Perspectives: How Obama won

How Obama won
How Obama won | Image by Brett Barrett, St. George News

OPINION – I was trying to explain to my young son why President Obama won and was re-elected for another four years.  Half of the country was fervently praying for one to win and the other half were cheering gleefully when President Obama won. I realized what a disconnection there is in America among its citizenry. As I proceeded to explain this to my son, I had to remember that this was the same child who told me last week that if I don’t have any money, I can just get it out of the ATM – the ATM is stuffed with cash.

We had the scenario of two very different candidates for president. We had the man who wanted us to recognize that we need discipline, budget cuts and reform more than ever, and then we had a man promising more money, more help, more freebies and more government.

Freebies are popular these days and who doesn’t want a freebie? On Election Day, we voted for “more.”

We are so hypocritical. We cry for a balanced budget and responsibility yet we want the government to give us everything we feel entitled to. We applaud like trained monkeys when the politicians spout rhetoric like “fiscally responsible” and “balanced budget,” but we applaud even louder when they talk about never-ending entitlement programs and increased spending that may benefit us personally.

Obama promised many Americans popular “freebies” such as free birth control (disguised as caring about women’s health), sustained unemployment checks, food stamps and free cell phones. He wanted us to feel “taken care of” and his popularity soared with those who feared the loss of “big brother” safety nets to save them. Lower income individuals felt a bit safer when Obama gave his speeches. When temporary assistance becomes the permanent norm for those capable of helping themselves, we reward laziness at the expense of another.

What comes free from the government is not actually free at all.

Obama’s message of “fairness and equality” became wildly popular when he blamed the rich for not sharing with the poor. We fail to realize that fairness and equality reside through mutual respect and love for each other; the minute we compel someone to be financially charitable and force fairness and equality, the minute we monetize equality, we have what is called legalized plunder – the ability to take from one to give to another without their consent. Plunder is stealing and our government is guilty of it every day. The money the government allocates to various programs? Entitlements and programs? That money comes from those who pay their taxes.

To understand plunder, imagine swapping the word “government” for “neighbor.” In addition to that, swap the word “gave” with “forced to pay.”

“The government gave me a free cell phone.” It takes on an entirely new meaning when we say, “my neighbor was forced to pay for my cell phone.”

Instead of: “I got free birth control from the government,” the more truthful statement should be, “my neighbors were forced to pay for my birth control.”

Here is the disconnect, the government cannot give anything to us. It has no money from a fairy tale bank account; it’s our money. It is only the mere manager of our nation’s taxes; it pays for things with the money we pay it.

The government has made the Affordable Health Care Act mandatory, but if is not footing the over 2 trillion dollars that it will cost; we are funding it. “The government wants everyone to have health care.” This statement sounds nice and altruistic. What Obama should have told us is that “you and your neighbors will be forced to pay for health insurance you did not consent to have. The free market is not good enough, so the government feels it must compel you to be insured. This cost will be added to the other 16 trillion in debt that you will be forced to pay. We will also make important decisions about what your health care will cover as we, the government, determine what is best for you.”

It’s a frightening notion that we, as a free society, not only indirectly allowed this via our previously elected congress, but we just voted for it with our own free will.

Obama seems to be the “out of touch elitist” as Romney was inaccurately described, when he consistently burdens us and future generations with long-term debt, bounces check after check on the collective American bank account and tells us, with pride, that he is helping us.

As he gave his acceptance speech, people openly wept with glee.

Things are going to get worse. This economy will be driven to the brink. His second term will bring far more irresponsible spending and more government intrusion into our lives. We may have to hit rock bottom before we can clearly see the government for who its managers really are. And, I hope we hit bottom quickly because watching the slow, unbearable demise of a country that I love more than anything, is heartbreaking. The fiscal cliff is looming and the spending will not stop.

The only hope that remains, as the government spends us into oblivion, is that Americans will be there for each other and rally around each other through the very hard economic times that are about to transpire.

 

Kate Dalley is a news commentator and co-host of the Perspectives morning show on Fox News 1450 AM 93.1 FM. The opinions stated in this article are hers and not representative of St. George News.

Email: [email protected]

Twitter: @STGnews

Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2012, all rights reserved.

 

Free News Delivery by Email

Would you like to have the day's news stories delivered right to your inbox every evening? Enter your email below to start!

