1977:  Home ownership should be increased via government incentives and if necessary penalties for those that don’t lend money to people that can’t pay it back.

Result:  The Great Recession.

2009: Access to banking services should be increased via government incentives and if necessary penalties for those that don’t offer banking services to people that don’t have any money.

Result:  [insanity]It’ll be different this time folks.[/insanity]

A report from the (coincidentally insolvent) FDIC:

Consider defining a national shared government-industry
goal to lower the number of unbanked and/or underbanked
individuals and households…

There are people that have never been banked?

Do you know anyone that is “underbanked”

“[There is] an imperative for government and industry to expand financial access to the substantial number of households that have never been banked,”

…or “unbanked” (!!!!!!!!!!!)?

A push to extend basic services such as accounts to poorer communities with patchy credit histories would be especially sensitive because of the role of the subprime mortgage crisis in sparking the recent turmoil.

Ya think?

Not having enough money to need an account was the most common reason cited for staying outside the banking system. One third of households that no longer had accounts said they closed them because of the cost of maintaining them, such as minimum balance requirements, service charges and overdrafts.

“As a society, we should make banks cover these people.”

That’ll have a positive outcome.

But wait! We already have a solution here in the Twin Cities…it’s called Twin Cities Federal*. $50 for opening up a free checking account; $25 for referring your friends, open 7 days a week.

The bank for the underbanked…no TARP required, thank you.

*Johnny Roosh does not endorse Twin City Federal and was not paid a fee to mention them. Yet.

I came across this on my cyber paper route today and it caught my interest as a Scotch/Whiskey/Bourbon drinker (in moderation, of course)…

“We can make so much more of malt whisky as an industry,” said Thomson, 54, who submitted plans for local government approval on Nov. 12. “We haven’t even begun to tap into the potential interest.”

Economic gains in China and India are fueling a growth market for the better booze.

I like to sip Glenfiddich, Jack Daniels and recently started a bottle of Old Weller Antique 107 (thanks Dad).

What are your favorite malt spirits?

While Democrats and Republicans battle it out, most Americans have lost no love for either party and may be lining up behind…neither.

Main Street America has entered an era of populism that embraces neither party. People are tired of government bailouts, spending and unchecked corruption, as well as the media’s perceived lack of curiosity or investigation into all three.

They are really tired of being told their values and way of life are not politically correct.

America is pissed off. Unless an independent candidate can connect with enough Americans to garner a majority, Republicans probably have a chance to end Obama’s Reign of Pain. But, thanks to George W. Bush’s invention of the modern liberal Republican, there are no guarantees.

Americans lost faith in Republicans as evidenced by their willingness to vote a charismatic, well-spoken but otherwise completely unqualified decoy into the White House.

While President Obama enjoyed a brief honeymoon, since about June more Americans think we’re moving in the wrong direction; less Americans believe we are moving in the right direction. Obama’s popularity is sinking like a lead zeppelin. Clearly the honeymoon is over for the Democrats.

But Republican’s don’t have to outrun the bear as the saying goes, they just have to outrun the other guy the bear is chasing. Thanks to Obama, Reid, Pelosi and their ilk, Democrats have a lot more ground to cover when it comes to the issues America will soon hold most high.

“Elites like President Obama see government as a force for protecting the little guy,” explains University of Arkansas political scientist Robert Maranto. “But regular folks on Main Street see government as incomprehensible and unpredictable.”

Even with the best of intentions, government almost always does more harm than good.

When President Obama orders corporate bailouts, a stimulus plan that costs a quarter-million-dollars a job, or talks more about expanding government than reducing unemployment, folks are naturally skeptical, Maranto says.

Most Americans are Jeffersonians: They want limited government – totally at odds with Obama, who wants government without limits.

Let the footrace begin. The first party to fiscal sanity wins. Unfortunately for them, the Democrats don’t even know where the starting line is, and with unemployment above ten, a series of failed bailouts and stimuli, dithering on defense, and foreign policy gaffes, they’re wearing concrete boots.

Meanwhile, the bear smells blood. Blue blood.

