ObamaCare: Running for Rushmore?

“Ever since Teddy Roosevelt first called for reform in 1912, seven presidents — Democrats and Republicans alike — have taken up the cause of reform time and time again,” President Obama said in a statement hailing the Christmas Eve Senate vote to take over 1/6 of the nation’s economy.  “Such efforts have been blocked by special-interests lobbyists who have perpetrated the status quo that works better for the insurance industry than it does for the American people.”

Note the date of TR’s “calling” for reform. It’s 1912.  Nationalized health care was part of the platform of the Progressive Party that year and every year thereafter. Americans are more familiar with the name Theodore himself gave to that third party bid. After being shot by a would-be assassin in Milwaukee, TR said it takes more than a single bullet to stop a Bull Moose. Instantly, the colorful sobriquet was applied to the Progressive Party.

What did Theodore himself think of his new-found allies, the Progressives? He was sincerely committed to reform. And he certainly thought he had been cheated out of the Republican Party presidential nomination in 1912. After all, he had won all the state party primaries in the limited number of states that held them. But TR also recognized that some of his Progressive supporters went over the top. For them, he coined the wonderful phrase, “the lunatic fringe.”

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Tags: bernie madoff, Bill Gates, Bull Moose Party, carbon dioxide, carbon regulations
Posted Dec 29th 2009 at 10:17 am in Congress, Economics, Healthcare, History, Obama, Politics | 53118137 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/kenandken/2009/12/29/obamacare-running-for-rushmore/ObamaCare%3A+Running+for+Rushmore%3F2009-12-29+18%3A17%3A00Ken+Blackwell+and++Ken+Klukowski

EPA’s Next Priority: Meat Control?

The really nice thing about having left-wing comedy hosts is that Democrat officials have absolutely no problem appearing on their talk shows. It’s really nice to have these people interviewed in a comfortable non-confrontational setting, because the darndest things will come out.

Bill Maher in a rare hard-nosed moment, presses EPA administrator Lisa Jackson to answer a tough question about whether the EPA intends to regulate meat. After she dodges the question, Bill asks it again.

Now I could be wrong, because she was stuttering badly, but didn’t the United States EPA Administrator say that she is looking into Meat Control? She certainly advocated a restriction on food grown outside of the US.

But MEAT CONTROL? I’ve met a lot of vegetarians in my travels. I don’t really care about those who practice it themselves, although I often question their logic. I look at vegetarianism as a sort of religion, and have no problem with it being practiced in the privacy of one’s own cat-filled home. But in America we have a separation of church and state, and if you intend to force me to conform to your religious dietary restrictions, I’m going to make a little noise.

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Tags: beef tallow, Bill Maher, carbon dioxide, climate change, EPA
Posted Oct 5th 2009 at 11:25 am in Culture, Environment, Political Humor, Politics | 12698101 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/tslagle/2009/10/05/epas-next-priority-meat-control/EPA%27s+Next+Priority%3A+Meat+Control%3F2009-10-05+18%3A25%3A04Tim+Slagle