32 Comments

  • Ed Kociela November 9, 2012 at 1:22 pm

    No birth control and no choice. It’s all fine and well until your daughter comes home pregnant. Then you have a problem of another mouth to feed, medical bills to pay, education. Unless you can ensure that our children will no longer have sex, how can you ensure that there is no need for birth control?

    • DoubleTap November 9, 2012 at 2:27 pm

      If the public school system we have in place did a better job in sex eduaction instruction, maybe there wouldn’t be a need for the “other action”. However, for adults who engage in sexual activity, it is their personal responsibility for their own birth control. No one wants to take away birth control…there are some of us who don’t want to have to pay for somebody else’s birth control. Which incidently, has been and is always available to anyone at a fairly inexpenhsive cost. As for teenage girls coming home pregnant, wouldn’t that be the parents responsibility? Or could it have have been lack of repsonsibility in educating and informing their children? The way I see it is…if I’m going to have to pay for someone else’s sexual activity, I want to be part of the “activity”. All good days…;)

    • hadenough November 9, 2012 at 6:00 pm

      Tell your daughter to get a job, pay for birth control, or be prepred to have another mouth to feed.

    • SpaceCadet November 10, 2012 at 2:40 pm

      Bahahahaha…. No birth control, no choice?? Seriously, that cracks me up. We all have a choice, except when being told by Obumma (your emperor) what we have to buy. So you can’t teach your kids how to keep their clothes on? How do you teach them not to steal? How do you teach them not to lie? How do you teach them not to kill? Oh, wait, you don’t think abortion is killing… silly liberal. How do you teach your kids that they need to work and make their own way? Do you have the ability to teach them all the things in life a person needs to know except to not have sex — protected or otherwise. You guys are SO danged funny. And, if for whatever argument you make for giving your 11 year old birth control, why do I have to pay for it? If you want to do that with your kids, then you pay for it.

  • Justin November 9, 2012 at 2:07 pm

    Shocker to see she works at Fox News!

  • K804 November 9, 2012 at 2:12 pm

    It almost sounds as if you’re disappointed that it’s ONLY free birth control being offered. What’s to make teens actually USE the birth control? There needs to be a mechanism in place that ensures prevention of teen pregnancy. Ed, would you support force feeding “the pill” to all teen girls? I mean, that way we can all rest knowing that the government is FORCING; oops. Rather, ENSURING that girls to use the methods offered to prevent teen pregnancy. Parental rights and personal responsibility be damned, liberals know best.

    • DoubleTap November 9, 2012 at 2:31 pm

      Well said, K804..
      There you go, Ed.

  • Ron November 9, 2012 at 2:20 pm

    Seems to me it was Romney who felt that requiring people to buy health insurance is a pretty good way of preventing slackers from using the ER, which the rest of us pay for through higher hospital costs. I mean, let’s give the guy credit for one of the few good ideas he had.

  • Buster November 9, 2012 at 2:31 pm

    Ms. Dalley is so far out there it would be difficult to discuss politics and policies with her at all. Where would you start? Maybe with her false claims about free cell phones (as demonstrated at http://www.snopes.com/politics/taxes/cellphone.asp)? Do you try to get the discussion rolling with food stamps, a program for which rules were expanded not by Pres. Obama, but in President Bush’s 2002 farm bill and again in the 2008 bill (Pres. Bush vetoed the bill, but was overridden by congress, including more than 1/2 of the republicans in that body)? Perhaps you remind her that President Obama did NOT “blame the rich for not sharing with the poor,” but asked that everyone in our society pay their fair share?

    Or do you simply dismiss her as a non-resident of the world of FACTS?