…living in the midst of a burdensome if not oppressive government, gorging itself on the citizens it was created to serve.

We may find ourselves in the very same predicament the pilgrims of Plimoth risked their lives to flee.

The pilgrims were deeply focused on the Old Testament narrative of Moses leading the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt. William Bradford called King James “the pharaoh.” On The Mayflower the pilgrims said their journey was as important as that of Moses. And the first thing they did upon reaching Cape Cod was get down on their knees and thank God for allowing them to cross their own Red Sea.

How disappointed these reverent, hearty souls would be if they could see us today: millions convinced of their victimhood by and willfully living off the government. As many unborn snuffed in the interest of “privacy” and convenience. Full-time career politicians drawing salaries and pensions from the taxpayers. The press, once vigilant, now schilling for a leftist government. A federal agency confiscating the wealth of those who created it; dolling it out to legions of  grovelers, groupies and bootlickers. Their Native-American friends? Running casinos; enslaving ranks of the white man.

And what of God? The God they feared and offered gratitude to for the harvest and their hard-fought and nascent freedoms? That same God now beholds a government hell-bent on removing his word from the public square in the interest of a newfangled concept: political correctness.

And possibly the greatest offense? Tofu.

Had these crusaders, to whom we owe so much, had the ability to see the future, they may have stayed home.

Last quarter’s “numbers” confirm that the stimulus didn’t stimulate, clunkers was one, the unemployed are still growing in ranks and the consumer is still cowering at home. Democrats are looking for someone to take the fall when in fact they are all making exactly the wrong moves economically, and soon time will show, politically.

One big difference between Washington and private markets is that politicians think everything they do is free-standing. Markets, however, combine all the potential costs of Washington’s policies and then decide whether to invest, or not. Consider what private decision-makers [read job-creators; employers-JR] see in their future:

A 2,074-page, trillion-dollar health-care bill to redesign 17% of the U.S. economy. A carbon tax—cap and trade—that remains an Obama priority ahead of the Copenhagen climate summit next month. A falling dollar and gyrating commodity prices, with no idea where those prices will go next.

Democratic liberals are talking about an income tax surcharge to pay for any commitment in Afghanistan. Card check, to expand unionization of the private economy, remains a priority. Domestic discretionary spending in fiscal 2010 is set to rise at 12.1%, with inflation near zero.

Nurturing a fragile economic recovery into a durable expansion requires policies that restore public confidence and reassure investors, risk-takers and employers. The Democratic agenda is doing precisely the opposite, which is how you get subpar growth and fewer new jobs. [emph. mine-JR]

High unemployment will progressively weigh more heavily on a Congress and Administration that has shown how ill-equipped and out of touch they have become they have been all along. They remain without a clue as it regards restoring our economy in a way that is meaningful for their constituents: jobs growth.

At the same time, they have failed to capitalize politically on the crisis (they themselves created), revealing how utterly failed and irrelevant their policies and leadership have become. How effectively they have shown once again that they are the wrong party at the wrong time, or at any time.

…and a hole in the ground.

But an investment? …not so sure any more.

Another advisor and I were just talking about this over lunch on Friday: is one’s home an investment or just a place to live?

The former is only true to the extent that paying off the mortgage and residing in a home long-term is at best a forced-savings plan.

Between 1975 and 2008, the price for houses of comparable quality and size appreciated an average of about 1 percent per year after inflation. You would have earned well over 2 percent per year after inflation had you invested in Treasury bills over the same period. And you would have earned even more on riskier investments: After inflation, Moody’s corporate bond index rose an average of 6 percent per year between 1975 and 2008, while the S&P 500 stock index rose an average of 8 percent per year. Most of the return from owning your home comes not in financial gains but in the benefits you enjoy by living there.

One percent – now figure in the new roof every twenty years, interest, property taxes and other maintenance factors and renting starts looking real good about now.

Short term, home values may stabilize but they are unlikely to grow in value, at least in a sustainable fashion, any time soon. Any bump in values may very well be met by house-poor baby-boomers taking the first opportunity to dump homes larger than they need as their progeny jet off to university and their advisors tell them to take the equity and run.

