That’s Right Nate

Recently, Republican Representative Mike Castle of Delaware was shouted down by a lady in the audience who demanded that he go after Barrack Obama over his citizenship.  She then lead the crowd in a rendition of the Pledge of Allegiance in honor of the “men and women who have done so much for this country from 1776 until the present time.”  It is such an uncomfortable video to watch and I couldn’t believe how naieve and uninformed that audience was.  They really should have known exactly what they were saying before they said the pledge.

The Pledge of Allegiance was written by Francis Bellamy in 1892 for the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus’s voyage to America.   Bellamy was not only an avowed socialist, but the cousin of Edward Bellamy who is one of the most famous socialists of all.  When you look at the pledge in socialist context, “Indivisible, with liberty, and justice for all takes on a whole new meaning.”  The whole pledge is a rallying cry for redistributing our wealth.   Is it any wonder the amazing number of inroads that socialism has made in this country since the inception of the pledge that America had previously resisted.

It is now time for a  new pledge.  Indoctrinating our school children into the ways of socialism while we have a socialist President is very dangerous.  It’s been enough that schools have lunch programs which hook these kids on government handouts and salisbury steak at a young age.  I have written a new pledge that I hope could someday replace the socialist pledge we now have.

The New Pledge of Allegiance

I pledge of allegiance to this great capitalist nation
and the amazing flag that stands over it,
and the brave soldiers who sacrificed for our rights
like the right to bear arms, private insurance, and Christianity.
We are one nation with the right to rebel or secede
if we don’t like the President.

If the old one sounds better, remember the new one was written by a capitalist and as you get used to saying it, it will seem more normal to your ears.

People, it’s time to stand up for your rights.   The Socialists…I mean Democrats seem bound and determined to put a public health care plan in place to compete directly with our good old American private insurance companies.   At patientpowernow.org, they come right out and say it, “If the “public plan” is so good, show, do not tell.  Show us by creating a better product on the the (unfree) market, and let consumers decide.  Do not tell us it’s better and make it a crime for taxpayers not to fund it.”

That’s a clear and concise summary of the issue.  If the government can make such a great plan, then why should tax payers fund it?   The always insightful Heritage Foundation claims, “The likely incentives for government officials would be to set rules to advantage the government’s own health plan and to disadvantage the private health plans, including setting the government’s health plan premiums artificially low, reducing or eliminating cost-sharing requirements, or more heavily subsidizing certain benefits to make the government health plan more attractive than the private health plans. These plans would operate without incurring any of the normal financial risks that private health plans must bear.”

I couldn’t agree more.   We can’t expect a publicly funded enterprise to compete fairly with a privately funded one.  What’s odd though is that the Heritage Foundation is also a big advocate for increasing charter schools in this country.   Since charter schools are privately run schools  that compete directly with public schools in a system with public school districts are player and umpire in pretty much exactly the same way.  Of course the answer is simple–eliminate public schools in this country and let the charters provide education in a free market system.  We know that charters are better than public schools, but they score poorer on standardized tests than their public counterparts because it’s the public school districts that create the tests through the State Boards of Education.

It’s already troubling that UPS and Fed Ex are expected to compete with the United States Post Office, but the increased funding in the stimulus plan for public transportation is only going hurt the auto industry’s attempts to rebound.   Why would anybody buy a $50,000 car and fill it with expensive gasoline when you can ride on the tax payer’s back plus a buck or two?  Don’t even get me started on public broadcasting.

I’ve never even liked government funded roads.  I believe that the government went way above their Constitutional powers when it built the first national road in 1806.  Privately funded roads like the Lancaster Turnpike were doing just fine before the government got involved.   Let’s get the government out of businesses better left to private companies like roads, mail delivery, education, transportation, security, and insurance.   Socialism is not the American way.

