So Obamacare finally made it . . .

. . . and now we'll have to live with the consequences.

I'm frankly sickened by the duplicity, immorality and bare-faced gall displayed by the Democratic Party in passing this bill. I won't bother to recap all of their shabby tactics, bribery and arm-twisting - you've doubtless read all about it in the news media. Nevertheless, a few commentators have said things about Obamacare over the past day or so that I think are worth circulating.

The indispensable Al Fin is as cuttingly sharp as ever. Noting the cost of Obamacare, and the lack of funds available to pay for it, he opines:

This is a deadly serious matter. What Nancy Pelosi's congress did yesterday was in essence a mini coup. But mini coups lead to maxi coups, and every successive coup will lay the foundations for an ever accelerating federal debt -- no matter what sweet little lies you are told by agents of the Obama Pelosi reich. It is debt all the way down, from now on, with no possibility of parole.

Japan is reeling from its descent into debt. The US birth rate is much higher than that of Japan, so in theory the US could conceivably bounce back into sustainability -- if its government stopped deficit spending. But it won't. It just gets in deeper.

The end to debt is when no one will lend to you anymore. That is when inflation begins. The end of inflation is either an overthrow of government, or a war.

The kind of war that Obama Pelosi scale debt will lead to, is the kind of war you do not want to be around to experience.

There's more at the link.

Mark Steyn takes the long view:

If Barack Obama does nothing else in his term in office, this will make him one of the most consequential presidents in history. It's a huge transformative event in Americans' view of themselves and of the role of government. You can say, oh, well, the polls show most people opposed to it, but, if that mattered, the Dems wouldn't be doing what they're doing. Their bet is that it can't be undone, and that over time, as I've been saying for years now, governmentalized health care not only changes the relationship of the citizen to the state but the very character of the people. As I wrote in NR recently, there's plenty of evidence to support that from Britain, Canada, and elsewhere.

More prosaically, it's also unaffordable. That's why one of the first things that middle-rank powers abandon once they go down this road is a global military capability. If you take the view that the U.S. is an imperialist aggressor, congratulations: You can cease worrying. But, if you think that America has been the ultimate guarantor of the post-war global order, it's less cheery. Five years from now, just as in Canada and Europe two generations ago, we'll be getting used to announcements of defense cuts to prop up the unsustainable costs of big government at home. And, as the superpower retrenches, America's enemies will be quick to scent opportunity.

Again, more at the link.

The inimitable Bill Whittle sees it thus:

What passed last night is a long way from the single-payer, socialist dream its supporters secretly — and not so secretly — really want. As a matter of fact, it’s hard to imagine a bill more perfectly constructed to tee off everyone: Conservatives hate it for it’s regulation, cost and explosive growth of government; liberals hate it because it forces people (so far, so good!) to buy premiums form the hated private insurance companies. (What the–!)

So, in terms of limiting the practical and immediate damage, holding it here — just holding it — is important and essential. Barack Obama, Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi have an IQ of 130 — that would be combined between the three of them and you can get to 150 if you throw in Biden — and so they actually believe that a few months from now, they will be able to add single-payer to this goat rodeo, this bloodbath, this circus of incompetence conducted by this museum-grade confederacy of dunces. It got them a bill that requires people to pay for private insurance — which I am, of course, utterly opposed to on every level — but that is way short of single payer and we MUST hold the line here and not an inch further until reinforcements arrive in January. And they will. In numbers that will astonish and amaze the most optimistic among us.

We need to understand the great lesson we have learned about these people in this debate. Barack Obama is, to the liberal cause, a politician that comes not once in a decade, or once in a generation, or even once per century. Barack Obama is, to them, a once in history opportunity for progressives to control this country, and they will fall on a forest of swords to achieve those ends because this is the best chance they have ever had or ever will have to permanently shackle the people to the state. They know that this Health Care fiasco will cost them the House and now perhaps the Senate in November, but that new Congress will not seat until January and in the ten months between now and then they will, I predict, start an orgy of legislation that will make this Health Care circus look like a tea party.

But it seems to me that they have spent every dime of political capital in the bank and have done nothing less than awoken from its long and deep slumbers the American Giant, who in attempting to sit upright discovers the Lilliputian threads that have been staked into the ground with finishing nails and who looks around, blinking and disoriented, fatter and softer and much, much poorer than he was when he last opened his eyes back in 1941, but possessed now as then with a terrible anger and capable still of mighty exertions.

. . .

A final thought on this darkish day: much is said about the “inevitability” of these kinds of legislation, that once enacted they are impossible to repeal or roll back.

This kind of thinking is self-fulfilling defeatism and has to stop. ANY law enacted can be repealed. We repealed a constitutional amendment, for God’s sake. From now on we must change our message from one of limiting government growth and spending and regulation to one of reducing it.

It is true that no nation has in the past ever recovered from the cycle of entitlement, moral decay and aristocratic rot that we find ourselves in. But it is also true that no nation — not one in history — was established precisely in opposition to these cancers. It is also true that never before have common people — otherwise known as the Host Organism — had the means to speak directly to one another, as we are here. It is true that if there is to be an historical exemption to the Cycle of Civilization it is only here that it will occur, and it is also true that the concepts of Free Will and Destiny are antithetical to one another. One of them is true and the other is not. It is my belief that you can chose to abandon Free Will and chose to believe in destiny and historical inevitability, or you can take the risk to believe instead that there is a new world populated by optimists and dreamers, but dreamers with rifles as well as quills and parchment… People who have never surrendered and for whom the very idea of defeat and despair is anathema.

