Maureen Dowd can kiss my grits

by J. Warren Tompkins

The clarion call came out from the capstone of the liberal ivory tower, The New York Times: “Joe Wilson is a racist.” You could have knocked me over with a feather, that columnist Maureen Dowd was once again focusing on South Carolina’s Second District congressman.

There is a certain fascination with a class of liberals that if you’re a Southern white conservative, you must be racist. Obviously, this is far from the truth, but for people who only know Joe as R-SC, it’s an easy play for them to make. Of course, such outrageous pronouncements aren’t only limited to the pages of the Times.

The pathetic former President Jimmy Carter said that Joe’s unfortunate remark during President Obama’s speech was based in racism and allure that there was some sort of fear of having a black man as president.

As we are all grateful for, we in America have truly moved past a lot of racist attitudes when Obama was elected. It has taken too long for a minority to be in the White House. However, he should be treated like any other big-government liberal. And that means taking him to task for his policies that are leading the country down the path of socialism.

We’ve watched as the government reached its hand further into the financial industry, using taxpayer dollars to bailout large firms. Then there was the takeover of General Motors, with Obama trying to act like an auto industry CEO – something, as we’ve seen, he’s not suited for.

In the short time that he’s been in office, Obama and his allies in Congress have been trying to spend money like they’re printing it, which they are. On August 25, the Concord Coalition released a report showing that his budget deficits could soar to $14.4 trillion over the next ten years. And though the money is printed, it isn’t free. It’s borrowed, with interest.

As the government borrows and borrows to finance the Democrats’ spending spree, the pool of credit dries up. Interest rates rise. Want to expand your business or buy a house? It’s going to become a lot harder if Obama and the liberals in power have their way. With an economy already in trouble, we cannot help but fight against these plans.

Couple the rising debt and increased borrowing and eventually there will be a breaking point, where to keep up with the spending the government will have to raise taxes, further deteriorating the economy and the business environment.

That brings us to Obama’s latest big-government boondoggle, socialized medicine. A July report by the Congressional Budget Office shows that the plan under H.R. 3200 would increase the budget deficit by $239 billion over 10 years. Not only that, but the 10-year cost of the insurance provisions would top $1 trillion dollars.

And that’s just the cost. There’s also the problem of having government bureaucrats running your health care. The bill takes away freedom of choice from people who would rather choose a private health plan, where you could receive discounts and other upgrades for living well. As well, there are burdens on businesses. If a business cannot afford to pay for government health care for its employees, it gets hit with an eight percent tax.

As well, don’t forget the original issue from the speech – whether illegal immigrants could end up getting coverage. Obama says no. That didn’t stop Democrats from voting down an amendment by U.S. Rep. Nathan Deal of Georgia that would have prevented undocumented residents from automatically enrolling in Medicaid. If they weren’t leaving the door open for illegals to enroll, why not approve the amendment as a safety measure? But the committee Democrats did not, and the amendment didn’t pass.

Considering all that’s gone on, is it any wonder that people are getting fed up? A September 3 Wall Street Journal column said, “By the time Congress turned to health care in earnest this spring, lawmakers had just approved more than $1 trillion to support financial firms and signed off on $787 billion in stimulus spending. Many Americans were feeling overwhelmed, some lawmakers say. ‘What the president has asked of the American people is a lot to absorb,’ said Rep. Ron Kind, a Wisconsin Democrat.”

That feeling of being overwhelmed has worsened over the months, turning into frustration and anger. This is not what the people want. The American taxpayer is begging the conservatives of this country to stand up to Obama, the Congressional Democrats and their massive spending and the socialization of America. We don’t want any part of it.

But, having a African American president doesn’t mean that conservatives in general or Southern conservatives in particular should be muzzled. We would be working to stop Obama’s big government plans no matter what he looked like. It’s about standing up for the taxpayers, protecting the economy, letting businesses grow and watching new jobs open up.