Freedoms « The Conservative Papers

March 10, 2010

Gore: Organized Campaign Behind Climate Skeptics

Filed under: Financial, Freedoms — Tags: Al Gore, Campaign, Cap And Trade, Carbon, Freedom, Global Warming, Norway, Oil, Taxation — kalel @ 11:51 pm

Former Vice President Al Gore says critics of his global warming warnings are part of a “massive, organized campaign.”

Appearing on the Norwegian talk show “Skavlan” to promote his newest book “Our Choice,” Gore said:

“There has been a very large, organized campaign to try to convince people that it [global warming] is not real, to try to convince people that they shouldn’t worry about it.

“In my country, the oil and coal companies spent $500 million last year just on television advertising just on these questions. There are now five anti-climate lobbyists on Capitol Hill in Washington for every member of the House and Senate. So it’s been a very massive, organized campaign.”

Gore was asked if it’s “quite different to be Al Gore today” compared to three years ago, before people started to lose interest in the climate issue and before heavy criticism of his global warming warnings.

“It doesn’t feel different,” said Gore. “It feels like the same struggle. There is still a massive movement worldwide to respond to the climate crisis. It would be an enormous relief if the recent criticism of the science actually meant that there wasn’t a crisis. Unfortunately there is. We’re still putting 90 million tons of global warming pollution every day into the atmosphere, as if it’s an open sewer.”

Also during the interview:

Gore rejected any allegation that he’s a “carbon billionaire.” “I wish that were true – it’s not,” he said, adding that he’s been fortunate in the business world since losing the race for president in 2000.
Gore denied that receiving too much praise for his efforts was a problem, or made him more vulnerable. “I don’t feel it is, because there’s been plenty of blame as well as praise,” he said.
Gore said he still has a long ways to go in his effort to educate the world about climate change. “I have thus far failed, and our world has thus fair failed to respond adequately to this crisis,” he said.

From Newsmax.com

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Let Iraq be a lesson for Iran

Filed under: Freedoms, Terrorism — Tags: al Qaida, Election, Freedom, Iran, Iraq, Islam, Jihad, Nuclear Proliferation, Sen. Lindsey Graham, Terrorism — kalel @ 11:24 pm

March 10, 2010 | By Amanda J. Reinecker

Though there remains much work to be done in Iraq, the election turnout last Sunday suggests that American efforts to promote stability and democracy in the region are paying off. Despite threats of violence, nearly 62 percent of Iraq’s 19 million voters showed up to the polls in what The New York Times describes as “arguably the most open, most competitive election in the nation’s long history of colonial rule, dictatorship and war.”

The news of Iraq’s successful parliamentary elections was all the buzz around Washington. Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) joined a number of his congressional colleagues in commending those who made the election possible:

To the men and women who have served in Iraq, this is a testament to your service. To the Iraqi people, well done. Keep trying, democracy is hard, but there is a better way for your children if you continue the course that you’re on. It will be a moderating force in the Mideast at a time when we desperately need it.

But the Iraqi regime still faces many internal and external hurdles. Perhaps the greatest challenge is its larger neighbor to the east: Iran, the foremost state sponsor of terrorism. The Iranian regime is steadfast in its desire to sabotage Iraq’s democratic experiment. Its threat to Iraq’s fledging democracy cannot and should not be downplayed. Were they to succeed, the repercussions would stretch beyond Iraq and into the entire Middle East and even back to the United States.

Maintaining and improving stability in Iraq is largely contingent on how the world responds to Iran and its rogue nuclear program. To succeed, America and its allies will require a clear and well-designed strategy. The Heritage Foundation has outlined Ten Steps to a Free Iran, each of which should be incorporated into this comprehensive strategy:

1. Impose and enforce the strongest sanctions;

2. Drop opposition to U.S. gasoline sanctions;

3. Target public diplomacy to expose the regime’s human rights abuses;

4. Facilitate communications among dissidents;

5. Aid opposition groups;

6. Reduce Iran’s meddling in Iraq;

7. Target covert actions to discredit the regime;

8. Modernize the U.S. nuclear arsenal;

9. Expand U.S. military capabilities to defend U.S. interests and allies; and

10. Deploy a robust and comprehensive missile defense system.

In combination, these steps will better enable America and our allies to build upon the Iraqi regime’s success by standing firm against Iran. We should work to preserve stability in Iraq, both because it benefits Iraqi citizens and because Iraq can serve as a model of freedom for the Iranian people.

