The CARD Act, passed late last year, was intended to create a “Cardholder Bill of Rights.” Far from it, the Credit CARD Act has prompted credit card companies to raise their prices (APR on balances); restrict lending by reducing available credit; charge annual fees on basic cards that have not been seen for decades; and refuse to offer products that were on the market only a year ago.

We were told that credit card companies were evil and shouldn’t profit so much. We were told that credit card companies should not be able to change their price based on risk–if you default on one loan, why should another lender be able to raise your rates? Congress declared an end to the law of cause and effect. Amazingly, there were unintended consequences from Congressional hubris.  Sure, you have marginally clearer disclosure on credit card practices now, but what good is disclosure for a product you can’t afford?  I’m sure the people at Maserati put out a fantastic brochure, but that doesn’t help me at the Dodge dealership.

And now, the Democrats tell us that health insurance companies are unfairly profiting from you. We are told they should not be able to underwrite based on risk–if you’re already sick, why won’t they give you insurance? It takes little brains not to realize what will happen to insurance premiums and plans. But then again, that is what Congress is known for–little brains.

More of a liberal pep-rally than a sales pitch or a bipartisan coming together, Obama’s speech can be broken into five distinct parts:

1. Obama’s “specifics.”
2. Republican “lies.”
3. The public option.
4. Deficits and Medicare.
5. An attempt to cloud the debate with an emotional ploy leveraging the memory of a recently departed Senator.

Obama’s Specifics

Obama “announced” three broad categories of specifics, none of which were new and none of which were particularly specific.  Tellingly, most of these were also not incorporated in any of the legislation being considered by Congress:

1. Something for everyone. Including bankruptcy for insurers. This was as specific as Obama got, a liturgy of rainbows and unicorns designed to bankrupt insurance companies, including no preexisting conditions, no coverage caps and no denial of coverage.  Any one of these changes would drive up premiums, all of them would make insurance prohibitively expensive.
2. The infamous insurance exchange. Why allow insurers to simply compete across state lines when another bloated federal bureacracy staffed with lazy, SEIU shlubs can do half the work at twice the cost?  As an added bonus, the exchange would include “tax credits, the size of which will be based on your need.”  So the federal government will be using a progressive tax code (taking more from those who have an ability to make more) and giving it to those who have a greater need.  I’ve seen that somewhere before.
3. Unfunded Mandates. Finally, as announced by Max Baucus, you will henceforth be required to buy insurance, even if you don’t need it or want it.  This completes the puzzle:

Point 1 lets Obama say he fixed the system (although this will ferociously drive up premiums and drive down service).  Point 2 lets Obama say he increased competition, although the immense drag from an additional layer of federal bureaucracy (and the additional cost of supporting more bloated morons) will have to be borne somehow.  Point 3 provides the insurance companies with the fresh blood to keep the system from collapsing while simultaneously allowing Obama to claim he didn’t raise taxes.  Of course, if you didn’t have insurance yesterday, the government just forced you to pay $4,000 you weren’t paying, but hey, it’s not your money, you’re just holding it for Obama.

The next part so inflamed Rep. Joe Wilson, that he behaved in such a manner as to be mistaken for a Democrat during the Bush years.

Republican “Lies”

The next part so inflamed Rep. Joe Wilson, that he behaved in such a manner as to be mistaken for a Democrat during the Bush years.  Obama, while lying to Americans about healthcare, accused Republicans of lying to Americans about healthcare:

1. Death Panels. There were sexist overtones in this veiled swipe, as Obama used code language in referring to Sarah Palin as “plain and simple.”  (Damn, that feels good to throw it back in their race baiting faces).  Death panels are inartfully named, but they do exist.  They exist in the National Health System in the UK, they exist in Canada and they exist in the original draft of the current bill.  They are a means of cost control, and Obama himself has raised the issue when he talked about not covering his grandmother’s hip replacement and suggesting a 93 year old woman “taking a pain pill” instead of a pacemaker.  They are evident in the Veteran Administration’s guide to dying without dignity.  Anytime the government spends money on end of life care, it will either be writing a blank check or it will be deciding how and when to withhold care.  How it does controls cost is a matter of concern.  The Democratic bill puts in place an unelected, unaccountable bureaucracy, which Palin and others have called a death panel.

