A Right Wing Perspective, a Short Story and Thoughts on Health Care Reform

Cal Thomas is the newspaper columnist with whom I disagree the most often.  He was the one who, in discussing contraceptives before a right wing audience, suggested that the parents of some MSNBC newspeople should have used them.  He is almost the “lowest of the low.”  But not quite.  Fox commentator Sean Hannity and former Clinton aide Dick Morris are considerably lower.  In the following March 28 column by Thomas, he cites (and tacitly agrees with) the content of a recent interview of Morris by Hannity.  

                         

                                                Hannity                        Morris                      Thomas

I include this in the blog to provide a balance to the usually liberal ideas presented here.  Read all about how the President seeks to establish a “permanent leftist socialist base in the United States” and surrender the nation’s sovereignty to international organizations.  I hope Democrats, moderate Republicans and independents read it carefully to know the kind of fanatic lunacy they will be up against as the election draws near.  Millions of Americans believe stuff like this!  Know thy enemy.  Be Prepared!  Read on!

JL

Obama Unleashed

By Cal Thomas

Tribune Media Services
March 28, 2012

Politicians and presidents of both parties have occasionally suffered from open-mic syndrome, saying something when they thought the microphone was turned off they wished had not been made public.

The latest to fall prey to that amplification of the mouth is President Obama. The president told Russian President Dmitry Medvedev during their Monday meeting in Seoul, South Korea that once re-elected, he would have “more flexibility” to deal with missile defense. The president asked Medvedev to relay to incoming President Vladimir Putin his request for “patience” and “space.”

The comments sent shivers down conservative spines. Conservatives believe the president is a not-so-closeted socialist. They recall his criticism of the Founding Fathers for putting too many restraints on presidential power in the Constitution, limiting a president’s ability to unilaterally bring about change. Unconstrained by the need to run again, they fear a political version of “Girls Gone Wild” with the Constitution shredded and America transformed beyond recognition.

Dick Morris believes that an unleashed President Obama would cause even more damage to the country. The former adviser to Bill Clinton appeared on Fox’s “Hannity” Monday night and delivered a Nostradamus-type prediction of what an Obama second term might look like.

“I believe that he’ll proceed to a single-payer system on healthcare,” said Morris. “I think Obamacare was just an intermediate step in his mind. If he’s re-elected, particularly if there’s a Democratic Congress, he will eliminate the private health insurance industry and all insurance will be from the government and it will all be according to one plan. Secondly, I think that he will completely reverse the initiatives of the Bush 43 administration in opening up vast new forms of oil drilling in the U.S. And will eliminate this incredible opportunity we have to dominate the global oil markets and put the terrorists out of business. But thirdly, I think that his big focus will be to make the United States a vassal state to a globalist entity.”

With another president, this might sound like blather from the extreme right, but consider the new book by Van Jones, Obama’s former “green energy czar” who was forced to resign for past extremist views and statements, including signing a 2004 petition from 911Truth.org, a group that claimed George W. Bush allowed the 9/11 terrorist attacks to happen. In “Rebuild the Dream,” Jones claims President Obama could have done more to yank the country leftward had he not been “determined to be bipartisan at all costs.”

What would “more” look like in an Obama second term? Again, Dick Morris thinks he sees the future: “The G-20 and the IMF will acquire sovereignty over our economy. I think that he will sign the International Criminal Treaty that would oblige the United States to get U.N. approval, which is to say, Russian and Chinese approval before going to war. I think he will sign the ‘Rights of the Child’ treaty, which would create a legal basis for suing to increase foreign aid to poor countries.”

Morris was not finished: “I think that he’ll sign the global ban on small arms, back-door arms control in the United States. I think he’ll sign away royalties for offshore drilling by going along with the Law of the Sea Treaty. I think that he’ll ban U.S. weapons in outer space, which will eliminate an anti-missile capability.”

                                 

                                       Barack Obama                                             Karl Marx
                              (above illustrations added by the blog, but they are in the spirit of this column.) 

The most important thing the president will do, according to Morris: “He’s going to transform America into two countries, a small number of people who pay taxes and a large number of people who don’t work and are dependent upon the government to create a permanent leftist socialist base in the United States.”

If that is not cause for alarm, even panic, what is? In the 2008 presidential campaign, candidate Obama promised to fundamentally transform America. Given a second term and especially with a Democratic Congress, he will. Just give him some space.

(Direct all MAIL for Cal Thomas to: Tribune Media Services, 2010 Westridge Drive, Irving, TX 75038. Readers may also e-mail Cal Thomas attmseditors@tribune.com. )

(C) 2012 TRIBUNE MEDIA SERVICES, INC.

                                                       

Here’s a short, short story from the archives, originally written for our community writing group about six years ago.  It is basically true.  It’s amazing that seventh-graders were allowed by their parents to run around by themselves in those days.  Nowadays in Newark, where this story took place, it wouldn’t happen.

Circus

“Yeah, Charlie, it’ll be real fun.  It isn’t Barnum and Bailey but it’s still a real circus and it’s free for kids tomorrow.  There’s no school so we can take a bus over to the stadium about noon.  Tell you what!  I’ll meet you in front of the candy store on Bergen Street across from the Esso Station at a quarter to twelve.  Okay?”

I didn’t know Charlie very well, but he did go to the same school as I went to and he seemed to be a nice kid, even though he was sort of a loner without any real buddies.  And I certainly didn’t want to go to the circus alone.  Charlie looked at me, somewhat surprised, but readily agreed, “That’ll be great. I don’t think my Ma would mind.  I’ll be there!”

