Mark Steyn has a brilliant piece today that outlines exactly why it was necessary to uphold the veto on the SCHIP bill. He sums up the entire reason in the last two paragraphs:
I'm in favor of tax credits for child health care, and Health Savings Accounts for adults, and any other reform that emphasizes the citizen's responsibility to himself and his dependants. But middle-class entitlement creep would be wrong even if was affordable, even if Bill Gates wrote a check to cover it every month: it turns free-born citizens into enervated wards of the Nanny State. As Gerald Ford likes to say when trying to ingratiate himself with conservative audiences, "A government big enough to give you everything you want is big enough to take away everything you have." But there's an intermediate stage: A government big enough to give you everything you want isn't big enough to get you to give any of it back. As I point out in my book, nothing makes a citizen more selfish than socially equitable communitarianism: Once a fellow's enjoying the fruits of Euro-style entitlements, he couldn't give a hoot about the general societal interest; he's got his, and who cares if it's going to bankrupt the state a generation hence?That's the real "war on children": in Europe, it's killing their future. Don't make the same mistake here.
You must read all of Mark's piece. And then pass it on for others to read.
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Comments (16)
The intermediate stage of r... (Below threshold)1. Posted by Burt | October 20, 2007 10:59 PM | Score: 8 (8 votes cast)
The intermediate stage of refusal to give even a little bit back is well evidenced by the visceral reaction of the AARP to any suggestion of Social Security reform.
1. Posted by Burt | October 20, 2007 10:59 PM |
Score: 8 (8 votes cast)
Posted on October 20, 2007 22:59
2. Posted by jennifer | October 20, 2007 11:56 PM | Score: 7 (7 votes cast)
Excellent link! I am so sick and tired of the government handouts.
I do not think that we are going to stop this insanity, and like so many on the Left desire, we will end up similar to the Elite Europeans!
And then...
2. Posted by jennifer | October 20, 2007 11:56 PM |
Score: 7 (7 votes cast)
Posted on October 20, 2007 23:56
3. Posted by Mark L | October 21, 2007 9:38 AM | Score: 2 (2 votes cast)
"And then . . ."
Extinction. In most European nations the birth rate is well below 2 per couple. That is a game of Ten Little Indians.
3. Posted by Mark L | October 21, 2007 9:38 AM |
Score: 2 (2 votes cast)
Posted on October 21, 2007 09:38
4. Posted by kim | October 21, 2007 10:04 AM | Score: 2 (2 votes cast)
Niches evolve. There is a subset of the whole population in those European countries with a higher birth rate than the rest, and they will eventually fill the niche abandoned by the others.
It is Allah's will.
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4. Posted by kim | October 21, 2007 10:04 AM |
Score: 2 (2 votes cast)
Posted on October 21, 2007 10:04
5. Posted by Spurwing Plover | October 21, 2007 10:16 AM | Score: 2 (2 votes cast)
Just think of all those lies their telling kids in the schools like all this global warming poppycock bull kaka or PETA blabbering this animal rights nonsense
5. Posted by Spurwing Plover | October 21, 2007 10:16 AM |
Score: 2 (2 votes cast)
Posted on October 21, 2007 10:16
6. Posted by jpe | October 21, 2007 10:36 AM | Score: -2 (2 votes cast)
This fiscal responsibility is pretty novel from the right and, if genuine, a good thing. Its selective application, however, tells us that it this is probably not a bona fide embrace of fiscal responsibility.
6. Posted by jpe | October 21, 2007 10:36 AM |
Score: -2 (2 votes cast)
Posted on October 21, 2007 10:36
7. Posted by jpe | October 21, 2007 10:43 AM | Score: -3 (3 votes cast)
7. Posted by jpe | October 21, 2007 10:43 AM |
Score: -3 (3 votes cast)
Posted on October 21, 2007 10:43
8. Posted by kim | October 21, 2007 12:05 PM | Score: 2 (2 votes cast)
jpe is busily trying to make lemons of lemonaide. Salud!
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8. Posted by kim | October 21, 2007 12:05 PM |
Score: 2 (2 votes cast)
Posted on October 21, 2007 12:05
9. Posted by SPQR | October 21, 2007 1:37 PM | Score: 2 (2 votes cast)
Not to mention omitting that this year, the deficit as a percentage of GDP will be 1.2% - less than half the amount he trumpets above.
9. Posted by SPQR | October 21, 2007 1:37 PM |
Score: 2 (2 votes cast)
Posted on October 21, 2007 13:37
10. Posted by kim | October 21, 2007 1:41 PM | Score: 2 (2 votes cast)
And, Hah Hah, lower than EU. Hey, jpe, wouldn't you like a little intelligent design to help turn that mass of delicious cool aide into the fruit of a flower?
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10. Posted by kim | October 21, 2007 1:41 PM |
Score: 2 (2 votes cast)
Posted on October 21, 2007 13:41
11. Posted by Ted | October 21, 2007 1:59 PM | Score: 2 (2 votes cast)
The idea that we would be sending mixed messages in regards to how it would be funded. I think anyone for the bill should start smoking and for those who were thinking about quitting should think again. After all its for the children.
11. Posted by Ted | October 21, 2007 1:59 PM |
Score: 2 (2 votes cast)
Posted on October 21, 2007 13:59
12. Posted by jpe | October 21, 2007 2:18 PM | Score: -1 (1 votes cast)
Trying to make sense of GOP economic thought, which is more like trying to square a circle.
12. Posted by jpe | October 21, 2007 2:18 PM |
Score: -1 (1 votes cast)
Posted on October 21, 2007 14:18
13. Posted by Amy | October 21, 2007 4:29 PM | Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
Great article!
13. Posted by Amy | October 21, 2007 4:29 PM |
Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
Posted on October 21, 2007 16:29
14. Posted by Jo | October 21, 2007 8:45 PM | Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
Mark Steyn is a genius.
14. Posted by Jo | October 21, 2007 8:45 PM |
Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
Posted on October 21, 2007 20:45
15. Posted by Herman | October 21, 2007 10:02 PM | Score: -1 (1 votes cast)
"But middle-class entitlement creep would be wrong even if was affordable" -- Steyn
You (expletive-deleted) conservatives got billions upon billions upon billions (and counting) for war based on lies, and you got to gall to balk at a program that would insure many of the nations children for a fraction of what you people spend???
"Once a fellow's enjoying the fruits of Euro-style entitlements, he couldn't give a hoot about the general societal interest" -- Steyn
Who do you think truly cares about the "general societal interest": a citizen of Amsterdam who gets around by bicycle or some American driving an SUV with a Bush-Cheney bumpersticker on the back on his way to NASCAR, to watch cars go round in circles for hours, polluting the air as they go? You conservatives have still more gall to talk about concern for future generations, given that you don't give a damn about global warming.
15. Posted by Herman | October 21, 2007 10:02 PM |
Score: -1 (1 votes cast)
Posted on October 21, 2007 22:02
16. Posted by kim | October 22, 2007 8:00 AM | Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
Herman, Gore said that dealing with Saddam was like trying to housebreak a cobra. And the globe is cooling, keep up. It's clouds and cosmic rays, not trace gases.
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16. Posted by kim | October 22, 2007 8:00 AM |
Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
Posted on October 22, 2007 08:00