Michelle Malkin » Steyn: The real war on children

Steyn: The real war on children

By Michelle Malkin • October 21, 2007 10:24 AM

Big Meanie Mark Steyn delivers a Sunday barbecue of the Democrats’ sunk S-CHIP and the real war on children:

Last Thursday, Nancy Pelosi, as is the fashion, used the phrase “the children” like some twitchy verbal tic, a kind of Democrat Tourette’s syndrome: “This is a discussion about America’s children … We could establish ourselves as the children’s Congress … Come forward on behalf of the children … I tried to do that when I was sworn in as speaker surrounded by children. It was a spontaneous moment, but it was one that was clear in its message: we are gaveling this House to order on behalf of the children.”

Etc. So what is the best thing America could do “for the children”? Well, it could try not to make the same mistake as most of the rest of the Western world and avoid bequeathing the next generation a system of unsustainable entitlements that turns the entire nation into a giant Ponzi scheme…

…I’m in favor of tax credits for child health care, and Health Savings Accounts for adults, and any other reform that emphasizes the citizen’s responsibility to himself and his dependants. But middle-class entitlement creep would be wrong even if was affordable, even if Bill Gates wrote a check to cover it every month: it turns free-born citizens into enervated wards of the Nanny State. As Gerald Ford likes to say when trying to ingratiate himself with conservative audiences, “A government big enough to give you everything you want is big enough to take away everything you have.” But there’s an intermediate stage: A government big enough to give you everything you want isn’t big enough to get you to give any of it back. As I point out in my book, nothing makes a citizen more selfish than socially equitable communitarianism: Once a fellow’s enjoying the fruits of Euro-style entitlements, he couldn’t give a hoot about the general societal interest; he’s got his, and who cares if it’s going to bankrupt the state a generation hence?

That’s the real “war on children”: in Europe, it’s killing their future. Don’t make the same mistake here.

The Dems are still pushing their agenda. A spokeswoman from the March of Dimes gave the Democrat radio address response this weekend on S-CHIP. They’ll be organizing to bring it back up for a vote.

No rest for the Nanny Staters.

***

Related: Darleen Click’s editorial cartoon…Strap on a kiddie human shield!

Posted in: Graeme Frost

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#1

On October 21st, 2007 at 10:47 am, donnab13 said:

Theres another side to this, “Its for the children” mantra. If its for the children why are so many adults covered? Seems less for the children and more for those that shouldnt be covered.
There is no need for expansion, maybe more of a need to cover those for whom the program is meant. Already its a mess in that regard.
#2

On October 21st, 2007 at 11:09 am, zorro said:

Darleen Click’s editorial cartoon is a hoot!

If the democraps really want to “help” the kids, let them be kids! Bring back recess, gym class, hunting, fishing, target shooting, scouting, etc. Get the lawyers and left wing politics out of the schools and let the teachers focus on reading and writing and arithmetic!

And welcome back Michelle, hope you enjoyed your birthday visit to the Reagan Ranch. More photos please!!
#3

On October 21st, 2007 at 11:09 am, beenthere said:

Another Steyn masterpiece. The man always knocks it out of the park. If only we could vote for Steyn for President. But of course he’s a Canadian . . .

Still, if he were elected Prime Minister of Canada and Canada were to invade and conquer America (hmmm. Shouldn’t be that hard, really), the nation might yet be saved.
#4

On October 21st, 2007 at 11:12 am, Marshall Russ said:

As usual Mark is LOL funny. The problem is the subject is not. It’s the same old liberal mantra. Makes your hair hurt to listen to it.
#5

On October 21st, 2007 at 11:13 am, Armigerous said:

“I tried to do that when I was sworn in as speaker surrounded by children. It was a spontaneous moment….”

….is she really stupid enough to think people actually believe that?
#6

On October 21st, 2007 at 11:14 am, Regulus said:

Ah, Steyn the Great. If there were such thing as a conservative fantasy team along the lines of Fantasy Football, it’d be a tough choice who to draft first: him, or Michelle.

And of course the donkeys are going to resurrect S-CHIP again, and again. Not because they think it has any real chance of passing in their version - it doesn’t, and they know it, and they don’t care - but because they want the issue.

It’s no different from their multiple failed attempts to secure defeat in Iraq by legislation. No different than their demogoguery when it comes to Social Security reform, or permanent tax relief, or school choice.

Creating viable legislation is not important. What is important is to keep whipping up the flames of anti-Republican hatred among their base, as well as scoring propaganda points among ill-informed independent voters.

This has become the Alpha and Omega of donkey priorities in Congress before the 2008 election. It goes far toward explaining why, other than a minimum wage hike, they’ve accomplished nothing since the 2006 election.

I’m not sure when it happened, but at some point the Democrat Party ran out of marketable new ideas. This happened at roughly the same time that their old ideas began to prove themselves to be outright failures, or at best unsustainable in the long term.

Question: How to get elected when you’re politically, morally and intellectually bankrupt? Democrat answer: try to maneuver your opponents into positions where you can point to them as the equivalent of Satan, the Anti-Christ and their assorted minions.

Rather than throw in the towel like the Whigs, the Federalists and the Know-Nothings did when they ran out of reasons to exist, Democrats turned electoral politics into a game: you score points by getting your own team members elected, and the object is to score more points than your arch-rivals.

But there’s no higher motivation than to simply rack up “points.”

More and more people are coming to see this, just as people like Michelle, Mark Steyn and Rush Limbaugh keep pointing out that ideologically the Democrat Party Has No Clothes.