There were sexist overtones in this veiled swipe, as Obama used code language in referring to Sarah Palin as “plain and simple.”

2. Covering Illegals.  Obama charged that conservatives had mislead Americans into believing that ObamaCare would cover illegal aliens, saying that “the reforms I’m proposing would not apply to those who are here illegally.”  This was the moment at which Joe Wilson jumped up like a congregant at Reverend Wright’s church, only this time, Obama noticed.  The problem, of course, is that this is a lie.  The independent Congressional Research Service reported in August that the current plan would certainly cover illegal aliens.  Obama and his surrogates have responded with the pregnant milquetoast “nobody is talking about covering illegal aliens.”  Sure, and nobody is talking about grilled cheese sandwiches, either, but that doesn’t mean we’re not having them for lunch.  The point is, the bill would cover everyone and would not require that healthcare providers check citizenship status.  Moreover, Obama’s sleight of hand in the number of uninsured is telling.  Prior to last night, the number was always 45 million uninsured.  Last night, it was suddenly “over 30 million Americans.”  Did 15 million Americans suddenly get healthcare? No, the difference is tens of millions of illegal immigrants.  Who’s misleading who, Mr. President?
3. Paying for Abortions.  Obama also claimed that conservatives have mislead Americans about ObamaCare paying for abortions.  This is less clear.  Many healthcare plans cover abortion and the purpose of ObamaCare is to provide healthcare to those who cannot afford it.  Even if ObamaCare is only a subsidy of private insurance, it would be paying for abortions.  But when you get into the weeds, whether or not federal tax dollars will actually be used to pay for abortions is unclear.  Calling conservatives liars for saying so is a smear tactic.

So you have Obama, in ostensibly calling for an end to partisan bickering and misrepresentations, flatly lying about the Democratic bill and calling Republicans liars for telling the truth.  Certainly a case of Hope·ocrisy if ever there was one.

The Public Option

A profile in courage, Obama was once again noncommittal on the public option.  Obama tried to sound reasonable and conciliatory, but again, the premise and the details were not based in fact.  His assertion that a public option would only affect 5% of the market is laughable and begs the question, why do we need one?

This was the moment at which Joe Wilson jumped up like a congregant at Reverend Wright’s church, only this time, Obama noticed.

Deficits and Medicare.

The fourth stanza came in three parts, and was a microcosm of the speech: Obama blames Bush for the war in Iraq, tax cuts for the wealthy, large deficits and Wall Street (all in one sentence, no less).  He then lies to seniors about Medicare cuts while praising the efficiency of a bankrupt federal program and then flatly contradicts himself and the CBO by saying his $900 billion plan won’t add to the deficit because mythical cost savings will be found.

Do it for Teddy.

Finally, as many people noted, Obama seemed to almost get choked up as he brought up the late Ted Kennedy in an emotional plea for healthcare.  Of course, appealing to emotion is necessary; cutting costs by increasing coverage is not logical.  At one point, Obama tried to evoke sympathy by conjuring Teddy dealing with his children stricken with illness.  Forgive my impertinence, but I don’t think that anyone in America worries that the Kennedy’s might not have good medical care.

Coconut chocolate muffin? Not interested.

In a town hall today, Senator James Inhofe (whose work on Global Warming™ has been fantastic) said he would vote against ObamaCare without having read the whole thing.  This was too much for the tiny brains at Huffington Post.  Apparently, they cannot see the difference between someone voting for something that they haven’t read and someone voting against something that they haven’t read.  In the interest of having to live on a planet with these idiots, let me help them out with an analogy:

I like chocolate, but I hate coconut.  (It tastes like shredded paper.)  When I look at a dessert menu, if something has chocolate, I may get it, but it depends on what else is in it. Raspberries are nice; as are strawberries; but orange isn’t my favorite. If a dessert has coconut, however, I won’t get it.  It could have all the chocolate in the world (light, milk, dark, white), I’m not getting it if it has coconut. The only thing I need to know is that it has coconut, and I know I’m not getting that dessert.

