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And I thought 45 was bad

Posted by The Proud Ex-Democrat on Friday, November 06, 2009 1:09:48 AM

In a post on health care reform a couple months ago, I quoted news reports that said the Democrat's proposal would create somewhere around 40 to 45 new federal agencies.  I pointed out at that time that if the federal government actually stuck to just doing the things the Constitution says it should do, and nothing else, we wouldn't need 45 agencies to run the whole shootin' match.
 
Well it turns out I, and those news reports I quoted, were wrong.  Or at least premature.
 
As this post from John Hinderaker at Powerline shows, the actual number of boards, agencies and the like that are either created or expanded by PelosiCare is actually 111.  That's right, 111.  Check out the list and don't miss the video from Congressman Mike Pence.
 
It's like the Democrats are saying they're going to start 111 new Departments of Motor Vehicles, and then let those people run your life by deciding everything about your health care.
 
If this thought scares you, this post over at Hugh Hewitt's website includes all the moderate Democrats that might be swayed by a last minute email or phone call.  I've been firing off emails to these people for most of the last two days.  Give it a try.  Citizen involvement is fun.  And vital.
 
 
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The Wall Street Journal gets in the last word

Posted by The Proud Ex-Democrat on Friday, November 06, 2009 12:11:31 AM

Throughout the debate on health care reform, the best analysis by far has come from The Wall Street Journal.  They have broken down each succesive bill and proposal, reviewing the massive costs and the massive loss of liberty the Democrat's plans would inflict on the nation.
 
In this article from last Monday, the editors of the WSJ sum up the toll Nancy Pelosi's bill will impose on the country and it's economy.  It is not a pretty picture.
 
In this case especially I'd be interested in your thoughts, especially if you disagree.  If so, please email us using the link on the right side of the page, just below the words, "About Me".

Well-reasoned, insightful comments and challenges will be posted. Thank you.
 
 
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Krauthammer takes dead aim

Posted by The Proud Ex-Democrat on Thursday, November 05, 2009 10:46:19 PM

Last week Washington Post columnist Charles Krauthammer sat down for a long interview with German news magazine, Der Spiegel. 
 
Lets just say Charles did pull any punches. 
 
A sample exchange:

SPIEGEL: Maybe Europeans want to just see a different America, one they can admire again.

Krauthammer: Admire? Look at Obama's speech at the UN General Assembly: "No one nation can or should try to dominate another nation." Take the first half of that sentence: No nation can dominate another. There is no eight year old who would say that -- it's so absurd. And the second half? That is adolescent utopianism. Obama talks in platitudes, but offers a vision to the world of America diminished or constrained, and willing to share leadership in a way that no other presidency and no other great power would. Could you imagine if the Russians were hegemonic, or the Chinese, or the Germans -- that they would speak like this?

Krauthammer proceeds though the whole interview to break down, with his usual fine wit and flawless logic,  why Barack Obama is exactly what we thought he would be going into the 2008 elections:  An inexperienced lightweight who would be badly over his head in the job of President.

The whole interview is here.
 
UPDATE: Krauthammer's column from today, which reemphasizes some points from the Der Spiegel interview and blends in some very cogent analysis of last Tuesday's election wins by Republicans in Virginia and New Jersey.
 
 
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Cool Poll

Posted by The Proud Ex-Democrat on Sunday, October 25, 2009 2:15:04 PM

And I mean literally.  In this new poll, the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press found belief in man-made global warming is plummeting. 
 
This is a welcome development.  And we expect the trend away from belief in warming to continue.  As we wrote here, the earth has been in a cooling trend for about 10 years now, and recent measurements that show cooling in the oceans suggest that this trend is likely to continue for 30-40 years.
 
Most Americans are finding it harder to believe in global warming in the face of more and more record low temperatures and increased record snow falls.  A triumph of common sense over hyped-up junk science.  The poll did not show reduced support for the cap-and-trade tax policies that would result in huge increases in energy prices.  We expect that as belief in warming continues to disintegrate, the support for cap-and-tax will fall with it.
 
 
 
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Reflections on President Obama's Nobel Peace Prize

Posted by The Proud Ex-Democrat on Saturday, October 17, 2009 11:19:32 AM
 
It is our custom here at the Proud Ex-Democrat to wait a little after events happen to write about them.  This gives me a chance to think about what said event may or may not mean, and I've found my best thoughts are usually not my first thoughts.  It also gives the best commentators out there a chance to well, comment, and for me to see if there are any of their ideas I wish to share with you. 
 