  • Mike H November 9, 2012 at 2:40 pm

    Should have known that agreeing with you on one article would be limited to that one article.
    It kills me the way people will harp and harp on the health care system that we are now “forced” to have, but with millions of Americans (myself included) without health care provided by our employer something as minor as tonsillitis or appendicitis would be enough to bankrupt us. But that’s okay, it’s not your house that’s getting lost, or your car, or your way of life.
    Let’s not try and kid ourselves about how this world works, you keep trying to say people need to provide for themselves but meanwhile they have to work at the low paying jobs that do not provide insurance because it is an expense they can avoid. Even a monster like Walmart has increased the amount of hours an associate has to work to qualify for insurance. 15 years ago it was 28 hours, 10 years ago that was changed to 32, now I believe it is 36. But they have gotten very good at filling their ranks with part-time employees who do not get enough hours to maintain that requirement. But let’s leave it up to the companies to decide whether or not to provide insurance.
    Then you have the smaller companies that don’t provide insurance at all and pay low wages that guarantee an employee cannot afford private insurance, but the owners roll around in Beemers and Mercs and own million dollar homes.
    Just for fun, why don’t you fish around and see what it takes to get private insurance and see how much it actually costs, oh and tell me how many places you have to go before you finally find one that will take you. I have a friend who just turned 50 who has tried pretty much every insurer available and he has been turned down by every one of them because of a pre-existing condition that has been treated. Another located insurance just to find it was prohibitively expensive.
    Why is it that there is this assumption that all the people on these “entitlement” programs are”low-lifes”? Does it make it easier to disdain these programs by referring to them as “entitlements”? You live in Southern Utah, you should have a damn good idea of how this population has a sense of entitlement.
    It is also not lost on me that “Half of the country was fervently praying for one…” but the other half apparently doesn’t pray, they only “cheer gleefully”. Apparently because they know they can now sit on their lazy loser asses and do absolutely nothing but collect checks from their entitlement programs.
    When the President talked about the rich paying more in taxes, I think his main point was paying a fair share, not necessarily the bulk of taxes. I’m all for a flat tax, but with all the write-offs available to the rich you can see how someone making millions pays less than I do. But by all means, let’s tart that up and make it sound like they will be supporting my lazy low paid POS.
    I find it equally hilarious that the same people (you) who bitch and moan and threaten to move to another country for four years (one that will likely have universal healthcare paid for by taxes) will be the first in line if something (god forbid of course) should happen and you find yourself in need.
    But oh yes, let’s put into office a man who (legally mind you) didn’t pay taxes since ’96 until 2011 when he decided to run for president, refused to explain how he would reduce the deficit and flip-flopped so much that he made Donald Trump’s haircut look rational. He even said that it would take 8-10 years to fully recover. Wait, we’ll give him that much time but we cut off the black man at 4, a man who has had to fight to get anything done with a republican House that openly admitted they were doing all they could to insure he would be a one-term president.
    I weep for this country.

    • SpaceCadet November 10, 2012 at 2:32 pm

      You were making some good points, sort of, until you jumped on the ‘poor black man’ bandwagon. I thought he was genetically 50 percent white and 50 percent black and you choose to call him black. You are funny. You seem to forget that the Immaculate Obumma had a Democrat House and a Democrat Senate for the first TWO YEARS of his dictatorial administration. Many are quick to say that the government should be the one to take care of health “insurance”. First, if that is to be the case, there should be a lot more reduction in medical fraud. That alone would save millions. Then frivolous lawsuits need to be eliminated so that doctors don’t need to pay in the hundreds of thousands in liability/malpractice insurance to protect themselves from morons and greedy attorneys. It shouldn’t be by raising my taxes. And I am pretty sure that someone who makes a million dollars a year pays more taxes than you do. I also bet that person employs more people than you do. Liberals are quick to spend everyone else’s money, but not their own money. Clearly, half of this country wants stuff for free. I don’t know how you expect this mandate to be funded. Just raising some taxes from the so-called rich isn’t enough. You, the frightened liberal you are will see your taxes go up too. Then you will be told by some government bureaucrat that the operation you need (or want) is not covered in your age group!
      Don’t forget that the current administration also will not open up the states’ borders so that insurance can be competitive across the country. Competition is what reduces prices, not mandates and government takeovers. On the topic of insurance, someone needs to address the gorilla in the room. If I were to buy a car and get into a wreck, I cannot then go purchase insurance to have the car repaired – for better or worse. I do feel that society can help take care of the truly unfortunate sector of our citizenry. But with saving money from insane social programs and paying people to sit around and smoke crack isn’t the way. Cutting dumb programs, stopping fraud, eliminating frivolous lawsuits, all would help save enough cash to help the downtrodden in our country. Also opening up the state lines so competition can work the way it was meant to.
      One more point, how anyone in this country can believe that the government can and will take care of them I believe must be stupid or naïve. Is there ANY single government program in existence that has ever been ran/managed correctly? Let me answer that for you – NO. Not to be mean, but I have to admit that it will be interesting to see what happens in the next few years when the Obumma care has taken off fully. I predict that everyone who wanted this disastrous scheme of Obumma’s will be amazingly disappointed.

