{"id":1970,"date":"2009-11-09T16:14:54","date_gmt":"2009-11-09T21:14:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/?p=1970"},"modified":"2009-11-09T16:20:28","modified_gmt":"2009-11-09T21:20:28","slug":"somewhere-clement-attlee-is-smiling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/1970\/somewhere-clement-attlee-is-smiling\/","title":{"rendered":"Somewhere, Clement Attlee is Smiling"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Some people have a knack for recognizing a decisive moment before it occurs. Even fewer have the insight to choose (or guess) which way is best when it happens. Count Martin Heinrich, freshman Democrat from New Mexico, as one of the folks who didn\u2019t migrate from column A to column B. When discussing his support for comprehensive health care \u201creform\u201d over the weekend, Congressman Heinrich <a href=\"http:\/\/prescriptions.blogs.nytimes.com\/2009\/11\/07\/lawmakers-detail-obamas-pitch\/\" target=\"_blank\">said<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>This is an opportunity to do something as big Social Security,\u201d he added. \u201cAnd me, personally, I don\u2019t want to be on the wrong side of history.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Regrettably, far too many liberal politicians think being first (or biggest) is the same as being right. With this in mind, replicating the biggest social welfare boondoggle in American history becomes not only historic, but right, and voting for it ensures supporters of their implied inclusion in whatever laudatory blurb finds its way into next decade\u2019s high school civics books.<\/p>\n<p>However, there is another way to interpret the \u201chistoric\u201d moment facing the nation and the Democratic Party. In the aftermath of World War II, England voted for a weaker presence abroad, and a much enhanced social safety net at home. The plan came to be known as the \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Post-war_consensus\" target=\"_blank\">post war consensus<\/a>\u201d and can be characterized as:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u2026a belief in Keynesian economics, a mixed economy with the nationalization of major industries, the establishment of the National Health Service and the creation of the modern welfare state in Britain. The policies were instituted by all governments (both Labour and Conservative) during the post-war period.\u201d (Emphasis added)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Sound familiar? Much like Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid, the leader of the consensus, <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Clement_Attlee\" target=\"_blank\">Clement Attlee<\/a>, was an unremarkable politician except for the fact he helped create the National Health Service. This put Britain on the path of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.guardian.co.uk\/politics\/2009\/oct\/01\/nhs-debt-imf-britain\" target=\"_blank\">unsustainable spending and deficits<\/a> all in the name of a health program that expands coverage while castrating care.<\/p>\n<p>Welcome to infamy, Rep. Heinrich. Here you\u2019ll find no end to self-indulgent paternalism and the undying belief that free people need \u201cfree\u201d services from government.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Some people have a knack for recognizing a decisive moment before it occurs. Even fewer have the insight to choose (or guess) which way is best when it happens. Count Martin Heinrich, freshman Democrat from New Mexico, as one of the folks who didn\u2019t migrate from column A to column B. When discussing his support [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[463,77,465,460,111,464,462,461],"class_list":["post-1970","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-posts","tag-clement-attlee","tag-harry-reid","tag-health-care-reform","tag-martin-heinrich","tag-nancy-pelosi","tag-national-health-service","tag-post-war-consensus","tag-social-security"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1970","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1970"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1970\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1976,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1970\/revisions\/1976"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1970"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1970"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1970"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}