» For more Heritage research on Iran, visit the Iran Briefing Room.

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March 9, 2010

Harry Reid: Only 36,000 Lost Their Jobs Today

Filed under: Financial, Freedoms — Tags: Congress, Democrats, Financial, Freedom, Sen Majority Leader Harry Reid, Unemployment — kalel @ 6:20 pm

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Iraq’s Cosmetic Election

Filed under: Freedoms, Terrorism — Tags: Daniel Pipes, Freedom, Iran, Iraq, Islam, Jihad, Obama, Terrorism — kalel @ 5:25 pm

by Daniel Pipes
March 9, 2010
Cross-posted from National Review Online

“It takes a cynical mind not to share in the achievement of Iraq’s national elections.” So writes the Wall Street Journal editorial board today. I’m no cynic, but my mood about Iraq could variously be described as depressed, despairing, despondent, dejected, pessimistic, melancholic, and gloomy.

Cosmetic inking for a cosmetic election; this Iraqi girl inked her finger, indicating she voted, even though she is too young to vote.

That’s because the Iraqi regime (along with those of Afghanistan, Lebanon, and the Palestinian Authority) is a kept institution that cannot survive without constant American support. As long as Washington pumps money and sacrifices lives to maintain the Baghdad government, the latter can hobble along. Remove those props and Iranian-backed Islamists soon take over.

Tehran has aspired to seize effective control of Iraq since the U.S.-led overthrow of Saddam Hussein in 2003. With many levers at hand, from mosques to schools to militias to politicians, the Iranian despots are well placed to inherit the country.

The end of U.S. backing looms. Indeed, Barack Obama responded to the well-run elections by declaring a hope that U.S. troops can leave Iraq months earlier than planned. As the American era closes, the Iranian one opens. In a year or two, the current elections will be looked back on as a cosmetic episode that somehow deceived otherwise savvy observers.

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Riot’s in Greece Coming Soon to a State Near You!

Filed under: Financial, Freedoms — Tags: California, Debt, Governments, Greece, Recession — alpineski @ 10:14 am

Greece this past weekend saw the worst rioting since the debt crisis began. After Athens had announced new tax hikes and budget cuts to reduce a deficit of 13 percent of gross domestic product, mobs drove guards from Greece’s Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and attacked police.

In our own country, students, teachers and administrators at UC-Berkeley held a “Strike and Day of Action to Defend Education” to demand more money from taxpayers — for themselves.

How badly are they suffering?

According to Peter Robinson of Hoover Institution, California spends $13,000 per student in the state system, compared to $6,000 in New York.

Yet riots in Greece and demonstrators in California do portend a time of troubles. For the budget cuts and tax hikes needed to keep the welfare states of Europe operating as populations age and fewer children are born will be staggering and endless.

And, in the U.S., California is where we all are headed.

Nevada, Arizona and New Jersey are staring at budget gaps of 25 percent. New York and Illinois are not far behind. Michigan has an unemployment rate of 14 percent. Detroit is the quintessential sick city.

Republicans may get by this fall surfing an anti-government wave. But they will soon have to reveal where exactly they propose to cut.

Fortunately, good politics and good policy give the same answer. USA Today’s lead story on Friday — “It Pays to Work for Uncle Sam” — contrasted the wages and benefits of federal workers with those of employees in the private sector.

Using federal figures from 2008, reporter Dennis Cauchon found:

U.S. government workers earned an average salary of $67,691 for occupations that exist in both government and the private sector, which was $7,600 a year more than workers in the private sector doing the same jobs. Health and pension benefits for U.S. government workers average $40,795 per year, but $9,882 per worker in the private sector.

Nurses employed by Veterans Affairs hospitals earn an average of $74,460 a year, which is $10,689 more than private-sector nurses.

Chris Edwards of Cato Institute has compared the pay and benefits of local and state government employees with private-sector workers.

He found the average hourly compensation, wages and benefits of state and local government employees in 2009 was $39.66 per hour, 45 percent higher than the $27.42 per hour package of private-sector workers

Where 80 percent to 90 percent of state and local government employees get paid sick leave, health insurance and life insurance, and 90 percent receive pensions, that is true of only 59 percent to 71 percent of workers in the private sector.

These disparities suggest that government work is becoming a sweet deal for those who can get it, which may explain why government has begun to crush the private sector that has to carry the government on its back.

Consider. Between 2000 and 2010, U.S. manufacturing, backbone of the nation, lost 5.7 million jobs, one-third of all the manufacturing jobs America had. But government employment rose that same decade by 1.9 million jobs to 22 million, with three-fourths of the new workers being added to local government payrolls.

