RomneyCare/ObamaCare Issue

Conservatives have been tying themselves in knots over how to resolve backing Romney in spite of the fact that he has not-yet disavowed RomneyCare, the alleged, and most-likely-to-be-true model for ObamaCare.  ObamaCare is the biggest among the many big Obamanations foisted on our country by Obama and fellow Democrats.
ToeJamm posted an article rallying the troops to swallow the problems inherent with backing a candidate responsible for RomneyCare.  jeff00139x opposed, then grudgingly acquiesced to steeling himself to fill in the dot for Romney.  I'm not sure where KP is on this, but feel certain it's not an easy choice for him.   Melkor, I think is happy with Romney.  I could not believe that Republicans would choose to remove the most significant arrow in their quiver in their fight to overthrow Obama, but, understand that Obama must be overthrown regardless, and see numerous other hefty arrows left.
Well, the guys at the Powerline blog, who oppose RomneyCare and are generally very conservative, have posted an article in response to liberal douchebag EJ Dionne, pointing out why there are critical differences between RomneyCare and ObamaCare that make it not impossible for a conservative to not be a hypocrite for supporting Romney while opposing ObamaCare.  This won't make you pleased as punch for Romney, just allow you to explain your apparent hypocrisy.

Read the article for the details, but their main points:

- Constitutionality: Conservatives rightly challenge ObamaCare on Constitutional grounds.  RomneyCare is at the state level where there are no constitutional issues.

- Affordability:  Massachusetts could afford RomneyCare, America can't afford ObamaCare.  Says Powerline,

Taxes were not increased and funds were not “borrowed” to pay for Romneycare. This is not true of Obamacare.

- Regulatory Oppression: ObamaCare is a 2000 page document, RomneyCare comes in at 70 pages.  Says Powerline,

In Massachusetts, insurance companies were not, effectively, placed under government control, nor did Massachusetts become the default health care provider in that state.

This is not to say that Conservatives should applaud RomneyCare.  This is to say that is does not appear to violate the Constitution, it appears to be an affordable act that Massachewtions :) wanted, and it does not overwhelm the private enterprises providing these services in the state with regulations.

What Do You Think?

Europe is dealing with major economic issues that are threatening the survival of the European Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) and the whole European political project.

The historian Niall Ferguson points out that a monetary union requires economic and thus political centralization:

Is to follow through the original logic of monetary union. If you go back to 1989 Delors report it was explicit that one consequence of monetary union would be central control of national budgets, of national policy. And that is ultimately the crucial staging point for a federal system of the sort that you have here in Canada.

So if this logic is correct, then for the EMU to saved it will require further political and economic integration.

Do you think that the current situation in Europe will lead to the break up of the European Monetary Union or do you think that it will try to be saved. My opinion is that there will be further political and economic integration as the cost of not doing this would be too economically costly for Europe and the rest of the world.

Best Argument for Capitalism

The best argument for something is results.  The German magazine Spiegel has a series of photos of places in East Germany taken immediately after the fall of the Berlin wall and then some period later of the same sites.  The changes are astounding.  I think there's no doubt, looking at these photos, that the people's prosperity and happiness have both been greatly improved by the advent of capitalism in East Germany, even if the East Germans have been half-hearted in their embrace of the opportunity to prosper.  Also, keep in mind that East Germany was considered to have the highest standard of living of the countries controlled by the Soviet Union.

Portland Sucks

The May primary elections had a hand full of measures on the ballot for Portlanders. Once again, the People's Republic of Portland decided to keep feeding the libraries and to help rebuild a crumbling school system.


