Here for your enjoyment and edification are John Hawkins's picks from Mark Steyn's 2008 columns. And here are his picks from Ann Coulter's 2008 columns. Enjoy!
Monday, August 24, 2009
Saturday, August 22, 2009
Why is Obamacare such a mess?
Victor Davis Hanson explains why Obamacare is going over like a lead balloon.
Key grafs:
Liberal columnists decrying the Obama administration’s supposed lack of partisan fortitude and eagerness for a nasty fight for health care seem oddly detached from reality. The opposition to Obamacare would have gone nowhere had the president offered a concise plan, had his team kept repeating four or five logical and easily understandable talking points, and had he prepared a few pat answers to the more controversial elements of the plan, from the public option to so-called “end of life” panels to treatment of illegal aliens and the real cost.
Instead, Obama and his advisers, in lazy fashion, outsourced the plan to the partisan left-wingers of the Democratic party who are key House chairs. They in turn offered up a 1,000-page legalese mess, which the administration’s key players never read, and which Obama arrogantly thought he could wing through in a few weeks with his “hope and change” / “trust me” cadences.
Key grafs:
Liberal columnists decrying the Obama administration’s supposed lack of partisan fortitude and eagerness for a nasty fight for health care seem oddly detached from reality. The opposition to Obamacare would have gone nowhere had the president offered a concise plan, had his team kept repeating four or five logical and easily understandable talking points, and had he prepared a few pat answers to the more controversial elements of the plan, from the public option to so-called “end of life” panels to treatment of illegal aliens and the real cost.
Instead, Obama and his advisers, in lazy fashion, outsourced the plan to the partisan left-wingers of the Democratic party who are key House chairs. They in turn offered up a 1,000-page legalese mess, which the administration’s key players never read, and which Obama arrogantly thought he could wing through in a few weeks with his “hope and change” / “trust me” cadences.
Saturday, August 15, 2009
Keith Hennessey's analysis of the uninsured
Keith Hennessey has an informative analysis of the true number of legal residents who are unable to obtain health insurance and are not eligible for existing government programs. It turns out the number is closer to 15 million than 50 million. It will surely help if we at least get the facts right.
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Mexico's oil production continues to decline.
Mexico's energy minister announced yesterday that Mexico may pump as few as 2.6 million barrels of oil a day this year, down from about 2.8 million barrels per day last year. Production at Mexico's largest producing field, Cantarell, continues to decline. Mexico's state oil company, Pemex, has not even begun to develop the oil field located in deep waters in the Gulf of Mexico that it is counting on to replace production from Cantarell.
If the current administration is doing anything to encourage production of our domestic oil and gas reserves, it has escaped my notice.
If the current administration is doing anything to encourage production of our domestic oil and gas reserves, it has escaped my notice.
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
A simple plan.
I cribbed the title of this post from Jonah Goldberg, although it dates back at least to Jonathan Swift.
The Democrats are playing a semantic shell game with healthcare "reform." Various Democrat administrators and legislators , including President Obama, keep assuring us that their proposed legislation will do this and won't do that. Meanwhile, Health and Human Services secretary Kathleen Sibelius has the ultimate copout, insisting that "the bill" hasn't even been written yet.
What should we do? That's where the simple plan comes in. We won't know what's in the final legislation, if any, eventually passed by Congress. Of course, neither will most of the Senators or Congressman who vote on it. All we can do is absolutely insist that, whatever bill they pass, will apply equally to all federal employees, including the President and the rest of the executive branch and Senators and Congressmen and their staff.
Oklahoma Senator Coburn's Amendment #226 would require all members of Congress and their staff to enroll in the newly-required public health insurance plan. We should insist that any bill that is passed include this provision. For me, this is a deal breaker.
The Democrats are playing a semantic shell game with healthcare "reform." Various Democrat administrators and legislators , including President Obama, keep assuring us that their proposed legislation will do this and won't do that. Meanwhile, Health and Human Services secretary Kathleen Sibelius has the ultimate copout, insisting that "the bill" hasn't even been written yet.
