Where Do You Draw The Line?
Michelle Malkin attempts – again – to address the real issue of the SCHIP expansion. So does Mark Steyn, so does Deacon at Powerline. So do Sister Toldjah, Wake up America, Flopping Aces, Wizbang, Clayton Cramer, Riehl World View and now me. The real question is how do you draw any lines these days? Nancy Pelosi called a family with something between $400,000 and $500,000 in real assets "the working poor". That reframes the discussion into bizarro-world. (And frankly, if I were one of the less well off people who own considerably less than that family, I would be livid that the system covers people like that – with no real cost to them.)
It is almost impossible to have a discussion on anything in a meaningful way any more. When the terms are being distorted this much, when words no longer have fixed meanings but vary in accordance with situations – and with who is defining them – it has reached an absurd place.
By Quilly Mammoth, October 12, 2007 @ 7:27 pm
This is pretty straight forward: If you can’t work then either find a charity or die. Don’t make the government _force_ me to aid you. Though I do anyway.
People starving in the gutter?
Hasn’t _ever_ been that way in the US. There have always been charity homes. There are now. My church has an open food pantry…we often fret that things will expire before they are used.
By Checkers, October 12, 2007 @ 7:33 pm
Why is this so difficult? Here is the solution.
Increase the minimum wage for everyone in America to about 24$ an hour, poverty solved.
Give everyone access to whatever health care plan they wanted at whatever they feel is fair to pay, just pass a law, easy as that. Cover the difference with a tax on rich doctors.
Set gas and heating oil prices at fixed affordable levels, tax the rich oil companies to fund the difference.
Why is this so hard? Congress could do this in a week, then they could go home and not even have to run for re-election as all Americans would be so thankful they would be automatically re-elected.
Oh yeah, bring all troops home, no need for war as no need for oil as that problem was solved above!
By Gaius, October 12, 2007 @ 7:37 pm
Why, it’s as easy as Zimbabwe. Everyone there is a millionaire, too.
By Mwalimu Daudi, October 12, 2007 @ 8:58 pm
You left out passing laws making cancer, HIV-AIDS, earthquakes, hurricanes, tornados, floods, and Jon Stewart illegal.
To be honest – having a rational discussion about SCHIP is as likely as having a rational discussion with the Left about the Iraq war. Ain’t gonna happen!
By syn, October 13, 2007 @ 7:32 am
Lots of fraud coming out of closet of those who know how to rig the profession of entitlement taking.
I am livid.
I am self-employed, live in 400 sq ft, no dishwasher/microwave or maid service, can’t afford a car because I pay my own health insurance(look at the cost of a single person as opposed to family insurance) and my city tax is one of the highest in the nation yet the Frost family is defined by the tax system as ‘poor’.
Further the Frost parents have one thing I do not, four children who will be there to care for them in their old age while I, a childless woman, must now purchase long-term care insurance in case I need help when I get sick.
This isn’t a matter of fairness, it’s a matter of justice.
I lived my life responsibly yet I will be punished for doing so while the Frost family gets all the entitlement goodies.
I am livid.
By mockinbird, October 13, 2007 @ 5:22 pm
I ain’t got no $400,000 and I pay for my med care.
I am livid.
By Arlo, October 13, 2007 @ 6:54 pm
Will Rogers said something like, “This is the only country where people drive themselves to the poorhouse in their own car.”