A Few Things To Think About

'Cash for Clunkers'

"The Senate is considering a so-called 'Cash for Clunkers' program. The idea behind the legislation ... is that if you trade in your older car or SUV, the government will provide you with a voucher up to $4,500 to purchase a new car or SUV that is more fuel efficient. Supposedly this would boost new car sales and help the beleaguered auto industry while also reducing global warming. In reality, it's a big government idea with many startling, unintended consequences. Meanwhile, even the intended consequences are bad for taxpayers, because this legislation is estimated to cost between $3 and $4 billion. One unintended consequence of this bill is that it would further hurt the poor. That may seem counterintuitive. Yet the best way for a family to qualify for the program is for it to purchase an overpriced hybrid vehicle. If a family is struggling to put food on the table, even a $4,500 voucher doesn't make such a car affordable. The only way for a low-income family to participate is to incur more debt. If you own a 'clunker,' you would be harmed by this legislation, because it would remove old cars, and old car parts, from the market, making older cars even more expensive to buy and to fix. Because the government plans to destroy the 'clunkers' traded in -- even if they are perfectly good vehicles -- the supply of used cars will dwindle and both used -- and new-car prices will increase. Environmentalists don't see this as a problem, nor do automakers, because they want to use the power of the state to drive new car sales. But conservatives should be wary. As we have seen repeatedly over the past year, when special interests win, the ordinary American loses." --Heritage Foundation director of U.S. Senate Relations Brian Darling

Socialized medicine

"At issue is whether America will continue to have a largely free-market-oriented health-care system or a government-run system where politicians and bureaucrats in Washington, D.C., make the most fundamental decisions about how we enter life, how we leave it and how we are cared for when we are ill. If Obama prevails, people who have so little respect for human life and private property that they approve of tax-funded abortion and tax-funded killing of human embryos will be empowered to decide who gets what tax-funded medical care and when. Our health care will belong to the government just as surely as General Motors does. ... If Obama and congressional liberals have their way, two of the three elements of a fully socialized health care system will be locked into law before Thanksgiving. The government will own a health-insurance company, and the government will require you to buy health insurance. The only thing Obama and congressional liberals won't formally require -- this year -- is that you buy your government-mandated insurance from the government-owned company. ... Socialized medicine must be stopped this summer -- or not at all." --columnist Terence Jeffrey


Father’s Day

"'Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it,' Solomon tells us. Clearly, the future is in the care of our parents. Such is the responsibility, promise and hope of fatherhood. Such is the gift that our fathers give us. Our fathers bear an awesome responsibility -- one that they shoulder willingly and fulfill with a love that asks no recompense. By turns both gentle and firm, our fathers guide us along the path from infancy to adulthood. We embody their joy, pain and sacrifice, and inherit memories more cherished than any possession. On Father's Day each year, we express formally a love and gratitude whose roots go deeper than conscious memory can recite. It is only fitting that we have this special day to pay tribute to those men -- our natural fathers, adoptive fathers and foster fathers -- who deserve our deepest respect and devotion. It is equally fitting, as we recall the ancient and loving command to honor our fathers, that we resolve to do so by becoming ourselves parents and citizens who are worthy of honor." --Ronald Reagan
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Comment by Josie on June 16, 2009 at 8:25pm Delete Comment Cash for clunkers: I am not buying this garbage, are you? I get a lot of flack from my materialistic family members for the old relics but I don't care. I don't follow the crowd.

Socialized Medicine: We ALL know that Obama's sales pitch. Too bad the others don't get it. The Dems are suckering the American people. Socialism, here we come!

Father's Day: Great quote, Gordon! Reagan was one great man.