The air seemed to go out of the ObamaCare balloon Thursday. He was greeted by scathing reviews of his mediocre press conference the night before. Then the House Energy and Commerce Committee for the third time canceled its mark-up on the health care bill, a sure sign the votes just weren’t there.
But...at the same time the Intrade futures on "A federal government run health insurance plan to be approved before midnight ET 31 Dec 2009" are in a three week uptrend.
As I write this, Intraders are saying that there is a 49% chance of approval. I think the markets are saying there is a rising chance that the Republicans and conservative Democrats will be the ones to "get something done".
Let us not forget that it was conservative Mitt Romney who got health care done in Massachusetts. Said Romney in a 2006 Wall Street Journal piece:
BOSTON--Only weeks after I was elected governor, Tom Stemberg, the founder and former CEO of Staples, stopped by my office. He told me, "If you really want to help people, find a way to get everyone health insurance." I replied that would mean raising taxes and a Clinton-style government takeover of health care. He insisted: "You can find a way."
I believe that we have. Every uninsured citizen in Massachusetts will soon have affordable health insurance and the costs of health care will be reduced. And we will need no new taxes, no employer mandate and no government takeover to make this happen.
Only a mystic can come up with a something-for-nothing quote like that. USA Today reported recently on the Massachusetts plan.
Three years after mandating that residents get health insurance and requiring employers, insurers and taxpayers to chip in, Massachusetts has yet to control soaring costs that are eating up half its budget....
Dealing with cost and quality has proved trickier. Higher health care costs fueled a combined $9 billion gap in the state's 2009 and 2010 budgets that had to be closed last month, leaving less for education, public safety, the environment and other services...
Conservatives are a bigger enemy than Obama.
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Be sure to visit my blogs "The Charlotte Capitalist" and "Exalted Moments"
Plus a 25% increase in sales tax starting August 1. :-(
ReplyDeleteI liked Romney at first. He appeared to be a "get shit done" businessman that would effectively run the economy. He also wasn't afraid to identify our enemy as Islamic Totalitarians instead of just saying "terrorists." He seemed really great.
ReplyDeleteThen I found out about that shitcan of a health care deal he did in MA. WTF is up with that? How can any self-respecting businessman come up with something so ridiculous?
I know the Objectivist reaction is to blame mysticism. I think Romney is smarter than that (he didn't think the money would just come out of thin air.) I think his crucial mistake was denying the existence of greed; he assumed people wouldn't abuse the system. Ha.
Obviously his fundamental altruistic belief system played a role in that he accepted the premise that we "need" to help people get medical care, but I don't think his religion blinded him to the practical impossibility of it all. I think it was naivety.
Thanks Tom for commenting.
ReplyDeleteI used "mystic" in the very broad sense as defined by Ayn Rand - "Mysticism is the acceptance of allegations without evidence or proof, either apart from or against the evidence of one’s senses and one’s reason. Mysticism is the claim to some non-sensory, non-rational, non-definable, non-identifiable means of knowledge, such as 'instinct,' 'intuition,' 'revelation,' or any form of 'just knowing.'" http://aynrandlexicon.com/lexicon/mysticism.html
Romney's quote was completely mystical. It had no tie to reality. There was no reason involved. Note his use of the word "believe". I take him literally.
This is not necessarily religious mysticism. Rand also pointed out the differences between mystics of muscle and mystics of spirit. Romney was wearing his muscle hat. He apparently is a mystic of spirit and of muscle.
http://aynrandlexicon.com/lexicon/mystics_of_spirit_and_muscle.html
Thanks again for commenting.
You're right, I was thinking about the mystics of spirit only. Either way he was a big let down.
ReplyDeleteYes. They will save it. This possible "defeat" of the current health care bill is only false hope. Conservatives want the same end as the Democrats, it's just the means to that end that they want to debate. "It's too expensive", "It doesn't utilize the free-market" - disgusting to here these words come from those who are supposed to be the defenders of individual rights.
ReplyDeleteNO ONE in a position of power or influence is willing to attack this issue from moral grounds - willing to question the "end" goal, which causes people like myself to lose all hope. Just take a look at some prominent Republican's laughable responses to the "is health care a right?" question: http://www.pjtv.com/video/PJTV_Healthcare_Forum/__PART_1%3A_Glenn_Reynolds%2C_Reps_Eric_Cantor_(R-VA)_%26_Tom_Price_(R-GA)%3A_Is_Healthcare_a_Right%3F/2223/