Economists and real estate experts are grasping for any indication of how much “hidden supply” is out there waiting to come to market. First, there are home buyers who would like to sell but are waiting for better market conditions.

Moreover, the government allows a once-every-five-year opportunity to harvest a half million in equity tax free (for married couples; a quarter million for singles) for your primary residence.

Both of these factors will apply downward pressure to home values for the foreseeable future. The message? It’s all about your time horizon.

If you are young and plan to own a home for twenty years or more, owning will probably still make sense. If you are a late fifties executive living in a home better suited to a family of five, three of which are long gone, you’re probably waiting for the market to pop up so you can sell and invest the proceeds for retirement.

…and rent a nice condo from now on. There isn’t enough time to outgrow the opportunity cost of the down payment or transactional friction of  closing a mortgage and real estate commissions on both ends.

It’s true that if you own, you don’t have to write a check to a landlord. However, you have to cover all the costs of maintaining the house. It is the same house with the same operating costs, whether you pay them directly or whether you pay rent to cover them. By covering these costs as the owner-occupier, what you spend (including your mortgage payment) comes very close to what you would have spent if you rented your house.

Many of us own because it is a way to commit to saving by building equity over time, but we should not expect to make large profits. Housing is an expensive durable good, and durable goods are costly to maintain. The main reason to own is because you really like your home, not because you think it makes you money. It doesn’t.

The Great Recession is proof that the government’s (and especially Barney Frank’s) reach exceeds it’s grasp as it regards converting The American Dream of home ownership into The American Entitlement. So if you are in the market for a home for the first time, don’t let Obama’s tax credit sway you.

Just because you got an $8,000 tax credit toward the purchase of a home doesn’t mean that you actually saved $8,000. In areas where there is strong demand for housing and the supply of new housing is limited — including the Washington metro region — tax credits may result in the bidding up of home prices. In other words, the program has probably led to higher prices in these areas than we would be seeing without it. This means that some of the benefit of the tax credit is being passed on from homebuyers to home sellers.

Plus, anyone that jumped on this deal in 2008 has to pay it back.

As a result of ill-advised liberal intervention, a sea change is afoot as homeowners shaken by the economic carnage of late are questioning any and all assumptions they held dear just a short eighteen months ago.

Ironically, the virtue of home ownership may be one of them.

From the tearful pleas of rock stars to politicians pounding their hammy fists, the Man Made Global Warming movement has been a maypole for liberals for what seems like twenty years now.

…and gave Algore a suitable purpose for his deceitful, pathetic life.

Watch now as world leaders quietly turn their backs and walk briskly away.

As scientists confirm the earth has not warmed at all in the past decade, others wonder how this could be and what it means for Copenhagen. Maybe Al Gore can Photoshop something before December.

It will be a very cold winter of discontent for the warm-mongers. The climate show-and-tell in Copenhagen next month will be nothing more than a meaningless carbon-emitting jaunt, unable to decide just whom to blame or how to divvy up the profitable spoils of climate change hysteria.

“So when Barbara Boxer, John Kerry and all the left get up there and say, ‘Yes. We’re going to pass a global warming bill,’ I will be able to stand up and say, ‘No, it’s over. Get a life. You lost. I won,'” Inhofe said.

Darn it all. I was so hoping not to have to move South in my twilight years.

I thought these “scientists” were just liberal zombies contentedly suckling at the teet of government grants, doing the Motherland’s bidding; the all-growed-up version of the career protesters I observed when I attended the U.

Now, it turns out they were [dramatic music] evil doers!

Hundreds of private e-mail messages and documents hacked from a computer server at a British university are causing a stir among global warming skeptics, who say they show that climate scientists conspired to overstate the case for a human influence on climate change.

Drafts of scientific papers and a photo collage that portrays climate skeptics on an ice floe were also among the hacked data, some of which dates back 13 years.

Leave it to the StarTribune to discount the findings, toss the word “evidence” in there for good measure and  essentially say “Sorry. Too late, officer. The Kool Aid is drunk already.”

