Keith D. Milby :: blog

Few things government does well. Most things, those things it has no buisness doing in the first place, it does poorly. To add Universal Health Care to the list would be one of those things it would do poorly.

Think about what it does. Think about what you have to go through when you have to interact with your government for services. Do you really want this same government managing your heath care?

Maggie Gallagher sheds some light on the real deal in Truth About Nationalized Health Care

How hard can it be to offer a universal health care plan? “John Edwards had a plan, I had a plan, Chris Dodd had a plan, Dennis Kucinich had a plan, Bill Richardson had a plan. Because we’re Democrats …” Clinton said.

But Obama, in his Bob the Builder campaign designed to appeal to the toddler in every American, offers a plan that is all gain and no pain: subsidized health insurance for anyone who wants to buy it, whenever they want to buy it. More money, more choice, no cost. Gee, what’s not to like?

Nothing, except that Hillary is correct. Obamacare can’t possibly work, because it doesn’t make sense to buy insurance when you are young and healthy if you are guaranteed access anyway when you are older and sicker.

When a politician offers to do something for me, I always ask how much freedom is it going to cost me?

One more thing, deny this fact and you are only fooling yourself.

Here’s the other dirty little secret: National health insurance is going to cost Brandy and other taxpayers a whole lot more than either Hillary or Obama admits. Just ask Gov. Deval Patrick in Massachusetts, where just two years into operation, the state’s mandatory health insurance plan is already costing $400 million more than budgeted.

Now the the Supreme Court has decided to take up the D.C. Handgun Ban, expect a full on assault from the liberal leftest media here at home and abroad. They will use the power of their media positions to mislead, spin, misuse facts and figures and when neccessary, just outright lie to advance the media and the liberal progressive lefts agenda to ban guns all together.

Of course as anyone with half a brain knows, trying to ban weapons such as hand guns is a futile effort in America. In that it only takes the weapons out of the hands of innocent, law abiding citizens. Leaving them defenseless to the criminal elements that choose not to obey the law that bans the hand guns.

Now here is the relevant part of the Second Amendment and the reason the Left will lose.

A well-regulated Militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.

Now to break it out in it’s relevant parts:

• A well-regulated Militia being necessary to the security of a free state,
• the right of the people to keep and bear arms
• shall not be infringed.

As many nut jobs on the left try and get away with, that the Second Amendment was only intended for State Militias, this is not true. It not only allows for a well-regulated Militia being necessary to the security of a free state, but it also allows for the right of the people to keep and bear arms. Lastly and very clearly it states that these rights shall not be infringed.

Now if for some reason Hell freezes over, pigs begin to fly and cows start jumping over the moon and the Supreme Court allows D.C. to continue to ban hand guns, then I would expect a revolution, the likes that have never been seen, well since the last Revolution of 1812.

Sources:
US Supreme Court ponders gun law
Eugene Volokh

I think John Edwards just split his pants to the point that they cannot be repaired.

He is proposing in a new commercial that if Congress does not pass Universal Health Care he will take it away from Congress out of spite. The problem is, he can’t do that.

What an idiot!

He is the extreme of the democrats and fortunately for us all, has not a chance in Hell of ever being president.

Source: An Impossible Promise From John Edwards

Excellent PSA and a wonderful illustration as to how ridiculous this whole expansion of SCHIP really is.

It seems the democrats will try again to expand a decent program into a disaster. Even though I have issues with the current program. To expand it to include less than deserving people is just too much.

This was a mistake in the first place. Thanks Republicans. To allow it to expand even more just puts us all that much closer to Universal Health Care. To fund it with extreme taxes on cigarettes is the biggest problem of all. Where do you think the funding will come from when that well drys up? They certainly won’t cut funding. They never do.

Source: Politico

Nothing surprising here if you consider, know and believe that what government does, it does badly. Just like welfare recipients riding around in new Cadillacs.

Some in Fairfax Public Housing Make Six Figures

Hundreds of families living in housing subsidized by Fairfax County taxpayers exceed income caps designed to ensure that only the neediest receive assistance, a review of county records shows.

In the most extreme cases, Fairfax is underwriting rents for families making well into six figures: One household getting help makes more than $216,000 a year; another, $184,000. Dozens of others — making $60,000, $70,000, $90,000 — exceed eligibility caps. And they do so with the tacit approval of county housing administrators, who do little to encourage occupants to move on when their fortunes improve.