States like California, whose public employees are among the best paid in the nation, are the states closest to chapter 11. Their last, best hope to close their deficits is a U.S. taxpayer rescue a la Fannie, Freddy, GM and AIG. But do the states merit a taxpayer bailout if their crises come out of their own continuing profligate ways?

Writes Edwards:

“Public sector workers … can typically retire at age 55 after 30 years of service, as in California’s CalPERS system. In CalPERS, workers receive an annual pension equal to 60 percent of final salary after 30 years. Public safety workers in CalPERS can retire at age 50 after 30 years of work with benefits equal to 90 percent of their final salary.

“In California, there are 6,144 retired public employees in the CalPERS plan and 3,090 retired teachers in the state teachers’ plan receiving annual pension benefits of more than $100,000.”

And folks wonder why California is bankrupt. Should middle-class Americans be forced to subsidize $100,000-a-year pensions for middle-aged California retirees?

Yet, Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid, in that $787 billion stimulus bill, shoveled billions of federal tax dollars into California to pay salaries, pensions and health benefits of Californians who have been paid more than private-sector workers all of their lives. Where is the fairness here?

Not another federal dime should go out to any state government whose employees receive more in pay and pensions than the average worker in that state or the other 49.

As for the U.S. government, Republicans should call for a one-year freeze on federal salaries and a two-year freeze on congressional salaries. If sacrifices are to be made, the people who had a fat decade at taxpayers’ expense should make them sacrifice, not a ravaged private sector that has contributed almost all of the conscripts to today’s 15-million-man army of the unemployed.

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March 7, 2010

36 States Fight Obama’s Socialized Healthcare

Filed under: Barack Obama, Freedoms — Tags: Healthcare, Obama, United States — alpineski @ 9:05 pm

States have an extensive and complicated shared power relationship with the federal government in regulating various aspects of the health insurance market and in enacting health reforms.

As part of state-based responses to federal health reform legislation, individual members of at least 36 state legislatures are using the legislative process to seek to limit, alter or oppose selected state or federal actions, including single-payer provisions and mandates that would require purchase of insurance. In general the measures seek to make or keep health insurance optional, and allow people to purchase any type of coverage they may choose. The individual state language varies.

Constitutional amendments: In 25 of the states, the proposals include a proposed constitutional amendment by ballot question. In a majority of these states, their constitution includes an additional “hurdle” for passage – requiring either a “supermajority of 60% or 67% for passage, or requiring two affirmative votes in two seprate years, such as 2010 and 2011.

Changing state law: In 12 states proposed bills would amend state law, not the state constitution. These require a simple majority vote and action bythe governor; they also can be reamended or repealed by a future state law. So far in 2010,

* Virginia became the first in the nation to enact a new statute section titled, ” Health insurance coverage not required.” It became law on March 4, 2010; see SB 283 and related bills below.New item
* Other bills have advanced in Idaho and Utah.

Unfunded mandates: New Hampshire has a bill that would prohibit any Medicaid expansion unless paid for by the federal government or approved by the NH Legislature.

Based on actions initially in Arizona, several states propose or may propose state constitutional amendments, using language such as:

“To preserve the freedom of all residents of the state to provide for their own health care… A law or rule shall not compel, directly or indirectly, any person, employer or health care provider to participate in any health care system … A person or employer may pay directly for lawful health care services and shall not be required to pay penalties or fines for paying directly for lawful health care services…”
[see full text in Appendix 1]

Arizona voters are scheduled to cast ballots on this constitutional amendment in November 2010. If adopted by voters, it could block future state health reforms and at least raise questions about some features within future federal health reforms.

According to The New York Times, “Conservatives and libertarians, mostly, have been advancing the theory lately that the individual mandate, in which the government would compel everyone to buy insurance or pay a penalty, is unconstitutional.” (NY Times, 9/26/09) A current Massachusetts law, passed in 2006, includes an individual mandate, although it was written to be consistent with both state and federal constitutions. To the extent that congressional proposals provide for state opt-out or opt-in features, these proposals to restrict “reform” could well become more widely discussed.

The Tenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution reads:

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States, respectively, or to the people.