President Obama receiving the Nobel Peace Prize brought out the best in several of my favorite writers and thinkers.  Which is interesting, since I personally have zero respect for the Nobel Peace Prize.  Zip.  Nada.  An award that used to be given to remarkable individuals like Nelson Mandela and Mother Teresa is now regularly given to the ridiculous (Al Gore), the Anti-Semitic (Jimmy Carter), or the outright evil terrorist thug (Yasser Arafat). 
 
George Will, speaking on This Week with George Stephanopoulos, said it best.  Giving this award to President Obama would cost the Nobel Committee it's reputation for seriousness, he said, if the committee had any such reputation in the first place. 

Since the nominations closed on February 1, The President is receiving this award essentially for what he did in his first 11 days.  I doubt even the very best of our chief executives know where all the West Wing restrooms are after 11 days.  The prize is a joke.
 
But as I said earlier, there is a substantial upside in that the giving of this award generated so much terrific commentary.
 
Dennis Prager wrote this very insightful column, in which he breaks down what the award tells us about the attitudes of the Nobel Committee towards America.  In it he refers to this op/ed in Time Magazine, where writer David Von Drehle suggests a novel Nobel winner, one you might not expect.
 
Peggy Noonan, writing here in the Wall street Journal, shares her thoughts on how the Nobel Committee could redeem itself, and some suggestions on what Mr. Obama should say in his acceptance speech.
 
And finally, my favorite.  Thomas Friedman, writing here in the New York Times, also weighing in on what Mr. Obama's acceptance speech could be.  Tom Friedman is a man of the left.  And he is also one of the best in the business on foreign policy.  I agree with his proposed speech completely.
 
 
As always if you wish to comment please email us using the link on the right side of the page, just below the words, "About Me".

Well-reasoned, insightful comments and challenges will be posted. Thank you.
 
 
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BBC Report: What happened to global warming?

Posted by The Proud Ex-Democrat on Thursday, October 15, 2009 2:00:24 AM

BBC climate correspondent Paul Hudson was a leading advocate of the idea of man-made global warming.  Now Mr. Hudson checks in with this article, where he begins to come to grips with what many of us know: there is no conclusive proof of this theory.  And it is just a theory.
 
There is no "consensus" among the science community about the earth getting warmer or not.  This must be particularly disconcerting to the alarmists, since two years ago there was at least agreement that it was getting warmer.  Now nearly 10 years of steady cooling and they're not even sure of that much.  There is also the added complication of there being no consensus that human activity significantly impacts climate.  Remember the activists who are selling this are the ones who worked to have CO2 classified as a pollutant.  A naturally occurring gas that is essential to life is a pollutant?  It's astounding that anybody would take such an obviously absurd assertion seriously. 
 
Let's be clear: I am not saying there is no such thing as man-made global warming. I'm saying I don't know.  And neither does anyone else.  If they say they know they are making statement of faith, very much like a statement of belief in a religion.  That's what global warming has become today, a secular religion.
 
And until it is proven to my satisfaction,  I am unlikely to sign on to turning the economy of the western world upside down to "stop" it. 
   
UPDATE: The London Daily Mail, not wanting to outdone, weighs in with this piece.  More examples, more evidence.  More bad news for the global warming crowd.
 
 
 
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Health care reform: the "Greatest Hits"

Posted by The Proud Ex-Democrat on Sunday, October 11, 2009 6:47:24 PM
 
I've written a lot here on the subject of heath care/health insurance reform.  I think it is time to go back and link my favorites on the subject. 
 
Only articles here, no book length treatments or websites that require lots of looking around.  I have linked to both of those in abundance and will do so again in the future.  But what I want to do here is link up short, solution oriented pieces that won't overwhelm my busy readers.  If you have questions about where to go to get more long-form information, email us!
 
That said, these articles contain, in my opinion, the best suggestions on how to improve the system:
 
The front page of the Docs for Patient Care website has a great list of key points that should/must be included in any reform.
 
John Cochrane, writing here in the Wall Street Journal, talks about how to bring the innovation that has brought down prices and improved quality in industries like telecommunications and computers to bear on health care.  He specifically talks about ways to bring creative new solutions to the problem of insuring people with pre-existing conditions.
 
Charles Krauthammer, in this piece in the Washington Post, focuses on two key elements of any effective changes to the system: Tort reform and portability.
 