These tenants live in housing intended for families at the bottom of the county’s economic spectrum. They are in the federally subsidized public housing program, the Fairfax rental program and the county’s senior housing program. The county’s Department of Housing and Community Development will spend about $4.5 million this year running these programs.

h/t: Wizbang

This is really not surprising, but still discouraging about government school systems. It does serve yet another argument to disband government education and give parents choice.

High School Bans American Flag

N.C. – On the sixth anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, students at one high school were not allowed to wear clothes with an American flag.
 
Under a new school rule, students at Hobbton High School are not allowed to wear items with flags, from any country, including the United States.
 
The new rule stems from a controversy over students wearing shirts bearing flags of other countries.
 
Gayle Langston said her daughter, Jessica, was told to remove her Stars and Stripes t-shirt.
 
“Today she wanted to wear her shirt, and I had to tell her no,” said Langston. “She didn’t like it at all because I knew it would get her in trouble. Of all days, 9/11, she could not wear her American Flag shirt.”
 
The superintendent of schools in Sampson County calls the situation unfortunate, but says educators didn’t want to be forced to pick and choose which flags should be permissible.

“pick and choose which flags should be permissible” - you have to be kidding. Are these morons not familiar which country they live in. It should not be a question what so ever. “Stupid is and stupid does” though.

UDPATE: School Rescinds Ban On Flag Clothing

A North Carolina High School that came under national attention over their rule that prohibited students from wearing items with the American flag, or any flag from other countries, has lifted the ban. 

It is really a shame that a ban on the American flag was in place in the first place. But hey, that’s what you get when you let the government run things. Idiots…

I have been forced to change my listening habits because of the lack of bandwidth at work. In  a way this had been good, in that I have been left with few options after Rush Limbaugh. That is where Dennis Miller on the Radio has filled the void and I have been very pleased.

Dennis had on today, John Bolton. I am a big fan. One of the points he made was that the recent deal that the State Department made with Kim Jong Il is that it won’t last. It is probably much like the last deal he made with the Clintons and at the end of the day, this will all just give Kim more time to do what he is going to do anyway.

The United States State Department of Suckers are more interested in making the deal, not so much the deal and not really into following through on the deals they make.

They have obviously forgotten Ronald Reagan’s “Trust but verify”.

This guy can’t be serious. Not only does he want to Canadianize our health care, he seriously wants to force us to then go for mandatory preventive check ups.

He either has a bunch a dumb monkey’s working for him, he’s an idiot, he’s not serious about wanting to run for president or all of the above.

Edwards backs mandatory preventive care

Democratic presidential hopeful John Edwards said on Sunday that his universal health care proposal would require that Americans go to the doctor for preventive care.

“It requires that everybody be covered. It requires that everybody get preventive care,” he told a crowd sitting in lawn chairs in front of the Cedar County Courthouse. “If you are going to be in the system, you can’t choose not to go to the doctor for 20 years. You have to go in and be checked and make sure that you are OK.”

Hey, how about you make getting bar codes tattooed on our forehead mandatory while you’re at it. 

Well I guess the hidden blessing in this, he has ripped his last pair of under-wear and will be soon bowing out of the race. I would not be surprised if this becomes his “Dean Scream”.

If you had any doubt as to how far democrats want to invade your private lives, this should remove it all.

UPDATE: Just read this great post from Six Meat Buffet. Much better than my comments.

One of the best things about Democrat pre-primary politics is when they start trying to out-liberal each other. In pure socialist fashion, all the candidates rush to the front of the line to tell us why his or her far-left idea is further left than the person behind them.

More reasons for breaking up the teachers unions and allow for school choice. 

These are the idiots we have educating our kids.

Colo. School Bans Tag on Its Playground

An elementary school has banned tag on its playground after some children complained they were harassed or chased against their will.

“It causes a lot of conflict on the playground,” said Cindy Fesgen, assistant principal of the Discovery Canyon Campus school.

God forbid kids learn anything about conflict resolution on the play ground.

That being they are leaving San Francisco at a rate that have some elites worried they are losing a faithful voting block. 

The problem I think, is that blacks are figuring out that socialist utopias only work as an idea and fail horribly when put into practice.

San Francisco hopes to reverse black flight

At $9.14 an hour, San Francisco has one of the nation’s highest minimum wages. It offers a tax credit to working families. As of July, uninsured residents under age 65 became eligible for universal health care. Preschool is available free to every child. The city has approved more affordable housing in the past few years than at any other time in its history, Newsom says.