That’s a choice I make every day. What we see before us is the result of lost elections and redemption will come from winning elections. Mark these words, my friends: We are going to whip these Marxists out of their little commie boots!

Read the rest here.

The always-insightful Victor Davis Hanson observes:

President Obama has crossed the Rubicon with the health care vote. The bill was not really about medicine; after all, a moderately priced, relatively small federal program could offer the poorer not now insured, presently not on Medicare or state programs like Medicaid or Medical, a basic medical plan.

We have no interest in stopping trial lawyers from milking the system for billions. And we don’t want to address in any meaningful way the individual’s responsibility in some cases (drink, drugs, violence, dangerous sex, bad diet, sloth, etc.) for costly and chronic health procedures.

No, instead, the bill was about assuming a massive portion of the private sector, hiring tens of thousands of loyal, compliant new employees, staffing new departments with new technocrats, and feeling wonderful that we “are leveling the playing field” and have achieved another Civil Rights landmark law. (NB: do the math: add higher state income taxes in most states; the new Clinton-era federal income tax rates to come; the proposed lifting of limits on income exposed to FICA taxes; and now new health care charges — and I think you can reach in some cases a bite of 65%to 70% of one’s income.)

So we are in revolutionary times in which the government will grow to assume everything from energy use to student loans, while abroad we are a revolutionary sort of power, eager to mend fences with Syria and Iran, more eager still to distance ourselves from old Western allies like Israel and Britain.

. . .

I don’t see why the ram-it-through, health care formula won’t be followed by similar strategies for blanket amnesty, cap and trade, and expansions of the state takeover of cars, banks, student loans, and energy.

Remember, all these will be packaged as “comprehensive” reform — comprehensive health care, comprehensive immigration, comprehensive energy, comprehensive monitoring of even the banal decisions we make.

. . .

I understand the reasoning behind Obamism and am familiar with the feel-good, this-is-our-moment rhetoric of egalitarianism. But please at least spare us the fictions and simply be honest: Obama wants a state-run America, somewhere to the left of France or Denmark, a United States unexceptional and merely one of many nations at the UN. This vision follows an existing, decades-long encroachment of government. And it requires all sorts of highly credentialed overseers monitoring and at times justifiably attacking the upper middle class for its deplorable treatment of those below it.

This new America is ultimately predicated on the notion that we were born equal and must die absolutely equal as well. And this is entirely within our grasp, if we just understand that individual responsibility, talent, natural endowment, chance, merit, luck, tragedy, and a dozen other variables far too complex for government to imagine, much less solve, in fact, are not the real obstacles to ensuring equality.

Instead, it is simpler than that: greed, selfishness, racism, sexism, classism, and not niceness on the part of a few really are the culprits. Thank God that a few rare souls like Obama fathom that. And thank God, again, that it will take a singular humanitarian and genius like Obama to make us denser folks see it and do something about it.

That’s about where we are.

Subscript: Do Democrats realize that we really have crossed the Rubicon? In the future when the Republicans gain majorities (and they will), the liberal modus operandi will be the model—bare 51% majorities, reconciliation, the nuclear option, talk of deem and pass, not a single Democrat vote—all ends justifying the means in order to radically restructure vast swaths of American economic and social life. Is someone unhinged at the DNC? They just blew up any shred of bipartisan consensus when their President polls below 50%, the Democratically-controlled Congress below 20%, and health care reform less than 50%. Usually unpopular leaders and their unpopular ideas seek the shelter of minority rights and prerogatives. What will they do when they are in the minority—since they’ve entered the arena, boasted “let the games begin” and shouted “by any means necessary”?

More here.

Finally, a fellow blogger, PDB, issues a resounding call to action, which I heartily endorse.

We are AMERICANS g**damnit. We are the posterity of Patrick Henry, Chuck Yeager, Carlos Hathcock, George Patton, Daniel Boone, Buzz Aldrin, Chesty Puller, John McClane, Frank Fletcher, Thomas Edison and George Washington and countless other hardass s***kickers who stared down tougher opponents than Nanci Pelosi. Repealing this half-assed bulls*** bill is going to be damn near impossible, but #DEITY put Americans on earth to do the impossible. Get a dozen guys to the moon and bring them back in one piece? Done. Build a car everyone can afford when the rest of the world is relying on animal power? Easy. Get a f****d-up aircraft carrier back in action in 3 days instead of 3 months, so it can win the most improbable victory of the West? You betcha. Build a horrific nuclear arsenal in order to never have to use it? Been doing that for half a century, son. Personal computers for everyone, network them all together, and then make them pocket sized? You’re welcome! Do heart surgery by going in through your g**damned leg, so we can avoid cracking your chest open? Yeah, we invented that too.

So chin up, you sons of bitches. Walk tall. Be proud, not weary. We are made bigger by big challenges. Rehearse your arguments, prepare your lists of legislators for the fall, get ready to volunteer for the correct candidate and oppose the traitors. Flood the papers and blogs with letters and posts and comments, let nobody forget who inflicted this upon us. Load your magazines and sharpen your knives.

I don’t care if we have to rescind this bulls*** through the courts, elections, legislative tomfoolery or outright violence, but this travesty will not stand. It is my responsibility as a father and duty as a free man, and I am proud to bear it.

Read more here.

Obamacare delenda est!!!

Peter