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March 5, 2010

LAST DITCH EFFORT TO SAVE CALIFORNIA FROM FINANCIAL RUIN

Filed under: Financial, Freedoms — Tags: California, Economy, Illegal Immigration, Immigration — alpineski @ 6:02 pm

STATE-WIDE TAXPAYERS REVOLT UNDERWAY!
GOLDEN STATE GRINGOS LAST GULP!
Paul L. Williams, Ph.D.- thelastcrusade

Immigration limitation activists have initiated a statewide petition drive to get the California Taxpayer Protection Act on the ballot.

If passed, the measure will serve to eliminate the lure of birth tourism and to limit the financial, social, and vocational benefits afforded to illegal aliens who produce offspring on US soil. Such “anchor babies” become instantaneous US citizens and their parents become eligible for Medi-Cal, food stamps, public welfare, public housing and a host of other entitlement programs that are bankrupting the state and the federal government.

At present, illegal aliens receive 18 years of welfare checks for every anchor baby.

Sweeping in its implications, the California Taxpayer Protection Act ct would halt non-emergency medical aid— including the taxpayer-funded pre-natal care that has actually been advertised across Mexico and other countries by migrant advocacy groups—and would limit the state welfare payments that illegal immigrant parents collect on behalf of their citizen-children to five years.

Is the California Taxpayer Protection Act necessary?

Consider the following facts reported by the Los Angeles Times:

1. 40% of all workers in L. A. County ( L. A. County has 10.2 million people) are working for cash and not paying taxes. This is because they are predominantly
illegal immigrants working without a green card.
2. 95% of warrants for murder in Los Angeles are for illegal aliens.
3. 75% of people on the most wanted list in Los Angeles are illegal aliens.
4. Over 2/3 of all births in Los Angeles County are to illegal alien Mexicans on Medi-Cal, whose births were paid for by taxpayers.
5. 35% of all inmates in California detention centers are Mexican nationals here illegally.
6. Over 300,000 illegal aliens in Los Angeles County are living in garages.
7. The FBI reports half of all gang members in Los Angeles are most likely illegal aliens from south of the border.
8. 60% of all occupants public housing in L.A. County are illegal.
9. 21 radio stations in Los Angeles are Spanish speaking.
10. In L. A. County 5.1 million people speak English, 3.9 million speak Spanish. (There are 10.2 million people in L. A. County).

11. 65% of all births at Los Angeles General Hospital are to illegal aliens.

12. 70% of all births at Joaquin General Hospital are to illegal aliens.

Arriving in Los Angeles from Tijuana, visitors might believe they are still in Mexico. The storefronts and the street venders are flush with Latino goods, including turquoise and pink statues of Our Lady of Guadalupe, sugar skulls, wayu hats, la Calavera tee shirts, and la Muerte field bags.

Some innovative merchants spread popcorn in the gutters in order to capture street pigeons which they cage and sell at the bargain rate of five for $10 before the closed art-deco theaters on Broadway.

Within the subway system, ceramic murals depict the gringo settlers as the spoilers of Hispanic haven of California. The villains in the murals are James K. Polk (who presided over the Mexican-American War), Kit Carson (who guided Stephen Kearny’s soldiers into California), and the forty-niners – – the prospectors who “invaded” California during the gold rush.
Broadway – – the street which housed the grand art-deco movie palaces of the studio days – – has become transformed into a barrio. Some of the palaces have been transformed into Hispanic churches; others into Latino flea markets.

In 1940, Harry Chandler, editor and publisher of the Los Angeles Times and one of southern California’s most prominent real estate developers, spoke of his city as “the white spot of America,” a place free of crime, communism, and non-white races.

Mr. Chandler was many things – – prescient not being one of them.

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February 23, 2010

The Leader

Filed under: Freedoms — Tags: Conservatism, CPAC, Freedom, Republicans, Senator Jim DeMint — kalel @ 11:20 am

Posted by Erick Erickson

Image description Many, many reporters have asked me who the leader of the conservative movement is right now or who the leader of the tea party movement is.

They rarely report the answer, though they should be paying attention to it. In the CPAC straw poll, one name dominated the pack. With the highest favorable ratings (73%) and lowest unfavorable ratings (8%), Senator Jim DeMint of South Carolina led the field — scoring higher popularity than Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Mike Pence, John Beohner, Mitch McConnell, or Michael Steel.

It’d be easy to dismiss the polling except that, unlike the Ron Paul vote for winner, DeMint’s popular scores across the field from young to old, conservative to libertarian oriented.

Why is that?

Largely, I think it is because Jim DeMint is actually doing what other Republicans talk about — staying true to conservative values and recruiting conservatives. From Chuck DeVore to Michael Williams to Pat Toomey to Marco Rubio, Jim DeMint is picking, funding, and supporting conservatives across the nation in stark contrast to other Republican leaders.

