Days of Change

Day 1227 – Real Money

Andrew Breitbart said this at CPAC 2012. The relevant part is about six minutes in.

The videos are going to come out, the narrative is going to come out, that Barack Obama met a bunch of silver ponytails in the 1980s, like Bill (Ayers) and Bernadine (Dohrn), who said one day we would have the presidency, and the rest of us slept as they plotted, and they plotted, and they plotted and they oversaw hundreds of millions of dollars in the Annenberg Challenge and they had real money, from real capitalists. Then they became communists. We got to work on that. That is a parenthesis. Barack Obama is a radical, we should not be afraid to say that! Okay? And Barack Obama was launched from Bill and Bernadine’s salon. I’ve been there

When Dan Quayle ended his presidential aspirations in 2000, he cited his inability to raise funds. Rush Limbaugh commented that when a politician says it isn’t about the money, it’s about the money and that when they say it is about the money, it’s still about the money. When it comes to politics, everything comes down to money. The same holds for boycotts that are shakedowns in disguise.

A shakedown is what community organizers used to do. People like Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton would call out businesses that didn’t hire what they considered to be enough African Americans. Instead of hiring more black employees, it usually came down to some kind of financial donation. The new shakedown involves the constant harassment of companies who have any connection to Rush Limbaugh. Rumors are that a large number of advertisers want to avoid advertising on any “controversial” radio programs. The ultimate effect may be to put talk radio stations out of business. Why use the FCC when you can abuse the free market. Air America failed anyway. If you can’t join them, beat them.

If you want to look at the contraception battle as the most important issue right now, it also comes down to money. Contraceptives are entirely legal and pretty affordable. Ironically, since it isn’t covered by many insurance plans, the free market keeps prices down. Look at how much prescription drugs cost when you pay out of pocket. This isn’t about legality, it’s about money. The current argument is that paying out of pocket for contraception is tantamount to banning it. That argument is a loser on it’s face, but it justifies the government having control over more money.

If we go further to abortion, it is the law of the land but it is not always easy to obtain. Something like 80% of counties don’t have a provider. Access is limited in the third trimester. Still, the overriding concern of the politically active is the ability of government to be the purchaser. Henry Hyde (a mentor of the founder of the Daily Kos) wrote a law that would take government funding out of abortion. He knew that for him it was about life, for proponents it was about having control of government money to pay for it.

A right is the freedom to do something. Responsibility is the ability to pay for it. Having a right without responsibility is an entitlement. The left talks about getting the money out of politics by limiting the money people have earned to donate to campaigns. The only way to get the money out of politics is to get the money out of government. The feds now spend almost 30% of GDP. Even if it goes back to people, the government holds the purse strings. Bush might give breaks to successful oil companies, but Obama gives billions to failed solar companies. I’m sorry, I mean he gives money to failed solar companies who donated to his campaign. If you want to see campaign contributions dry up fast, watch what happens when the government loses all its discretionary budget power.

Money is power. Everything else is window dressing.

 

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