Words to Live By Since 1993 A SPIFF Publication Vol. 1, No. 6 "We hold these half-truths to be self-evident"...Bill Clinton Here's to Your Health (Rest in Peace) President Clinton's lips barely moved as Bill announced the details (yeah, right) of the new and improved National Health Care Socialized Medicine Tax The Rich Tax The Poor Tax The Middle Class Screw The Drug Companies Scheme, or the American Health Socialization Act. What is it? Well, it depends upon whom you believe. You can believe Bill, or...well, ok, never mind. It is supposed to do three things: insure everybody, cut costs, and improve quality. It takes someone who spent much of his college years in the Soviet Union to believe he can achieve all three of those goals by increasing government control. We learned some things during the speech: ù We learned that "this health care system of ours is badly broken and it is time to fix it." Just ask anyone whose life has been recently saved by the best doctors and nurses in the world, working with the best equipment in the world just how broken it is. ù President Clinton's...er...Bill's speech contained the word "change" only 13 times. Maybe somebody needs to change his little catch phrase. ù Good news: Not once did Bill use the phrase "the last twelve years." This mess is the result of you 43% who elected a president (and her husband) who have never had a real job. They exist in a dreamland of government bureaucracy and control, believing that all it takes to fix a problem is another government program or mandate. Having lived away from the real world, (Spiff puts it somewhere south of Neptune.) they have no perception of the impact of their actions on the people who are buried under their mandates. Some questions must be asked, and (as usual) Spiff is the only one asking them: ù When Clinton mandates force small and medium companies to fire workers rather than go bankrupt, will that magic card that Bill waved around pay for our mortgages, rent, car payments, food, and taxes? Or will it just help us after we have starved for a while? The choice President Clinton offers is, "Your health or your job." What good is health if you can't afford to live? ù Where will the money for these "subsidies" come from? You know where...taxes! The government will tax more to pay for more and gain more influence, but the money will always come from the same place, our paychecks. The same government that knows better than you how to live your life, do your job, run your business, and raise your kids, now says that it knows how to take care of you. Big Brother is here, folks and he has a new $200 haircut. ù How does Bill, in the same sentence, tell us that he wants to allow market forces to dictate costs and then announce that he wants to slap price controls on the system? Huh? ù Where does bill (Hey, until he tries capitalism, why should we?) get off invoking the term "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" when he puts forward a plan that costs jobs to pay for abortions whenever wanted? This plan reduces liberty and happiness to destroy life. Let's talk about life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness: President Clinton herself said that she does not like the GOP alternative because the government cannot keep track of everyone. That's her idea of liberty, folks. Pursuit of Happiness 1996-Herded like cattle into a mandated, uniform, socialized health system, we are forced to give up the plans that have served us well in favor of ones that don't fit or crowd us into waiting lines for care. Why? Because the companies that did provide coverage had to switch to government programs or pay twice: once for our insurance and a penalty for opting out of the socialized system. Exaggeration? If you think so, you didn't see Connie Chung and Dan Rather Biased slobbering all over President Clinton and "health care expert" Dr. Judith Feder after Bill's speech. When asked to give a straight yes-or-no answer to our ability to keep our current policies, Dr. Feder refused, meaning "No," of course. Spiff kept hoping that Dr. Feder, who bears a striking resemblance to Emily Litella, would look into the camera and say, "Never mind!" The real pursuit of happiness in 1996 will be a conservative in the White House. Reinventing REGO Some points about Owl Gore's fabulous, new streamlining (Snicker, Snicker) of government: ù According to Rep. Pat Roberts of Kansas, Owl's National Performance Review (Snicker, Snicker II) cost over $60,000 for 14,000 copies, averaging $4.28 per report. What did he do with 14,000 copies? Give one to each of his staff members? ù The administration could have printed the 14,000 copies for just under $15,000 had it used 50# flat stock paper (a common type) and one color of ink (red?) instead of using grade-one coated paper (the highest quality) and multi-color ink. ù The reports aren't recyclable! Gasp! Maybe Owl can store them in the virgin-wood closets of the Vice Presidential mansion. Quote of the weak: "" Bill Clinton, on the details of President Clinton's Health Care System Quote of the strong: "Still, in the real world, people care about success, not principles. Then again, maybe that's why the world is in such a mess." Calvin, to Hobbes Words to Live By is published every week at about this time by Spiff. You can send a fax to us here in the Spiff Executive Plaza, towering over beautiful downtown Donelson, Tennessee at 615-883-0435.