DeMint is not afraid to involve himself in a primary. And in Congress he is not afraid to pick tough fights and challenge his own party to do what is right. DeMint does not just talk the talk, but he unapologetically walks the walk.

Few people leave Washington having really changed America. Jim DeMint will one day be able to proudly say he did not just change his party, but his country too.

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The Good, The Bad, The Discordant, and the Uncomfortable

Filed under: Freedoms — Tags: Conservatism, CPAC, Freedom, Republicans — kalel @ 11:06 am

Posted by Erick Erickson

“Conservatism is on the ascendency. But it will ascend within the GOP, not via a third party.”

Now that I’ve had twelve hours of sleep after four days of three hour nights, I can settle in and focus on the CPAC that was and was not. There was no dominant theme at CPAC this year, which was surprising. The Ron Paul kids were out in force leading him to the straw poll, there was not a great deal of buzz on Sarah Palin, Mitt Romney was more the establishment guy than last time, etc. About the only significant buzz was at the beginning and the end — Rubio and Beck.

This morning I was greeted to close to 100 emails of mixed reviews on Glenn Beck’s speech. There seem to be a lot of people who did not like Glenn Beck equating the Republicans to the Democrats. For an example, let me refer you to Bill Bennett. Secretary Bennett and I had an encounter on CNN the other night sounding out similar themes. He did not like me batting down the establishment GOP as something less than he thought they were.

Glenn Beck’s speech gave resonance to what a lot of the tea party activists and conservatives at CPAC feel — the GOP is as bad as the Democrats. But we have to have a very careful caveat here: the GOP has not been good on spending and portions of economic policy. We cannot make it, however, a blanket statement. As Glenn Beck said last night, “One party says it will tax and spend. The other party says it won’t tax and will spend.” We have to be careful in our zeal to clean up Washington not to take that for more than what it is.

Therein lies much of the concern. There is real angst that some people are agitating for a third party because of what they see as an unrepentant GOP. And the fear is that Glenn Beck is feeding this. I hope he is not. I would have to part ways if that were the case. History shows that neither the most popular third party candidate, Teddy Roosevelt, nor the richest, Ross Perot, were ever able to get elected. All they did was get the Democrat elected.

And for those of you who think that is no big deal, let me ask you again: how many Americans are going to die because of Barack Obama’s handling of our national security? If you think the GOP would be as bad on this issue, you need a reality check.

It is the GOP that wants to cut the costs of health care through expanding the free market. It is the GOP that wants to fight the enemy instead of compromising with them. It is the GOP that wants to upend our failing public schools and make them actually teach instead of function as a retirement home for teachers union employees. It is the GOP that stands in defense of freedom against tyranny. It was, for example, the GOP that stood with Honduras against Hugo Chavez while Barack Obama gave a full throated embrace of the communist dictator and the thugs of South America.

But the GOP still does have problems. My position and that of this site is to go conservative in primaries and Republican in generals. That will not change. There are a few points worth mentioning in this regard.

In his post on Glenn Beck’s speech, Bill Bennett wrote, “From Jim DeMint to Tom Coburn to Mike Pence to Paul Ryan, any number of Republicans have admitted the excesses of the party and done constructive and serious work to correct them.” The problem is that Jim DeMint and Tom Coburn are not in leadership. Certainly the House guys are in a better position come 2010. But DeMint and Coburn are regularly marginalized by a Senate GOP not run on Republican principles, but run on appropriator principles.

Consider that the Republican leadership is still backing Charlie Crist against Marco Rubio in Florida. Consider that the Senate GOP, save for Jim DeMint, lovingly embraced Arlen Specter to the bitter end and then desperately tried to find someone other than Toomey to take him on. Consider Orrin Hatch praising the tea party activists back in August for the health care town hall protests, then turning on them this week and saying they risk electing liberals if they take on moderate Republicans.

No they don’t. But therein lies the problem and I think Glenn Beck did not address it. Maybe he thought it was not relevant to his points last night.

But it is not the Republican Party that is the problem. It is the Republican leadership that, when it compromises with the Democrats, compromises in favor of expanded government. You never see the Democrats compromise in favor of the free market.

But these people are not the party at large. When Bill Bennett and others criticize Beck for saying the GOP has not had its “Tiger Woods moment,” they inevitably list a great many Republicans who have had those moments. But you rarely hear this list John Boehner, Eric Cantor, Mitch McConnell, Lamar Alexander, Jerry Lewis, Thad Cochran — the leaders calling the daily shots.

