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| Home Front: Politix |
| Pull the plug on Obamacare |
| 2009-08-21 |
| Peggy Noonan, Wall Street Journal Every big idea that works is marked by simplicity, by clarity. You can understand it when you hear it, and you can explain it to people. Social Security: Retired workers receive a public pension to help them through old age. Medicare: People over 65 can receive taxpayer-funded health care. Welfare: If you have no money and cannot support yourself, we will help as you get back on your feet. May I humbly suggest a few other examples of simple big ideas that are, perhaps, more unambiguously successful: --"...Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed,..." --"With confidence in our armed forces, with the unbounding determination of our people, we will gain the inevitable triumph. So help us God." --"I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth." --"I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character." --"Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate. Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!" These things are clear. I understand them. You understand them. The president's health-care plan is not clear, and I mean that not only in the sense of "he hasn't told us his plan." I mean it in terms of the voodoo phrases, this gobbledygook, this secret language of government that no one understands—"single payer," "public option," "insurance marketplace exchange." No one understands what this stuff means, nobody normal. And when normal people don't know what the words mean, they don't say to themselves, "I may not understand, but my trusty government surely does, and will treat me and mine with respect." They think, "I can't get what these people are talking about. They must be trying to get one past me. So I'll vote no." |
| Posted by:Mike |
| #2 Lemme know when Peg starts writing pr0n. Then maybe, maybe, I'll start reading her. |
| Posted by: badanov 2009-08-21 14:42 |
| #1 And when normal people don't know what the words mean, they don't say to themselves, "I may not understand, but my trusty government surely does, and will treat me and mine with respect." They think, "I can't get what these people are talking about. They must be trying to get one past me. So I'll vote no." I am sure the bailouts and the economic stumblebums running things out of Washington, along with 401K and job losses, have done a great deal to sour the electorate's attitude & given them cause to believe some other foolishness is also being pushed on them by the Best and the Brightest. |
| Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 2009-08-21 14:27 |