Sunday, November 01, 2009
Incredible. Simply incredible. I really can't say it any better than Cenk Uygur does here. This should make anybodybody's blood boil. It's funny to hear people decrying the anti-capitalist sentiment that exists in this county right now and crying about the onset of socialism. Socialism?!?! We've been heading AWAY from socialism for the last 30 years. We aren't anywhere even remotely close to socialism. Ah, but that won't stop the hyperbole whores.
Yes, but if we can get people to fear socialism, then maybe they won't ask too many questions about what the capitalists on Wall Street are doing.
Let's all pretend there is no such thing as robber barons. We should be far more concerned if Barack Obama was really born in the United States or if he is actually a foreigner that is part of an elaborate international communist conspiracy. Hmmm.......(cue the spooky music).
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2 comments:
"hyperbole whores"?
Gee, tell us how you really feel.
Socialism: Economic system based on state ownership of industry.
Ask yourself, based on federal actions taken during the past year: Is the current administration & legislature moving us closer or further away from the definition above?
Then ask yourself why this might bother some people.
Side Note: Exploding deficits and this is the first line of a news story on the subject: "The Obama administration may explore using leftover bailout funds to pay off the deficit..."
ROTFLOL! No comment needed, it's too funny for words.
"hyperbole whores"...I coined that one all by myself :) Do you like it?
(I, of course, am not oblivious to the fact that I am resorting to a bit of hyperbole myself with that statement - you will have to forgive my hypocrisy)
Seriously though, I know we have some significant disagreements about the proper role/scope of government.
It's not that people should have the audacity to disagree with me and my profound wisdom that I find upsetting ;) It is the often egregious misrepresentation of reform arguments, along with the blatant hypocrisy on the Republican side that kills me.
Where was the tea party crowd in 2003 when Medicare Part D was passed? Was that not a massive expansion of a federal entitlement program? Where was the righteous indignation and outrage from Beck, Limbaugh, et. al? So many of the very same Republicans that have fought reform on the grounds that it is socialism are the very same people who voted for a $500 billion expansion of Medicare - without making much effort to keep it deficit neutral. Of course that money went towards seniors - one of the Republican core constituencies, in the year leading up to an election. I'm sure that had nothing to do with it though.
No politician has seriously argued for the repeal of Social Security or Medicare on the grounds that it is socialism. They know full well that doing so would be political suicide.
Let's call this for what it is. The fight going on now has little to do with the issue of healthcare itself. It is nothing more than politics, plain and simple. Oh, and paying back favors owed to the health insurance lobby - who doubtless have the nation's best interests at heart.
(my apologies for the sarcasm - it's a life-long habit that's hard to break)
I don't fault anyone who argues for free markets and limited government. Despite my position on healthcare, it is a position that I usually sympathize with.
However, I also have come to believe that there is a fine line that separates the the sincere free marketers from corporate lackeys who are only looking out for their own narrow interests.
I thought this article was extremely revealing about how far the country has shifted to the right.
http://www.kaiserhealthnews.org/Stories/2009/September/03/nixon-proposal.aspx
It's amazing to think of how Obama has been demonized for his efforts in this area. Richard Nixon - Richard Freaking Nixon! - spoke on this subject in 1974 and offered a plan that was more liberal than what Obama is proposing now.
This really isn't an argument at all about the issues or about two legitimate competing political philosophies. It's politics. I am convinced that if Obama were a Republican, the majority of men and women in Congress would flip-flop their positions in order to support/oppose him. It has been disheartening.
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