Monday, October 20, 2014
From: Gary L. Bauer
Budget Cuts Caused Ebola?
That did not take long. The leftist/progressive political machine, following its long-standing and infamous rule “Don’t let a crisis go to waste,” has gone on the attack on the Ebola issue. The crisis they claim is due to budget cuts. Baloney!
Budget cuts didn’t let Mr. Duncan, “patient zero,” come to America. Budget cuts didn’t make the CDC or Barack Obama refuse to limit air traffic from the worst hit countries. Budget cuts didn’t cause Mr. Duncan to be dumped at a Dallas hospital instead of one of the four specialized hospitals that are prepared to handle Ebola, resulting in two more victims.
These things were all caused by an addiction to left-wing orthodoxy, coupled with breathtaking incompetence. Money can’t solve incompetence; it just makes it more expensive.
Spreading Fear
A chorus of people from the president down are condemning critics of the government’s Ebola response by saying that the critics are spreading fear. Listening to the left it seems that fear, not the Ebola virus, is the greater enemy. But let me add another perspective to this argument.
The two Dallas nurses who contracted the virus likely did so because they were not fearful enough in their first few days of combatting this virus. Clearly, the administration is not fearful enough of the risks posed by individuals from the “ground zero countries” or Mr. Duncan would not have been allowed in the country.
What many in the administration and the media call “fear” is what most normal people consider “prudence.” That is why Frontier Airlines decided to not just disinfect the plane, but also to change the seat coverings. That is why five schools in Ohio and Texas closed for a few days.
But it also shows how much chutzpah the left has when it accuses its critics of fear mongering. The left regularly tells us that climate change is going to kill us all. That’s why it is trying to impose energy policies on us that will kill jobs and dramatically increase energy costs.
This same movement tells blacks that conservatives will “put y’all back in chains” and “drag us back to Jim Crow.”
This is the same movement that has hysterically warned about a “war on women” and spread fear about access to birth control. And because of its past successes, it is no surprise that this same movement is once again playing the fear card in order to silence critics.
“Out Of Control”
Politico conducted a poll earlier this month and asked voters several questions about their views of the United States. The findings were striking. For example:
- Only 20% of voters felt the country was “generally headed in the right direction.”
- Just 22% said they had “a lot of confidence” that the government was “doing everything possible to contain Ebola.”
- And 64% agreed with this statement: “Things in the U.S. feel like they are out of control right now.”Persecuting PastorsThe left’s assault on religious liberty has reached a fever pitch. Two ordained ministers in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, are facing fines and jail time for refusing to perform same-sex marriages.
Donald and Evelyn Knapp, ordained Christian ministers, own the Hitching Post Wedding Chapel in Couer d’Alene. The ceremonies they perform are explicitly religious. Yet the city has declared that their chapel is a place of “public accommodation” subject to the city’s non-discrimination ordinance.
Last week a homosexual couple asked the Knapps to “marry” them after federal court overturned Idaho’s marriage protection amendment, which was approved by 63% of the state’s voters. The Knapps refused. As a result, they are facing 180 days in jail and $1,000 in fines for each day they refuse to perform the “marriage.”
Our friends at the Alliance Defending Freedom have gone to court seeking an emergency injunction to protect the Knapps from this blatant violation of their religious liberty. “Many have denied that pastors would ever be forced to perform ceremonies that are completely at odds with their faith, but that’s what is happening here,” said ADF Senior Legal Counsel Jeremy Tedesco.
Marriage has been redefined. Pastors’ sermons are being subpoenaed. Now they are being forced to perform homosexual weddings. Just one more reason 64% of Americans think things are out of control.
Obama’s Imperial Presidency
The New York Times has a disturbing column today about what the White House evidently considers “the most important foreign policy deal” of Obama’s presidency. It’s not a Middle East peace plan that secures Israel’s right to exist. It’s not a treaty that reduces China’s massive military buildup. Nor does it contain Putin’s ambitions.
No, Obama’s most important foreign policy objective is cutting a deal with the mullahs over Iran’s nuclear weapons program. There isn’t a deal Iran would make that we can trust, but just getting a deal is Obama’s most important objective. That’s scary enough on its own.
But here’s the worst part: According to the Times, “The White House has made one significant decision: If agreement is reached, President Obama will do everything in his power to avoid letting Congress vote on it.”
On a matter of such consequence — whether the Islamic Republic of Iran can develop nuclear weapons — this White House plans to circumvent the Constitution and cut Congress out of the debate.
Sadly, that’s par for the course. Whether it’s Obamacare, marriage, immigration or climate change, this administration routinely ignores the law, Congress and the American people.
It’s also typical of the left’s arrogance. It doesn’t trust the American people or their elected representatives when it comes to what is in their best interests. Whether it’s the amount of soda you can drink, your healthcare or whether Iran develops the “Islamic bomb,” the big government bureaucrats believe they know best.
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