If the Democrats cease to exist as a political entity in my lifetime - not likely, but I can dream - then for her efforts toward this noble end I’ll renew my suggestion that Michelle be one of the innaugural members of a class of American Living National Treasures.
#7

On October 21st, 2007 at 11:15 am, Brian72 said:

They say “for the children“, but to be accurate the saying should be “for the voters“. That’s all it is. Bribing the voters, then raising a new generation of voters who are dependant on elected Democrats for their very health. From health care, they will branch out into controlling from DC anything and everything they can get their greedy hands on.

Stealth Stalinism
#8

On October 21st, 2007 at 11:16 am, Marshall Russ said:

Mark has American citizenship. I have a Canadian associate that dreams of being an American citizen one day. God Bless America!
#9

On October 21st, 2007 at 11:26 am, ajmontana said:

OT-
When you click comments on the lead story the font gets huge.

Also Michelle, you made it out of California just in time, it’s u.g.l.y. here right now.
#10

On October 21st, 2007 at 11:54 am, gayle said:

Maybe those same libs complaining should opt out of their FREE health insurance and donate it to a child(ren) in dire need.
#11

On October 21st, 2007 at 11:59 am, palani said:

Politicians, especially dems, are experts at exploiting “the children”.

Here’s a link to an Associated Press story, reported in the Asbury Press, about how 7 year old children in South Jersey are being protected from drawings of guns and other dangerous weapons: ZERO-TOLERANCE POLICY
#12

On October 21st, 2007 at 12:21 pm, TMoney said:

“Democrat Tourette’s” - engrave it in stone. Classic.
#13

On October 21st, 2007 at 1:07 pm, txvet2 said:

If the Dems really wanted to do something for the children, they could try not murdering a million or so of them a year in and exitting the womb.
#14

On October 21st, 2007 at 1:15 pm, greenfairie said:

Bravo, Mark Steyn. I have the worst fangirly crush on him and his cool accent ;).

Seriously though, the more beholden to entitlements we get, the more the government controls us and the lazier we get.
#15

On October 21st, 2007 at 1:24 pm, granite said:

“Mark has American citizenship.”

Yes, I thought I had read that a 1-2 years ago in the “about the author” section or the book jacket of his “America Alone”.

Anyone else get the sense that the nanny-staters want to get the public into the infantile, dependent state resembling that of the Eloi in the “Time Machine”?

(Sorry - seen the movie many times; haven’t read ther book yet.)

And, absolutely: God Bless America.
#16

On October 21st, 2007 at 2:05 pm, Larry L. Sharp said:

It’s really not about children at all. It’s about who controls the children and for what purpose. Once you get the children dependent on governmental entitlements they grow up thinking it is the responsibility of the government to provide for them. It completely strips them of any sense of personal responsibility. Once that occurs, they keep voting for and supporting those who will continue their entitlements. Hence, Hillary and Pelosi’s pandering “for the children”.
#17

On October 21st, 2007 at 2:09 pm, meatpieandtatters said:

The democrats are most definitely the party of the conflicted. On the one hand they advocate for abortion on demand, while next sining the virtues that children must have health care. I guess they’re acknowledging a victory for the children who’ve escaped the maniacal abortion fiends who now want to reward them, hoping to conscript the next generation of entitlement-minded wards of the state.
#18

On October 21st, 2007 at 2:28 pm, Jim M. said:

Here’s the basic difference between the parties:

The Republicans are behind SCHIP; the Democrats are pushing BULL SCHIP.
#19

On October 21st, 2007 at 3:31 pm, Ken M. said:

…there are some great comments on Steyn over at Lucianne Goldberg’s site as well.

–Ken

http://www.lucianne.com/threads2.asp?artnum=365961
#20

On October 21st, 2007 at 5:07 pm, bear1909 said:

The Dhimmicrats are finished. All of this mularkey about kids makes me ill.

Pelosi is a pit viper with no conscience. If she cared a whit about kids she’d be doing something real about National Security.
#21

On October 21st, 2007 at 5:17 pm, On-my-soap-box said:

On October 21st, 2007 at 10:47 am, donnab13 said:
Theres another side to this, “Its for the children” mantra. If its for the children why are so many adults covered?

Brian72 comment #7

Nail.head
#22

On October 21st, 2007 at 5:48 pm, gunslingerpatriot said:

Remember the proverb;

“The hand that rocks the cradle, is the hand that rules the world”

GSP

BTW-Kinda of frightening having mama pelosi rocking the cradle
#23

On October 21st, 2007 at 6:12 pm, puhiawa said:

The left has no real ideas, so under the protection of the MSM it attempts to recycle failed Euro policies as if they were original thoughts. Heck. some like Biden even plagiarize the speeches of Euro Pols.
#24

On October 21st, 2007 at 7:35 pm, donnab13 said:

To On my soapbox…re Theres another side to this, “Its for the children” mantra. If its for the children why are so many adults covered?

I was being facetious..grins
#25

On October 21st, 2007 at 7:39 pm, On-my-soap-box said:

donna:

I figured but Brain72 took the words off of my keyboard!
#26

On October 22nd, 2007 at 9:15 am, JHSII said:

Every time I hear the phrase “for the children” I think of how Pelosi and her crowd are acting like a bunch of two year olds.
#27

On October 22nd, 2007 at 9:45 am, Bruce said:

“A spokeswoman from the March of Dimes gave the Democrat radio address response this weekend on S-CHIP.”

Another charity has been exposed as being partisan. Next time I’m asked to March, I think I’ll just march away!
#28

On October 22nd, 2007 at 3:06 pm, WheresMyAmerica said:

At some point the Dems will literaly hold children in front of them, violenty shaking them as to emphasize their exteme concern, resulting in shaken baby (children) syndrome. Keep it up Dems, at some point you will be held accountable.