By all definitions one of the oldest and the most pervasive forms of socialism in the United States is so called public transportation.  Our taxes fund it and it allows people to ride downtown in style on the government dime instead of buying a car like a patriotic American.  The auto industry sure wouldn’t need government help if every person you saw on a bus or subway was buying their own car.  Think about it.  We’re paying for public transportation and then we’re paying to save the auto industry from people not buying cars.  We’re getting it on both ends.

The Republicans get it.  Refusing to be pressured or bullied by the all-powerful bus driver union, Republican Senators have managed to drastically cut the amount of the stimulus to $10,000,000 and the House intends to go even lower.  Meanwhile, we’re spending over three times that much on good old American roads.  Instead of using our hard earned tax dollars to pay for freeloaders to ride the bus.  The Democrats say we have to reduce our dependence on foreign oil, but have you seen how cheap gas is now?    I can’t see it going back up anytime soon.

This is a moment for Republicans to pat themselves on the back.  Jim Oberstar (D-MN), chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure committee was in awe, “The reason for the reduction in overall funding — we took money out of Amtrak and out of aviation; we took money out of the Corps of Engineers, reduced the water infrastructure program, the drinking water and the wastewater treatment facilities and sewer lines, reduced that from $14 billion to roughly $9 billion — was the tax cut initiative that had to be paid for in some way by keeping the entire package in the range of $850 billion.”

Public transportation belongs to an older era.  It is a lot like those statues of Stalin they used to have in the Soviet Union, but thankfully its time has passed.  Transportation is far too important to be left to socialism.

Nothing is more important in this election this week than Obama’s radical plan to redistribute the nation’s wealth.  His radical socialist plan involve eliminating the Bush tax cuts on couples making more than $250,000 and cutting taxes on people making less than $250,000.   For those making less than $250,000 Obama would make the tax cut permanent.  Fortunately, Americans have no desire to return to the socialist era of the 1990s and I have no doubt they will not allow a Bolshevik like Obama to be in charge.

When Bush passed the tax cuts he did so despite objections from many people like Senator McCain.  They said giving half a trillion dollars in tax cuts to the richest one percent of the population was irresponsible even though the top one percent pays 60% of this country’s taxes despite owning only 95% of the country’s wealth.  What Bush knew was that cutting taxes on the top 1% would help build our robust economy.

Unlike Bush’s tax cuts which strengthened our economy from the doldrums of the Clinton administration, Obama’s tax plan is merely a giveaway to people making less than $250,000 who won’t create jobs with it.  Instead these people will spend their money on things like food and rent that benefit nobody but themselves.  Rescinding Bush’s tax credits is socialism pure and simple.  This is not change we can believe in.

John McCain has contacted Joe “The Plumber” Wurzelbacher about joining him on the campaign trail.  “I talked to him this morning for the first time ever,” said McCain. “And I want to tell you his sprits are good and he’s a tough guy. He is what small business people all over this country are all about. They are tough and they are good and they want to get ahead and they want to keep their money.”

It is like McCain is talking about me.  The only difference, of course, is that I have never had the courage of my conviction to refuse to pay my taxes like Joe has.  Joe the Plumber and John McCain are a natural fit.  Throughout the campaign John McCain has been talking out about the strict licensing procedures which keep Nobel Prize winners from teaching in our Elementary Schools and it turns out that McCain also wants our Nobel Prize winners to become plumbers without being licensed—Just like Joe.

While a Joe Sixpack like Wurzelbacher is trying to get by on $250,000 a year, he knows that come January Obama will most likely raise his taxes.  This amounts to socialism.  Why should the wealthy pay more taxes just because they have more money and the middle class is actually making less money than they did in 1980 when adjusted for inflation?  The government has no right to ask us to bail out poor people.

It isn’t like the wealthy don’t pay taxes either.  The top 5% of this country pay 60% of the income tax burden despite owning only about 95% of the country’s assets.  Working men like Joe and I don’t want socialism in this country except when it involves propping up our financial institutions or large banks.