All Inhofe is saying is that ObamaCare is a big hairy coconut custard pie. He doesn’t need to read it, he doesn’t need to know about the fudge sauce or the handmade whipped cream or the gingerbread crust.  He’s voting against it.

Regarding Democrats not reading bills for which they vote in favor, that is a completely different (and not at all hypocritical) story.  The complaint from conservatives and independents is that Democrats are not reading anything past the first ingredient. They’re not reading the price, the calories or what else is in it. They see “Chocolate . . .” and they get all “wee weed up,” point, shout and demand the waiter bring out a large helping tout de suite.  The problem is, what they have ordered is in fact Chocolate souffle with arsenic sauce and hemlock whipped cream at 5,000 calories for $2 trillion per serving.

(Let me preempt more idiocy. None of this has “racial overtones.”)

Insurance companies make money, Congress takes money.

Mr. Waxman, you get even more lavish treatment. Your offices are draped in stately mahogany. You have an annual budget of up to $4.5 million dollars–just to run an office for one legislator, and you you squirm at the thought of accountability even for that. Your only job, your only function at the end of the day, is to push a tiny little button labeled Yea or Nay.  Insurance companies provide a service to society, you suck it dry.  Insurance companies make money, Congress takes money. There is a world of difference.

Of course Nancy Pelosi and Henry Waxman want you to believe that insurance companies make money off of sick people.  That serves their purpose, but it requires two things (i) you to be an idiot and (ii) reality to, much like the SEIU, be on a break.  Insurance companies make more money when people are healthy.  Anyone who tells you otherwise is selling you something or engaging in demagoguery.  (Or both, which is to say, they’re a Democrat trying to pass legislation.)

Do roofing companies profit from the rain?  Does ADT profit from burglary?  Do life insurance companies profit from death?  Do grocery stores profit from hunger?  Of course not.  Industries develop to service needs.  Society has a need and a clever person comes along with an idea on how to fill that need.  We pay them money for their efforts and they got to spend it however they please.  That is capitalism.  Nowhere along that path do Henry Waxman and Nancy Pelosi get to stick their extended snouts into the process.

Companies are entitled to the profits they make, and they are entitled to spend them however they see fit.  Spending them on “lavish junkets” are well within their rights.  If the companies are publicly traded, it is up to the shareholders, not liberal ne’er dowells from California to police the excess.  Moreover, these “junkets” often serve a legitimate business purpose.  Whether they are rewards for sales performance, motivational or managerial retreats or retention efforts, they are tools that the company uses to keep and grow its business.  Something that Congress knows nothing about.

But campaigning is different than governing.  Campaigning involves sleight of hand and demagoguery.  Anyone can say they will reduce costs and inefficiencies brought on by evil insurance companies and ride the ensuing wave of populism to office.  But governing involves actually fixing things.  Real things are complicated.  In the real world there is a connection between cause and effect.

Democrats find the profit motive that allows the system to function, point at it and scream in horror.

President Obama, however, prefers to campaign.  On his western states tour, Obama blames insurance companies, implying they profit from your illness.  Cheap demagoguery unfit for such high office, but what would you expect from a man whose only work experience was campaigning?  Whenever a Democrat’s idea is revealed to be the hollow, vacuous promise it is, they blame capitalism.  Democrats find the profit motive that allows the system to function, point at it, scream in horror and decry it as evil.  It’s not working.  Rasmussen’s polling indicates that only 25% of voters agree that insurance companies are villains.

The truth is, most of the country is happily insured.  Over 90% of the country has insurance and over 85% of those with insurance would not change their provider.  So 76.5% of us have no reason but altruism to be in favor of healthcare (or health insurance) reform.  Altruism, as Ayn Rand pointed out, is a fools errand.  Liberals are nothing if not foolish.

