Lowell Grisham made a mistake in his Oct. 27 column using the example of Esau trading away his birthright. A more apt analogy would be that of Jack and the beanstalk.
Jack (the American public) trades the family cow (individual liberty) to a shyster (President Obama) for a bag of “magic” beans (more government/ Affordable Care Act). We are only beginning to see what’s up the beanstalk of Obamacare. Numerous employers have cut jobs or nixed plans to add employees to stay under the “magic” number of50. Others have shifted to more part-time employees to avoid the burden of ACA mandates. Tens of thousands of people in Florida, California, New Jersey, etc.‚ have been kicked off their current health plans. This despite the repeated promise “if you like your plan, you can keep your plan, period.” More people every day are finding their family doctors will no longer be available.
Promises, promises.
The reverend is not completely inaccurate in his statement that conservatives seek to conserve. His misdirection, deliberate or otherwise,is in what a conservative would seek to conserve. In an environment where we are $17 trillion dollars in debt, a conservative does not seek to conserve a program that will balloon government spending exponentially. Obamacare is mired in the muck of an ineptly designed web-based system that was advertised to cost $90 million and has exceeded $630 million and counting. The president, when touting this bill for passage, said it would add $900 billion to the budget over 10 years. That number is now at $2.7 trillion. Any takers who’d like to bet theunder on this number?
More laughable still is the statement that the ACA represents “a classic American liberal-conservative compromise.” This made me wonder if I’d awoken in an alternate universe.
The ACA was passed using parliamentarian trickery in the Senate to overcome the lack of 60 votes to pass it through normal order. It received not one Republican vote in either house.
Mr. Grisham’s defi nition of compromise seems to be the same as the president’s: Take the few items upon which youagree with the Right and label them “Republican ideas.” Absurd.
To top off this tripe pie, Father Grisham dusted off a well-worn Obama golden oldie - blame Bush.
To justify the astronomical spending seen under this president, he points to the biggestspending Republican president in history.
Bravo.
Tea Partiers want less government, less spending, lower taxes and more individual liberty. Today 49 percent, or 151 million people, are on some sort of government assistance.
A full 28 percent aredependent on the Fed in the form of food stamps, housing, etc. The other 21 percent (veterans, Social Security recipients, etc.) paid into the system but will draw out far more than they contributed. Food stamp spending, alone, has increased 70 percent since 2009.
This is simply unsustainable. Add to this the fact that both Medicare and Social Security will be insolvent by around 2030.
I’d suggest that what conservatives are trying to conserve is America itself.
STEVE BLEVINS
Fayetteville
Opinion, Pages 11 on 11/10/2013