Ninety Three: Obama Health Care

I don't pretend to know much about the macro economics of health care. I can't imagine there are more than a handful of people who do. After all, an industry which consumes hundreds of billions of dollars of our national economy by definition is complex beyond human comprehension.

What I do know is that OB and his band of Chicago political animals are making claims which they either know to be false, or have no intelligent reason to believe to be true. In other words, they are lying. What is OB's interest (and when I say "OB" I am referring to him, his administration, and Democrats in general)? The interest is expansion of government. These people don't give a hoot about health care. Why should they? They already have the best coverage and will continue to have it no matter what happens to the rest of us. These people simply want to expand government. It's their business. They want to increase their market share, the same way a utility wants to sell more electricity, or a flower shop wants to sell more flowers.

This is the way it always has been and will always be. The ONLY thing which could possibly slow down this perverse trend is term limits - and of course revolution.

Ninety Two: Small Government

Yesterday I received the receipt for my 2009 property tax payment from the Rural Municipality of Souris Valley No. 7, Saskatchewan, Canada. The tax payment is for land which my grandfather, "Original Tom" homesteaded in 1904. Not only was the receipt hand-signed by the Administrator, Jo Ann Larsen, but Jo Ann also included a 400 word "note" filling me in on her surgery, her new grandchild, and the centennial anniversary party for the RM last summer. Obviously, my family's ownership of the land predates the organization of the RM government. Many of the original settlers (O'Donnell, Sampson, Forrester, Ordahl, Bloor), still have descendants on the land.

This transaction with our local government is a stark and shocking illustration of how completely disconnected our modern governance has become from its original conception. The idea that government is supposed to "serve" the people has been turned upside down. Our governments now exist to be "served by" the electorate. Governments are now malevolent bodies which foster ill will and malice. They harm the people. They are arrogant and self-serving. Can this trend be reversed? I think not.

Ninety One: Chrisopher Dodd Is A Liar

It was my unfortunate luck to see Senator Dodd blathering on TV this morning about what I think and how I feel about my health care. He also expressed the debt of gratitude I owe to Harry Reid for forcing the largest expansion of government in 40 years down my throat. Dodd also told me that heretofore, only a "precious few" had access to health care (of course Dodd being one of those precious few). And finally, Dodd told me that now, he and Harry had made access to health care a "right."

If ever there was a poster child for term limits, it's Dodd.

Ninety: BO's ADD

Does Prez Obama suffer from a titanic case of attention deficit disorder? It certainly appears so. And it also is being fed by an overactive ego, which apparently makes him think he can solve any problem, or achieve any result by simply plopping himself at the epicenter of the issue (Chicago Olympics bid; Copenhagen environment conference; jobs summit; financial re-regulation; and of course, health care), and expecting all parties to submit to his superior intellect and moral suasion. Nice try. It worked to get elected, but it won't work to govern.

If politics is "the art of the possible," then BO and his band of merry liberals have sorely missed an opportunity to achieve something useful. With his party majorities in Congress, not to mention his support from the hugely Democratic federal bureaucracy, unions, and academia, he could have stuck to his campaign promise of "post-partisanship" and achieved something historic in any one of the big issues like health care or the economy. Instead, he is flailing around like an Asian carp.

Eighty Nine: Golf Without Woods

Back on April 2, 2007, I voiced my long-held belief that Tiger Woods has not been good for the game of golf. Not that he has been necessarily bad for the game, but the nauseating hero-worship by the media of this golfing great to the detriment of the other players and the game itself has been just that - nauseating.

Now we see that while heroic (and often completely devoid of any gentlemanly qualities) on the course, Mr. Woods is a serial adulterer, a woman abuser, a liar, a cheat, and as my 94 year old Aunt Helen refers to him, scum. My Aunt Helen by the way, has been a golf devotee for about 75 years. While she no longer plays, she still watches, knows the players, and enjoys the game.

Of course I wish no ill will to Mr. Woods or his family. But I will soooooo look forward to golf without him, or rather without media circus which follows him. Actually I rather like watching him play, at least when he's not acting immature.

Maybe the interesting dynamic to watch will be whether Woods handles his personal challenges better than, say, David Duval.

Eighty Eight: Health Care Legislation And The Economy

The last watershed piece of health care legislation was the enactment of Medicare in 1965. After that, the economy was in the doldrums, including a couple of recessions, for the next twenty years. The post-Medicare economic malaise was the amount of time required to digest the tremendous inefficiencies and burden of a huge increase in the size of government. In 1985, the Reagan tax cuts kicked in and created the the economic expansion which lasted essentially until 2007.

Now BO and his band are about to enact another round of generational government expansion. In addition to health care, financial, insurance, and industrial meddling by government, in the name of consumer safety or economic stabilization, is going to suck capital out of the private sector and paralyze economic activity for at least as long as the post-Medicare period.

In 1996, Clinton declared that the "era of big government is over." Of course this is not what Clinton philosophically wanted, but he did recognize that the only way to stay in the oval office for another term was to jump on the band wagon of public sentiment which had finally tired of oppressive government intervention in their lives. While government growth never actually decreases in real terms, the rate of growth did slow down during Clinton's reign. Much of this was due to Clinton's inability to do much of anything on account of his constant personal crises. The result however, was the legendary economic expansion of the late 1990s. Reagan tax cuts + Clinton scandals = economic success.

BO and the Dems are doing exactly the wrong thing at the wrong time. Government should be doing everything it can to shovel capital into the private sector. Instead, they are diverting it away from productivity, which will create wealth, and building huge government incinerators to waste resources.

We'll just have to wait for another Reagan.

Eighty Seven: Little Timmy And The Big Banks

The WSJ today reports what everybody already knew: Little Timmy Geithner, is the world's worst negotiator. While president of the New York Fed, LTG agreed to make whole every bank which which entered into deals with AIG, including of course Goldman Sachs (LTG's most likely future employer) and Merrill Lynch. The "deals" were essentially private insurance contracts wherein AIG agreed to insure the banks against losses from bad investments made by the banks. The "deals" of course were made by the best and brightest investment bankers and insurance execs, and were reviewed by the smartest lawyers money could buy, probably $1,500 an hour guys. Now none of these really smart guys ever bothered to think about whether AIG actually had the money to make good on the insurance claims (AIG didn't have the money, which led to Little Timmy's grand plan).

Instead of saying to the banks, "You guys made some bad moves, now you need to live with it," LTG said, "Gee, you guys wouldn't be willing to take a little less than you're owed, would you?" to which the banks said, "up yours Little Timmy," whereupon LTG said, "OK, I'll make sure you get all your money, but please remember me when I'm in the job market, OK?"

Really makes you feel good about paying taxes, doesn't it?