Altruism, as Ayn Rand pointed out, is a fools errand.  Liberals are nothing if not foolish.

There are real problems with health insurance in America.  President Obama’s demagoguery, however, will not help.  Eliminating exclusions for preexisting conditions and certain medical conditions, while it plays well as populist rhetoric on the campaign trail, as a governing policy, it will bankrupt the insurance industry and the government.

If you force insurance companies to provide coverage on demand for all illnesses, which is what Obama is suggesting, who would buy insurance?  No one.  You would wait until you had a serious illness or were in a risk group and then buy insurance–under Obama’s plan you could not be refused.  The Wall Street Journal looked at New York, New Jersey and Massachusetts, who already have enacted Obama’s suggested reforms:

New York, New Jersey and Massachusetts have both community rating and guaranteed issue. And, no surprise, they have the three most expensive individual insurance markets among all 50 states, with premiums roughly two to three times higher than the rest of the country. In 2007, the average annual premium in New Jersey was $5,326 for singles and in New York $12,254 for a family, versus the national average of $2,613 and $5,799, respectively. ObamaCare would impose New York-type rates nationwide.

Insurance gets more expensive because fewer healthy people opt in.  Insurance doesn’t work when only sick people pay premiums.  The risk pool becomes smaller and insurance companies have to increase premiums. So how do we fix the system?  As I’ve said before, five simple steps to real reform:

• End the employer-provided tax exemption.
• Allow insurers to cross state lines.
• Medical malpractice tort reform.
• End-of-Life care accounts.
• Tax credits to encourage young, healthy people to insure themselves.

We also need personal, not corporate, accountability. Health insurance used to be a safety net, but it has become a discount plan.  As people have become more accustomed to entitlement and medical advances have grown, the cost of care has increased and the expectation of its cost has diminished.  Structuring a system where the patient does not bear a proportional cost of care, such as the National Health Service or the Canadian system or Cadillac plans, only encourages patients to discount the value of the services they receive.

Patients need to have skin in the game.  Not too long ago, most medical insurance was limited to major medical.  If you went to the doctor for a check up, you paid for it.  If you went for a minor cough or the flu, that was on you.  A heart attack, cancer or something catastrophic, that was when insurance kicked in.  That was why it was called insurance.

After two weeks of raucous town hall events, the One descended from on high to deign and touch the common man with his unending wisdom on healthcare.  He admonished the unclean masses for their “wild misrepresentations” and proceeded to promise no lines, coverage for every condition, lower costs, free parking, and a unicorn in every garage.  But lying, you see, is a sin.  And although he has sinned before, repeatedly, he doth rise above us and he may cast stones down upon us.

First, he dismissed even the rowdy protests themselves as being misleading and disproportionate with the real sentiment of his people.  The evil insurance companies, you see, are handpicking the crowds.  Highly trained, paid actors who only look like your friends, neighbors and family membors.  He then went on to impart his wisdom to the completely random, unscreened, not-Democratic operative audience (who only look like people you’ve never seen before in this quiet New Hampshire town) thusly:

