Red Planet Cartoons: HillaryCare

Red Planet Cartoons kicks off a discussion of "free" government health care with this quote:
“If you think healthcare is expensive now, just wait until government makes it free.” –P. J. O’Rourke

The SCHIP debate and all attempts to expand government and bill it as "something for nothing" goes directly against one of the wisest of sayings.

"There ain't no such thing as a free lunch."

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Graeme Frost, HillaryCare, and "Meanies":Questions & Super Bugs in the System

[graphic:RidesAPaleHorse]
"You may remember that we tried to do that [pass her health care bill] in 1993 and 1994. We weren't totally successful, but I did not give up."

by Mondoreb

The headline didn't have the sensationalist bite that "Brain-Eating Microbes Kill Boy in Arizona Lake", but it did catch my attention.

Super Bug Kills 90 in UK

From CNN:
LONDON-- Nurses who didn't wash their hands and left patients lying in soiled beds were cited in an official report blaming mismanagement for the deaths of 90 people who contracted a bacterial infection in hospitals in southern England.

"Significant failings" at all levels contributed to infections of more than 1,000 patients at three hospitals, the Healthcare Commission said Thursday.

The patients were infected with Clostridium difficile, or C. diff, which can cause diarrhea, colitis and other intestinal problems, officials said.

"The Healthcare Commission has passed the copy of the report to us and that is being reviewed," said a spokesman for Kent Police, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with force policy.

One notices the "Healthcare Commission", is a government entity in the U.K. charged with providing Britons with the English version of HillaryCare. While reading the story, a question arises: Why would trial lawyers support socialized medicine? One of the plaintiffs' bar's most lucrative scams is endlessly suing members of the medical profession over every unfortunate outcome even slightly connected with medicine.

Socialized medicine will substitute Il Duce Hillary for Doc Jones. When Clostridium difficile strikes in the U.S., where will the loved ones of the deceased turn for succor under HillaryCare 2.0? Trial lawyers won't be able to pay their 'faux-expert witnesses' on what they'll make attempting to sue the United States government. No answer quickly came to mind as to why the ambulance-chasing community would continue to write checks to a candidate taking the food off their table.

Back to Super Bug:

The report into the spread of the highly contagious bacterium said nurses at three hospitals run by the Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS trust were often too busy to wash their hands and left patients in their own excrement.

In recent years, Britain's superbug infection rates of bacteria like Clostridium difficile and MRSA have skyrocketed. In the 1990s, only five percent of in-hospital blood infections were from MRSA, the deadly bacteria resistant to nearly every available antibiotic. In past years, that figure has jumped to more than 40 percent.

A single snapshot from the European system that HillaryCare, EdwardsCare and other Democrat socialized health care schemes would have Americans believe is the latest ticket to a Socialist Workers Party paradise. And to any who offer evidence that government is not a solution here: the same dreary, droning chorus about how such evidence is the product of malevolence personified. Scratch the surface of any person questioning Dem poster child, Graeme Frost, and you'll find a--what? Another question?
Scratch the surface and perhaps you'll find Michelle Malkin:

To review quickly: We are now “meanies,” “hypocrites,” “slimers,” and “mobsters” for challenging the wisdom of taking money away from taxpayers of lesser means who are responsible enough to buy insurance before a catastrophic event in order to subsidize two-property, three-car families with four children in private schools and two parents who work “intermittently” and “part-time” who didn’t have the foresight or priorities to purchase insurance before a tragic auto accident.

Malkin couldn't possibly differ philosophically with the goose-stepping, "it's-my-right" hordes of lazy-thinking HillaryCare toadies. There are no questions here to be answered. One advantage of voting Democrat is that all your thinking is done for you: reduced into easily-remembered sound bites for the mainstream media. When you have the Left writing the rebuttal to any argument in American politics today, the script leans heavily on invective, inventive and otherwise.

Ultimately, it boils down to that same old questions, "Can the federal government run my life better than I can?" and "Why does anyone think that a government that has trouble delivering Uncle Frank's birthday card can deliver Uncle Frank's kidney operation?" As Mark Steyn put it:

Ultimately it's a reductive notion of liberty to say a free-born citizen can choose his own breakfast cereal and DVD rentals and cable package and, in the case of the Frosts, three premium vehicles, but demand the government take responsibility for all the grown-up stuff.

This week, stories of Super Bugs, trial lawyers, Graeme Frost, and left wing pejoratives provoked questions. But all one heard in the mainstream press was the music of the merrily-marching minions of socialized HillaryCare and its clones.

Don't look here for answers to those questions: a college football game beckons this afternoon and pigskins, not polemics, will be the main concern. No answers, but two more quotations will join the quote opening this post. One, by Hillary Clinton, is about how politics works. The other, by Tennessee Williams, is about how magic works.
Read them both and the reader may arrive at his own answers.

"The challenge now is to practice politics as the art of making what appears to be impossible, possible."

"Yes, I have tricks in my pocket, I have things up my sleeve. [A stage magician] gives us illusion that has the appearance of truth."

[HillarySlash graphic:Salon]
Hillary quotes & more here.
Tennessee Williams quote
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Junk Food, HillaryCare & Helmet Laws:Part of the Coming Nanny State?

Will the chickens come home to roost if HillaryCare is enacted?[graphic:RidesAPaleHorse]
by Mondoreb

Smoking bans, motorcycle helmet and seat belt laws, HillaryCare and lawsuits against fatty foods: what do they all have in common? A new book answers the question sucinctly: they're all part of the Nanny State.

