Southern Avenger

I hope this is the year the GOP shatters.

report 0 of 0 people like this.   like  dislike

Americans deserve health care. Health care should not be reserved to the rich, the poor and those who can get their church to hold a fund-raiser for them. The middle class deserve health care, too.

How can a Christian be against the health care bill? Don't they care about their neighbors? Are they so greedy and selfish that they really don't think everyone should have decent health care?

report 0 of 0 people like this.   like  dislike

Maybe the middle class should change churches.

report 0 of 0 people like this.   like  dislike

Shattter! Shatter! Shatter! But, alas, they won't.

report 0 of 0 people like this.   like  dislike

Garfield22,

The answer to: "How can a Christian be against the health care bill? Don't they care about their neighbors? Are they so greedy and selfish that they really don't think everyone should have decent health care?"

The answer is quite simple. As a Christian, I am against theft. Theft is defined as coveting the possessions of another. When the uninsured take the position that they have less than me, and use the government to "even things out", it is a form of theft. That is called income redistribution. If I have health care insurance, it is because I earned it and paid for it, or someone, (perhaps an employer) has "given" it to me (still a form of earning). When the government confiscates wealth from another individual and gives it to me because I have less, it is theft.

Why don't doctors give away health care? Lawyers, as Mr. Forman can attest to, often provide "pro bono" work for those who cannot afford to pay for their services (and yes, they deduct those efforts on their income taxes).

If you ask most Christians why they oppose health care, it is not because they enjoy seeing their fellow man suffer. It is because they have seen how government programs like Obamacare ultimately fail the intended beneficiaries, resulting in the erosion of freedom for their fellow man, and a bankrupting of the federal government.

Social Security Insurance, Medicare and Medicaid will all be bankrupt within the coming decade, unable to collect enough revenue to pay out benefits to current recipients, let alone those who are in their forties.

Obamacare will be gasoline on the fire, and you want us to hand you a match?

Opposing an awful plan does not mean I want my fellow citizens to suffer, it just means that I live in reality, and I don't believe that good intentions promised by politicians will ever deliver satisfying results. The evidence backs up my position.

report 0 of 0 people like this.   like  dislike

Jack's assessment of Newt Gingrich is accurate from a fiscal standpoint, although he was certainly a part of the last balanced budget in this country. His other problems include being a loud, social conservative with a personal record of much of the opposite. He values family so much he can't stop making new ones.

TRUE conservatives are all in favor of reducing the deficit and ultimately the national debt UNLESS the idea on how to do it came from a Democrat, or even came from a Republican but was agreed on by a Democrat.
1. Individual mandate: 90s-era GOP
2. Bush tax cuts: 2000s-era GOP

Obamacare, or the Affordable Care Act is designed (albeit with flaws) to address for the first time in decades the staggering rise of healthcare spending in the US, the largest growth sector in national deficits. It was vehemently opposed by the GOP despite it including much language that they wrote. Deficit reduction: not on their watch! The status quo was just fine for them.

The Bush Tax Cuts (and hey who doesn't love a tax cut) dropped federal revenue significantly in an era of broad federal expansion: OIF, OEF, DHS expansion, et cetera. Eliminating them would have been a step towards stemming the deficit, but it was roundly rejected by the GOP as that wasn't their idea. Deficit reduction? Who said anything about deficits?

Paul Ryan's plan to overhaul Medicare is a bold one, and I give him credit for laying it out in clear English during interviews. It was more than notable that he actually answered questions when Robert Siegel interviewed him... pols never answer questions on NPR directly. The problem is that his "money saving" plan is already in place for Federal workers, and its costs have risen at a faster rate than Medicare's have. Gingrich's criticism didn't address that, he just fell back on the familiar being better.

If you want to really feel the love, listen to a recording of a question-and-answer session with Rep. Ryan on this plan:
Irate person: "WHAT WILL HAPPEN TO GRAMMA'S MEDICARE!!!!?!?!?!?!"
Ryan: "Nothing... anyone 55 and over will get the same benefits."
Gran-paw-paw: "BUT WHAT ABOUT ME, SONNY???!!!??"
Ryan: "Nothing... anyone 55 and over will get the same benefits."

Those "conservatives" don't give a crap about the debt or deficit either.

report 0 of 0 people like this.   like  dislike

First to Christian Garfield. I hope you are happy with your little rationalization of greed. You will be explaining it the folks upstairs when they ask, Garfield, why were you NOT your brother's keeper?

Now to Newt. Newt has no problem with a company giving free loans to a Congressional staffer who is working for the committee the company is lobbying. Provided the staffer is his third wife, Callista.

The diamond and silverware firm, Tiffany& Co., gave the Gingrich’s a no-interest revolving charge account. No big deal, right? They’re rich, gaudy and like to flaunt their expensive lifestyle. We know that. Here is the ugly part of the deal. Tiffany was giving Callista Gingrich an interest-free loan, at the same time that the firm was spending big money to lobby Congress on mining policy and the House Agriculture Committee (HAC). Callista worked for the HAC at the time.

Government records show that Tiffany’s lobbying firm spent more money on mining law and mine permitting issues in Congress during the period when Callista Gingrich was at the HAC. Was Tiffany paying off Callista Gingrich by giving them an interest-free loan?