• “We have the AARP on board because they know this is a good deal for our seniors;” and “AARP would not be endorsing a bill if it was undermining Medicare, okay?” Generally, it’s best to wait for an endorsement before touting it.  If AARP has endorsed healthcare–ooh, sorry, forgot you were trying to hoodwink us with that sleight of hand–health insurance [wink] legislation, it’s news to the AARP.  When asked about this point in a press briefing today, Robert Glibbs incredibly responded that the president “misspoke.“  This is absurd. The President lied. He would have misspoke if he had meant to say the NAACP, or some organization known as the “AARD.”  Obama clearly said that AARP had endorsed a bill it had not and Obama made the point in an attempt to pursuade the audience on Medicare cuts, a point near and dear to the hearts of seniors and therefore those likely to rely on an AARP endorsement. In legal vernacular, this is a material misstatement of fact and would be actionable in court.  To add insult to fraud, Glibbs goes on to say that, while the President could innocently misspeak, those who misstate facts in opposition to his plan only do so out of malice.  Stay classy Mr. Glibbs.
• “Under the reform we’re proposing, if you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor. If you like your health care plan, you can keep your health care plan.” Really?  That’s not what the CBO says.  They say up to 15 million people may lose thier employer provided coverage.  And if your insurance company goes bankrupt, what then?  If your doctor, as one of mine already has, quits practicing because his malpractice insurance is too high?  Can I come to you and complain, or will I then just be a mob shill of the insurance lobby?  You also said that “under my stimulus plan, unemployment won’t exceed 8.25%.” It’s now almost 10%.
• “[W]hat you need to know is this: If you don’t have health insurance, you will finally have quality, affordable options once we pass reform. If you do have health insurance, we will make sure that no insurance company or government bureaucrat gets between you and the care that you need. And we will do this without adding to our deficit over the next decade, largely by cutting out the waste and insurance company giveaways in Medicare that aren’t making any of our seniors healthier.” Again, the CBO would have to disagree.  None of the bills considered by Congress does this.  None of the bills possible in the real world could acheive this.  The CBO says the cost cutting Obama keeps referring to will likely have little or no effect.  Saying something doesn’t make it true, even if you are Barack Obama.  You can promise jetpacks fueled by unicorn pee and built by leprechauns all day, but you’re still walking to work.
• “Insurance companies basically get $177 billion of taxpayer money to provide services that Medicare already provides.” Yes, if by “basically” you mean “do not at all”.  Medicare Advantage provides additional services, like dental and eye care.  This is what we call capitalism. You pay money and someone provides a service.  If you pay them enough money, they make a profit and stay in business.  If you don’t pay them enough money, they lose money and get taken over by the government and become a bureaucracy. Then the unions come.
  