From the book,“Nanny State,” by Denver Post columnist David Harsanyi; interviewed by Bill Steigerwald at The Moderate Voice:
“What would Thomas Jefferson think about this? What would he think about banning happy hours at pubs? Or telling an Irish immigrant who owns a little pub somewhere that he can’t smoke a cigarette in there — on his own property?” I think it’s an assault on the American idea. I know that sounds dramatic, because it’s such small inconveniences, but that’s what they are.
And then you have to deal with the argument about externalities – “Well, if you smoke, I have to pay for your health care in the end.” Clearly, that’s a slippery slope, because then you can tell me to exercise every day. That never ends. But the more we socialize on a federal level, and clearly that’s coming with health care, then we’re all going to be collectively looking out for each other. That never ends. It’s never-ending right now, and it’s accelerating. Soon we’ll be at the Nanny State. It’s Orwellian. I know people throw around Orwell’s name a lot, but if you read “1984” the protagonist is trying to sneak a cigarette – because small things lead to big things. I think that’s the lesson there, and that’s the lesson I hope this book will convey to people.

Some people will never learn Haransyi's lesson: they'll always trade a little government security for the nanny state. What's even worse, some will make the trade and not get any security. All they'll get are vague warnings about "what's good for you".

Political correctness, socialized whatever and the steady erosion of personal freedoms--they all go hand-in-hand-in-hand. They all lead down the road to a form of petty slavery. The slavery of the Nanny State.




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HILLARYCARE 2.0-More Government -More of the Time More Stealthy than Ever!

by Mondoreb

The latest edition of "HillaryCare" is not the full-facial frontal blast that her last attempt was. This is a more sneaky version, hoping to snare more of the unaware.

Last time, Hillary went for the whole enchilada, for a "radical overhaul". This time it is different.

This time, Hillary is going for the usual "Government squeeze". The 'Little at a time', "this won't hurt a bit" approach. Let's just nationalize the parts we have now, only when they're looking the other way.

The Hill says the plan is "sparking a fenzy of action". But that's because the publication covers Washington; any suggestion of more government regulation, and Washington reacts like a teen-age boy with two dates on Prom Night.
That kind of frenzy.
DBKP.com - Bigger, Better!.
For rest of story, click here.

Daily Cox & Forkum: HillaryCare Back from the Grave

Cox & Forkum

DBKP.com - Bigger, Better!.
Death by 1000 Papercuts Front Page.

HILLARYCARE PART DEAUX: Lots of Choices-- And No Choice Whatsoever

by Little Baby Ginn

It’s deja-vu! If you guys remember, I, Little Baby Ginn, had a chance to do a mock interview with Johnny Edwards and his “plan” for American’s healthcare. One word summed it up: MANDATORY.

Today Hillary has released her version. If elected she will unleash it on Americans. One word summary: MANDATORY.

The proposal, Clinton's first major effort to achieve universal health coverage since an ill-fated 1994 plan, carries a price tag of about $110 billion per year. The centerpiece of her "American Health Choices Plan" is an "individual mandate" requiring everyone to have health insurance -- just as most states require drivers to purchase auto insurance.

Sweet! Everyone will be required to have health insurance. Except… you know… the other estimated 13 plus million illegal aliens who reside here. They don’t have to have driver’s licenses either. But I digress.

Here is Clinton’s spin on her “plan.”

“It puts the consumer in the driver's seat by offering more choices and lowering costs," said Neera Tanden, Clinton's top policy adviser.
"If you like the plan you have, you keep it. If you're one of tens of millions of Americans without coverage or don't like the coverage you have, you will have a choice of plans to pick from and you'll get tax credits to help pay for it."

We will have “more choices”. Hoorah! If we don’t have coverage we will have a “choice of plans to pick from.” Awesome! Plus we’ll get tax credits to help pay for it. Wow! Sounds terrific!

She’s worked out all the details. Everyone will be covered! Well, maybe not everyone. I doubt the millions of illegals will be covered but then… they already are covered… by the largesse of the American taxpayers. Who, get this, if Hillary is elected, will be mandated… which means… you will have NO CHOICE but to obey. Or else. What the “or else” is I have no idea cause well, nobody’s saying.

See, in Hillary’s world, everyone will run out and get the health insurance. In my world, it won’t happen. Some of us out here have an aversion to our government running our lives. Some of us feel we are adults and that the government is actually there to serve us especially those of us who pay the bulk of the taxes in order to support our government.

What do you suppose will happen if you do not get the health coverage mandated by Hillary and the Dems? Hillary says she will help you out with tax cuts… sweet… enough to cover the cost of the insurance? I really doubt it. Don’t you? We are mandated to pay taxes. We are mandated to have driver’s licenses and car insurance. Now we will be mandated to have health insurance. Can everyone afford it especially those living paycheck to paycheck?

We’ll be paying for the new government bureaucracy set up to run this “plan.”
But what about those who choose not to get it? Mandatory means no “choice.” Hillary says her plan is full of choices; everyone will have a choice. But the biggest “choice” of all, the one where we get to decide if we want to participate in her plan--it’s been taken away.

By Hillary.


The Washington Post article
DBKP.com - Bigger, Better!.
Death by 1000 Papercuts Front Page.