November 08, 2009
Freedom hanging by a thread
Words do matter.
It's going to take some time to deconstruct this lengthy masterpiece, but as you flip through the pages of the House bill, you will notice the word "regulation" appears 181 times. "Tax" is there 214 times. "Fees," 103 times. As we all know, nothing says "affordability" like higher taxes and fees.The word "shall" - as in "must" or "required to" - appears over 3,000 times.
The real stakes
Mark Steyn on why the fight over health care really, really matters:
[All] the poor befuddled sober centrists who can’t understand why the Democrats keep passing incoherent 1,200-page bills every week are missing the point.If “health care” were about health care, the devil would be in the details. But it’s not about health or costs or coverage; it’s about getting over the river and burning the bridge. It doesn’t matter what form of governmentalized health care gets passed as long as it passes. Once it’s in place, it will be “reformed”, endlessly, but it will never be undone.
Right now, they can trade anything - abortion, death panels, whatever. The trick is to plant the seed and let the ratchet effect of Big Government take care of the rest.
On to the Senate.
November 07, 2009
Cao's cave-in
So, the House Democrats got their health "reform" bill tonight but only by a narrow 220-215 vote. Thirty-nine Dems broke ranks.
One GOP member, Joseph Cao from Louisiana, voted for the monster bill (hmm, what deal did he make?). Amusingly, his entry in Wikipedia has been updated, defaced and then re-edited within moments. But here's what it looks like in Google's cache as of right now:
That's "Joseph Cao has no family. He was born of Satan and lost a soul the day he voted against republicans."
Gotta love the Internet.