David Douglas School District needs some improvements, but instead of managing a tight budget they just take the easy way out and tax property owners. The politicians in Portland know they can play the sympathy card and claim its "for the children". Oh, yeah, we have to make sure to give the teachers their raises as well. We all know how much they deserve it. http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/index.ssf/2012/05/david_douglas_school_district_2.html

The Multnomah County Libraries will be kept on life support as well. We need to make sure that all the pan handlers have a place to access the internet in order to get the required paperwork for their food stamp cards. I swear, every time I've ever entered the county libraries in the last ten years it has been a surplus of lower income people waiting to use the internet. As we see paper books becoming obsolete and being replaced by blogs and kindles, of course it is the government that takes its time catching up to speed. Just like the outdated post office.http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/index.ssf/2012/05/multnomah_county_library_measu.html

I wonder how many voters who voted to tax property owners actually own property? The economy has some dependence on the housing market. These measures will depress the potential for growth.

Side note: Homeless people in Portland are not hungry. With 39 places in the city that serve 24 hr food to homeless, Portland has become a safe haven for them. We are actually seeing an obesity problem among homeless. This news came to me from a homeless shelter manager.

2022

 Europe is in trouble and America is not far behind:

Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK) believes that unless the U.S. gets its fiscal house in order, the financial and economic repercussions will be severe.
“How long do you think before the United States has a financial meltdown?” the Daily Caller’s Nicholas Ballasy asks.
“Two to five years,” Sen. Coburn responds without hesitating.
“Think about what will happen to us. We have $16 trillion worth of debt right now and we’re paying less than 2 percent on that debt  — that’s 4 percentage points less than our historical average for our debt,” he said, adding that he is confident interest rates will “come back up.”
“In 2022, less than 10 years from now, unless we make major changes that everybody’s saying they know has to be made but none of the politicians have the courage to make, the entire federal budget will be made of only three things: interest, Medicare and Social Security, nothing else,” he added.
[...]

“There has not yet been a republic that did not murder itself. We are in the midst of committing murder to our republic,” he added.

Great Lessons From History

How did the German nation become enraptured with Hitler and end up following him to their destruction: millions of Germans dead, two million German women raped, and the literal destruction of their country? Surely we that are living today could never end up making the same mistake. The German people were completely different from us and they were barbarians. It would be comfortable for us living today to believe this, but Hayek noted in The Road To Serfdom that:

Probably it is true that the very magnitude of the outrages committed by the totalitarian governments, instead of increasing the fear that such a system might one day arise in more enlightened countries, has rather strengthened the assurance that it cannot happen here. When we look to Nazi Germany, the gulf which separates us seems s immense that nothing that happens there can posses relevance for any possible development here. And the fact that the difference has steadily become greater seems to refute any suggestion that we may be moving in a similar direction. But let us not forget that fifteen years ago the possibility of such a thing's happening in Germany would have appeared just as fantastic, not only t nine-tenths of the Germans themselves, but also to the most hostile foreign observers (however wise they may now pretend to have been).

The German civilization was advanced as noted in Modern Times:

Wiemar was a 'Western' republic. It stood for civilization rather than culture: civilization was in office, culture in opposition. It is no coincidence, either, that German civilization reached its gaudiest flowering during the 1920s, when Germany, for a brief period, became the word-centre of ideas and art.[...] Germany was by far the best-educated nation in the world--as long ago as the late eighteenth century it had passed the 50 per cent literacy mark.[...]

In the Weltbuhne, the smartest and most telling of the new journals, sexual freedom and pacifism were exalted, the army, the state, the university, the Church and, above all, the comfortable, industrious middle classes, were savaged and ridiculed.

The German people were ravaged by economic depression and were desperate for a savior.

The German people were no different than we were today. So given the same set of circumstance that they found themselves--economic ruin--in what would make one believe that we would react differently? Here two good episodes from the History Channel and the Military Channel about the rise of the Third Reich and Germany's fatal attraction to Hitler. They are about three hours in total, but they are worth watching in bits and pieces when you have time. The rise of Nazis Germany and totalitarianism in general is nothing new throughout human history. The same conditions that gave rise to Nazism will be present in the not-too-distance future here. The same thing will happen again, although in a modified form. So the lessons learned from these videos will be worth learning for all peoples and nations.