tomllewis

Marco Rubio is going to win the Florida Senate seat this coming November. Earlier this year I read quite a few articles about what a rising star he was becoming. After seeing him speak at CPAC 2010, I was easily won over into believing the same thing (despite Harry Reid comment: “I don’t know how anyone of Hispanic heritage could be a Republican.”).

Here’s a good example of his style and political philosophy.

via NRO.

Indiana has been a leader in health care reform under Governor Mitch Daniels, but the passage of Obamacare threatens much of that good work. Now, Governor Daniels is speaking out and urging his fellow governors to take a serious look at the threat posed by Obamacare.

via Gateway Pundit.

Daniels is still my #1 choice for President in 2012. His website.

It’s sad how many people believe (d) these:

• Promise #1: If you are satisfied with your existing health care arrangement, you can keep it.
• Promise #2: Reform will lower America’s health care spending.
• Promise #3: Reform will lower Americans’ health care premiums.
• Promise #4: Obamacare will not lead to a doctor shortage, or escalate the primary-care physician shortfall.
• Promise #5: There will be no government rationing of medical care.
• Promise #6: “The firm pledge” – Ninety-five percent of Americans will not see any form of tax increase because of Obamacare (or anything else).
• Promise #7: Health care reform won’t add “a single dime” to the deficit—and will actually cut it.
• Promise #8: Health care reform will help businesses—employers and employees, alike.
• Promise #9: Obamacare will not allow for funding of abortions with taxpayer money.
• Promise #10: Obamacare will not only satisfy each of the promises above, but satisfy all of them at the same time with virtually no downsides.

I picked this up from William A. Jacobson’s Legal Insurrection web site. He got it from Hot Air’s outstanding post by Mary Katharine Ham of the Weekly Standard and Townhall’s political editor Guy Benson, bringing us up to date on the status of promises made in connection with ObamaCare:

The sum of all fears

It goes into great detail complete with excellent videos.

.

via HotAir.

Every year we are going to see more and more of stories just like this one. We’re headed for the same kind of rationing that is so prevalent in England, most of Europe and Canada.

via Hot Air.

Nationalized Health Care Hell: UK to Cut Millions of Operations to Control Costs – Seniors Hardest Hit

As the cost becomes unsustainable, America will have no choice other than rationing health care because we are running out of money. There will be more people in need of health care and less doctors and health care workers to treat them.

Great Britain is looking to cut billions from their broken nationalized health care system by cutting millions of operations. Of course, the elderly will be hardest hit.

The Daily Mail reported:

Millions of patients face losing NHS care as bosses prepare to axe treatments to make £20billion of savings by 2014, a top doctor has warned.

Among procedures being targeted by health trusts are hernias, joint replacements, ear and nose procedures, varicose veins and cataract surgery.

Dr Mark Porter, chairman of the British Medical Association’s consultants committee, warned NHS bosses wanted ‘wholesale reductions in budgets’.

He said primary care trusts – which commission care – are already compiling lists of ‘low value’ operations that would no longer be provided.

These include hip replacements for obese patients and some operations for hernias and gallstones. Procedures for varicose veins, ear and nose problems including grommets in children are also not funded in some areas.

Dr Porter said it was wrong to impose blanket bans on such procedures when some patients might benefit.

The Blog Prof has posted Dr. Ezekial’s death panel chart that explains how the elderly will be hardest hit.

via Gateway Pundit.

Howard Dean admitted that Obamacare is a redistribution of wealth.

I really do have respect for politicians who are honest about what they’re trying to do.

Here’s Howard Dean being candid in a way that president Obama almost never is.

via Breitbart.tv

I find myself continually wondering if the GOP has really learned its lesson from their profligate spending from 2000-2006. If Republicans do win back the Congress in the 2010 election, will they have the courage to pass legislation based on conservative principles, even if it means not getting re-elected?

The WSJ’s Kim Strassel recent article reflects on this:

The struggle between Marco Rubio and Charlie Crist for the Florida Senate seat symbolizes the rift between the reformers and the establishment in the GOP.

Let’s talk Republican “civil war.” Not the one the media is hawking, that pits supposed tea party fanatics like Mr. Rubio against supposed “moderates” like Mr. Crist. The Republican Party is split. But the real divide is between reformers like Mr. Rubio and Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan, who are running on principles and tough issues, and a GOP old guard that still finds it politically expedient to duck or demagogue issues. As Republicans look for a way out of the wilderness, this is the rift that matters.

This divide is similar to today’s GOP split over Wall Street, between those tempted to win points by punishing banks with overweening regulation and those in the Ryan camp who have no love for big business but defend free markets. This divide is putting enormous pressure on the GOP leadership. It tastes victory this fall and is terrified of blowing it. It watched President Obama sandbag Mr. Ryan earlier this year, holding up his roadmap as an example of the terrors the GOP would impose on the nation.

