Lullaby

This, on the eve of the November 30, 2009 Senate debate on what is called healthcare ‘reform.’

Abraham Lincoln called it a lullaby during his campaign against Douglas. What he meant was the political promises contrived to make people feel comfortable enough that they would sleep through the important debates (then it was slavery) and allow the back room deals to be made. In this case the democrats are allowing the lullaby to lure them into voting for healthcare legislation that will indenture every man, woman and child in this country with little or no demonstrable return to the people.

The democrats have allowed themselves to be convinced that they must pass this legislation now or be caught on the wrong side of history. What they really fear is depth-charging a President and a white house chief of staff who painted them all into a corner on healthcare legislation. What they really are doing is CYA for Pennsylvania Avenue and pretending they are doing great things. Yes, pretending, as in fiction.

If the democrats really had any backbone, they would choose this moment to stand athwart this Marxist freight train and push back. Push back the role and obscene cost of government until it resembles something other than a serpent swallowing its own tail; push back until we discover anew the ideal that we, as individuals, can take care of ourselves; push back until everyone realizes that the pervasive influence of government has never been benign and that it’s influence is now parasitic.

What do you suppose are the chances that those democrats will chose to fight for the real needs of the nation (defined as a return to at least one or two of our founding principles), or embarrassing a President who ignores those needs? Thought so.

At a time when the socialists in Europe and China are saying we ought to reconsider the path to socialism, our Democrats, having ruled us for 80% of the time since 1932, are ready to double down all those bad bets and listen to the lullaby.

Here is a chart with the reality. Feel better off with all that government intervention?

	1966	2008	2009
Government spending (Billion’s)	$216	$5,297	$6,456
GDP	$789	$14,441	$14,240
Government spending % of GDP	27.4%	36.7%	45.3%
Unemployment rate	3.9%	7.2%	9.6%
Poverty Rate	14.7%	13.2%	14.5%
Generational Obligation (Billions)	$717.0	$42,000.0	$61,000.0
Government Spending Definition	All Federal, State, and Local Spending
Generational Obligation	The deficit gap obligated to taxpayers for the trailing 80 years
Generational Obligation for 1966 is an estimate, as is the GDP for 2009. Generational obligations are estimates based on projections by the CBO.  Other data is derived from the US census, From the CBO, and from the Executive office of the President of the United States, specifically the budget and its associated historical tables. The 2009 poverty rate is an estimate.

Lazy Jack

© Edward Hunter and Thanks for the Laughs, 2009

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