But the evidence pointing to a growing human contribution to global warming is so widely accepted that the hacked material is unlikely to erode the overall argument.

…because it’s already been eroding…without the help of hackers.

With their help however we have this:

The fact is that we can’t account for the lack of warming at the moment and it is a travesty that we can’t. The CERES data published in the August BAMS 09 supplement on 2008 shows there should be even more warming: but the data are surely wrong. Our observing system is inadequate.

Phil Jones, a longtime climate researcher at the East Anglia Climate Research Unit, said he had used a “trick” employed by another scientist, Michael Mann, to “hide a decline” in temperatures.

The good news? Algore made a Billion and can retire. Maybe he’ll keep his yap shut now.

…are not so evil after all.

The government recently advised that women don’t really need so many mammograms…that it takes 1900 of them to save one life.

Insurance companies’ reply?

Don’t worry. You’re covered…

Insurance companies contacted by USA TODAY say they will continue paying for annual mammograms amid widespread fears that new breast cancer screening guidelines from a federal task force could lead women to lose coverage for those tests.

The guidelines – suggesting that most women under 50 don’t need routine mammograms and that women over 50 need them only every other year – were issued Monday night by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force.

…until the government takes over that is.

It’s a new book about our Carnivorousness^TM

Eating Animals is an exploration of what we eat and why, and how what we eat affects our lives and the environment. Inspired by his impending fatherhood and the responsibility of making dietary choices for his child, Foer set out to discover what exactly meat is, how it gets to our tables, and how we define what’s acceptable to consume and what isn’t.

Acceptable to consume?

I will be at Pittsburgh Blue Saturday night celebrating the Audacity of  Carnivoracity^TM.

It brings to mind something I read somewhere else this week:

If God didn’t want us to eat animals, why did he make them out of meat?

A quick Google informs that Homer Simpson, a regular SITD reader,  may have first uttered the query.

Discuss.

On whether he finds it offensive that a terrorist is afforded all the legal rights of an American citizen…

Obama: I don’t think it will be offensive at all when he’s convicted and when the death penalty is applied to him.

The Government has a good case! He will be convicted and executed.

Fer sher.

Trust me.

OJ Simpson was not available for comment.

and…in a surprisingly early concession…

“You know, if – if I feel like I’ve made the very best decisions for the American people and three years from now I look at it and, you know, my poll numbers are in the tank and because we’ve gone through these wrenching changes, you know, politically, I’m in a tough spot, I’ll – I’ll feel all right about myself,” Obama told CNN’s Ed Henry during an interview in China.

You may not run for a second term?

[insert dramatic orchestral exclamation here]

…because a resounding Jimmuh-like expulsion from office might leave your self esteem a wee bit bruised you mean?

It’s all about you, isn’t it, Sir?

Instead of apologizing for it’s past.

The Chinese, though members of a famously old civilization, seem to possess some of the vigor that once defined the U.S. The Chinese are now an astonishingly optimistic people. Eighty-six percent of Chinese believe their country is headed in the right direction, compared with 37 percent of Americans.

Take a bow, indeed Mr. President.

Check this out.

OK. Closer to Zero.

G. Edward DeSeve, who runs the government’s economic recovery program, says the errors are “relatively few” and “don’t change the fundamental conclusions one can draw from the data.”

Correction: The fundamental conclusions The One can draw from the data.

This is how a recession gets fixed…

A crop of potentially groundbreaking companies is emerging from the wreckage of the Great Recession. No question, some will blow up, and others will fail to reach their potential. But the downturn has done little to dampen the entrepreneurial spirit. During the first half of this year, angel investors financed 24,500 new ventures, 6% more than during the same period last year, according to the Center for Venture Research. The overall amount of money going into startups has declined, but the figures suggest that this year will see the birth of roughly 50,000 companies with enough promise that someone is betting money on them. “It may be that this is the best time to start a company,” says Carl Schramm, president of the Kauffman Foundation, an organization that promotes entrepreneurship.