• About ‘death panels’ “[T]his idea that somehow the House of Representatives voted for ‘death panels’ that will basically pull the plug on Grandma. … (T)he intention. .. was to give people more information so that they could handle issues of end-of-life care when they’re ready, on their own terms. … (O)ne of the chief sponsors of this bill originally was a Republican … Johnny Isakson.” Although Isakson thinks the provision does not create ‘death panels,’ he did not sponsor the legislation and vehemently objected to the President trying to make him the token Republican.  On the actual issue of ‘death panels’, the idea of a government program where a bureaucrat comes to your home and discusses your end-of-life “options”, one of which is your speedy, cost-effective and imminent death, is anathema to mere mortals with a healthy fear of government.  Obama harbors no such fear nor, apparently, such mortality.
• “You will not be waiting in any lines.” Really?  Obama hath decreed that his people shall not waiteth in line.  This alone should make people see through what a ridiculous prat Obama really is.  He would promise anything, words are meaningless to him.  People wait in lines now.  They’re not actual lines like the stereotype of the DMV, but there is waiting.  The point is, with free healthcare the demand increases because people pay nothing to see a doctor.  If supply is fixed (it actually drops), the only give is wait time.  People have to wait.  Unless Obama plans to make doctors work around the clock at gunpoint, free access to healthcare for the 15% of people who don’t have it will result in wait times.  People in Massachusetts, who have the single-payer system Obama covets, pay more for healthcare and have to wait nearly two months to see a doctor.  They’re not standing around outside the doctor’s office for 50 days, but they are waiting.
• “Either the insurance company refused to cover the person, or they dropped their coverage when they got sick and they needed it most, or they refused to cover a specific illness or condition, or they charged higher premiums and out-of-pocket costs.” You know who else doesn’t cover specific illnesses or conditions?  Government healthcare.  Whether it’s Medicare, Medicaide, Canadian healthcare, National Health Service in the UK or CubaCare, there are always procedures, illnesses and conditions not covered.  (CubaCare apparently doesn’t even cover toilet paper).  Governing is about choice, no matter how smooth your tongue, at some point, Mr. President, you will have to stop talking and start governing.  Promising people universal, unlimited coverage for less cost is absurd.  Anyone who believes you is moron or a liberal, but I repeat myself.
• “… No one holds these companies accountable for these practices.” The consumer holds these people accountable.  If, as the conservatives suggest, we disconnect health insurance from employment, consumers will be free to drop their health insurance just as they can drop their car insurance.  If I am unhappy with my car or home insurance, I call them, give them a piece of my mind and go to their competitor.  Allowing healthcare consumers to do the same would improve service overnight.
• “UPS and FedEx are doing just fine, right?  No, they are.  It’s the Post Office that’s always having problems.” Someone should report him to Linda Douglass for maligning the People’s Glorious HealthCare Reform Bill™ and the People’s Glorious Post Office.  Unfortunately for Obama, though, this is the entire point: the government is terrible at operating things.  The difference of course is that when the Post Office fails, Aunt Mille doesn’t get her birthday sweater; when her insurance fails, she dies.  This is typical liberal myopia; they see the lesson but miss the point.  Just as Hillary retold a story of a boy complaining that after a minimum wage hike his mom’s boss had to cut her hours.  The mom ended up with the same take home pay.  She retold the story as reason to raise the minimum wage again.
• From a darling 11 year old girl:  “I saw a lot of signs outside saying mean things about reforming health care. How do kids know what is true, and why do people want a new system that can — that help more of us?” You can almost hear Whitney Houston breaking into “I believe the children are the future…” Look at that question– “saying mean things;” the way she phrased the question in reverse: “why do people want a new system,” so sweet and innocent.  Yeah, about that.  She’s a plant.  Her mother and her her mother’s law firm donated thousand’s to Obama’s campaign.  Oh, and their practice includes medical malpractice litigation.  Shameless Astroturf.  And exploiting a minor.  On a day when the Obama’s were hypocritically whining about someone else using Shasha and Malia to make a point.
• At one point, Obama said “I don’t want people thinking I just have a bunch of plants in here.“  Of course, it’s unfair to call Obama’s last statement a lie. He said he didn’t want people to think that. He didn’t say it wasn’t true.
• Finally. when asked to explain his support of a single-payer plan and the fear that healthcare reform is a Trojan Horse for a single payer system, Obama tried to deny he had ever said anything of the sort: “I have not said that I was a single-payer supporter because, frankly, we historically have had a employer-based system in this country with private insurers, and for us to transition to a system like that I believe would be too disruptive.“  First, that’s like saying “I’ve not said I rooted for the Arizona Cardinals because, frankly, the Steelers have won the Superbowl.”  Second, the change would be too disruptive?  Is that the only reason?  If your wife or husband ever asks if you would leave them for another, try answering with  “I think the change would be too disruptive,” and enjoy the divorce.

Once again Obama deigns to speak to us without a teleprompter and we get nothing but gaffes, half truths and whopping lies to an audience of supporters and Democratic party plants.  Of course in today’s climate, as an added bonus, we also get lectured that his all of his detracters are liars and his enemies fill the audience with paid shills.  It is bad enough to suffer a President that constantly lies, but the constant moral superiority is getting old.

Perhaps the Speaker needs a refresher course in what it means to be un-American. She has been wrapped up in a Che Guevara flag so long, she has forgotten what an American flag actually looks like.  So here are a few things that real Americans would not do:

