The following chain-email seems to be doing the rounds quite a bit today. And I think it sums the situation up perfectly:

A message to the Administration:

The U.S. Postal Service was established in 1775 – you’ve had 234 years to get it right; it’s broke.

Social Security was established in 1935 – you’ve had 74 years to get it right; it’s broke.

Fannie Mae was established in 1938 – you’ve had 71 years to get it right; it’s broke.

The “War on Poverty” started in 1964 – you’ve had 45 years to get it right. $1 trillion of our money is confiscated each year and transferred to “the poor”; it hasn’t worked and our entire country is broke.

Medicare and Medicaid were established in 1965 – you’ve had 44 years to get it right; they’re both broke.

Freddie Mac was established in 1970 – you’ve had 39 years to get it right; it’s broke.

Trillions of dollars were spent in the massive political payoffs called TARP, the “Stimulus,” the Omnibus Appropriations Act of 2009…. none show any signs of working, although ACORN appears to have found a new source: the American taxpayer.

And finally, to set a new record: “Cash for Clunkers” was established in 2009 and went broke in 2009! It took cars (that were the best some people could afford) and replaced them with high-priced and less-affordable cars, mostly Japanese. A good percentage of the profits went out of the country. And the American taxpayers take the hit for Congress’s generosity in burning three billion more of our dollars on failed experiments.

So, with a perfect 100% failure rate and a record that proves that “services” you shove down our throats are failing faster and deeper, you want Americans to believe you can be trusted with a government-run health care system-  20% of our entire economy???

With all due respect,  Are you crazy? Or do you think the American people are?

President Obama, Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid: Are You Listening?

From Gallup.com:

More Americans now say it is not the federal government’s responsibility to make sure all Americans have healthcare coverage (50%) than say it is (47%). This is a first since Gallup began tracking this question, and a significant shift from as recently as three years ago, when two-thirds said ensuring healthcare coverage was the government’s responsibility.

In 2006, the survey found a 69%/28% split in favor of it being the federal government’s responsibility, or more than 2-1, the apex for statists on health care. In 2007 the gap narrowed to 64-33, and when Obama got elected a year ago, it had drifted to 54-41 — still better than Obama’s eventual margin of victory.

But somehow Gallup can’t connect the dots to figure out why people have changed what their thinking:

The reason behind this shift is unknown. Certainly the federal government’s role in the nation’s healthcare system has been widely and vigorously debated over the last several months, including much focus on the “public option.” These data suggest that one result of the debate has been a net decrease in Americans’ agreement that ensuring all Americans have healthcare coverage is an appropriate role for the federal government.

Ed Morrissey at HotAir.com has a good answer:

They’re ignoring the obvious, probably not deliberately but because they didn’t ask enough follow-up questions to determine it. People have begun seeing what the bill would be to deliver that kind of system — and not just in dollars and cents. It has costs in choice, in access, in options for care that only became clear when Democrats rushed to impose such a system on the US. Before 2008, the question existed almost entirely as an academic one, and people gave a response based on broad concepts and lazy thinking.

Also, Gallup ignores another significant factor. In late 2007, the economy and unemployment did not look bad at all, and deficit spending was too high but not historically out of the norms of post-war America. By 2008 that economic picture and deficit problem looked much worse, and in 2009 people have begun to realize that top-down government programs are the problem, not the solution.

So I will ask again: President Obama, Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid: Are You Listening?

Merry Christmas, you ungrateful, unwashed masses!

KOMO News reporter Shomari Stone: Do you think it’s fair to send people to jail who don’t buy health insurance?

Pelosi: …The legislation is very fair in this respect.

According to Committee On Ways & Means Republicans Ranking Member, Dave Camp, “the non-partisan Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) confirming that the failure to comply with the individual mandate to buy health insurance contained in the Pelosi health care bill (H.R. 3962, as amended) could land people in jail. The JCT letter makes clear that Americans who do not maintain acceptable health insurance coverage and who choose not to pay the bills new individual mandate tax (generally 2.5% of income), are subject to numerous civil and criminal penalties, including criminal fines of up to $250,000 and imprisonment of up to five years.”

Whiskey
Tango
Foxtrot?

Are you kidding me?

I think a more accurate analogy would be if somebody ‘borrowed’ all of your cremydit cards, emptied my bank account and took out a second mortgage on my house to buy the worlds biggest flaming bag of crap and gave it to me for Christmas, then they left me with the bill.

Stealing money from hard working Americans and giving it to others is not anyone’s idea of giving gifts. It’s stealing.