Lies of Omission

When I first heard about Trayvon Martin, I was aghast that George Zimmerman wasn't in jail awaiting trial. There's this picture of a genial black teen who was armed with Skittles and Tea beside a mugshot of Zimmerman. There was the recording of Zimmerman following Trayvon even afer the 911 operator told him that the police could take it from here. Then there was the fact that Trayvon was dead shortly thereafter. Wow! That's pretty damning. How is it the police let him go?

Then more of the story came to light. A witness reported that Trayvon was beating Zimmerman, resulting in a gash to the head and a bloody - maybe broken - nose. The police did arrest Zimmerman but let him go after they had interviewed the witnesses and reviewed the tapes. Trayvon had been suspended from school, had been caught in possession of marijuana, and had - according to Zimmerman's father - threatened to kill the neighborhood watch captain. Moreover, the screams on the second 911 call were those of Zimmerman, not Trayvon.

Though weeks old when it broke on the national scene, the press told only the first half of the story. And that half could not help but stoke racial resentments. Was such accidental or intentional? This is not the first time the media has jumped on a racially charged story and initially reported it in such a manner. Recall Duke lacrosse. Or the arrest of the professor in Massachusetts that led to the Beer Summit.

What really bugs me is that I bought into the story. I believed the reports and, once again, felt misled. I was given just enough facts so I'd come to a conclusion that the reporter wanted even if that wasn't necessarily the truth.

Trust SCOTUS?

So, Obamacare took a beating in the Supreme Court today. The mandate was battered even by liberals on the court. The odds now state that it is 55% likely the court rules the mandate unconstitutional. That does not comfort me. The Supreme Court has a history of failing to uphold the Constitution. The Kelo decision (2005) turned the 5th Amendment on its head, where it remains. The court upheld McCain-Feingold though it has corrected that with its Citizens' United ruling.

The notion that buying health insurance from an insurance company that is barred from selling insurance across state lines falls under the congressional power to regulate interstate commerce is silly on its face. If congress can require individuals to buy health insurance, what can they not force you to buy? Where is the line? One would think that advocates for Obamacare would have had an answer for that ready. Nope. One justice asked about requiring people to buy cell phones and the defense said that wasn't the same but couldn't explain why. Cuz. Oh, the 'Cuz' argument. Lovely.

If the court upholds the mandate, there will be no going back short of amending the Constitution. Once it has been determined that government can require citizens to buy something, there will be no end of things to buy.

Who's Unpatriotic Now?

The problem is, is that the way Bush has done it over the last eight years is to take out a credit card from the Bank of China in the name of our children, driving up our national debt from $5 trillion for the first 42 presidents – #43 added $4 trillion by his lonesome, so that we now have over $9 trillion of debt that we are going to have to pay back — $30,000 for every man, woman and child. That’s irresponsible. It’s unpatriotic.

Barak Obama, April 2008

Today, The US is $15.5 trillion in debt. That is $49,725 for every man, woman and child. Is that responsible? Is that patriotic? Bush took 8 years to accomplish his irresponsible and unpatriotic spending. Obama has already outdone him and it took less than 4 years. And spending on Obamacare hasn’t even begun. The path to insolvency is as clear as day and yet we are not taking action. No tax rate can pay for the promises that government has made. Government WILL renege on its promises because it is bankrupt. The debt is less than half the story.

The government has also promised to pay $15 trillion to retirees through Social Security, $20 trillion for prescription drugs, and $81 trillion for Medicare. A business is required to put these liabilities on its balance sheets but the government doesn’t; that would be a crime under the accounting rules that government has imposed on others. These bills cannot be paid and the longer we wait to reform the system the worse the disaster will be. But every president and congress decides to kick the can down the road. Let the next fellow deal with it.

Paul Ryan has a plan and has been repeatedly savaged for it. He wants to throw granny off a cliff according to a commercial. At least he has the courage to propose a fix. I also like Ron Paul’s plan of cutting a trillion dollars in his first budget. Everyone knows this must be done. MUST. There is no avoiding this. Either cut or go bankrupt. There is no other way.