For those who do not understand the moral implications of appeasing one’s enemies I suggest they simply take a good look at what has been happening in the Senate these last few weeks. Senator after senator, seeing that the health care reform bill could not be passed without unanimous Democrat and Independent support, started holding the bill hostage for concessions for their states. With each capitulation on the part of Harry Reid and the administration, senators became more emboldened and demanded more for their votes. Nebraska got the federal government to pick up the tab for Medicaid expansion. Louisiana received $300 million in Medicaid funds from the federal government. Massachusetts and Vermont also got more federal funds for Medicaid. Vermont received an additional $10 billion for new health centers. The list goes on. What this shows is that when the enemy (or in this case, one’s “friends) smells weakness, they pounce, especially if one is known for appeasing at all costs. This applies to politics at home and diplomacy abroad… but the Democrats do not seem to understand this, despite the fact that they engage in the same type of extortion in Congress.

This pic makes my stomach turn

Interestingly enough, the president and Majority Leader Reid seem all too happy to hand out these payoffs in order to secure their legislative victory this year, knowing full well that they would have a hard time passing it next year because of the midterm elections. What this shows is that we can expect for any future legislative push from the White House or from the Democratic Party to be held hostage at every turn, especially considering the high dissatisfaction with Congress and the slipping poll numbers for the president which point to the probability of Republicans gaining some seats in 2010. This, in general, is a good thing legislatively (because it may end up stopping the big-government agenda), although a bad thing in terms of foreign policy. Washington is becoming a federal-funds gold rush for politicians hoping to cash in their votes, for corporations that are deemed too big to fail, for government agencies and programs that Democrats support, and for every special interest group that leans left. If we measure the success of a government by its willingness to create money out of thin air and hand it out with reckless abandon, then this one bests all the previous ones by a wide margin. As of yet, the new administration has not proven itself able to force anyone’s hand at anything… we were opposed at Copenhagen, Iran continues to defy us, North Korea also, the closing of Guantanamo is lagging, Pakistan will only cooperate with us so much, the banks won’t do what the president says, etc. etc. The only victories that the administration has claimed are victories that were handed to them either through luck, Democrats exercising their Congressional majorities, or luck. One of the major reasons for this is because of the weakness that a policy of total appeasement projects… which I guess reinforces my previous observation of evil: it ends up destroying itself.

-AG