Check into that Jack!

report 0 of 0 people like this.   like  dislike

Yuengling wrote:

"If you ask most Christians why they oppose health care, it is not because they enjoy seeing their fellow man suffer. It is because they have seen how government programs like Obamacare ultimately fail the intended beneficiaries, resulting in the erosion of freedom for their fellow man, and a bankrupting of the federal government."

How do "government programs like Obamacare ultimately fail the intended beneficiaries?" By keeping them from starving, like the SNAP progam does? By providing their children with an education, so they at least have an outside chance at being successful in life? Yeah, I know government programs aren't perfect, but I'm pretty sure most poor people would much rather have a flawed program than no food or education.

Ever read Ezekiel, Yuengling?

"Behold, this was the guilt of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters had pride, surfeit of food, and prosperous ease, but did not aid the poor and needy. They were haughty, and did abominable things before me; therefore I removed them, when I saw it."

Good thing you've got some heathens who actually care about their neighbors to keep God from "removing" you. I'm constantly appalled that there can be so many "Christians" who try to defend their own selfish greed and covetousness with cherry-picked lines from the Bible, usually out-of-context, that they learned from TV.

Pretty sure Jesus would advise you to sell your big-screen and buy dinner for the bum you look down on, not admonish the bum for having the temerity to presume that he, too, should not have to starve to death.

report 0 of 0 people like this.   like  dislike

Re= comments by worldofemotion and Yuengling and other Obama welfare-ites. I just love it when, time and time again, we can reduce another loser democrat welfare-ite into invoking Jesus Christ in support of their basic principal which is = the hard working minority (Repbulicans) are obligated by Christianity to support democrats and other losers.

May I make two points:
1. Most of us hard working Republicans don't give a damn about a welfare-ite
trying to steal our money through faking Christianity. If the true application
of Christian principles requires that I take from my family and give it to
an Obama welfare-ite, then to hell with Christians and Jesus too.
2. Being an Obama welfare-ite is, by definition, the opposite of Christianity.

report 0 of 0 people like this.   like  dislike

Troll.

report 0 of 0 people like this.   like  dislike

First and foremost, what in the hell does this piece have to do with faith and why did this become an ongoing semantic argument about it? Caring about your fellow man is simply "humanity" and if you need an organized religion to teach you that; then you're shallow. Being "human" you are either going to care about your fellow man; be ambivalent about your fellow man or not care about your fellow man... that's it. That's the problem with you people... always ready to tell other people about your convictions but never ready to listen to the convictions of others.

And Jack, I am personally willing to hand-deliver $5000 if you can manage to produce ONE piece that doesn't mention the word "neoconservative" or that doesn't suck up to the Paul family (Does that technically make you a "two-trick pony?)

report 0 of 0 people like this.   like  dislike

I agree that Newt Gingrich is no conservative. When he was Speaker, both Newt and then House Ways & Means Chairman Bill Archer (R-Tx) both blocked Congressman Mark Sanford's well researched and prophetic Social Security Reform Act of 1997 bill that he proposed. Chairman Archer bottled Sanford's bill up in his committee and because Sanford had promised his district that he would be subject to a self-imposed term limit of three terms, the GOP leadership kept him from having a seat in Archer's committee.

With Social Security currently in deficit, Sanford's bill of almost 15 years ago would have phased in private ownership of Social Security for those under 35 years old, and given that option to those 35 to 50 years old while all over that age would remain on the existing Ponzi scheme which has currently gone into spending money it doesn't take in... just as Rep Sanford predicted.

Sanford's bill was based on the highly proclaimed Chilean/Galveston paradigm that, just like Federal employee's Thrift Savings Plan (TSP) would provide each taxpayer with a menu of privately managed mutual funds and allow the taxpayer to be in control of how his/her assets are invested. Upon retirement, the retiree is entitled to all interest revenue generated by the assets, but cannot 'invade' principal. Upon the retiree's death, that lump sum of a lifetime of savings and compounding would become part of the deceased estate and go to the heirs, beneficiaries and charities as decreed in the will. Such a system could very well wipe out poverty within two generations.

But this plan was blocked by Newt and his gang. It was not in their best interest to actually solve a pending problem, but only to 'kick the can down the road' until now the system is in deficit.

report 0 of 0 people like this.   like  dislike

GINGRICH IS A VERY SORRY EXCUSE FOR A CONSERVATIVE AND A MAN. HIS LIKE MANY OTHERS IS NOTHING MORE THAN A POLITICAL WHORE/

report 0 of 0 people like this.   like  dislike

Re: “Newt Gingrich is Not a Conservative”
I have been a doctor for 40 years and do not know of a single situation in which a person was denied health care because of money. We take care of people. Now I will share this information with you, it is against the law in the US for a doctor to give free care. Also, if you want to know why the cost of medicine is going up, look no further than Medicare and Medicaid. They don't pay their share so the cost of medicine is moved on to private insurance. With Obamacare, the US will go broke. That is plain and simple as we can not afford socialized medical care. Also, you really don't want medical care by doctors paid by the govenment, it is not a pretty sight.

As to Newt, he is a progressive/socialist/ communist just like Obama. If you like Obama, vote for Newt.

report 0 of 0 people like this.   like  dislike