The Cato Institutes's Michael Cannon has this piece in Investors Business Daily on how the market functions best when the individual's health care is not controlled by an insurance company bureaucrat, or a government bureaucrat, but by the individual him or herself, in consultation with their doctor. 
 
That's it for now.  Look for other articles on health care reform as I find them.
 
As always if you wish to comment please email us using the link on the right side of the page, just below the words, "About Me".

Well-reasoned, insightful comments and challenges will be posted. Thank you.
 
 
 
 
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Crunch time on health care reform

Posted by The Proud Ex-Democrat on Sunday, October 11, 2009 10:16:48 AM

OK folk's, it's crunch time.  The United States Senate is likely to vote this week on some version of health care reform.  What will exactly be in the bill is not known, but a few things are.
 
As I wrote in this previous post, It looks like the Democrats are going to try and push this bill through without giving us a chance to read it, comment on it, or really do anything to make our voices heard on the subject.  Just like with the stimulus bill, they're going to try and ram it through in the dark of night.
 
My post talks about a group of Senators who have written Majority Leader Harry Reid and asked him to have the bill up on the Internet for at  least 72 hours before a vote.  Hugh Hewitt makes the very important point here that the letter is a bit disingenuous, since under Senate rules, pretty much all of these senators would need to vote to cut off debate to reach the required 60 votes.  Any one, or certainly two, of them voting against cloture can stop the process, and they should.
 
There are many things to be concerned about in the bills being considered.  Just a few of these are:
 
--Massive cuts in Medicare without thoughtful reform to clean up the huge levels of fraud in the system.
 
--A public option that would likely lead to many of us irreversibly losing our private health insurance plans. 
 
--A lack of meaningful malpractice insurance reform. 
 
--A lack of provisions to increase patient choice and restore the doctor/patient relationship to the center of health care where it belongs.
 
Everyone who's been paying attention realizes that the health care system of the US needs serious reform, but we are tinkering with one-seventh of our economy.  Congress needs to slow down and give this the thoughtfulness and care it deserves. 
 
So it's time to get in the game.  In this post, Hugh gives the names, phone numbers and email addresses of the key group of Senators.  Shoot them an email and tell them we want this done carefully and out in the open.  That we want to read the bill and while they're at it they should read it too.  And that since 85% of Americans like their health care, we don't want the whole system up-ended to fix a problem with the other 15%.
 
 
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Is it me, or does it look like the Democrats are trying to pull another fast one?

Posted by The Proud Ex-Democrat on Thursday, October 08, 2009 8:09:31 PM

John Fund writes in the Wall Street Journal that Majority Leader Harry Reid won't even agree to put the Senate version of a health care reform bill online for 72 hours before it's voted on.

As Fund asks, "what's the rush?"  Or as I ask: what are they trying to pull this time?  What are they afraid of us finding out?

Have the Democrats in Congress learned nothing from the tea party movement and all the people who turned out at town hall meetings over the summer?  Have they not noticed that we hate this?  These people are supposed to represent us.  Representing us should not take the form of them ramming through a bill that does not enjoy majority support because they "know better."  They should not get to reorganize one-seventh of the US economy in the dark of night without citizen input.

Call your Senator and let them know we want a chance to read the bill.  For that matter members of the Senate should want to read it too.


 
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They wrote the book on health care reform

Posted by The Proud Ex-Democrat on Thursday, October 08, 2009 7:23:57 PM

Dr. Peter Weiss is an assistant clinical professor of OB/GYN at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA.  He is also in private practice in Southern California.  His brother, Dr. Martin Weiss, is also an assistant clinical professor at the David Geffen School.  His specialty is internal medicine.

The two of them have teamed up to write a book called, "Radical Prescription."  In it they give their take on what is needed for health care reform,.  The two doctors felt the subject so important that they've put the whole book on the web.  You can read it here.

It is not very long, but having been written by two physicians it is a bit dry.  They focus much of their analysis and advice on the crucial area of how to lower costs. 

While I can't say I agree with everything they propose, it is a great book length treatise on the problem if you want to really dive in and understand it from the physicians point of view.
 
 
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Docs4Photo-Ops?

Posted by The Proud Ex-Democrat on Tuesday, October 06, 2009 8:06:50 PM

Yesterday President Obama staged a nice little photo-op at the White House.  He invited 150 doctors who support his health care reform agenda, at least one from each state, to drop by and stand next to him as he called on Congress to pass his plan.  In his remarks the President said, "no one has more credibility with the American people on this issue than you do."
 
