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Townhall...
We All Must
‘Sacrifice,’ Except the President’s Friends
By Austin Hill
We live at a time when all Americans must sacrifice.
All, that is, except those of us who can be politically helpful to our
President as he seeks re-election.
Last month, President Barack Obama addressed a gathering of the
National Governor’s Association, wherein he suggested that “shared
sacrifice” should become a new catch-phrase, of sorts, for America. “If
all the pain is shared by one group,” the President noted, “that’s not
good for anyone.”
In that same engagement, the President went on to address his
healthcare “reform” legislation from last year. “I “I am not open to
refighting the battles of the last two years or undoing the progress
we’ve made,” he noted, but then explained that he wanted a bipartisan
group of Governors to work with Secretary of Health and Human Services
Kathleen Sebelius to make Obamacare “even better.” “I will go to bat
for whatever works,” he claimed, “no matter who it comes from.”
Before we move on to the broader issue – this insincere notion of
“shared sacrifice” – let’s look carefully at some of the “straw man”
arguments and erroneous insinuations that the President articulated to
the Governors, just based on the portion of his speech recorded above.
Why, for example, would the President suggest that the “pain” of the
economic downturn is only being felt among “one group” of Americans?
The Great Recession has been felt in nearly every sector of the
economy, among people from nearly every socioeconomic category. Even
the wealthiest among us (a group President Obama so often disparages as
being “greedy”) have had fewer opportunities in which to invest and
with which to expand their wealth – and de facto that has meant fewer
employment opportunities for others.
In reality, the “one group” of people that has been most successfully
sheltered from the “pain” that the President wants us all to “share” is
government employees, themselves. And on that matter, President Obama
told the Governors that “I don’t think it does anybody any good when
public employees are denigrated or vilified.”
Here are the facts of the matter. In the state of Wisconsin, state
taxpayers pay nearly 100% of the costs of government employee
retirement pension contributions, and well over 90% of government
employee’s healthcare insurance costs. The uproar in that state has not
been about Wisconsin indiscriminately firing government workers or
cutting the workers’ benefits, but about the necessity of government
employees taking more financial responsibility for their own retirement
and healthcare. This, of course, led to Wisconsin school teachers
storming the state capitol and chanting “tax the rich – don’t cut our
benefits…”
But never mind the disparity between the economic realities of the
private sector, where most of us pay for a good bit of our healthcare
and contribute our own earnings to private retirement accounts, and the
comforts of the government sector where tax payers foot the bill for
these things. According to our President, holding government employees
responsible for modest portions of their own retirement and healthcare
costs is “villifying” and “denigrating,” Sacrifice ought not be shared
among “them.”
And now, back to Obamacare. From 2007 (when his presidential campaign
began) to March of 2010 (when the bill was signed into law), Mr. Obama
insisted that his plan for national healthcare “reform” would expand
healthcare access. And it would save the federal government from going
bankrupt. And it would produce a higher quality of healthcare. And it
would save state governments money. And it would “bend the healthcare
cost curve downward.”
Today there is no evidence that any of these things are even remotely
on their way to happening. Over half the states in our union (26) have
filed law suits to prevent the implementation of Obamacare. And over
1000 private organizations have been granted waivers from having to
comply with the mandates of Obamacare,
And note the disingenuous essence of the “waivers.” While the President
created this healthcare monstrosity that is supped to be good for all
Americans, his Administration has been busy “waiving” groups that can
be politically helpful to the President himself.
The list of waiver recipients includes hundreds of local labor unions;
McDonald’s restaurants (a company that employs over 30,000 hourly
workers nationwide who earn less than $11,000 a year), Carlson
Restaurants (owners of “TGI Fridays” – again lots of low wage workers);
and the General Electric Corporation, whose C.E.O. Jeff Immelt was a
large cash contributor to the President’s first presidential campaign.
Interestingly, Mr. Immelt also received another nice political favor
from our President when G.E. was granted a waiver from complying with
federal environmental regulations surrounding a G.E. power plant
project in California.
The call for “shared sacrifice” only applies to those of us who are not
politically helpful to the President. Government employees enjoy the
benefit of President Obama seeking to shelter them from economic
reality, while private groups that can help with the 2012 campaign are
now blessed with Obamacare exemptions.
America must make a better choice in 2012, and put an end to this
corruption.
Read the article at Townhall
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