Ambrose - Politics Needs Reporting, Not Speculation
July 28, 2016 at 4:25 p.m.
By Jay Ambrose-
That’s my story and I am sticking to it until something new develops, which then ought to convince me that something new always develops.
But it won’t convince me, or at least it won’t if I am made out of the same stuff so many political writers are made of. A heaping portion of the breed seems to think their job is forecasting, which is impossible exactly because we cannot see what might come next. Humans are less cooperative with scientists than atoms and maybe 200 other reasons.
Listen, it is a pointless diversion to keep guessing at what might be when we will eventually know. The real task of the moment is to report what is – such as what the different candidates are saying about what’s going on the world: the economic ups and downs, energy development, gas prices zooming upward, so much to dread in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran and much, much more.
I’ve visited this territory before. I suppose I should stop myself and get on with the issues, such as the Obama health care act that is now being discussed in the press in terms of – please, please, tell me it isn’t true – “women’s reproductive rights.” I guess that phrase refers to deciding whether to use contraceptives, though I have of heard of no one – left, right or in between – who says that choice should be removed.
A question of late has been whether you and I should lend a hand to women students at Georgetown Law School in their contraceptive purchases. One of them said it would be outrageous if assistance were not available, even though we have learned that these students can buy birth control pills for $9 a month at a nearby Target store and that their median private-sector starting salary will be $160,000 a year, according to US News & World Report. To keep them and others from minor inconvenience, health insurance premiums will go up for everyone. The cost of all the Obamacare premium increases over time has been put at $2,100 a year.
Maybe, in addition to that, we should take up a collection?
Let me tell you the real issues with the new healthcare law. It has scared businesses out of hiring. It will raise taxes. For it to go into full effect, it will have to betray the Constitution to such an extent that there may be few future limits on federal powers. It will introduce longer and longer waits for care, as similar systems have done in Europe, and the elderly will get less attention. It will increase health costs. And it adds a new, unaffordable entitlement on top of Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security, meaning that the possibility of economic catastrophe has increased dramatically.
Obama has been elusive and dishonest about the entitlement issue. His folksy, charming ways have come to remind me that almost all con men are charming at the end of the day – that’s how they get away with the cons.
He has admitted entitlements are unaffordable but says he will do nothing to decrease future benefits, which means he will do nothing. He talks about cutting spending while he has put forth a 10-year budget plan that would increase the national debt by at least $6 trillion, meaning goodbye America. He has done everything in his power to stop an energy boom that desperately wants to happen, meaning he has sent a message to gasoline markets to keep increasing your pump prices.
But hey, who cares? Let’s speculate on whether he will win re-election or not.[[In-content Ad]]
That’s my story and I am sticking to it until something new develops, which then ought to convince me that something new always develops.
But it won’t convince me, or at least it won’t if I am made out of the same stuff so many political writers are made of. A heaping portion of the breed seems to think their job is forecasting, which is impossible exactly because we cannot see what might come next. Humans are less cooperative with scientists than atoms and maybe 200 other reasons.
Listen, it is a pointless diversion to keep guessing at what might be when we will eventually know. The real task of the moment is to report what is – such as what the different candidates are saying about what’s going on the world: the economic ups and downs, energy development, gas prices zooming upward, so much to dread in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran and much, much more.
I’ve visited this territory before. I suppose I should stop myself and get on with the issues, such as the Obama health care act that is now being discussed in the press in terms of – please, please, tell me it isn’t true – “women’s reproductive rights.” I guess that phrase refers to deciding whether to use contraceptives, though I have of heard of no one – left, right or in between – who says that choice should be removed.
A question of late has been whether you and I should lend a hand to women students at Georgetown Law School in their contraceptive purchases. One of them said it would be outrageous if assistance were not available, even though we have learned that these students can buy birth control pills for $9 a month at a nearby Target store and that their median private-sector starting salary will be $160,000 a year, according to US News & World Report. To keep them and others from minor inconvenience, health insurance premiums will go up for everyone. The cost of all the Obamacare premium increases over time has been put at $2,100 a year.
Maybe, in addition to that, we should take up a collection?
Let me tell you the real issues with the new healthcare law. It has scared businesses out of hiring. It will raise taxes. For it to go into full effect, it will have to betray the Constitution to such an extent that there may be few future limits on federal powers. It will introduce longer and longer waits for care, as similar systems have done in Europe, and the elderly will get less attention. It will increase health costs. And it adds a new, unaffordable entitlement on top of Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security, meaning that the possibility of economic catastrophe has increased dramatically.
Obama has been elusive and dishonest about the entitlement issue. His folksy, charming ways have come to remind me that almost all con men are charming at the end of the day – that’s how they get away with the cons.
He has admitted entitlements are unaffordable but says he will do nothing to decrease future benefits, which means he will do nothing. He talks about cutting spending while he has put forth a 10-year budget plan that would increase the national debt by at least $6 trillion, meaning goodbye America. He has done everything in his power to stop an energy boom that desperately wants to happen, meaning he has sent a message to gasoline markets to keep increasing your pump prices.
But hey, who cares? Let’s speculate on whether he will win re-election or not.[[In-content Ad]]
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