That night Jerry called me.  Seventh graders, still not really free from parental controls, made a lot of their social arrangements on the phone. 

“Wanna go to the circus at City Stadium tomorrow?” Jerry asked.  “Herbie and Harvey are going too.  We decided we’re all meeting in the schoolyard at eleven-thirty and we’ll catch the bus on Bergen Street.  Okay, Jack?

“Yeah, sure,” I said into the phone, a little annoyed that I was being asked belatedly to join in something three of my friends had decided to do without even letting me in on it beforehand.  I knew that if they had, I never would have arranged to go to the circus with Charlie. “I was going anyhow, Jer, but we’ll have a ball, all four of us going together!  See ya in the schoolyard tomorrow!”

The next morning, as I gulped down my cornflakes, my mother asked me if anything was wrong.  She thought I looked a little down.  I guess it showed that I was worried about what I had said to Charlie about meeting him.  An hour later, as the four of us left the schoolyard, I was still trying to figure out how I could go to the circus with Jerry, Herbie and Harvey without abandoning Charlie.

“Hey, guys,’ I called out. “Let’s walk down and catch the bus by the candy store across from the gas station. We got time to get some candy for the ride.”  I hoped that Charlie wasn’t going to be there.  Maybe his mother had said he couldn’t go to the circus.  But if she said that to him, why didn’t he call me up last night?  Maybe he couldn’t find my number.  But if I could get the guys to walk the few blocks, and if Charlie were there waiting by the candy store, we could all get on the bus together and I could handle that.

“Nah,” Jerry blurted out. “I can see a bus coming now.  We’ll never make it if we walk down there.  And there won’t be another one for half an hour.”

We all got on the bus together and as it passed the candy store, I saw Charlie standing there, looking around in vain for me, and holding the hand of his six year old kid brother.  

                    

For the rest of the term, I avoided Charlie and because his family moved away over the summer, I never did find out whether or not he and his brother made it to the circus that day.   I have no recollection whatsoever of that circus performance but, in my mind’s eye, I can still clearly bring back the painful image of Charlie and his brother, abandoned by me, hurt, standing in front of the candy store. 

Jack Lippman

                                                                   

Thoughts on Health Care

I don’t know what the President has been smoking, but in a news conference this week along with the heads of state from Mexico and Canada, dealing with hemispheric relations, he digressed and expressed optimism regarding the Supreme Court’s upcoming decision in June or July regarding the Affordable Health Care Act.  Justices Ginsberg, Breyer, Sotemayour and Kagan will vote to affirm that it is constitutional but undoubtedly, Justices Scalia, Thomas, Alito and Chief Justice Roberts will vote that it is unconstitutional, at least in regard to the mandate provision.  Although that is a truly conservative provision, as explained below, the votes of these four justices are politically influenced, unfortunately.  The decision will rest with Justice Kennedy who is the swing vote.  

                                                   

                                                                 Justice Anthony Kennedy

From some of the questions he posed when the case was before the Court last week, I suspect he will vote with the Scalia and his colleagues and declare at least the mandate unconstitutional.  This will mean that insurance companies, denied healthy customers mandated to buy insurance, will not be able to offer insurance to unhealthier customers with pre-existing conditions, and will have to price their products more expensively for those they do insure.  Provisions not dependent on the mandate will probably be allowed to remain.

For years, Democrats had advocated a “single payer” system with one insurer, the government, as is found in Medicare for seniors.  Because this would bypass the free-enterprise system, including the insurance industry, Republicans have historically opposed this approach.  They have always favored providing  health coverage to Americans by utilizing existing insurance companies.  To make this financial feasible to the insurance companies, the G.O.P. has always supported the idea of mandating the healthy to purchase insurance as well.  This also would reduce un-compensated hospital costs, presently passed on to those with insurance, when those healthy uninsureds turn out to need care, as eventually, everyone does.  The Affordable Health Care Act, sneered at by the hypocrites in the Republican Party, abandons the traditional Democratic route and adopts the Republican’s concept of mandated coverage for everyone.  When they were suggesting this themselves, they never thought of it as a violation of one’s constitutional rights.  Now they do.  And so will, in my opinion, five Supreme Court justices.

Unless, a vacancy occurs on the Court to change this balance, I believe the Democrats will eventually abandon their “free-enterprise” insurance company approach to universal health care, and expand the Medicare program to include everyone in the country.  The blame for this will rest with the hypocritical obstinacy of the Republican Party and the political bias of the Court.  For this to happen, though, the Democrats will need to have significant majorities in both Houses of Congress when the President is re-elected in November, as almost all polls seem to indicate will happen.  Of course, this won’t be necessary if the President’s optimism about the Court's decision the other day proves to be justified.

Incidentally, I came across an interesting comment the other day, made by a physician.  She remarked that the Affordable Health Care Act, or ObamaCare if you prefer, is not health care reform at all.  Its dependence on the insurance companies to make it work makes it an insurance reform law.  Oddly, according to the McCarran Act dating back to the 1930’s, regulation of insurance is none of the Federal Government’s business and is a power retained by individual states.  I have not seen this point mentioned at all when the Act’s provisions requiring insurance companies to accept people with pre-existing conditions for health insurance, and to set rates on a community basis, are discussed.  Of course, such provisions depend on the continued existence of the “mandate.”

Jack Lippman

                                                                  

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