.