Quote of the day

"Cynicism is the greatest enemy of reform." --Robert Reich, American political economist, professor, author, and political commentator

Links: https://www.facebook.com/messages/504376805#!/RBReich

http://robertreich.org/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Reich

Quote of the day

“What is a man born for, but to be a Reformer, a re-maker of what man has made; a renouncer of lies; a restorer of truth and good; imitating that great nature herself, yielding us every morning a new day, and with every pulsation a new life?” --Ralph Waldo Emerson, essayist and poet (1803-1882)

Opposition to Health Law Is Steeped in Tradition

The quote:

“We are against forcing all citizens, regardless of need, into a compulsory government program,” said one prominent critic of the new health care law. It is socialized medicine, he argued. If it stands,he said, “one of these days, you and I are going to spend our sunset years telling our children, and our children’s children, what it once was like in America when men were free.”

The health care law in question was Medicare, and the critic was Ronald Reagan.   (by David Leonhardt, The New York Times, 12/14/2010)

We’ve lived through a version of this story before, and not just with Medicare. Nearly every time this country has expanded its social safety net or tried to guarantee civil rights, passionate opposition has followed.

The opposition stems from the tension between two competing traditions in the American economy. One is the laissez-faire tradition that celebrates individuality and risk-taking. The other is the progressive tradition that says people have a right to a minimum standard of living — time off from work, education and the like.

The federal income tax, a senator from New York said a century ago, might mean the end of “our distinctively American experiment of individual freedom.” Social Security was actually a plan “to Sovietize America,” a previous head of the Chamber of Commerce said in 1935. The minimum wage and mandated overtime pay were steps “in the direction of Communism, Bolshevism, fascism and Nazism,” theNational Association of Manufacturers charged in 1938.

After Brown v. Board of Education outlawed school segregation in 1954, 101 members of Congress signed a statement calling the ruling an instance of “naked judicial power” that would sow “chaos and confusion” and diminish American greatness. A decade later, The Wall Street Journal editorial board described civil rights marchers as “asking for trouble” and civil rights laws as being on “the outer edge of constitutionality, if not more.”

Really, people, this is tiresome.

More than 50 million of us have no health care insurance at all.  Millions of us have insurance but can't truly afford to have any services because the cost, first, of our insurance premiums are too high and then the cost of the care is also too high.

We need the Health Care Reform Act that passed this year.

Actually, we need even more than that but for right now, we're not going to get it.


Enjoy your weekend, y'all.

Link:  http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/15/business/economy/15leonhardt.html?_r=2&nl=todaysheadlines&emc=a2

"That's what I'm talkin' 'bout!"

Only one full day into the new Obama administration and already it seems like such good things--things we wanted and even expected--are coming to fruition.

Besides speaking to several of the leaders in the Middle East by phone (Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Jordan's King Abdullah), the new President Obama then had a meeting with his economic advisers about our fiscal situation and that mess we're in.

He talked of accelerating the country's departure from Iraq with his top military staff.

"As part of Wednesday's burst of activity, Obama's aides circulated an unsigned draft executive order that would require the closing within a year of the Guantanamo prison..."

And this is all extremely refreshing, intelligent and wonderful stuff, all in one day, sure.

Check out all that was done:

--President "Obama announced he was freezing the pay for senior White House staff and tightening up rules for former lobbyists who work in government -- an effort to make good on campaign promises for ethics reform."

--He froze the pay of all administration officials who make more than $100,000.00 per year or more;

--He signed rules making it easier for Americans to get government documents;

--"As part of the transition, Obama last night ordered federal agencies to hold off on pending regulations made in the last days of the Bush administration. The order blocks proposals including those to ease emission requirements for factories and require some foods to be labeled by country of origin";

--"The administration also sought a 120-day pause in military war-crimes tribunals of suspected terrorists detained at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, Cuba. Obama has vowed to close the facility and revamp the system for holding and trying enemy combatants";

--"Obama also decreed that only he would have the power to assert executive privilege, so as to 'limit its potential for abuse.' That may be a reference to former Vice President Dick Cheney’s assertion of executive privilege in keeping documents from Congress.";

Of all the good things done and changed today, however, this one impressed me most and gave me the most hope:

---"'A lobbyist who joins the Obama administration...is forbidden from working on issues they previously were involved with,' he said. Any person who leaves the administration will be barred from lobbying the government for two years. Government hiring, he said, will henceforth be based on qualifications, competence and experience, 'not political connections.'";

(Link to complete articles here--and they're good:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/bloomberg/20090122/pl_bloomberg/aysq9ot7ervu_1;
http://uk.reuters.com/article/marketsNewsUS/idUKN2042189320090122?pageNumber=1)

It truly is a new day.

A great, new day.



_____________________________
Meanwhile, back at the ranch:

It was just reported that the now former Vice President Dick "The Dick" Cheney was welcomed back to Wyoming with a standing ovation.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

and Rush Limbaugh?

He's concerned that our new President's rules for honesty and openness in government is just a ruse, created so we can go after George Bush.

Hmmm.

Not a bad idea.

It WAS our government, wasn't it, Rush?