• It is un-American to pass legislation without reading it. This is not a debatable point.  Subjecting Americans to laws–any laws–of which you do not have personal and complete knowledge is an abdication of your duty.  There is nothing more un-American than that.  Stop whining and do your job.
• It is un-American to dismiss honest protesters exercising their right to free speech as mobs, thugs and “AstroTurf.”
• It is un-American to then summon your union goons to provoke a fight in loud but otherwise peaceful meetings.  Americans know the difference between a hired mob and honest protesters.  Honest protesters wear their own clothes, have hand written signs and look passionate or concerned.  Hired mobs wear SEIU t-shirts, hold professional (no-doubt union-made) signs and look irritable or constipated.
• It is un-American, and downright cowardly, to hide from conflict and quash dissent by hosting structured “prayer-meetings“; invitation only events; one-way conference calls and other “stealthcare” meetings.  Listening tours are intended to be a place for voters to speak and politicians to listen.
• It is un-American to buy off criticism with amendments and handouts.  It is shocking to offer a bribe to a man in public.  It is disgusting to offer a man a bribe in public regarding his son’s cerebrial palsy.
• It is un-American to reflexively and loudly accuse your constituents of being plants, rather than answer an honest question from a concerned voter.
• It is un-American to constantly push off public questions to private meetings that never seem to happen.
• It is un-American to lecture others about their carbon footprint saying “every aspect of our lives must be subjected to an inventory” and then buy three luxury private jets that can fly from Washington D.C. to Dubai without refueling.
• It is un-American to compare U.S. soldiers guarding terrorists to Nazi guards at concentration camps.
• It is un-American to impugn the integrity of the entire CIA in order to avoid responsibility for your own actions.
• It is un-American to malign an entire industry for making a profit in the vain attempt to score political points.
• It is un-American to befoul and despoil the high office of Speaker of the House with your loathsome excuse for leadership.

Nancy Pelosi should resign immediately and if there is anything left in her resembling honor or decency, she would slink away quietly into retirement, never to be heard from again.  But then again, that would be the honorable, decent and very American thing to do.  Nancy Pelosi would never do that.

Check out the Daily Danet Newssstand for this and other designs.

You’re only twice as likely to find someone who thinks Congress is going a good job as you are to find someone who believes Obama was born in Kenya.

Most of the Democrats who brought the party a majority in Congress are conservative Democrats who ran on what would have been a Republican platform (had the Republicans had a platform for the past six years).  Those Democrats stayed popular as long as they stayed independent.  Non-aligned voters can stomach a Republican or a Democrat, but they won’t tolerate a fanatic.  So long as the new Democrats maintained their independence from the likes of Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid and Barney Frank, their personal approval rating was not mixed in with the 23% approval rating of Congress as a whole.  But then came the ONE.

Obama swept into office and, for a time, it seemed popular to be a Democrat.  Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi, and Harry Reid set about to reshape American society.  But they had forgotten how they came to power.  Sure Obama won a major electoral victory, but he did so by promising, to cut taxes, reduce spending and fix healthcare by reducing costs–all Conservative themes.  Democrats in Congress also came to power on conservative themes.  They control 60% of the House and most of the difference in both chambers is made up of conservative, or blue dog, Democrats.

But a funny thing happened as Obama, Pelosi and Reid began to enact their very un-conservative agenda, namely:

• The stimulus: a big-government, wasteful, boondoggle for liberal causes, like the Pork for Perverts program, sending tax dollars to self-described perverts (hey, at least it’s “stimulating” something).  Obama and Biden actually had the gall a few weeks ago to say the purpose of the stimulus was never to create jobs.  Really?  What was the purpose then, to photograph people simulating sex acts?;
• Cap & Trade: an energy tax on working families on one hand and a giveaway of tax credits to Pelosi and Henry Waxman’s favorite liberal causes on the other (passed the House, but not the Senate);
• GM and Chrysler: Obama takes over two American giants and nearly simultaneously hands them over to, you guessed it, their unions;
• Cars for Clunkers: a plan to encourage car buying that was supposed to last three months only lasts four days. To add insult to injury, the liberals require perfectly good cars be destroy as a sacrifice to their Global Warming™ gods.
• Healthcare: the more people learn about this, the more it became the straw to break the camel’s back.

All of this in six months.  Six months!  In a frantic flurry of a liberal child with ADD in a candy store of unlimited government spending.  The line between individual Congressman and Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid and Barney Frank became blurred, and then it disappeared altogether.  So this is where we find ourselves.  An unpopular, anyone-but-a-Republican-Congress decides to take up healthcare reform.  So let’s think about that for a second.  What does that entail.