What should we do? That's where the simple plan comes in. We won't know what's in the final legislation, if any, eventually passed by Congress. Of course, neither will most of the Senators or Congressman who vote on it. All we can do is absolutely insist that, whatever bill they pass, will apply equally to all federal employees, including the President and the rest of the executive branch and Senators and Congressmen and their staff.
Oklahoma Senator Coburn's Amendment #226 would require all members of Congress and their staff to enroll in the newly-required public health insurance plan. We should insist that any bill that is passed include this provision. For me, this is a deal breaker.
Friday, August 7, 2009
Obama 's drop a dime Hotline
And you thought the Patriot Act was an infringement of civil liberties. Now the Obama White House wants us to report "fishy" statements on the Internet regarding Obamacare. The snitch e-mail address is flag@Whitehouse.gov. This is literally Orwellian. White House press secretary Robert Gibbs says that the White House is not keeping a record of the people snitched on, but how would he know?
In fact, according to this Fox News article, the White House may be required to keep a record of such communications. Under a different federal statute, it may be illegal to keep such records. Go figure.
Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius assures(?) us weekly if not daily that the health-care bill is a work in progress. This week she chided people for criticizing Senator Arlen Specter for not having read the Senate version of the bill. Her "defense" of Specter was that the bill hasn't been written yet.
I have a question: if the legislation hasn't been written yet, and the drafts that do exist are continually being revised, what qualifies as a "fishy" statement about this shape-shifting chimera? And how can the President credibly give us "guarantees" as to what the eventual bill will or will not do?
Is this the new era of politics the President promised?
In fact, according to this Fox News article, the White House may be required to keep a record of such communications. Under a different federal statute, it may be illegal to keep such records. Go figure.
Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius assures(?) us weekly if not daily that the health-care bill is a work in progress. This week she chided people for criticizing Senator Arlen Specter for not having read the Senate version of the bill. Her "defense" of Specter was that the bill hasn't been written yet.
I have a question: if the legislation hasn't been written yet, and the drafts that do exist are continually being revised, what qualifies as a "fishy" statement about this shape-shifting chimera? And how can the President credibly give us "guarantees" as to what the eventual bill will or will not do?
Is this the new era of politics the President promised?
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
"He can run but he can't hide."
Joe Louis uttered the words in the title about Billy Conn before their fight, but they apply equally to President Obama, especially where health insurance "reform" is concerned. Very recently, a video recording of statements he made in 2003 has surfaced at Breitbart.tv. In the video, Obama states:
“I happen to be a proponent of a single payer universal health care program. I see no reason why the United States of America, the wealthiest country in the history of the world, spending 14 percent of its Gross National Product on health care cannot provide basic health insurance to everybody. And that’s what Jim is talking about when he says everybody in, nobody out. A single payer health care plan, a universal health care plan. And that’s what I’d like to see. But as all of you know, we may not get there immediately. Because first we have to take back the White House, we have to take back the Senate, and we have to take back the House.”
White House flack, Linda Douglass, claims in a new video that these remarks were taken out of context. This is the favorite cop out of people who have been caught telling inconvenient truths.
If the White House is seriously claiming that President Obama would not like to see a single-payer health-care program with "everybody in, nobody out," it should provide the allegedly-missing context that will illuminate the true meaning of his statement.
“I happen to be a proponent of a single payer universal health care program. I see no reason why the United States of America, the wealthiest country in the history of the world, spending 14 percent of its Gross National Product on health care cannot provide basic health insurance to everybody. And that’s what Jim is talking about when he says everybody in, nobody out. A single payer health care plan, a universal health care plan. And that’s what I’d like to see. But as all of you know, we may not get there immediately. Because first we have to take back the White House, we have to take back the Senate, and we have to take back the House.”
White House flack, Linda Douglass, claims in a new video that these remarks were taken out of context. This is the favorite cop out of people who have been caught telling inconvenient truths.
If the White House is seriously claiming that President Obama would not like to see a single-payer health-care program with "everybody in, nobody out," it should provide the allegedly-missing context that will illuminate the true meaning of his statement.
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