Over on Facebook, Tracy posts about a Townhall article where Robert Reich says ObamaCare would wreck the economy. Yes, Lyndon Johnson did lowball the costs of Medicare, something I pointed out when I spoke at the Harris County Republican townhall meeting that was held out in Pasadena the other night. I told the audience how Medicare had an 1,000 percent cost overrun in its first 25 years of enactment. Nobody has any real clue how much ObamaCare will cost taxpayers.
The problem, politically, is that I've been to five or six townhall meetings with almost all Republicans in attendance. What I've heard maybe 10-15 times now from elderly people is that they all agree on how wonderful Medicare is! They just go berserk over the idea that there may be illegals who might be eligible for something too. I told that audience last Tuesday in Pasadena that when you go on Medicare at age 65, you become a ward of the state. In other words, YOU become a welfare queen, and that you are no different than those damned illegals.
There was silence in the audience when I got done saying that. You could have heard a pin drop.
I grew a little gentler at the end of my 2 minutes of allotted time with the mike. I let the audience off by asking the panel if anybody had any cost estimates on what ObamaCare would cost, to which one panel member piped up something to the effect of, "take the Congressional Budget Office estimates and multiply it by 5 and you're on track".
One member of the audience pointed out that the Republican party didn't do anything about rolling back the welfare state when they were in power. He was right. And why was that?
Maybe it's because we are NEVER going to be able to contain government if there are millions of Republicans (much less Democrats) who love Medicare, but merely object to ObamaCare. All those so called Republicans are then doing is admitting that Lyndon Johnson was right all along and we're merely arguing over how much socialism in medicine there is going to be. But more importantly, you've already given up on the argument of whether government should be involved in health care at all. Otherwise, I don't care if I'm Republican or not. Taxpayer funded health care is good for me but not for thee!
Addendum: David Jennings at Big Jolly writes this post on the Pasadena townhall meeting. Here is the Harris County Republican Party's idea platform presentation on health care reform.
Another addendum: See and hear the Wizard himself in action! I do admit that it is impossible to hear what I or the panel members are saying.
Enjoy!
Wizard
Posted by The Mighty Wizard at September 30, 2009 08:13 AM