  • nathan November 9, 2012 at 3:39 pm

    I am glad to say I do not have the entitlement attitude and even though I do qualify for food stamps and medicaid,I have not, nor will I, take handouts from the goverment. Not everyone who doesn’t have a lot of money takes handouts.

  • Kate Dalley November 9, 2012 at 3:55 pm

    Ed, I think you missed the whole point of my article. I am a Republican woman who buys my own birth control. And it’s my choice to buy it. The government should not use our tax payer dollars to buy it for us. It is not their role. Women have been buying their own birth control for many years without the governments help and last I checked, we weren’t getting pregnant in droves because it was so expensive and we could not afford it. The government has a proper role and healthcare isn’t it. The doctors free clinic is a perfect example of people helping the poor, not the government. Justin, my affiliation with my employer didn’t give me my politics, my religion or my values, that came long before I did talk radio. I can form an opinion on my own. 😉

    • Damie November 9, 2012 at 5:23 pm

      Apparently the author of this article has never dealt with someone who is terminally ill and unable to work and has no insurance. I hope she never does have to deal with that, but her blissful dismissal of the need is pretty staggering.

    • SpaceCadet November 10, 2012 at 2:48 pm

      Rock on, Kate. Love your program!

  • Chris White November 9, 2012 at 4:40 pm

    “Half of the country was fervently praying for one to win and the other half were cheering gleefully when President Obama won.”

    Kate let’s just assume for a minute that prayer was exclusive to one political party as is implied. Wouldn’t the free loading half of the country be the ones who were praying? They had so much more to gain. Think about it, maybe more of them were praying and God had to pick so he picked the side with the most prayers. Seems logical to me.

    😉

  • Tyler November 9, 2012 at 8:13 pm

    Obama’s with the times in many ways from reaching out to minorities, women, youth to taxing the rich more than the lower and middle class. No brainer why he won in today’s America!

  • Tyler November 9, 2012 at 8:16 pm

    Kate Dalley, I’m surprised to see you’re from California as this article screams a typical St Georgian!

  • hahaha November 9, 2012 at 8:33 pm

    This article hit the nail right on the head. Good job Kate!

  • Karen November 10, 2012 at 7:10 am

    As long as the Republican party promotes the mistaken belief that the election was won by the “takers” instead of the “makers” they will find their tent so small that their party will disappear. Instead of listening to Fox News and fear-mongers like Glenn Beck, Republicans would better serve their cause by reading thoughtful conservatives like David Frum. His analysis of why the Romney campaign lost is spot on and Republicans would be well-advised to read it.

    PS. I’m a “maker” and I was proud to vote for President Obama, again.

    • Tyler November 10, 2012 at 11:33 am

      Now YOU hit the nail on the head 🙂

  • Dara Tancredi November 10, 2012 at 7:46 am

    Dear Ed,

    Griswold vs. Connecticut and Roe v. Wade. Its the law of the land. Get with it-quit the talking points.

    Ron – name one thing that is made cheaper by insurance – just one. We had medicine, before major medical insurance became widespread. The problem is not medicine – the problem is the insurance. The only thing that insurance is good for is risk spreading. All the rest of the stuff, medications, wellness visits, planned procedures should be market driven by consumers who shop on price. It is cheaper to pay $4 prescriptions at Walmart. Now you have a law written by the Insurance companies. Whole Foods Grocery Stores had a plan that actually worked – it is too bad that we allowed the entire bill to be written by the health insurance cos. They now will receive a piece of all healthcare dollars and have limited and are intent on eliminating Medical Savings accounts. Nice job.

    When you look at legislation, always asks, who profits?

    • SpaceCadet November 10, 2012 at 3:56 pm

      All excellent points~ well done.

  • Dara Tancredi November 10, 2012 at 7:51 am

    Mike H. Many employers will not be offering healthcare. It is cheaper to pay the penalty. Employers can also limit the penalty by taking full time employees and dropping them to under 30 hours a week. Welcome to 2 job nation. Think its not happening. Read the Labor statistics since July of 2012 when “Obamacare” was upheld. From July and moving forward you will see we lost full time employees but gained part time employees. Enjoy the ride.

