{"id":1558,"date":"2009-08-01T11:23:34","date_gmt":"2009-08-01T16:23:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/?p=1558"},"modified":"2009-08-01T12:00:38","modified_gmt":"2009-08-01T17:00:38","slug":"pink-ayes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2009\/08\/pink-ayes\/","title":{"rendered":"Pink “Ayes”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Let’s get this straight.<\/p>\n

Nationalized health care — which would replace greedy insurance companies with overwhelmed government bureaucrats as middlemen between patient and doctor [that’s the image being sold], ending the tragedy of uninsured and underinsured Americans —\u00a0 is socialism.<\/p>\n

Rescuing banks — that award huge bonuses to undeserving executives and neared bankruptcy because of loose loan policies, from presuming they could continue to sell defaulting loans to other financial institutions, because the world can’t function without banks — is socialism.<\/p>\n

Bailing out automakers — that continued to refine SUVs into ever-bigger fuel guzzlers while blowing off developing gasoline sippers, ignoring sales trends and oil prices, and mismanaged themselves in about every department — is socialism.<\/p>\n

Yet<\/em>, Congress and the president providing $1 billion from which new car buyers receive rebates of $3,500 to $4,500 for trading in older vehicles and\/or gas guzzlers — that is not<\/em> socialism<\/a>?<\/p>\n

And, the House voting Friday 316-109 for an additional $2 billion<\/a> to fund the CARS program (Car Allowance Rebate System, commonly known as Cash for Clunkers), because regular Joe and Jane Americans plowed through the first billion by Friday, July 31, in this “stimulus” program that began July 24 and had been expected to last to Nov. 1 (with the Senate voting next week) — that follows along the laissez-faire capitalism<\/a> as prescribed by Palin and Limbaugh?<\/p>\n

Therefore, Republicans and cautious Blue Dog Democrats must have opposed it, owing to the program’s seeminess, not to mention the blatant burden on the federal budget deficit. But the current tally shows the House with 262 Democrats and 178 Republicans, according to Roll Call<\/a>. Conservatives of convenience?<\/p>\n

The rebate has so much going for it — clever way to move thirsty cars off our roads and make way for hybrids quickly, giving the auto industry (makers to dealers) a boost at the marketplace and not just an open-ended check, and last that on a national scale it’s not terribly expensive — but isn’t it interesting that the usual opponents are fairly quiet?<\/p>\n

Since textbook socialism is about helping the little guy and the heck with the capitalist cronies, are pinko programs OK in more circumstances than commentators would have us believe? Interesting questions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Let’s get this straight. Nationalized health care — which would replace greedy insurance companies with overwhelmed government bureaucrats as middlemen between patient and doctor [that’s the image being sold], ending the tragedy of uninsured and underinsured Americans —\u00a0 is socialism. Rescuing banks — that award huge bonuses to undeserving executives and neared bankruptcy because of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1558","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-spin"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":263,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2007\/01\/state-of-deniers\/","url_meta":{"origin":1558,"position":0},"title":"State of Deniers","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"January 28, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Copyright 2007 Ben S. Pollock Saturday was the 62nd Nazi Holocaust Remembrance Day, marking the anniversary of the Soviet army's liberation of Auschwitz in 1945. The holiday was set up a long time ago by the United Nations. It's not a sis-boom-bah holiday of course; if compassionate Americans note it\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "The Course of Words"","block_context":{"text":"The Course of Words","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/course-of-words\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1017,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2009\/03\/free-blockheads\/","url_meta":{"origin":1558,"position":1},"title":"Free Blockheads","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"March 19, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Copyright 2009 Ben S. Pollock A newsmagazine commentary from a couple of weeks ago stopped me cold. I still think about it, in a similar way a comic panel from last year comes up, which has put me off Outback's Bloomin' Onions. These are like cloying old songs that once\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "The Course of Words"","block_context":{"text":"The Course of Words","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/course-of-words\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":308,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2007\/04\/salman-and-the-sea-of-stories\/","url_meta":{"origin":1558,"position":2},"title":"Salman and the Sea of Stories","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"April 20, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Copyright 2007 Ben S. Pollock \"In light that your entire talk focused on the importance of the imagination and getting at truth through invention, Mr. Rushdie, would you analyze, discuss or comment on the widespread public infatuation with memoir?\" The UA moderator cut the 15 minutes of Q-and-A precisely. I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "The Course of Words"","block_context":{"text":"The Course of Words","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/course-of-words\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1178,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2009\/05\/turning-the-economy-takes-time\/","url_meta":{"origin":1558,"position":3},"title":"Turning the Economy Takes Time","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"May 1, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Apparently, it's not just the banks. It's not just the automakers. Not just the newspapers. This, from today's Wall Street Journal: Shoppers continue to pare back spending even on basic household staples, resulting in lower-than-expected sales for Procter & Gamble Co. and Colgate-Palmolive Co. The consumer-products giants are responding by\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News, Spin"","block_context":{"text":"News, Spin","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/news-spin\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":253,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2006\/12\/half-staff-is-half-mast\/","url_meta":{"origin":1558,"position":4},"title":"Half staff is half mast","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"December 10, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"(... unless the old sailor or old soldier gets insulted then you never forget that here in landlocked Arkansas it's always half staff) Several American flags in the town of Lowell, home of the headquarters of J.B. Hunt Transport Services, have been flying half staff the last few days. Of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Brick Bats Reportage"","block_context":{"text":"Brick Bats Reportage","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/brick-bats-reportage\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":401,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2008\/01\/how-thou-art\/","url_meta":{"origin":1558,"position":5},"title":"How Thou, Art?","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"January 28, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Copyright 2008 Ben S. Pollock DATELINE MIRTHOLOGY -- The way to be left alone in Fayetteville's Wilson Park is to mutter to no one in particular. It's not a particularly small town, but if you do leave your house you often run into people you know. So look moderately troubled,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News, Spin"","block_context":{"text":"News, Spin","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/news-spin\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1558","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1558"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1558\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1560,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1558\/revisions\/1560"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1558"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1558"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1558"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}