Don's Tuesday column

              THE WAY I SEE IT   by Don Polson Red Bluff Daily News   10/1/2013

Obamacare abomination must be destroyed

It marks a truly abominable descent into despicably offensive rhetoric for the mouthpiece of President Obama, Daniel Pfeiffer, to say Republicans “have bombs strapped to their chests.” We’re objecting to a $17 trillion national debt, and the nearly $2 trillion that will be added to the debt over 10 years via Obamacare. Adding more trash-talk, Pfeiffer further described negotiations with Republicans as akin to bargaining over a home price by saying you’ll burn the house down if your price is not agreed to. Someone please wash his mouth with soap!

Of course, such flaming verbal garbage has become routine for the Republican-and-Tea-Party-hating Democrat left in Washington, MSNBC and other smash-mouth dens of slimy utterances. I note that Mr. Mazzucchi has gone no further than using “extortion” in his written fusillade, to his credit. However, when someone engages in extortion, they typically “get (money) by threats, etc” (Webster’s Pocket Dictionary). Republicans seek only to “get” smaller spending increases for the federal government—no increases would reflect the decline in Americans’ income under Obama—or rather to “get” less debt and less of a fiscal burden on our citizens and economy. Not one Congressional Republican “gets” money via threatened, hard negotiating positions. The word “extortion” would, in a strict sense, apply to those on Obama’s side who do threaten to let government shutdowns occur unless their collective government “gets” more money. If the shoe fits….

Appropriately, John Hinderaker, at Powerlineblog.com, said that “not only has Obama refused to negotiate with the House, he has also had his spokesman describe Republicans as suicide bombers. The irony is rich: those who are concerned about $17 trillion in debt ‘have bombs strapped to their chests,’ while the world’s biggest sponsor of actual suicide bombers—you know, the ones who blow people up, as opposed to disagreeing with Democrats—are newly-discovered moderates … Cheap shots aside, it is not surprising (since the) foundational belief of the leftists among whom Obama came of age was that America is too rich and too powerful. So Obama has a general desire to make the United States poorer and weaker. He is doing a great job so far.”

To follow up on polling results mentioned elsewhere, “the rest of the story” is that, with an average approval of 43.5 percent (RealClearPolitics.com), Obama’s disapproval is at 51.3 percent; that’s a negative 7.8 percent, indicating deep dissatisfaction. Congressional Job Approval is only 16.8 percent, so with 75.5 percent disapproval, you have a negative 58.7 percent … for both parties. However, the average Generic Congressional Vote is only 2 percent higher for Democrats than Republicans (41 to 39), not a ringing endorsement for the Dems.

Moreover, when pollster Scott Rasmussen asked voters whom they trust on 15 issues, Republicans garnered more trust on 11: Economy, Nat’l Security and War on Terror, Job Creation, Energy Policy, Afghanistan, Immigration, Taxes, Health Care, Gov’t Spending, Gun Control, and Issues Affecting Small Business. Democrats scored higher only on Social Security, Education and Environment, with the parties even on Gov’t Ethics and Corruption.

The polling on Obamacare (RCP “Public Approval of Health Care Law”) has been more negative than positive for as long as the question has been asked, starting in December 2009. The best it has gotten is 5 percent more negative, generally over 10 percent more negative, until summer 2012, when it went back to 5 percent higher disapproval. Since May, the disapprove/negative spread has gone from 10 to 19 percent (CNN: 38 For, 57 Against)—the people don’t like it and don’t want it (“the dogs don’t like the dog food”). Hence, it was fitting for (my hero) Senator Ted Cruz, to read the Dr. Seuss story because the character stridently resists the persistent exhortations of “Sam-I-Am” to eat “Green Eggs and Ham.” I doubt Americans will eventually like Obamacare, however, as the Seuss character did with Sam-I-Am’s dish.

Remember, Obama and the Democrats neither sought, appealed to, nor received a single Republican vote when they ultimately jammed Obamacare through Congress in a most abominable legislative fashion. Indeed, Obamacare represents a budgetary, policy, cultural, political, religious, judicial, constitutional, historical, and economic abomination in every sense. One single Supreme Court judge twisted the clear wording of the legislation to turn a “fine” over the mandate to purchase insurance, into a tax—a tax saddling Americans in perpetuity. The same political/media crowd that has given Democrats a pass when flaunting immigration, marriage or national security laws, now insists that Obamacare is etched in legal stone. No, it’s not and Republicans can and will crusade to abolish it, to destroy it, root and branch, for the foreseeable future.

Article headlines alone condemn the entirety of Obamacare: “Obamacare Will Increase Health Spending By $7,450 for a Typical Family of Four”; “Tennessee: Obamacare will triple men’s premiums, double women’s”; “Obamacare’s ‘Cool Calculator’: The ‘Wedding Tax’”; “Obama on Obamacare: ‘We did raise taxes on some things’”; “Obama lied, My Health Plan Died”; “How President Obama is flouting Obamacare”; “Unpublished CRS Memo: Obama Administration Has Missed Half Of Obamacare’s Legally Imposed Implementation Deadlines”; “It’s Fact, Not Anecdote, That ObamaCare Is Turning Us Into A Part-Time Nation”; and, finally, “Obama’s Long List of Broken Promises.” Search by title, or at DonPolson.blogspot.com (“health care system” label.