Monthly Archives: July 2009

“Take 2 Aspirin & Call Me When Your Cancer Is Stage 4”

Capitalism, Free Markets, Government, Healthcare, Regulation, Socialism

When she’s good, she’s very very good. Ann Coulter on the Democrats’ idea of fixing problems that come from government intervention with more government intervention. In other words, “trying to sober up by having another drink.” Here’s an excerpt from “Take 2 aspirin and call me when your cancer is stage 4” (read it all):

“Even two decades after the collapse of liberals’ beloved Soviet Union, they can’t grasp that it’s easier and cheaper to obtain any service provided by capitalism than any service provided under socialism.

You don’t have to conjure up fantastic visions of how health care would be delivered in this country if we bought it ourselves. Just go to a grocery store or get a manicure. Or think back to when you bought your last muffler, personal trainer, computer and every other product and service available in inexpensive abundance in this capitalist paradise.

Third-party payer schemes are always a disaster – less service for twice the price! If you want good service at a good price, be sure to be the one holding the credit card. Under “universal health care,” no one but government bureaucrats will be allowed to hold the credit card.

Isn’t food important? Why not “universal food coverage”? If politicians and employers had guaranteed us “free” food 50 years ago, today Democrats would be wailing about the “food crisis” in America, and you’d be on the phone with your food care provider arguing about whether or not a Reuben sandwich with fries was covered under your plan.

Instead of making health care more like the DMV, how about we make it more like grocery stores? Give the poor and tough cases health stamps and let the rest of us buy health care – and health insurance – on the free market.”

No Attrition

IMMIGRATION, Labor, Left-Liberalism And Progressivisim, Welfare

Although fewer Mexicans are entering the U.S., illegal aliens are not repatriating to Mexico, despite the economic depression, reports the The Washington Independent. The trend appears to support my assertion, in the post on “Socialist America Sinking,” that the trough is still sufficiently full of feed for the incoming oinks.

It’ll take time to break the backs of the relatively few Atlases who carry the $13 trillion American economy. Decades hence, immigration will slow. Until then, the hordes will flock to the freebies.

Granted, it might be argued that fear of law enforcement prevents aliens from crossing the border. But that’s laughable, given the solid, proven record the US holds of not patrolling the border in any meaningful way.

My contention is on its way to being vindicated: Illegals are driven less by the rugged individualism romantic Americans of the liberal and libertarian left attribute to them, and more by the magnet of welfare and other free stuff (like Mephisto’s Medicare). After all, American immigration policy selects for poor character.

Used Car Sales Tactics

Barack Obama, Healthcare, Politics, Socialism

SEX. GREED. FEAR. These are the time-honored sales tactics B. Hussein is using in pushing his healthscare Obamination. Who better to vouch for Obama’s used-car sales methods than a used-car salesman entertained on Neil Cavuto’s FoxNews program? B. Hussein got top marks from Cavuto’s car guy for hyping the sex appeal of the deal (cheap, good), for baffling Boobus with the numbers, and for playing on the fears we all harbor about our own mortality, and hammering home the urgency of the “deal.”. I could not find the segment on YouTube, but Don Imus invited Cavuto on his show to talk about it. Listen here.

In last week’s column, “And Now for Something Completely Different,” I mentioned the Mayo Clinic, which, as one of our readers pointed out, Obama had confused with the Mao Clinic:

Obama—who, to paraphrase poetry critic William Logan, never runs out of things to say, only things worth saying—promised that his medical system would be a well-oiled machine much like the Mayo Clinic is. There, “experts have figured out the most effective treatments and eliminated waste and unnecessary procedures,” preached the president.

Unlike Mephisto’s Medicare, the key to Mayo—and many such private not-for-profits—is not the all-knowing, demigod experts. Mayo clinic operates as smoothly as it does because it is a private clinic, where market forces and a mission combine to motivate dedicated entrepreneurs and professionals to minimize losses and maximize profits, so as to plow these back into an organization in which all are invested.

What’s the government’s mission? To keep Americans in the missionary position?

Well, what do you know: as the Washington Times reports, this superb clinic is panning Obamacare.

Updated: Stocks Or Savings?

Debt, Economy, Federal Reserve Bank, Inflation

Is America back and are the statists out? If only, says the one-and-only Peter Schiff. “The statists aren’t out; they’re here, they’re in control.” The Fed has yet to raise interest rates as it ought to. Americans have yet to begin saving in earnest. The government’s sticky paws are all over the place, prices are not being allowed to fall to reflect reality. We’re still a broke and bankrupt consumer economy.

Peter Morici, on the other hand, smells the recovery—a fourth-quarter recovery, to be precise. I wonder whether he’ll be asked back on the “Kudlow Report” when his prediction turns out to be false? Who am I kidding. Being a commentator on the “idiot’s lantern” means never having to say you’re sorry.

Update (July 21): Schiff said nothing about saving dollars. Anyone who follows his advice knows he recommends divesting of US assets. And he’s big on gold. We discussed strategizing in “Survival On the Road To serfdom.”