History shows that great companies are often built during bad times. In 1939, at the tail end of the Great Depression, two engineers started Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) in a garage in Northern California. Silicon Valley itself was largely created during the nasty recession of the mid-1970s. During that decade, entrepreneurs laid the groundwork for the boom of the 1980s, building companies that pioneered three new industries: Atari in the video game business, Apple (AAPL) in personal computers, and Genentech in biotechnology. “The only people who venture out in tough times are on a mission, which is what you need,” says Michael Moritz, managing partner of Sequoia Capital, a venture capital firm that invested in Apple back in the ’70s.

The entrepreneur; the capitalist, seeking the American dream of wealth and freedom, has always been the seed of who we are as a nation, our standard of living and what we’ve done for other nations. Despite Michael Moore’s attempts to discredit it, and Barack Obama’s attempts to destroy it, capitalism is still our only hope for recovery.

The silver lining in The Great Recession…you can afford to invite more in-laws over this Thanksgiving.

This year’s survey, released yesterday, put the cost of feeding 10 people at $42.91. The grocery bill fell 3.8 percent, the steepest reduction since its 4.3 percent drop at the start of this decade. The slump was also the first since 2004.

Don’t miss the click-through to a graph of Class 1 Whole Milk prices – fun!

It’s The Unemployment, stupid.

The announcement a week ago of 10.2% unemployment is a significant political event for President Barack Obama. It could well usher in a particularly serious crisis for his political standing, influence and ability to advance his agenda.

Double-digit unemployment drove Ronald Reagan’s disapproval ratings in October 1982 up to a record high 54%. It was only when unemployment dropped to 7.3%, roughly two years later, that he was able to win a landslide victory over Democratic challenger Walter Mondale in the 1984 presidential election.

Alas, Barack Obama will not have the same opportunity that Reagan did – he doesn’t have the tools (the ideology)…or the people.

Barack Obama is all-in already with his “Stimulus Plan” in the sense that

1) He wants us to think that it’s working, and it is not.

2) As such, he doesn’t want us to think that his Stimulus Plan made things worse, which it did.

Had Barack Obama given America the message that they should have had, that they deserve, it would have been something like this:

Dear fellow Americans: You’ve lived beyond your means and so has your government, and now we must all pay the painful price as our economy returns to a more normalized state. We in the federal government will do what we can by extending unemployment benefits and such, but beyond that, as much as you will hear otherwise from those on the far left, stimulus programs and other gargantuan government spending programs will only worsen and extend the inevitable pain we must all go through to right the ship.

Instead, he doubled down on the failed fiscal policies of George Bush and simply dug the hole deeper.

Now the hole is filling with water and Barack Obama can’t get out.

Obama’s only option politically is to lobby for more stimulus spending and sell the American people on the efficacy of the last one. The former will fall on deaf ears as the deficit becomes an issue with the American people; the latter as the din of high unemployment washes over Obama’s Teleprompterings^™.

His dithering on Afghanistan and misappropriated focus on health care “reform” will be transferred to his economic impotence, and so on and and so on.

A look at more detailed data shows why Mr. Obama’s ratings are likely to drop even further.

A CNN poll released Nov. 6 found that 47% of Americans believe the top issue facing the country is the economy, while only 17% say its health care. However, the bulk of the president’s efforts over the past six months have been not on the economy but on health care, an issue in which he continues to draw negative ratings.

In a Rasmussen Reports poll taken after the House of Representatives passed health-care reform by the narrowest of margins last Saturday night, 54% of likely voters say they are opposed to the plan with only 45% in favor. Furthermore, in the all-important category of unaffiliated voters, 58% oppose the bill. That’s one of the reasons why so many moderate Democratic House members opposed it.

The CNN poll also shows that in addition to health care, a majority of Americans disapprove of how Mr. Obama is handling the economy, Afghanistan, Iraq, unemployment, illegal immigration and the federal budget deficit. Put simply, there isn’t a critical problem facing the country on which the president has positive ratings.

