Sometimes You Wonder…..

From Memeorandum, the funniest juxtaposition of articles I heave seen recently:

We’ll leave it to the casual reader to work this one out.

Robert Novak Passes

Fred Barnes remembers.

Return To Sender

Caroline Baum, writing at Bloomberg, points out that the accumulation of Barack Obama gaffes about health care have now reached a critical mass:

When Obama compared the post office to UPS and FedEx, he was clearly hoping to assuage voter concerns about a public health-care option undercutting and eliminating private insurance.

What he did instead was conjure up visions of long lines and interminable waits. Why do we need or want a health-care system that works like the post office?…

… “If the private insurance companies are providing a good bargain, and if the public option has to be self-sustaining — meaning taxpayers aren’t subsidizing it, but it has to run on charging premiums and providing good services and a good network of doctors, just like any other private insurer would do — then I think private insurers should be able to compete.”

Self-sustaining? The public option? What has Obama been doing during those daily 40-minute economic briefings coordinated by uber-economic-adviser, Larry Summers?

Capitalism Explained

Government programs aren’t self-sustaining by definition. They’re subsidized by the taxpayer. If they were self-financed, we’d be off the hook.

There are, of course, many more. (She did leave out the one where Obama blithely explained that a surgeon got ”$30,000, $40,000, $50,000″ for amputating a leg under Medicare when the reality much, much lower. Like only $1,140 maximum).  But add all of these up and Obama’s facade of smooth confidence looks a lot like utter, complete cluelessness – or the slick, greasy, dissembling facade of a con-man.

Neither one is a good look for a president.

The fact is that these schemes will all cost more and mean less health care. There will have to be rationing – there is no other way with a finite supply of medical facilities and personnel and a vastly expanded number of insured. There is no such thing as a free lunch.

Yet Obama keeps promising one. He either knows he is lying – or he doesn’t understand even the most basic elements of the system is is demanding changes to.

This is, I suspect, why his schemes are in so much trouble. The public is not as dumb as the Democrats – and Obama – think they are. They are listening to this and experiencing that jaw-dropping moment when you realize that you heard something right – and can’t believe the person said something that idiotic.

Clueless or con-man? You decide. Do remember the comment policy, though.

They Were Against Evil Before They Were For It

William McGurn in The Wall Street Journal:

Remember when polite society treated a politician’s use of the word “evil” as a sign that the old boy was dangerously lacking upstairs?

We saw it in 1983, when Ronald Reagan famously used the word in a speech to describe the Soviet empire. What a rube! New York Times columnist Anthony Lewis spoke for the smart set when he wondered what Soviet leaders must think: “What confidence can they have in the restraint of an American leader with such an outlook?”

We saw it again in 2002, when George W. Bush characterized North Korea, Iran and Saddam Hussein’s Iraq as an “axis of evil.” Tom Daschle, a Democrat and then Senate majority leader, warned that “we’ve got to be very careful with rhetoric of that kind”; former President Jimmy Carter called it “overly simplistic and counterproductive”; and comedian Will Ferrell parodied it on Saturday Night Live. Soon the phrase became acceptable only in the ironic sense-as in the Chris Fair cookbook titled “Cuisines of the Axis of Evil and Other Irritating States: A Dinner Party Approach to International Relations.”

With all this history, you would think Harry Reid (D., Nev.) had ample warning. Nevertheless, the Senate majority leader invoked the e-word himself last week at an energy conference in Las Vegas, where he accused those protesting President Barack Obama’s health-care proposals of being “evil mongers.” So proud was he of this contribution to the American political lexicon that he repeated it to a reporter the next day and noted the phrase was “an original.”

Of course, the big difference here is that the much criticized remarks about evil by Republicans were directed outward against America’s enemies. Reid’s remarks, as well as those of Pelosi and Hoyer, were direct at Americans.

That should make you wonder about the deafening silence from the usual suspects.

Go read the whole piece.

The Memory Hole

Obama appeared at the VFW and described what he isn’t planning to do. Today.

Obama told the veterans that overhaul would not change how they get their medical services – and that nobody in Washington is talking about taking away or trimming their benefits. Instead, he’s instructed senior aides to work with the secretary of veterans affairs to come up with better ways to serve veterans.

The story from five short months ago was just a wee bit different:

The leader of the nation’s largest veterans organization says he is “deeply disappointed and concerned” after a meeting with President Obama today to discuss a proposal to force private insurance companies to pay for the treatment of military veterans who have suffered service-connected disabilities and injuries. The Obama administration recently revealed a plan to require private insurance carriers to reimburse the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) in such cases.

“It became apparent during our discussion today that the President intends to move forward with this unreasonable plan,” said Commander David K. Rehbein of The American Legion. “He says he is looking to generate $540-million by this method, but refused to hear arguments about the moral and government-avowed obligations that would be compromised by it.”

Yes, remember, there are no plans to change anything for vets.

Today.

Just don’t ask about yesterday. Or tomorrow.

Just A Little Guidance

Don’t call them “death panels”. They’re only here to help.

AARP: Out Of Touch And Loving It

The last line in this CBS News story about people canceling AARP memberships because of that organization’s perceived support for ObamaCare says it all. They simply do not care what their members think.

CBS News has learned that up to 60,000 people have cancelled their AARP memberships since July 1, angered over the group’s position on health care.

Elaine Guardiani has been with AARP for 14 years, and said, “I’m extremely disappointed in AARP.”

Retired nurse Dale Anderson has 12 years with AARP and said, “I don’t wanna be connected with AARP.”

Many are switching to the American Seniors Association, a group that calls itself the conservative alternative as CBS News Investigative Correspondent Sharyl Attkisson reports.

Last week alone, they added more than 5,000 new members. Our camera was there Friday when the mail came.

Letters were filled with cut-up AARP cards.

….

AARP says for a group with 40 million members that adds hundreds of thousands each month, losing 60 thousand is just a drop in the bucket. But to the much smaller American Seniors Association it’s a flood.

Of course, we already knew they really didn’t care, didn’t we?  

The AARP can’t find a thing to dislike about ObamaCare plans being floated, despite the fact that Obama is promising to pay for part of the deficit increasing cost by cutting a lot of money of of Medicare spending. (Just don’t call it cutting benefits, call it “savings”). Despite the fact that Obama has repeatedly argued that many will be “better off” getting pills rather than a medical procedure.

Nothing to argue with?

I’d say more seniors need to get the AARP’s attention by canceling their memberships. When they start to bleed members faster than they are signing up, then maybe they will be able to buy a clue.