Many blacks here shun buying affordable housing because those homes have “equity restrictions” to keep them affordable, which means they can’t be resold at market rates. 

I say good for them. They are starting to figure out that it is better to take care of yourself instead of having the government screw it up for you.

Socialism is a form of government that makes everyone equal. Equally miserable that is.

Just take a look at major cities with democrat majorities and you see one thing in common. They have people trapped in inner cities, with high crime, bad public education and poor people.

Socialism does not work but for those in charge of creating horrible policies that keep failing.

The Washington Examiner has a good write up of the absolute failure of Washington DC government schools. It can only be a government program, that continues to pile more money into a failing system and continue to expect better results. I think the definition for insanity applies to that some how.

School for scandal

Monday’s Examiner Exclusive on double-dipping in the District of Columbia Public School System should come as no surprise to anybody who’s been wondering how the city can spend so much on education — and get so little in return. With DCPS student scores perennially among the worst in the nation, it’s long been clear that millions in school money have gone into pockets, not into classrooms.

Last year, Examiner reporter Bill Myers investigated Brenda Belton, who recently pleaded guilty to making $649,000 in illegal payments and sweetheart contracts to enrich herself and her friends while serving as executive director of D.C.’s Office of Charter School Oversight.

I also like what Don Surber had to say about this.

Take the money, give half of it to the Catholics for tuition for DC kids and give the other half back to taxpayers.

That would be a good start.

As Stupid goes, so goes another government entitlement program. In the latest stupid attempt by congress, it is planning to pay for an expanded government paid health program by taxing cigarettes. What I guess has not been realized by these dim bulbs in Washington is that by taxing cigarettes, this will reduce the amount of cigarettes purchased thereby reducing the amount of tax collected. And where do you think these idiots are going to go when this stupid plan fails to generate the revenue anticipated?

If you answered additional taxes, you are correct.

Say NO to additional taxes, on anything, anywhere,  anytime, for any reason. That is the only way to reduce the size of government.

From the Examiner.com:  Thank you for smoking

Add a higher federal tax to those factors, and it is impossible to envision sufficient revenues to finance SCHIP as Congress intends. So Congress will need millions of new tobacco customers to replace those who quit, die or reduce consumption. At least 9 million new smokers will be needed during the next five years to ensure sufficient revenues to pay for the expanded SCHIP program. And that illustrates yet another law of economic reality — government actions almost always have unintended consequences, and they are usually bad.

As once said by Forrest Gump: Stupid is as Stupid does.

h/t: Instapundit

From the Associated Press: House passes minimum wage increase

WASHINGTON - The Democratic-controlled House voted Wednesday to increase the federal minimum wage to $7.25 an hour, bringing America’s lowest-paid workers a crucial step closer to their first raise in a decade.

The vote was 315-116, with more than 80 Republicans joining Democrats to pass it.

“You should not be relegated to poverty if you work hard and play by the rules,” said House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md.

Steny Hoyer must be an idiot if he believes the crap that is coming out of his pie hole. I suspect he does not and it is just politics of the lowest common denominator.

There are few main reasons workers make a minimum wage; (1) if you are making the minimum wage it probably means that you are not qualified to make that, but the only reason you are is because the Feds or the State mandate. (2) if you are making the minimum wage, you are probably a teenager working at a fast food joint. (3) you are retired, looking to supplement your paltry social security check and probably just to get out of the house and have something to do. Those probably cover just about 90% of those making minimum wage.

The simple fact as I see it, if they raise the minimum wage this will in turn raise the cost of goods and services, in turn putting these poor saps back in exactly the same place they started if not worse off.

Universal Health-care being an abject failure every time is has been tried you would
think that people would stop trying to implement anything like it. You would wrong.
Just look at what our fellow citizens are doing in California.

From the AP via MecuryNews.com: California
Assembly passes bill to provide universal health care

SACRAMENTO - The Assembly narrowly approved a bill Monday that would provide health
insurance to all residents, a move that would make California the only state to offer
government-operated universal health care.

The bill, which passed the 80-member house on a largely party-line vote of 43-30,
received strong Democratic backing. But supporters say pressure from the insurance
industry and Republican lawmakers is likely to doom the measure when it reaches Gov.
Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Sure, the government can’t keep the budget out of the red and sure kids have to ride
on buses that use pot-holed riddled roads to failing government schools but surely
they can manage and health-care systems.

Imagine it, soon the same folks that manage the DMV will be managing your health-care.

Good luck with that.