Offered without comment.
Fear. Fearful. Be Frightened. People are afraid.
Terrorists. Health Care.
Is the entire Republican platform simply “OOOGAA BOOOGGAA!!!” now?
Funny how Democratic hyperbole (hello, Alan Grayson) is deemed beyond the pale while shit like this is SOP as Republican talking points … with straight faces, mind you.
Haven’t you heard? Winning two governorships yesterday means the Right is on the rebound! It was a stunning defeat for the forces of [del]Socialism[/del] Liberalism and a nationwide rejection of Obama, his wife, his children, his friends and Kenyans in general.
These go in MPSIMS. Moved from The BBQ Pit.
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Gfactor**
Pit Moderator
Not that I would expect any sort of dispassionate analysis on this, but there are two things that are worth noting:
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The Republican argument that health insurance reform could end in disaster is not entirely incorrect. Though it is larded in absolutely absurd levels of hyperbole, this has the potential to be an extraordinary fiscal disaster if it fails. Given that we have never implemented a program of this magnitude or expense, it is indeed a considerable risk. Of course, the argument that it will be worse if we do nothing is reasonable as well. It remains to be seen. I’m of the mind that we should, and will, implement some sort of health insurance reform, but I still have some apprehension about it.
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We have not had a successful terrorist action in the United States since September 11, 2001. In spite of the previous administration’s penchant for describing every activity in terms of terrorist threats, that threat is nearly nonexistent. Therefore, she is right when she implies that the economic issue at hand is much more of a danger than any potential terrorist activity.
But hey, why think about it when you can offer something without comment?
This is clearly a shamefaced confession that the danger of a terrorist attack was grossly overstated by the previous administration!
I sincerely doubt that was the theme that Ms. Foxx was going for. It’s more like this:
You know what’s bad? Terrorists.
You know what else is bad, besides Hitler? Health care reform.
and
#3 OOOGAA BOOOGGAA!!!
As usual Airman Doors, you make some intelligent points. Economic decisions should be made carefully, and it’s logical to be apprehensive about large programs that might entail risk. It’s also true that terrorism in the US has been vastly overstated in the past.
Do you think that Rep. Virginia Foxx was making reasonable points like yours? Was she employing the device of hyperbole? No, she was merely shouting OOOGAA BOOOGGAA!!! to frighten people into voting for her party.
More Americans died in 2001 from not having health insurance than from the terrorist attacks. Where are the Republicans announcing that lack of health care results in greater loss of life than terrorism?
I think that the vast majority of people who oppose this legislation have thought this through in this fashion and are being lumped in with bubbleheads like Virginia Foxx and vocal idiots like those you find at “Tea Parties”. I think that the hyperbole that these people use are tapping into the concerns of well-reasoned people and co-opting them.
Did she mean it this way? Actually, I bet she did. As a general rule, people in Congress are not idiots (there are exceptions, of course). But as with any politician (or any other attention-seeker), put them in front of a camera and they act the fool. Hyperbole gets attention. Well-reasoned arguments do not.
And gun control, and buttsex.
More’s the pity. I think you just summed up the main problem with the political system as it stands.
Perhaps, but, in most people’s minds, and by no means irrationally, the risk of fiscal disaster is of a completely different kind than the risk posed by terrorists.
What about Social Security and Medicare?
Amazing how pundits and politicians are wringing their hands over 90 billion dollars a year and how we can’t afford this extravagence (which amounts to about 0.7% of the national income of 14 trillion), but nobody (at least nobody in the mainstream) ever questions whether we need to 925 billion a year on military spending. It’s apparently a sacred cow that can’t be touched.
Of course Cliff Clavin was right when he said that Archibald Leach, Bernard Schwartz and Lucille LeSueur were three people who had never been in his Kitchen.
Actually, I would consider Rep. Foxx one of the exceptions. She really is not one of the sharpest spoons in the drawer. I think she was going for the scare tactic, pure and simple.
That $925 billion can be appropriated to specific projects in particular states, and so creates/maintains jobs in a campaign-toutable way. That is in addition to the OOOOOGA BOOOGA 'Pubs can sell by claiming to be big on national security.
Once they figure out how to game a universal health care system to disproportionally benefit their constituents, GOP politicians will start to favor it.
Cough…anthrax…cough
Several people were killed, but the anthrax in letters thing has somehow sunk down the 'ole memory hole.