75% are happy with their healthcare, and yet Congressman cannot fathom why everyone is so angry at them.

Obama says that 45 million people don’t have healthcare.  He lies a lot, but let’s assume, solely for the sake of argument, he’s telling the truth here.  There are about 310 million Americans.  So even if Obama is right (he never is), that means that only 15% of Americans do not have healthcare.  As Michael Ramirez and The American point out, there are some people who chose not to have health insurance.  (For people who call themselves “Pro Choice”, Democrats sure love to take choice away from others.)  So if we conservatively estimate that half of the uninsured are uninsured by choice, that means that only 7.5% of Americans want health insurance and cannot get it.  And that’s only if you believe Obama.

So what about the rest of us; the 92.5% of us with healthcare?  Most polls show that between 80% and 90% like their current insurance and would not change it.  (Notice that that FoxNews poll showed 91% of respondents said they had health insurance.  See, I’m no dummy.)  So multiplying the percentage of people who have insurance (92.5%) times the percentage of people who are happy with it (85%), and you get the percentage of the general population who would be annoyed if you changed things (78.6%).

That’s Democrats and Republicans.  More than 75% of the people are happy with the healthcare they have, and yet these Congressman cannot seem to fathom why everyone is so angry at them. They have to dream up conspiracies of evil Republicans and mean insurance companies spreading lies. Barbara Boxer, in a psychologists wet dream, fantasizes about “well dressed” protesters out to “hurt our president and change the Congress.“  Nancy Pelosi, another Californian ripe for the shrink’s couch, sees swastikas where there are none.  Then again, her memory isn’t what it should be, maybe she’s just constantly confused–so many lies to keep straight.  And as Mary Katherine Ham points out, Think Progress and MSNBC are even blaming protests on a (no offense) comically small conservative group with 5 followers on Twitter.

If 75% of people think you’re incompetent and you mess with something that 75% of the people like as it is, you’re going to get shouted at.

So to Nancy, Barbara, Keith Olbermann and all the moonbats out there, let me clue you geniuses in, you started with a 23% approval rating, that means more than 75% of the population thinks Congress is incompetent.  Pelosi, Reid and Obama have now twisted so many arms that all Democrats look (and vote) alike.  And now the Democrats are messing with a healthcare system that 75% of Americans like the way it is.  If 75% of people think you’re incompetent and you mess with something that 75% of the people like as it is, you’re going to get shouted at.

The Democratic response to dissent is telling.  Instead of a mature, adult acceptance of a divergent viewpoint, Obama asks Americans to spy on their neighbors.  For a man whose sole accomplishment prior to public office is being a community organizer, you would think he would have more respect for protesters, whether organized or not.  And yet his press secretary blames all dissent on political enemies like a third-world dictator.  Democratic hacks in the media, no doubt soon to join the administration as Linda Douglass did, breathlessly search for their National Guard Memo proving a conspiracy where there is none.

Democrats have come to power, not because of their ideas or their leadership, but because of Republican failings.  And as their power crumbles under the weight of their egos and their predictable overreach, they wonder, “why don’t my plans work out?  Why do bad things always happen to me?”  Bad things don’t happen to you because of Republican conspiracies.  Bad things happen to you because you’re a Democrat.

They are encouraging you to report on your fellow citizens, even if they only lie about the People’s Glorious Healthcare Reform™ in “casual conversation” (!) by emailing flag@whitehouse.gov.  (Be sure to also tell the government if you suspect your neighbors of cheating on their taxes, removing mattress tags or speeding).

Here is what I suggest you do: write to tell the overbearing Obama administration (as I already have) that you know of somone who is lying constantly about healthcare reform:

There’s a guy I know who’s CONSTANTLY lying about healthcare! He keeps saying that we can cover more people for less money. He lies so much, I think I may actually believe what he’s saying! He lives at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, please hurry, before he lies again!