There is a very real and very substantive difference between the parties. From social to fiscal issues, the differences are real. I am a Republican before I am a Democrat. But at the end of the day, I am a conservative before I am a Republican.

The Republican Party is where I make my home for advancing my conservative agenda. And when I think the party needs to be changed, I get involved in primaries recognizing I will win some and lose some in the give and take of American politics.

If you are troubled, if you agree with Glenn Beck, if you are tempted to go with a third party, don’t. Instead, get involved in the Republican Party. Change it. Support people like Mike Lee in Utah, Danny Tarkanian in Nevada, Marlin Stutzman in Indiana, Pat Toomey in Pennsylvania, Ken Buck in Colorado, MIchael Williams in Texas, and of course Marco Rubio in Florida.

Support women like Karen Handel in Georgia and Nikki Haley in South Carolina, both running for Governor.

Support guys like Jeff Duncan, Tim Huelskamp, and Sean Duffy in the House.

All of these candidates are good. And there are others. They are out there. As I said the other day, 2010 is not like 2008. The dynamics are different. This year conservatives must take risks instead of staying with the status quo just because it is easier. Conservatism is on the ascendency. But it will ascend within the GOP, not via a third party.

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February 19, 2010

Romney to Obama: Stop Blaming Others for Failure

Filed under: Barack Obama, Freedoms — Tags: Financial, Freedom, Liberalism, Mitt Romney, Obama, Terrorism — kalel @ 11:52 am

By Fred Lucas, Staff Writer

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney
(CNSNews.com/Penny Starr)

Washington (CNSNews.com) – Saying that America is not better off than it was $1.8 trillion ago, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney said President Obama should stop blaming his predecessor and the American people for high unemployment and growing deficit and failure of the Democratic health care overhaul proposal.

“When it comes to pinning the blame, let’s pin the blame on the donkey,” Romney told a supportive crowd at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), in reference to the Democratic mascot.

Romney is expected to once again seek the GOP presidential nomination in 2012. He failed to win enough conservative support in 2008 because of having taken liberal positions on abortion, gun control and other matters before taking conservative positions on those issues when he campaigned in the Republican primary.

But Romney was on friendly turf, having won three previous CPAC straw polls. The straw poll gauges the presidential preference of CPAC attendees. Romney also has a forthcoming book titled, “No Apologies: The Case for American Greatness.”

When Obama is not blaming former President George W. Bush, he is blaming the Republicans in Congress, whom the president and Democrats have called the “party of no.”

“Of course, the president accuses us of being the party of ‘no.’ It’s as if he thinks that saying ‘no’ is by definition a bad thing,” Romney said. “In fact, it is right and praiseworthy to say no to bad things. It is right to say no to cap and trade, no to card check, no to government health care, and no to higher taxes. My party should never be a rubber stamp for rubber check spending.”

Romney continued that Democrats have said “no” on many things as well.

“But before we move away from this ‘no’ epithet the Democrats are fond of applying to us, let’s ask the Obama folks why they say ‘no’ —no to a balanced budget, no to reforming entitlements, no to malpractice reform, no to missile defense in Eastern Europe, no to prosecuting Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in a military tribunal, and no to tax cuts that create new jobs,” Romney said.

“You see, we conservatives don’t have a corner on saying no; we’re just the ones who say it when that’s the right thing to do,” he said.

He stated that Obama has even blamed the American people for his failures.

“It seems that we have failed to understand his wise plans for us,” Romney said. “If he just slows down, he reasons, and makes a concerted effort to explain Obamacare in a way even we can understand, if we just listen better, then we will get it.”

Romney, whose own legacy as Massachusetts governor includes expanding a costly state health insurance program, said that Americans understand the Democratic health care plan too well.

“When he barred CSPAN from covering the healthcare deliberations, they saw President Obama break his promise of transparency,” he said.

“When the Democrat leadership was empowered to bribe Nebraska’s Senator [Ben] Nelson, they saw President Obama break his promise of a new kind of politics in Washington; and when he cut a special and certainly unconstitutional health care deal with the unions, they saw him not just break his promise, they saw the most blatant and reprehensible manifestation of political payoff in modern memory,” Romney said.

“No, Mr. President, the American people didn’t hear and see too little, they saw too much,” he added. “Americans said no because Obamacare is bad care for America.”

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