Big Dogs Weblog

Hillary’s Speech; The Substance of Socialism

by Big Dog on Feb 14, 2008 at 19:29 Political

Hillary Clinton has done another campaign makeover and the new theme of the day is the power of speeches over the power of solutions. Bill and Hillary were both out today reading from the same memo where they are attacking Obama hard with this rhetoric; Do you want someone who delivers speeches or someone who delivers solutions. Of course, the question is asked in a speech and there is not a hell of a lot of solution to be found in the past of either candidate. Let us look at Hillary’s idea of solution:

• “We’ll take on the oil companies and harness their record profits to create millions of clean energy jobs — high-wage jobs you can raise a family on. I’ll end their special tax breaks and give them a choice: invest some of your profits in alternative energy, or we’ll do it for you. People have been paying through the roof at the pump, and it’s time the companies paid their fair share.”
• “We’ll take on the credit card companies so that you and your families aren’t drowning in debt. Here in Ohio, payday lenders are actually taking Social Security checks from our elderly. That’s outrageous. I’ve proposed real consumer protections against abusive interest rates…”
• “We’ll take on the insurance companies and tell them they can no longer discriminate against the sickest people who need care the most. They spend more than $50 billion a year trying to figure out how not to cover people. Well, I’m going to save them a fortune and a whole lot of time, because here’s the new policy: No more discrimination period…”
• “And I’ll go after drug companies and insurance companies that are overcharging consumers and the government — it’s time to end their profiteering at our expense”
• “We’ll take on Wall Street and tell them: you’re going to finally pay your fair share in taxes. Because it’s outrageous that a teacher making $50,000 pays a higher tax rate than some Wall Street investment managers making $50 million…”
• “We’ll take on the student loan companies and tell them no more ripping off our sons and daughters. I’m proposing a Student Borrower Bill of Rights — no more deceptive advertising and outrageous fees…”

Notice the common theme here. Hillary and big government are going to take over all these businesses and people and tell them how they have to conduct themselves, how much profit they can make and how much they may charge for their services. Hillary is trying to have a government takeover of all these areas so that she can have her hands in everything you do. She is not smart enough to run an effective campaign but she is smart enough to decide for you and for companies.

Oil companies make a great deal of profit in raw dollars but their profit margin is about 11%. There are many companies with higher profit margins that Hillary will leave alone because she cannot sensationalize without the big dollar figures. The major oil companies do not receive the tax breaks she is talking about. The tax breaks were given to smaller oil companies in Texas and Louisiana by their elected officials to help them compete. The oil companies spend millions of dollars in programs around the world and they make little profit on gasoline. Oil is a global commodity and the price is decided globally. Also, taxes comprise a big part of the cost of gasoline and even with those taxes we pay less than most other countries.

People who get themselves in trouble with credit cards have no one to blame but themselves. If they sign up for a card and keep accumulating debt on it then it will take forever to pay it off. It is not the government’s job to step in and fix this problem. This involves personal responsibility. If you can’t afford it, don’t buy it. If you are too stupid to figure that out then don’t get a credit card.

School loans are the same way. If there are illegal practices then they should be taken care of but the fact is some people take on a great deal of debt they cannot handle to go to college. The government does not belong in this business and it is once again a matter of personal responsibility. If you are too stupid to enter into a contract that you can reasonably afford then you are probably too stupid to be in college in the first place. You should get a job doing the work that most Americans will not do and send the ILLEGALS home.

It costs drug companies a fortune to develop new drugs and it costs them even more money each time an ambulance chasing lawyer sues them because 0.01% of all people who used a drug had a reaction. Drug companies may only keep a patent for a limited period of time and then it can go generic so they have to capture their expenses in a short period of time which means the drugs will cost more money. I always shook my head at patients who said they could not afford their $90 a month medication but who told me they smoked 2 packs of cigarettes a day ($180 a month). It is a matter of priorities. Also, some drug companies have programs where they give drugs to people who cannot afford them so there are ways to get them. Older generics work fine and cost less. We also need to take into consideration the amount of money the companies spend to get drugs approved by the FDA. That is a lengthy process and it costs time and money. Do people want to remove this safeguard?

Health insurance companies have many problems and there are things that could be done better. If we want health care to be affordable get government out of the business. States require health care companies to provide a wide array of services before they can offer their plans for sale. This drives the cost up. There are also many doctors who practice defensive medicine in that they order a number of unnecessary tests to cover their rear ends so that someone does not get sick and hire an ambulance chaser like John Edwards to sue the hell out of the them. This drives health care costs up. I have written about how health care deliver can be better and some of it involves personal responsibility and less government involvement.

Interestingly, Hillary is striking hard at the very companies that she has accepted money from in the past. She is promising to take money from companies that employ middle class workers and whenever companies have less money they have fewer workers. Her plans will not save money and will drive the cost of services up while increasing unemployment. She is pandering to everyone, everywhere in order to make promises she cannot possibly keep.

She had her head handed to her in eight straight primaries and there is no mathematical way she can win this nomination. It is going to go to the convention. She knows she cannot win but she is putting out lies and false promises in order to gain support in the big states to narrow the delegate deficit. She wants the brokered convention to pick her and she is trying to put out her liberal bonafides. She is the candidate of solutions, not speeches.

Just listen to her speeches and she will tell you so…

Source:
The Politico

Tags: empty suit, Hillary, lies, Obama, socialism, substance