The Fascist States of America - Commissar Pelosi

The heated disagreement with, and vehement opposition to, the health care bill is NOT about racism. Any contention to the contrary is disingenuous political pap. Rather, this mis-direction is an attempt to stifle genuine discussion.

Whatever one's view of the propiety of the Joe Wilson shout-out, all Americans must now stand up and fight against the rising tide of fascism which is being perpetrated by the likes of Nancy Pelosi. That any honest disagreement with the health care program being rammed down our throat by the Obama administration is considered to be motivated by racism is the height of hypocrisy and the lowest form of ad hominum argument. It is not just a small group that is being labeled racist, it is everyone who disagrees. Indeed, that form of intimidation and coercion is exactly the danger about which we have been warned by lovers of freedom who have also long warned us about the oppression of the "majority". We also need to ask why this bill must be passed NOW when it will not take effect until 2012 - HINT: that is an election year.

The fundamental problem is that the entire health care debate is so wrong-headed - as are 99% of every congressional debates.

Why, for example, do we have to pay to create incentives for people to take care of themselves? Are we going to regulate every bit of every person's behavior? Why should we pay for years of neglect?

The presumption is that people will not take care of themselves unless someone else pays for it and did not because they couldn't afford to. It is almost like a game of chicken or more likely a perversion of the Coasian solution to economic externalities - the more able will pay for everything no matter who generated the problem and whether it hurts the more able or not. To wit: "I'm going to eat so much of unhealthy food and I'll get so fat that I can't fit in a seat on public transportation and annoy everyone into either increasing the size of the seats or charging me a higher fare in which case I'll sue for discrimination - or I'll compete in the biggest loser contest and get my 15 minutes - AND you'll pay for my heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes and fallen arches and perhaps lipo-suction."

Or, are we simple promoting a program in which Obama will be covered 20 years from now for his smoking habits? Isn't that ironic - a smoker admonishing us about preventive medicine (and making the top 1% of income earners pay for it). By the way, do any of these bills discuss prohibitions on alcohol (let's reinstate the Volstead Act) and mandatory re-hab programs? Let's discuss what that will do to industry over a beer at the White House.

This road we're on is the same one that turned Great Britain into a second-rate power. It didn't start with Obama but the continued hammering away at a health care bill could be the last straw. Isn't it also ironic that one of the most talked about "legacies" of Ted Kennedy is his fight for health care reform. Over 40 years - across administrations of both parties and Congresses with majorities of either party - he couldn't get it done. He failed because we didn't want it. But, now on every stump on the health care campaign trail, Obama emphatically contends (and pounds the pulpit) that "we will get it done".