The only way the President gets out of this alive is to willfully and publicly abandon the failed liberal approaches to virtually every issue that has presented itself in his short Presidency.

What are the chances?

Mr. President, Mr. Rock.

“Hello, nice to meet you.”

“Likewise, Mr. President.”

Mr. President, Mr. Hard Place.

“Hello, nice to meet you as well.”

“It’s an honor, Mr. President. Thank you for inviting us into your Presidency. Should we get started?”

2012.

Indeed.

…yesterday morning as I buttoned my shirt and tied my tie.

Why haven’t we heard anything about immigration lately?

And then we did.

Napolitano pronounces US border more secure now

…as evidenced by the fact that we’ve built some more fence,  enlarged the government’s payroll and, uh, because of the crappy economy no one is coming here anymore.

Janet, speak up! I didn’t catch that last part.

No one is coming here anymore.

Ah. It’s another Quoniam inquam sic from the Obama administration. So I took it and threw it on a pile of other rubbish which includes  “this Recovery Act has worked as intended,”  “America wants health care reform and is willing to pay for it” and  “[Cash for Clunkers has been] successful beyond anybody’s imagination.”

Then again, the time to fortify our borders may have already passed. The terrorists may already be here.

…meanwhile, the Pope is scanning the sky for alien life. Either this is related, or all the world’s leaders have lost their marbles.

Not for his steroid nutritional supplement-induced ramblings…rather for the one thing (at least that I can remember) he did for us as governor…

I wrote the check for my license plate tabs this week.

So let’s strike! ….because there’s no one else that can drive a bus or a car on tracks.

[Curly Stooge] Ironic, aint it? [end Curly Stooge]

[Pennsylvania’s Democratic Governor Edward] Rendell and [U.S. Rep. Robert Brady, D-Pa.] had announced a tentative agreement late Friday, but it fell apart Saturday over the union’s call for an independent audit of the pension fund and assurance that members would not be affected if the company’s costs increased with possible passage of a national health reform plan. [in other words they want the same deal as Congress!-JR]

So, let me get this straight. Union workers in Pennsylvania are fearful that national health care “reform”, brought to to us by the gerbils they almost assuredly voted for, could cost them their pension? So they strike…the week unemployment tops ten per cent?

The stupid is so thick you can taste it.

Joe Lieberman walks a fine ideological line and trips over his own feet much of the time, plus he talks like a weenie (not that there’s anything wrong with that).

…but today he stands poised to be an American Hero.

If a government plan is part of the deal, “as a matter of conscience, I will not allow this bill to come to a final vote,” Sen. Joe Lieberman, the Connecticut independent whose vote Democrats need to overcome a GOP filibusters, told “Fox News Sunday.”

“I don’t want to do that to our children and grandchildren,” he said.

…or their parents for that matter.

Michael Regan thinks a great GOP resurgence may be afoot.

Republicans have dramatically turned around their fortunes with two high-profile gubernatorial victories in Virginia and New Jersey — both by comfortable margins.

Wouldn’t it be swell if this anticipated resurrection were due to the GOP being on point, producing a clear and wide message to voters and not simply because of Che Obama’s blowback?

In almost a year, the Obama administration and congressional liberals have focused their efforts so far left so much faster than anyone envisioned…and at the same time accomplishing nothing. They are making the Gingrich years look productive.

Nancy Pelosi is dancing a jiggly jig having passed a health care bill that has no chance of surviving the Senate in tact while unemployment climbs higher than predicted without the stimulus.

[gulp]

Not that anyone predicted this.

…and Americans are getting pissed.

Imagine the possibilities if the GOP actually gets it’s ducks in a row.

Gorbachev gives Obama advice on Afghanistan

“I think that what’s needed is not additional forces,” the former Soviet leader said through a translator, “this is something that we discussed, too, years ago but we decided not to do it. And I think our experience deserves attention.”

Maybe that’s why a month has lapsed while Barack Obama dithers over Afghanistan…he’s getting advice from anyone and everyone.

While you’re at it, Sir, why don’t you seek counsel from Jimmy Carter on hostage negotiation.