Here’s a short clip by Paul Ryan, at the February “Health Care Summit:”

Hiding Spending Doesn’t Reduce Spending:

Republican spending under George W. Bush was so out of control that it gave Obama, Nancy Pelosi and the Democrat Congress the perfect excuse to triple the debt and increase the Federal Government’s control of our economy to 25% of GDP, up from 20%, in just 2 years. After all, Republicans did it, and no one objected!

Kim Strassel ends with this correct observation:

At some point, GOP leaders are going to have to decide what the “new” GOP is. Principled opposition to bad Democratic policy is a legitimate strategy for the midterms. Then what? Republicans will win seats this fall. How long they remain in them will come down to which side—the establishment GOP or the reformist GOP—wins what is the real Republican civil war.

If Republicans do win, and don’t change their ways, I and many many other conservatives (and independents) & people from the “Tea Party Movement” will look to a third party.

For those of you who have never heard Marco Rubio, here’s the speech he gave at CPAC 2010:

And, here’s a short Paul Ryan clip:

Or, go to AmericanRoadmap.org.

Two instructive charts on historical support by Democrats and Republicans on Major Social Legislation.

I had read this many times, but never actually saw the breakdown of how the political parties supported the Civil Rights Act.

via Political Math.

In the never ending fight against other people trying to control our lives it’s great to see successful people like John Mackey promoting the free market.

Aaron Gardner provides a quote from Jonah Goldberg’s Liberal Fascism, that goes to the heart of the issue:

[L]iberalism in this country succumbed to the totalitarian temptation: the belief that there is a priesthood of experts capable of redesigning society in a “progressive” manner. That progressive priesthood brooks no opposition, and it is in the ascendant today on many fronts.

Video via All American Blogger.

Here’s a very short clip of my favorite conservative “leaving the door open,” to a possible 2012 run for the presidency.

Now for the important video. If you have the concern, and the patience, to watch the next 59 minutes, you’ll know why I have so much respect for this man.

For those with a more limited attention span (like me), here’s a recent editorial the Indiana Governor wrote on why we better start adjusting to our new status as good Europeans.

or

This Kim Strassel interview with @mymanmitch (his Twitter feed) on how to be an activist—and also a popular—Republican conservative.

Rep. Alcee Hastings says it very concisely.

Great observation by Ed Morrissey. Rep. Anthony Weiner will not answer the question.

And now for the professionals:

via HotAir.

Congressman Perriello: “If you don’t tie our hands, we will keep stealing.”

I do admire any elected official (of any party) who actually tells the truth. It’s a rarity.

The Jefferson Area Tea Party met with Democrat Congressman Tom Perriello (Virginia CD-05) on Tuesday, March 16, 2010 in Washington, D.C. The topic was Health Care reform and Tom’s position on the pending bill.

Video footage courtesy of Audrey Welborn: www.welbornfreedomwatch.com

via Hot Air.

Great NRCC ad.

Posted by Aaron Gardner on RedState.

After Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels, Oklahoma Senator Tom Coburn is my favorite choice to run for president in 2012.

Here’s Coburn telling Dems who voted no on first Health Care vote that the Senate won’t support Congressmen who lose their election and are then appointed by the Obama Administration for some Federal job (in payment for switching their vote).

H/T Hot Air.

It’s rare for any major MSM personality to honestly take The One and Dems to task, so I give Tingles a lot of credit here.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

….. So You Should Get A Raise When Health Care Passes.”

Does anybody believe this??

I have to assume that he must have meant $3000. And if that’s the case, what would the MSM had done if George W. Bush had made that slip of the tongue. Since it’s The One, the MSM will not air the mistake.

In the Weekly Republican Address, newly-elected Sen. Scott Brown of Massachusetts explains that the Democrats running Washington have their priorities all wrong. Sen. Brown says Americans “told me that they want their President and Congress to focus on creating jobs and reviving Americas economy. Instead, for more than a year now, we have seen a bitter, destructive, and endless drive to completely transform Americas health care system.”

“Somehow,” Sen. Brown notes, “the greater the public opposition to the health care bill, the more determined they seem to force it on us anyway. Their attitude shows Washington at its very worst the presumption that they know best, and they’re going to get their way whether the American people like it or not.”

Sen. Brown says, “I haven’t been here very long, but, I can tell you this much already: Nothing has distracted the attention and energy of the nations capital more than this disastrous detour. And, the surest way to return to the peoples business is to listen to the people themselves: We need to drop this whole scheme of federally controlled health care, start over, and work together on real reforms at the state level that will contain costs and wont leave America trillions of dollars deeper in debt.”

Kelly O’Donnell just reads what’s on the screen. When the numbers get that high, people don’t even comprehend what it means.

via The Powers That Be.