[StBernard] RedState (By Gov. Jindal): Declaration of Independence, not Dependence

Westley Annis westley at da-parish.com
Tue Jul 10 21:14:30 EDT 2012


Declaration of Independence, not Dependence

RedState
By Gov. Bobby Jindal
7/3/12

As we celebrate our nation's birthday this week, it is important to remember
and teach our children the Founding Fathers were declaring our independence,
not creating a culture of dependence. (They also protested unfair taxation,
but that is another story for another day.) This is an especially important
lesson, given the Supreme Court's ruling last week on Obamacare.

The ruling was both a disappointment and a blow to our freedoms. As we get
further away from the ruling, reality will dawn on people, and we will be
right back to where we were. The American people did not want or approve of
Obamacare then, and they do not now. Americans oppose it because it will
decrease the quality of our health care, raise taxes by over $500 billion,
cut Medicare by over $500 billion, and, with a $1.76 trillion price tag,
break the bank.

The President promised us our premiums would go down $2,500 per family per
year if we passed his reform; family premiums increased 9 percent last year.
President Obama promised us we could keep our plans and our doctors; as many
as 20 million Americans will lose their employer-provided health plans.
President Obama promised us he would "protect Medicare;" Medicare's Chief
Actuary says the Obamacare cuts to providers are "unrealistic" and not
sustainable, and millions of seniors will lose access to Medicare Advantage
plans and benefits. The President promised us he wouldn't raise taxes on
middle class families making less than $250,000 a year; Obamacare raises
taxes on health plans, medical devices, prescription drugs, and employers,
and 75% of the individual mandate tax will fall on the middle class. Over 20
million individuals will remain uninsured, and health care spending will be
higher than it would have been if the law had not passed. President Obama
campaigned against Hillary Clinton's individual mandate and John McCain's
tax increase on generous health care insurance, and included both in
Obamacare.

Amazingly, facing the greatest economic recession since the Great
Depression, President Obama chose to create a new entitlement program when
we cannot afford the ones we already have. Republicans like to go on
television and say we are borrowing from our children's and grandchildren's
future. We can throw those talking points out; we are hurting ourselves now.
You know we are in trouble when the German Finance Minister rebuffs
President Obama and basically tells him to clean up his own mess before
offering advice to others. Even the Europeans feel they have the moral high
ground to tell us to tackle our own debt problems; that's like the town
drunk telling you that you have a drinking problem.

Opposition to Obamacare will escalate for one simple reason; Obamacare is
the most unpopular when people are thinking about it. Then-Speaker Pelosi
said they had to pass the 2,000 plus page bill so we could find out what is
in it. The President promised it would become more popular the more people
learned about it. Yet, there has never been one day a majority of the
American people wanted this massive government overreach that was forced on
us by a party-line vote.

The Supreme Court should have protected our constitutional freedoms, but
remember, it was the President who forced this law on us. I congratulate the
Supreme Court on one thing; they were far more honest about Obamacare than
President Obama was. They rightly have called it what it is - a tax.

The Supreme Court has done something new; they have declared that President
Obama can use the taxation power of the federal government to compel
behavior. The federal government can even tax the lack of behavior. What's
next? Taxes on people who refuse to drive Chevy Volts or eat tofu? This is
ridiculous.

In fact, the Court actually rewrote Obamacare to make it fit under the
taxation clause. I don't know how one defines legislating from the bench,
but this seems pretty close. The Readers Digest version of the Supreme
Court's decisions last week is this - The Government can require proof of
insurance, but not proof of citizenship.

Here is the big picture situation in America today. Success used to be
measured by how many people we could get off the government dole, but now,
under President Obama, we measure success by how many people we can get on
government programs. Indeed, food stamp rolls have increased by 70 percent
since 2007, and yet the government is spending millions of taxpayer dollars
on advertising and encouraging parties to enroll even more. There used to be
a stigma to relying on the government, but now it's celebrated. We have it
100 percent backwards in America today. We should celebrate people getting
off food stamps, off Medicaid, and off government health care.

The bottom line is that Obamacare eats into the spirit of independence that
has made America great in the first place, and if we don't repeal it soon,
we will have more people riding in the cart than pulling the cart. We are at
an inflection point in our nation's history. We have to decide whether we
want to revive our economy by growing the private sector or expanding the
public sector, to continue our culture of self-reliance versus a culture of
dependency, to provide our children with opportunity or a sense of
entitlement, and to pursue the American model or give in to the European
model.

Here is the crazy part - the federal government cannot pay for our existing
entitlement programs. We have to reform those or they will crumble, and yet
President Obama has created another one we cannot afford. Democrats are
already attacking Republicans for turning down free health care. Here is a
news flash. All of this government spending is not free. It is our money
they are spending; it is our future they are destroying; and it is really
not that far into the future. The credit card is maxed out, and the bank of
China is closed.

I have vowed not to implement Obamacare in Louisiana, especially creating
the exchange and expanding Medicaid, because this November we're going to
elect a new President and a new Congress who will repeal and replace the
terrible law. In Louisiana, our health department estimates the Medicaid
expansion alone will cost our taxpayers $3.7 billion over the first ten
years of implementation and will take 187,000 new enrollees off private
insurance.

The Court's decision is a reminder that elections do in fact matter. The
left wing won the elections in 2006 and 2008, giving liberals full control
of the House, Senate, and the White House. They used this power to force
through a government takeover of health care that the public didn't even
want.

Now, the American people have an opportunity to reverse this course in
November by electing Governor Romney and a Republican Senate. We have to
stop complaining about the Supreme Court and deal with the real problem -
which is President Obama. Obamacare has now been unmasked for what it really
is, a massive tax increase to pay for a massive new federal entitlement
program that we do not want and cannot afford.

If you are a small business owner, a middle-class taxpayer, or if you are
worried about what Obamacare will do to the quality of your health care, or
if you are worried about the fact that our government is headed towards
insolvency - you have only one recourse - make President Obama a one-termer.
Elections do matter; this one matters a lot.

Read it online at:
http://www.redstate.com/bobbyjindal/2012/07/03/declaration-of-independence-n
ot-dependence/
<http://cl.publicaster.com/ClickThru.aspx?pubids=393%7c9308%7c9390%7c791501&
digest=noh0Q57G1KYukNpHcijP3Q&sysid=1>





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