PrintDecember 23, 2009
A Christmas Insult? Or Just a Lump of Coal?
Some people think that Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV) is insulting Christians with his plan to make the United States Senate work right up to Christmas Eve on his health reform bill.
Maybe so. But it seems more likely that he just wants to make sure that every American gets a lump of coal in their Christmas stocking.
Because that's what his Bill of Abominations amounts to.
At the Weekly Standard, Jeffrey H. Anderson reckons that the Reid bill costs about $2.5 trillion over the first ten years. It will award a $1-trillion subsidy to the insurance industry over that period. We are talking here about the real first ten years of the bill, from 2014-2023, not the budget-gimmick 2010-2019 period preferred by Sen. Reid and the Democrats.
The joke is, of course, that after all the months of legislative sausage-making, the netroots have suddenly decided that they have been sold out. They were just fine with forcing the American people to stand in line at ObamaCare's DMV, or whatever humiliations the public option would require. They were fine with that. But their finely tuned principles could not endure the humiliation of an individual mandate that forced them to buy health insurance from a health insurance company.
At least the netroots admit who they are. Rush Limbaugh famously says that liberals can't admit who they are, at least not when running for office. It's after liberals get elected that they start behaving like liberals, and Americans don't like that. That's why there's a measurable upchuck factor that is fast becoming a "settled science" among political philosophers. Whenever Americans get a look at what liberalism means for them in practice, they hurl.
What's surprising is how Americans ever find out the truth about liberals. It's not as if the mainstream media is busy telling them about the fatal flaws of ObamaCare. And yet somehow, as ObamaCare has moved through Congress, Americans have turned against it. A week ago, Rasmussen had American voters opposing the health bill by 56-40, with 63 percent of seniors opposed.
The most visible opposition to ObamaCare is the Tea Party movement. The latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll finds that Americans like the Tea Party movement more than either the Democrats or the Republicans.
The Republican Party maintains its net-negative favorable/unfavorable rating in the poll, with 28 percent viewing it positively and 43 percent seeing it in a negative light.For the first time in more than two years, the Democratic Party also now holds a net-negative fav/unfav, at 35-45 percent.By comparison, the NBC/WSJ poll shows the Tea Party movement with a net-positive 41-23 percent score.
How did that happen? Fox News, that's how. Fox News consumers have a 75-4 fav/unfav on the Tea Party movement. Broadcast news consumers are even at 28-27. No wonder the Obama White House wants to delegitimize Fox as a news network.
The White House is, of course, merely trying to shoot the messenger as the bad news pours in. We can be sure that the Democrats never imagined last January that they'd be limping across the finish line on ObamaCare with s straight partisan split and a mangled bill. No doubt they assumed that in the end game they would be shaming Republicans -- set up as the party of No -- into voting for a bill that was soaring in the polls with solid support from a grateful American people.
They guessed wrong, and US politics will never be the same. If Democrats would only look in their own secular holiday stockings, they would find that they too have each got a lump of coal engraved with the words "See you in November." So it's lumps of coal all round.
When Santa leaves you a lump of coal, he is trying to send you a message. And in a little over ten months, the American people will be making a list, checking it twice, and deciding which politicians are naughty and which are nice. Here's what will be on my list.
- 1. Obama/Pelosi/Reid Health Bill of Abominations
- 2. Cap-and-Trade Bill of Abominations
- 3. $787 billion Porkulus Abomination
- 4. EPA CO2 Regulations and green energy subsidies
- 5. End of the Bush tax cuts
- 6. Gitmo North and civil trials for terrorists
- 7. Bullying Israel
- 8. Appeasing thug dictators
- 9. Federal employees making 42 percent more than private sector
- 10. State and local employees making 37 percent more than private sector
- 11. Jobs, jobs, jobs
When you look at that list, it gives you a warm feeling. There can't really be a U.S. voter that won't get riled up over at least three of four items on the list. It shouldn't be any problem getting Republicans and independents out to the polls next November.
But don't forget to keep that lump of coal handy.
Christopher Chantrill is a frequent contributor to American Thinker. See his roadtothemiddleclass.com and usgovernmentspending.com. His Road to the Middle Class is forthcoming.
