That's a Clown Statement, Bro!

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) in his comments about the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (health care act) called it "the single biggest step in the direction of Europeanizing America."  Excuse me, Senator, but the language you're speaking came straight from Europe.  Have you eaten any Italian food lately?  The neoclassical style of the building you're working in?  Straight from Europe.  The guy who built it?  French.  The individual rights we have as Americans were derived from the Magna Carta.  Senator, I'm sure you're praying every Sunday for an Obama defeat, but the church and the service you attend were patterned after European tradition.  Even the American legislature you work for came out of the English parliamentary style.  To suggest that American society is fundamentally different than Europe is a clown statement, bro.

American business and industry is supported by government subsidies and tax breaks which puts the United States more in line with the governments of China, Russia and most European countries.  You protect nearly all those subsidies, Senator. 

What would the G.O.P. do if they ever obtained a majority government again?  Force Americans to put their social security into the stock market.  Supporting American business and industry with Social Security money sounds like a lot like European style governance. 

What about auto insurance?  Requirements that drivers purchase private auto insurance sounds a lot like an individual mandate to me.  State auto insurance funds for individuals who cannot access the private auto insurance market sounds a lot like requirements under the health care law, but Senator, you don't object when it comes to transportation.

It is the health care law, of course, that Senator McConnell is talking about in the above quote and if one believes health statistics, Europeans rank above Americans in nearly every health category.  The Senator doesn't mention that.  Of course, Senator McConnell's home state of Kentucky ranks nearly last in state rankings of public health, but he's not keen on pointing that out, either. 

The Senator, himself, is in a pretty nice position.  He has his government health care plan to take care of him and his family, unlike the people he represents who, according to statistics, rank high in percentage of uninsured.  I haven't heard Senator McConnell offer to give up his government health plan or cut his cushy government pension in the face of budget cuts.  Cut everybody else, but not me.  That's a clown attitude, bro. 

I suggest that in the real world, people like the Cobra plan when they're laid off; they like having their kids remain on health plans after the age of twenty-one; they like the elimination of discrimination due to pre-existing conditions.  I also suggest that employers would like to be relieved of managing health insurance coverage for their employees.  Of course, Senator McConnell doesn't live in the real world.  He and his G.O.P. colleagues believe people go without health insurance by choice.  That is a clown belief, bro

I suggest Senator McConnell's number one legislative agenda in Washington "to make Obama a one term president" is a clown agenda.  He's completely devoid of new ideas about health care, tax policy, government debt or anything else.  His one idea, which he repeats often, is cut taxes.  What I'm saying is Senator McConnell sounds a lot like a clown, bro.

Socialism

Republicans often use the word "socialism" as a scare word like the word "communism" was used in the 1950's.  Any proposed legislation by the Democrats is labeled socialism by the G.O.P.  None of them define exactly what socialism means; they just want to make everyone afraid it.  Here's what the word socialism means according to a dictionary:

A theory or system of social organization that advocates the vesting of the control of the means of production and distribution, of capital, land, etc., in the community as a whole.

 

As a practical matter, important segments of our society are highly socialistic if you judge them by definition, but people don't seem to be frightened by it.  Why?  The public has control of it.  Take public utilities, for example, which are regulated by state commissions.  Utilities, telecommunications, transportation, education and other large segments of our society are socialistic in the sense that there is a public interest in the quality and quantity of service, and at some level, public control of it. 

 

Take a closer look at society's infrastructure, though, and you find that all those industries are public/private partnerships.  A school district contracts with private companies for support services; state highway departments bid construction contracts to private industry, public electric companies contract with private suppliers for fuel, and so on.  It is this balance of public interest and private enterprise that brings most infrastructure to our lives at the highest quality for the lowest cost. 

 

In a time of financial stress, should public services be cut?  The answer is maybe.  When politicians cut government, they also cut the underlying private sector jobs that support them.  However, budgets are about balancing revenue versus expenses so every aspect of government should be fair game.   

 

However, Scott Walker, Republican governor of Wisconsin, took budget cutting one step farther.  Governor Walker removed the rights of public employees to bargain.  Mr. Walker survived his recall election largely by framing the issue as a budget debate, which it was not. 

 

Governor Walker's actions were an attack on individual rights.  If the governor were truly interested in budget cuts, he should have shown some leadership by asking the legislature to cut his own salary and benefits.  He didn't because his actions were not about cutting budgets; they were about the elimination of individual rights.  

 

Across the country, using the buzzwords like socialism and budget cuts, Republicans are rolling back the rights of individuals, whether it's voting rights, women's and minority rights, the right to free access to information, the right to free speech, the right to collective bargaining.

The next time a Republican says the word "socialism," grab your Bill of Rights and hang onto them.  The G.O.P. wants to eliminate your individual rights.