Rationing Health Care - Forbes.com

Rationing Health Care - Forbes.com: "the president keeps repeating his straw man argument--that we must support his government-centered options for reforming our health system, because 'the alternative of doing nothing' is unacceptable. But specific alternative reforms that would reduce health care costs, such as removing government-defined barriers to competition, eliminating special interest insurance mandates and empowering the consumer rather than government with control of the money, information and choice, have already been proposed, despite their invisibility to mainstream media.

The honest debate should be about whether the costs should be forced down by increasing government intervention and control, or if Americans and their families should be in control of their health care."

Beware the straw man, as we have noted many times before (search this blog for "straw man").

FALSE CHOICE ALERT - Obama's verbal tick

Mark Steyn: Government's grasp goes global | government, global, geithner, obama, economy - Opinion - OCRegister.com: "

In their first two months, Obama and Geithner have done nothing but vaporize your wealth, and your children's future. What began as an economic crisis is now principally a political usurpation. And, to return to the president's 'false choice,' that 'chaotic and unforgiving capitalism' is exactly what we need right now. It's the quickest, cheapest, fairest, most efficient route to economic stabilization and renewal. A regimented and eternally forgiving global command economy with no moral hazard will destroy us all."

I linked to this Mark Steyn paragraph because it so succinctly states what is going on. But it also gives us the opportunity to call a FALSE CHOICE alert. Whenever you hear FALSE CHOICE in an Obama speech you know you are being served up a STRAW MAN.

Obama - No Surprise Except To the Squishy Centrists and RINOs That Supported Him

Commentary » Blog Archive » Not Like We Didn’t See this Coming:

"Yes, there is an element of managerial incompetence, but the real issue is that the Right was correct about Obama: he’s an ultra-liberal at least on domestic policy, not a pragmatic centrist either on policy or in style. His mode of governance — denigrate the opposition, engage in ad hominem attacks, refuse to compromise on substantive policy, disguise radical policy intentions with a haze of meaningless rhetoric — bespeaks someone supremely confident in his ideological views and undaunted by fears (which are slowly creeping up on his Red state colleagues) of having overshot his mandate."

President Obama's performance to date, rather than being a disappointment or surprise, has been one of the most predictable outcomes I have observed since I began following politics some decades ago. We need to find clever ways to unmask his tactics (e.g. STRAW MAN ALERT) and apply them with great vigor. I can barely imagine how ineffectual this President may become if stripped of his power to mesmerize and obfuscate. Hat tip to Mark Steyn for pointing me in the direction of this Commentary blog.

Pay No Attention to All Those Red Lines - After All I Inherited a Deficit

Projected Deficit - washingtonpost.com
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/graphic/2009/03/21/GR2009032100104.html

At his press conference, the President repeatedly evaded answering questions about whether he was sticking our children with paying for our overspending. As I recall, his arguments were:

1) I inherited a big deficit. How that justifies going on to triple the deficit you inherited totally escapes me.

2) It's either do what I propose or do nothing. STRAW MAN ALERT. There really is no course of action somewhere between doing nothing and running up $9.3 TRILLION in deficits?

3) If we don't spend all this money on education and healthcare, there's no way our economy is going to grow at even 2% HUH? Which economy has been the growth engine of the world, the US, or the European socialist states Pres Obama wants to turn us into? And how does throwing more money at our woefully inefficient education system, without reforming it, promise to generate any return on our "investment?" Thus far, federal spending on education has been pretty much inversely related to the global competitiveness of our education system.

More Shameless DoubletalkFrom the Great Unifier

Obama to Republicans: Enough with 'just say no' - Los Angeles Times:

"Obama to Republicans: Enough with 'just say no'
GOP opposition to taxes and proposed spending in the president's budget plan has spurred Democrats to portray Republicans as the negativity party. Obama tells Republicans to offer constructive ideas.

Reporting from Washington -- In an effort to boost pressure on congressional Republicans, President Barack Obama appealed to them to stop sniping at his budget proposals and offer their own constructive ideas, saying that the current difficult times call for more than negativity."

This is a clever, but breathtakingly dishonest tactic by the president. If he wants to hear the Republicans' constructive ideas, perhaps he should stop his pals in Congress from:

Pushing monumental legislation through Congress so rapidly that it can't even be read
Refusing to consider Republican proposals and amendments
Shoving provisions into laws during the reconciliation process, essentially stifling all debate on the matter

Republicans have offered many constructive proposals (many to be found in this blog) such as:

Lowering taxes on corporations
Lowering taxes on investments
Allowing corporations to repatriate profits earned overseas without paying confiscatory taxes on them
Suspending mark-to-market accounting rules
Expanding, not reducing free trade
Stimulating the economy (now) and improving our defense posture by spending stimulus money to replenish military weapons and materiel stockpiles depleted from the war
Expanding, not reducing charitable giving
Expanding, not reducing, school vouchers
Opening up a national market for health insurance
Extending the tax break for medical insurance to employees
The list goes on and on

There is no dearth of alternative ideas in Washington, just an unwillingness on the part of the "post-partisan President" to hear them.