Ready For Hillary?

I have a knee jerk reaction to doctors based on their usually ill-founded
belief that their medical knowledge carries over into all other fields.

damned gud 'western medicine' docs.

ByBRENDAN JAMES May 11, 2015

Likely presidential candidate and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (R) said in an interview set to air Monday that he would have invaded Iraq in 2003, like his brother did, if he were President back then.

"Knowing what we know now, would you have authorized the invasion?" Fox News host Megyn Kelly asked Bush in a sit-down interview.

"I would have," Bush said.

1) There is a VAST difference between what you are calling "socialism" at the state and local levels and "socialism" at the federal level. If my HOA "socializes" roof repairs, and I don't like the distribution, I can easily leave and buy a condo elsewhere. I can quite easily change cities or even states, But, as Madison said, no man should be forced to abandon the nation of his birth. The feds were not supposed to have anything to do with redistribution of wealth, because that sort of thing at the national level is effectively inescapable!

2) Most of your examples are not in the slightest sense "socialism". When I pay taxes that go to support a national military, the theory is that I am purchasing my OWN defense; I am personally getting the very "product" I'm paying for. The government is not taking my money, giving me personally NO benefit for it, and then simply giving that money to somebody else.

3) The military as a specific example is a terrible one, as that is actually something the feds are SUPPOSED to provide according to the constitution. So, as a fundamental part of me being part of this this NATION, I am constitutionally obligated to contribute toward the common defense of this nation. But I enjoy the VERY benefits I am paying for. By contrast, I am not obligated to ensure that the feds provide good roads or anything else like that. The constitution provided for a VERY FEW powers and responsibilities at the FEDERAL level, and EVERYTHING beyond those specified powers/responsibilities was to be retained by the states and people.

4) You actually are clueless enough to include Social Security and Medicare in the mix. Yes, those are examples of national socialism indeed! But they are also HIGHLY contentious, which means that by including them you are effectively arguing: "SINCE the introduction of those forms of socialism, we have been socialistic; so this country is socialistic." But the VERY POINT under contention is that we never should have gone down that path in the first place! Wilson and then FDR turned the nation toward socialism, and now it INCREASINGLY is. For you to say that "it's not going to lead to communism" is ridiculous! How FAR down the road of socialism do you have to go before it has effectively become communism? Are you psychic? We are MUCH further down the path than we were early in my lifetime. And Obamacare is a BIG additional step down the path. Ridiculous!

5) Education? At the federal level? Show me in the constitution, even in the interstate commerce clause (writ even larger than it has been so far), where the federal government has ANY right or power to be in the business of education in the slightest!

You conflate small-scale, state and local "socialism," that really isn't, with national-scale socialism that really is! The small-scale examples are not fundamentally coercive as federal socialism is.

And most of your examples of "socialism" really are not. When I contribute to the military, the fire department, roads, local education, etc., I am purchasing a direct benefit to myself. I enjoy the VERY thing I collectively purchase.

Socialism, by contrast, is fundamentally wealth-redistribution. I do NOT enjoy the benefit of the very thing I purchased. Social Security is a perfect example. Pyramid scheme it IS, and I will NEVER see the money OUT of it that I was FORCED to put into it. And that's talking static dollars. In fact, the situation is even worse than that. I will get a few wildly devalued dollars back out compared to the MANY higher-valued dollars I put in.

Had I done nothing but kept MY OWN money and put it in the lowest-interest bearing bank account available at any given moment, I would today be far, far, FAR ahead of where I will be by drawing Social Security benefits. And ALL of that assumes that it will even be there AT ALL when I go to tap into it. So, in NO sense have I been purchasing a benefit TO MYSELF by being FORCED to contribute to this SCAM my whole life. Social Security is NOTHING but my life of contributions being parted out to OTHERS, leaving me with FAR less (meaning NO benefit to me) than I contributed. It is wealth-redistribution in one of its cruelest forms!

And Social Security is a classic example of yet another principle: the principle of escape. If a state did some crap like Romneycare, I can MOVE and escape it rather than contribute to the stupidity.

You can easily escape your HOA, your city, and even your state. You cannot escape the feds. And that's the most basic reason why using local examples cannot in principle justify federal socialism.

You don't seem to understand what socialism even IS, and your conflation of small-scale with federal socialism demonstrates that you don't understand even the basic principles of why the powers of the federal government were SO constrained and limited in the constitution.

When Roberts asked, "If the government can do this, then what can government NOT do?" he was asking THE crucial question! And his "answer" via his vote will live in infamy, as he effectively stated: "The federal government can do ANYTHING." And that "answer" turns the constitution ON ITS HEAD!!!

Had I done nothing but kept MY OWN money and put it in the lowest-interest bearing bank account available at any given moment, I would today be far, far, FAR ahead of where I will be by drawing Social Security benefits. And ALL of that assumes that it will even be there AT ALL when I go to tap into it. So, in NO sense have I been purchasing a benefit TO MYSELF by being FORCED to contribute to this SCAM my whole life. Social Security is NOTHING but my life of contributions being parted out to OTHERS, leaving me with FAR less (meaning NO benefit to me) than I contributed. It is wealth-redistribution in one of its cruelest forms!