  • Fred November 10, 2012 at 10:34 am

    Kate is right as usual. of course radicals, leftists, and people who hate traditional American values will not agree with her. Here are some questions Barry (our illegal President should answer but will not):

    Dear Barry ( or whatever your name is)

    Why did you produce a phony Birth Certificate? (verified by Sheriff Arpillo).
    Why are you using another persons SSA #? (verified by Susan Daniels expert in the
    field of identity fraud)?
    Why are you supporting the Muslim Brotherhood?
    Why not come clean over Fast and Furious?
    And you called the Ft. Hood Muslim shooter workplace violence and not terrorism.
    Why hasn’t this Major been tried already?

    The mass murders in Benghazi that Barry could have prevented and did not. Is this treason?

    The Obama White House has rolled out the red carpet to groups and individuals connected to the Muslim Brotherhood.

    The Obama administration is actively working to purge all references to radical Islam from counterterrorism training and materials.

    The Obama administration refuses to characterize “jihad” as a primary motivation for Islamic terrorism. T

    What about Donald Young the homosexual who was the choir director of the “church”
    you attended? What happened to him? What happened Barry? Tell us what you know.
    Your AG Holder would not prosecute the Black Panthers voter intimidation case.
    Why did you seal all of your records? What are you hiding?
    Why were you disbarred?
    Why do you hate the Jewish people and Israel so much?
    How does it feel that you will always be known as the ILLEGAL PRESIDENT?
    Barry has proven that AFFIRMATIVE ACTION DOES NOT WORK!

    And so much more! George Soros put a lot of money into getting this fraud re-elected. Was the election a fraud also?

    • Tyler November 10, 2012 at 11:32 am

      Fred, just like you, me and Kate herself, it’s all personal opinion. Thanks

  • Omari November 10, 2012 at 11:36 am

    Lok at how elections get panties in wads bahahaha!!

  • bear November 10, 2012 at 1:00 pm

    Half the country praying for one man? , and I would add fasting , does that mean if I prayed and fasted for obama I have a little more faith than you? Seriously

  • Don L. Miller November 10, 2012 at 4:21 pm

    Quote from Ms. Dalley –“Instead of: ‘I got free birth control from the government,’ the more truthful statement should be, ‘my neighbors were forced to pay for my birth control.” — If Kate Dalley wanted to tell her readers the truth, she would do so instead of making the untrue statement just quoted. Or is it just simple ignorance? The truth is that the government isn’t providing free birth control at all. Instead, health insurance companies will be required to cover birth control in their plans sold to customers without charging a co-pay. So individual customers and their employers who usually share the cost of insurance premiums will pay for the cost of birth control benefits included in the plans, not the government.

    Don L. Miller

  • Don L. Miller November 10, 2012 at 4:25 pm

    Memo to Fred — Ohio really did go to President Obama the other night. And he really did win. And he really was born in Hawaii. And he really is legitimately President of the United States, again. And the Bureau of Labor Statistics did not make up a fake unemployment rate last month. And the Congressional Research Service really can find no evidence that cutting taxes on rich people grows the economy. And the polls were not skewed to over sample Democrats. And Nate Silver was not making up fake projections about the election to make conservatives feel bad. Nate Silver was doing math. And Climate Change is real. And rape really does cause pregnancy sometimes. And evolution is a thing. And Benghazi was an attack on us, it was not a scandal by us. And nobody is taking away anyone’s guns. And taxes have not gone up. And the deficit is dropping, actually. And Saddam Hussein did not have weapons of mass destruction. And the Moon landing was real. And FEMA is not building concentration camps. And UN election observers are not taking over Texas. And moderate reforms of the regulations on the insurance industry and the financial services industry in this country are not the same thing as communism.” ~~~~ Rachel Maddow

    • Karen November 10, 2012 at 9:13 pm

      Amen.

      • DoubleTap November 12, 2012 at 11:07 am

        Don L. Miller: So you believe everything Rachel Maddow tells you? That explains alot about you. Wonder if you’ll feel the same in the year 2015, or if Rachel Maddow (or what you say) will even be relevant.

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.