…Alec Baldwin on parenting.

…Britney Spears on driving a car.

…Oprah Winfrey on losing weight.

…Sean Penn on poise under pressure.

This is fun. You try it!

This morning the Pastor at our church brought up the recent health care debate thusly:

“A friend came up to me this morning and asked ‘So what do you think about the health care vote yesterday.'”

It was clearly a loaded question, the Pastor explained.

His reply was that he would respond with a God-centered perspective. Every person, every life in this country is precious; sacred. “Our health care system should reflect that.” He said further that he didn’t know how it should be managed or paid for but that is how he believes we should be approaching this issue.

…and I found myself agreeing with him in principal, although I’m not sure he believes government is the answer or not.

Is there a way to look at this debate from a “What Would God Do?” perspective?

I would not presume to know what God would think and recognize that many of you don’t even believe that God exists.

I do believe that individuals and families should have access to quality health care in America and should have a choice as to where they buy insurance to protect them against catastrophe, and how much of that risk they are comfortable retaining. They should have a choice as to where they seek care and from whom.

While I believe it is inevitable that all citizens be required to carry some form of health insurance, I believe they should have more choice as to where they obtain it, not less, and without regard to where they work. For those times that they are not able to afford it temporarily due to unemployment or being unemployable, the government should provide a backup and help those that can’t help themselves.

So far I think most Americans would agree with me and would deem it common sense. Believe in God or not, most would agree government should have a benevolent and responsible role in health care. Where Americans find themselves divided is how to get us there.

I believe God helps those that help themselves and expects us as individuals to help those that can’t. Teach a man to fish and if he can’t, give him one.  If we all lived this way, much of our federal government would find itself out of a job.

As for health care, creating incentives and removing barriers is or should be the conservative approach. Private enterprise has a way of filling a vacuum if it is allowed to do so. After all, there certainly is a demand for quality health care, and people are willing to reasonably pay for it. That sounds like the preamble of any good business plan.

But liberals would say that the private enterprise system has failed here and it is time for a benevolent government to wrest control. They offer more of what broke the system (and many others) in the first place.

If Congress cares so much about Americans, their health care and actually improving it, why is there such a rush to ram it through the legislative system?

Why are they not recognizing who they serve and honoring the promise to allow legislators and the public time to read and understand the bill?

Why are they lying about how many people are uninsured by choice?

Why is the trillion-dollar burden not borne by everyone equally, and not skewed for political bias?

Why is Congress exempt from the plan?

If there are such savings to be gained why does it cost a trillion dollars more than the current system?

Liberals think that an ever-growing government is the only means by which to effect change on any front.

The fact that many Americans don’t have health insurance or access to quality care is not a function of a lack of government intervention rather a result of too much of it.

Government has so regulated the industry such that most Americans have their health care choices made for them by their employer, who has the ability to choose from only a few insurance companies and thus care providers in each state.

If insurance carriers have been allowed to dictate to doctors and patients, have failed to cover preexisting conditions, while at the same time jacking up costs and profits, it isn’t due to a lack of regulation, rather a lack of competition because of over-regulation.

As I have said before, don’t blame the free market system when the market isn’t free.

A truly free market would force insurance companies and health care providers to vie for consumer health care dollars on the basis of coverage, quality and cost, just like auto insurance, which is also required by law.

Beyond that, a compassionate, benevolent (and mostly God-fearing) citizenry would see the mutual benefit of a federal government that takes care of those that legitimately can’t take care of themselves.

But what about those that can help themselves and choose not to? What would God say to this? For example, you don’t exercise, you eat too much, and you smoke or take drugs?

Does God expect us to pay the wages of our sins, or does he call for a benevolent government to transfer those burdens to others? That is admittedly also a loaded question and the answer is clear.

The current bill says that the government will not allow private and public insurance companies to penalize you for the higher burden you will eventually be to the system.

I think God would expect you to pay the wages of your ill-chosen behavior. I think God would expect you to take care not to be a burden to your neighbor. I think God expects you to live your life with others in mind.

God would have voted against this bill.