Aug
13
2009

URLs du Jour

2009-08-13

  • One last URL relevant to President Obama's visit to Portsmouth on Tuesday: a long post from Amy Kane, full of links and thoughtfulness.

  • It's (very) easy and (sort of) fun to ridicule and insult Obamacare, but the natural rejoinder is: what would you do instead?

    Doing nothing is always an option. Despite scare tactics, we can muddle though without a massive increase in taxes, regulations, and subsidies. "Nothing" really is better than that.

    But we can do better: John Mackey, CEO of Whole Foods, had an excellent op-ed in the WSJ yesterday that outlines seven major steps that would help a lot toward getting overall health care costs down, help uninsured people get the care they need, and most importantly, make personal responsibility an underlying goal:

    Health-care reform is very important. Whatever reforms are enacted it is essential that they be financially responsible, and that we have the freedom to choose doctors and the health-care services that best suit our own unique set of lifestyle choices. We are all responsible for our own lives and our own health. We should take that responsibility very seriously and use our freedom to make wise lifestyle choices that will protect our health. Doing so will enrich our lives and will help create a vibrant and sustainable American society.
    I like that.

  • The Club For Growth has issued the 2009 version of its "House RePORK Card", ranking Congresscritters on the percentage of anti-Pork votes. Mine, Carol Shea-Porter, got an outstanding 0%; out of 68 amendments she could have voted for, she chose to vote for … none of them.

    In her defense, she was in a 211-way tie for last place, with 201 of her fellow Democrats and 9 Republicans. So (unfortunately) she's not atypical.