I couldn't agree more.  Trouble is photo-ops are not opinion polls, and I can probably find at least one doctor from every state who thinks Elvis is still alive.  But the facts are still that about two-thirds of doctors oppose the Democrat's plans, especially on the so-called "public option."  That was the finding of this poll by Investor's Business Daily.  That's the same poll we quoted last week that showed about 45% of doctors would consider doing something else for a living if the President's plan passes.
 
Three doctors, who also all happen to be former Presidents of the American Medical Association, we're not invited to the White House yesterday.  That's because they disagree with Mr. Obama and so do not fit the clean and neat health care reform narrative.  Fortunately for us they did choose to share their thoughts on all of this by writing about it in the Wall Street Journal.
 
If you want to connect with an organization that really represents doctors on this issue, I recommend: http://docs4patientcare.org/.  They are very focused on seeing to it that any reform be empowering to patients and doctors and the relationship between the two. They've been lobbying and sponsoring events on the issue for the last month, and are way more broadly based than the 150 hand-picked physicians we saw at the White House yesterday.
 
 
 
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Solar Power Update

Posted by The Proud Ex-Democrat on Tuesday, October 06, 2009 1:25:35 AM

A story in Reuters today says Dow Chemical will soon start marketing a photovoltaic roof shingle. 
 
We at the Proud Ex-Democrat support a multifaceted approach to our energy needs.  We support more domestic oil development.  We also think we need to develop smart power grids, more windpower, more use of coal, more nuclear energy and widespread use of solar.
 
In a recession like this we need clean power, but we also need cheap power.  Ultimately that means we need more supply of power.  We should be looking for this supply everywhere and anywhere we might find it.
 
I don't know if these solar shingles will be competitive enough in price to eventually get into wide use, but even if they are not, this is almost certainly a big step toward having solar power in most buildings.  That makes this very welcome news. 
 
 
 
 
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The Contract FROM America

Posted by The Proud Ex-Democrat on Monday, October 05, 2009 12:11:44 PM

Here is a real good idea from our friends in the Tea Party movement.  Specifically those at http://www.teapartypatriots.org, the biggest of the Tea Party umbrella organizations. 
 
Building on the very effective Contract with America, that Newt Gingrich and his team used as a unifying principle for the 1994 congressional elections, the tea party people have opened up this new website, The Contract From America.  The grass roots can go there to post, argue and discuss public policy and point the direction they would like to see our government go.   It's a great idea, especially if the Republican leadership takes these comments to heart as we move closer to 2010. 
 
Those of us who revere the Constitution, all of the Constitution, including the 10th Amendment, need to be participating in programs like this.  Those of us who think the federal government has grown way bigger than is constitutionally authorized need to find more ways to get into this conversation. 
 
The Contract From America is similar to the Solutions Lab over at American Solutions:
http://www.americansolutions.com/.  Both of these sites are important parts of the discussion.  I have posted over the years at Solutions Lab and will be doing so at both locations in the future.  Check them out!
 
As always if you wish to comment please email us using the link on the right side of the page, just below the words, "About Me". 

Well-reasoned, insightful comments and challenges will be posted.
 
 
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Some straight talk from one of President Obama's own

Posted by The Proud Ex-Democrat on Monday, October 05, 2009 12:27:46 AM

Richard Cohen is a widely respected center/left commentator.  In his latest op/ed in the Washington Post, he levels some of the strongest criticism to date of the President to come from someone on Mr. Obama's own side of the political spectrum.

 
 
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The French did what?

Posted by The Proud Ex-Democrat on Sunday, October 04, 2009 10:51:29 PM

"When France chides you for appeasement, you know you're scraping bottom."
 
That  is how Charles Krauthammer's new column at Real Clear Politics opens. 
 
What could possibly be more true.  It seems that as the President was calling for the elimination of nuclear weapons at the UN last week, he was sitting on information that Iran was getting closer to joining the nuclear fraternity.  And he didn't want to reveal the intelligence on the uranium enrichment facility near the city of Qom because it might detract from his speech. 
 
What?  What astounding hubris.   Here's The President of the United States, indulging the dangerous fantasy of calling for the end to nukes, while one of the most dangerous governments on earth is on the verge of acquiring them.  What a world class display of naivete.
 
The situation with Iran is this simple:  The more access we get, the more we win.  The more there is delay of that access, the more Iran wins.  So who's winning when our President is unwilling to do anything but talk?     The Krauthammer piece is here.
 
 
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