What Can't They Do?

I've been trying to decide how to respond to the Health Care Reform vote (a.k.a. the screw you America vote) since Sunday. I've thought about comparing Barack Obama to a 3 year old who whined until he got his way. I've pondered going with anger and resentment. I've even thought about calling for term limits. None of those seemed quite right.

Then today a fellow conservative and all around good guy asked me a simple question..."If the Federal Government can mandate that you have to buy insurance, what can't they do?" I had no answer to that question at the time. He's right, now that Barack, Nancy and the gang have shredded the constitution and essentially told the American people to sit down and shut up, what can't they do? Sure, there will be court challenges to this, but those probably won't go anywhere. If the Republicans get power back, they can defund this monstrosity, but this precedent has been set, and frankly that scares me.

If they can mandate we buy health insurance, what else can they mandate? Well, since Michelle Obama is on this obesity kick, I'm sure she could convince her husband to mandate everyone join a gym. Why stop there, why not mandate that we have to go to the gym 3 times a week? Let the IRS track that too, because the IRS isn't big enough.

Hmmm, what else? They could go ahead and mandate that everyone must go to college. After all, the liberals run most colleges and universities, so they could indoctrinate more people on why giving up control to the Federal Government is good, and why nothing the Federal Government does is bad.

I'm sure some liberal is reading this right now and thinking...those are really good ideas. Yes, I'm illustrating absurdity by being absurd, to borrow a saying from Rush, but if you are like me, this is a scary precedent. We live in a Representative Republic, specifically so the government can go against the whims of the people when absolutely necessary, but I doubt the Founding Fathers ever intended this. This bill is horribly unpopular, accomplishes nothing substantial in terms of reducing health care costs, doesn't extend benefits to every American until 2019, and will lead to an even larger Federal Deficit, regardless of what the CBO says...funny how when Bush got numbers from the CBO for his tax cuts they weren't believable, but they are when Obama gets them. The people who wrote this bill exempted themselves and their staff from it, and they even admit it's "not perfect, but just a first step." There is no reason this ever should have happened.

Well, one reason....our President wanted this to happen. That shouldn't have been enough, last I checked we weren't a dictatorship, though the lines are blurring every day, but this time it was enough. Barack Obama's ego wanted this. He wants to be able to say he did something no other President could do. As he said on the campaign trail, he wants to fundamentally change this country. Sadly, he is going to change it into something that none of us recognize and few of us want. Barack Obama is attempting the same things that have failed everywhere they've been tried, and yet somehow he is delusional enough to think he will do them better. And, with this precedent, who can stop him...especially if Congress remains Democrat. This is a sad week in American history my friends, very sad indeed.