# 116
“Mourning in America”
IN DEFENSE OF COMMON SENSE
By Hetty Gray
July 10, 2012
Well, I took a hiatus. I’ve been in mourning. Ten years ago when I began this column, I entitled it — as most of you know — IN DEFENSE OF COMMON SENSE. I knew she was ill and failing, but after the SCOTUS decision, I realized that Common Sense truly was dead. Sadly, her children logic and reason are both in critical condition and nobody seems to be stepping up to do anything about it. You can’t count on socialized medicine, that’s for sure.
When was the last time you heard of someone running to Canada or flying to England for medical care? Sure…. Here we are with the finest medical care in the world and the progressives and liberals are vaulting us into the abyss of mediocrity. There might not have been any “smoke filled rooms” in the Pelosi House of Representatives when that unwieldy, 2000-page-plus bill was pushed through in the middle of the night, but it lives up to the “back room deals” we heard about when we read about corrupt politics during the height of the immigrant period in the late 19th century.
So, what do we do now? Well, for one thing, we can get the word out to anyone and everyone to work for a landslide replacement of the White House and the Senate to throw the balance of power to the other party. Every time the House passed a budget bill, it died in the Senate. Thanks, majority! Good job! Maybe YOU should look into the benefits of the government’s much-touted unemployment insurance.
I know that my professor of Constitutional Law is wringing his hands and shaking his head. I loved his class, and at no time did I hear him point out the portion stating that the government was permitted to force anyone to buy anything! This was not just the ordinary professor, either.
He grew up in Taiwan, the son of parents who fled Mainland China just in time to escape the “Cultural Revolution” that stifled the country for decades. He revered the U.S. Constitution and held it as the ultimate standard for the world. The very reason early colonists waged The American Revolutionary War was to insure that no citizen would be subjected to a government with unlimited power.
Where are the Madisons and Jeffersons of today? We need them. Repeal is the only avenue open to us, and we had better make sure that we do everything we can to turn over this behemoth before a committee holds sway over your life or the life of your spouse, your child, your parent. You remember the camel, don’t you — the animal designed by a committee?
I wish I knew the intricacies of our Congress and its rules more thoroughly. If this health care mandate is truly a tax, then can the House reintroduce it as a tax? I can’t help but think that if it had been introduced as a tax, even the then component body would have had a hard time getting it through, day or night given constituent opposition.
All money bills must originate in the House of Representatives and it would be interesting to see just how all of this shakes out in the end. As for now, prediction is the only route left. Like an opinion, everyone has one….
Common sense held sway a mainstay of American thought until the onslaught of liberal tax and spend policies. Today, sadly, it appears to be dead in the water within The Beltway. One takes a deep breath in disbelief that “interpretation” has replaced a clear reading of any law. I think many of us have shaken heads in the wake of a SCOTUS decision, but perhaps never more than now. If, as some think, there is a silver lining in all this and a clear legislative solution will rise to erase this health care bill, we would all breathe a little easier.
With too many in the wagon and too few pulling it, only time will tell. My worry is that the wagon will mire my grandchildren in a lifestyle they didn’t ask for and require them to pay for others’ mistakes.
Words are important. Words count. At least the 10th Amendment upheld guaranteeing the states powers not specifically designated to the federal level.
Remember, the Constitution limits the powers of the federal government in order to assure freedom for the states. If that were to fall under the bus, it would be hard to fathom what would follow.
Take a hard look in Spain and Greece where more than half of their young people cannot find work. Does the length of benefits here in the USA directly link to the length of time to find a job? A current graph confirming that European unemployment benefits over the past decade proves that the shorter the benefit period, the quicker folks go out and get jobs.
One newsman visited an unemployment office in a major US city and found that there were dozens of businesses within a few blocks advertising for workers. Bottom line, if you hand out money, the incentive to take a job is low. One social worker from within that unemployment office said she thought the government was encourages people to be dependent? ‘Ya think?
Hope and pray that Americans can turn back the clock a bit and return to common sense. Defend our borders. Slash spending. Ask for sacrifice in the spirit of John F. Kennedy in his inaugural address so often quoted. That’s real sacrifice, folks, not just window dressing.
As for Common Sense, she lies buried in a potter’s field. Once held to a finite standard of worthy thought and honored as a valued elder, she reposes among the ashes of ignorance, greed, and sloth. Pray that people realize that her loss is truly theirs and vow to work to awaken her spirit once again.
Mourning in America? Yes, but let’s hope that doesn’t morph to Mourning FOR America. Think about it.