I love the New York Times. As a born and bred Yankee, I was brought up on the "grey lady", knew it as the sole paper of record, believed that whatever appeared in its pages was beyond reproach, researched to death and edited with precision. When I moved from the "TriState" area, I subscribed to it for decades, relying upon its pages to imbue me with a sophistication that my new neighbors could never replace - reading about fashion, food and theater. After 9/11 (as I have attempted to describe before), my enthusiasm for the paper began to wane as I saw George Bush pilloried as Lincoln must have been when he suspended habeus corpus, an illegitimate President who wanted to lay waste to those provisions of the Constitution the left is willing to favor.
David Brooks has inadequately replaced William Safire as the Times' "right leaning" columnist on the Op-Ed page. This is a guy who could barely contain his enthusiasm for the sharp crease in Obama's slacks, and I understand he has said today that Republican establishment leaders have to show Ted Cruz "who's boss" in his looming confrontation with Harry Reid over the continuing resolution. Again, this might come as something of a shock to Brooks and my hero, Dr. Krauthammer, but the rank and file with whom I speak are sick and tired of Republicans constantly being pressured to compromise with Democrats for the purpose of being reasonable and not upsetting the apple cart of government. The good doctor says this is a kamikaze mission and the Republicans will end up as sushi. This talk is patronizing and insults those who wish to fight for something a bit more principled than caving to progressives to not appear obstructionist.
The Affordable Care Act is a law straight out of Monty Python. There's nothing affordable or caring about it. It is about the growth of government. It is about the suffocation of competition. It is about the expansion of taxation. It is about higher premiums and constricted access to doctors. It is law crafted by progressives and passed only by them - in both houses of Congress. It was upheld by the Supreme Court only because the Court did not accept the Solicitor General's argument that the charges assessed to citizens were penalties, not taxes. I don't really care what forces led Speaker Boehner to pass a continuing resolution this week which included defunding Obamacare; he did the right thing and bent to the will of the people. This vote was demanded and now proceeds to the Senate.
Ted Cruz has consistently represented the views of those who oppose this legislation. To the extent that he stands in contrast to those who criticize him for being on a fool's mission or for opposing the establishment of his party which "can't stand him", he will enjoy the favor of those weary of compromising with Harry Reid and Chuck Schumer. They and the President have no patience for us, call us anarchists who despise government, use the IRS to harass us, and try to mischaracterize us to make us the enemy of those only trying to better their lives. It is filthy, political opportunism designed to expand power and create dependency.
I have no illusions that Obama and Reid will never authorize a continuing resolution that defunds Obamacare. The process to accomplish this should be as messy, complicated and public as possible. And it should be abundantly clear in the aftermath that it was wholly protected by Democrats, that it had zero support from the opposition and that the people expressed their dissatisfaction with vigor and passion. David Brooks just doesn't get that people outside the NY - Beltway axis have had it. Five years of job loss and declining incomes. Now we have to put up with higher premiums, a loss of coverage and a 30 hour work week on top of it?
Enough.
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