When we give the government power to give us something, we give them control over us. The assistance always comes with requirements, regulations, stipulations, and so forth. This, for the left, is a “backdoor” way to advance their agenda. Directly ordering states to change their laws and regulations is a direct violation of the Tenth Amendment. Also, going through the legislative process can be messy; legislation may not pass, and, more importantly, the debate is public. When the left can’t pass something in the open, their either do it in pieces (incrementally), bypass the democratic process via a lawsuit, or pass it as a “string” attached to funding.
As we see the programs of the POTUS emerge, one can see the truth in this idea. We have seen the Porkulus mandate that states change their laws and regulations. For example, states accepting Porkulus money for unemployment are required to change their laws to provide benefits for people having part time jobs. At the time, many states did not do this. Then, when the Porkulus money runs out, the states would be strapped with an unfunded mandate that would break their budgets! The left obviously wanted states to do this, so they made it a “string.” They count on desperation. They wanted to approach cash strapped governors with this Faustian deal, and get them to sign on, and many did. The MSM, of course, vilified the ones that saw past the crisis to look upon the power grab.
Another example is with the Single Payer health care plan. They want to entice the poor with “free coverage,” and “guilt” better-off Americans into giving them control of the health care industry. (I’ll be covering the falsehood of the rationale for the single payer plan in a future post.)
The strings attached to this are a bit more unspoken, but altogether real. Under this plan, the government gets to…
- Control the payment your doctor receives.
- Mandate what treatments your doctor can and cannot provide to you.
- Ration care (They say publicly that this is not the case, but I covered this some time ago here, and here.)
- Mandate “end of life counseling.” (Yes, they say they’re not going to cut off care to seniors, but some of the minions have been quoted advocating for it.)
Now, there will be some that say, “This is fear mongering! You’re just trying to scare the old folks!” I think my response would have to be two fold: The left has been telling the seniors that the Republicans were going to freeze and starve them for decades! My other response would be that the administration has been saying to the press that the “public option” isn’t about single payer, but to their supporters, they say something very different! If they lied about this aspect of the plan, why should we trust that rationing isn’t in the works, after all, they have mentioned it, just like they mentioned single payer! Give them your healthcare, and you and you doctor will lose all control over it-plain and simple.
Anytime you accept assistance from the government, you accept their control over some part of your life. Banks that took TARP money found out quickly that any aspect of their organization could be scrutinized or controlled, including the salaries of their workers. The creditors for Chrysler found out that they were going to be cheated by the government bailouts, and were threatened with retaliation if the did not comply. The CEO of GM got shown the door; GM was taken over by the government, and the friends of the POTUS, the UAW, got the windfall. Thousands of GM and Chrysler dealers were shut down, most of them were profitable (and Republicans), and untold thousands of their workers were put in the unemployment line. All of these events occurred because it was thought that taking government assistance would be a good idea.
Now, the latest. The government created the “Cash for Clunkers” program ostensibly to help the car industry, and to get people into more fuel-efficient cars. They even created a helpful website so people could enter their information and find out what they were able to do with the program. The strings?? Glen Beck accessed the sight on his show on Friday; this is his coverage of the issue:
So, log on to this government website, and the government “owns” your computer! All of your information, your pictures, your music, my ranting against the POTUS, all belong to the government! Now, are they scanning every computer to see what is on it? I don’t know, but they sure saw a need to put that up as a “terms of use.” Why is that?
Frankly, the notion that government assistance represents control could take up a book, but I thought giving some of the more recent examples would serve as a reminder that, as Reagan said…
“Governments tend not to solve problems, only to rearrange them.”
And, more importantly…
“The most terrifying words in the English language are: I’m from the government and I’m here to help.”
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“So, log on to this government website, and the government “owns” your computer! All of your information, your pictures, your music, my ranting against the POTUS, all belong to the government! Now, are they scanning every computer to see what is on it? I don’t know, but they sure saw a need to put that up as a “terms of use.” Why is that?”
This isn’t true at all and is ridiculous. There isn’t even a terms of use because there are no terms other than: trade in car, get new car, leave.
Furthermore…
“They even created a helpful website so people could enter their information and find out what they were able to do with the program.”
THIS little detail isn’t even true. Instead of believing a comedian on television without question, you could check for yourself to see that the only thing you can enter on the website is an email to sign up for a mailing list.
I guess spreading ridiculous rumors, if it advances an agenda and stokes the flame of paranoia, is better than trying to find anything resembling truth.
The liberal-in-conservative’s-clothes FL gov Charlie Crist screwed us over with taking and supporting the Spendulus bill… just like you said, the added burden on the state will manifest itself soon after the cash is spent. Libs do not understand this reality… particularly bc in America, the cost of government programs is covered by a minority of people directly. 1% of households in America pay more than the bottom 95% in income taxes… this skews reality so much that it makes libs say “oh the cost isn’t so high.” The other thing is that the Orwellian, “slavery-is-freedom” O-dministration calls a plan that threatens to deny Americans free market options, a public “option.” Absurd. I was discussing this with an educated (yet moderately liberal) friend of mine who works at a nuclear power plant down here in Miami and he was completely confused as to what the “public option” was or what it meant. The mass disinformation campaign affects everyone, even the “educated,” but fortunately, I think that the public is now more aware that BHO = crazy spending, esp with the whole Cash4Clunkers fiasco.
My blood-pressure has been skyrocketing (along with the national debt) since last January 20th.
Daniel,
Put the Kool-Aid down, or get out. I’m not going to waste my time on you.
@ NeoRepublica, Well said as always. I think that the left depends on the public being misinformed, as your example shows. If you have no idea what “public option” is supposed to be, how will you know enough what it really is.
Up until this post I’ve read and found most of your posts interesting and you’ve done a pretty good job backing the things up that you’ve written.
I am drinking the Kool-Aid because I actually went to the website to check (and found out that it was BS!) because I couldn’t believe something like this could be true? I should get out because I dare question something that I read instead of just believing something I want to without question? I don’t even really know what to say.
Oh well I guess… I’m still going to read but if you don’t want me to comment on your posts, I’ll save you the trouble of being exposed to a dissenting opinion from now on.
If the responsibility for health care is put back into the hands of citizens, then reform would come. The best consumer is the one who controls the purse strings. Also, giving individuals tax breaks for having health insurance instead of employers would be much better, as well. When tax breaks for employers who purchase health care was started in 1942, that is when our health care system began the long slide towards higher costs and more red tape from the insurance companies.
Also, one other thought. Many proponents of Government run health care say, “Rationing? Well that is already happening now. It is done by the insurance companies.”
But if you are denied coverage from an insurance company, you have the option to sue them. There is no suing the Feds. They hate monopolistic corporations, yet the biggest monopoly in America is the Federal Government.
Hey Dippy Daniel…I suggest you go back to kindergarten and start learning to read again, because if you don’t understand the following disclaimer from the CARS site, you probably live in Russia (or, perhaps, Venezuela):
“This application provides access to the DoT CARS system. When logged onto the CARS system, your computer is considered a federal computer system and is the property of the U.S. Government. Any or all uses of this system and all files on this system may be intercepted, monitored, recorded, copied, audited, inspected, and disclosed to authorized CARS, DoT, and law enforcement personnel, as well as authorized officials of other agencies, both foreign and domestic.”
BTW…you can whine all you want about dissenting opinion, but, trust me, this isn’t the place for it. Keep your ObuggerLuva slobbering mouth to yourself, or be verily accosted so dearly you’ll be running to the bathroom to change your makeup from all the tears streaming down your face.
@ Don, With an insurance company, you also have the appeals process. Trust me, it’s not that easy, but I’ve seen the companies cave when the evidence is there.
We could move on to malpractice and defensive medicine, but I think most everyone here is pretty well aware of those.
@ Dr. Dave, I think he just found out what it would be like to be a Conservative on the Huffington Post.
The dude reads like a talk radio seminar caller, doesn’t he?
@ Dr. Dave, a thousdand pardons. He was treated like a Conservative on the Huffington Post, excepts yours was an intelligent, creative, well worded snarking!