Posted by
Patrick Henry on Thursday, November 19, 2009 10:04:32 PM
Within a few days the United States Senate will begin debate on the so-called healthcare reform bill drafted behind
closed doors and then disclosed privately to members of the majority before either the minority or the public were
allowed to see it. Once debate begins. seanators will have an opportunity to propose amendments before a final bill
can be voted on. The process is expected to be long and acrimonious.
What is most astonishing is that grown men and women, elected to the snior house of the legislature by their own
respective constituencies will spend so much time discussing, and then trying to pass into law something that does
not even rise to the level of good fiction. It is, instead, a flimsy tissue of outright lies.
At Barack Obama's insistence the language of the Stupak-Pitts amendment prohibiting the use of any federal funds
for abortion has already been stripped out of the bill. If it passes in its current form. it will constitute the largest
expansion of abortion since it was legalized, use tax dollars to pay for elective abortions and penalize private
insurers who do not wish to fund abortions. There are two issue here. First, if you believe the killing of unborn infants
is immoral, you cannot support this bill. Second, whatever you believe about abortion, if you believe your tax
dollars and the taxes of those who do object o moral grounds should not be used to fund elective abortions
then you cannot, in good conscience, support this bill. Bart Stupak (D-MI) has promised Nancy Pelosi that if the
bill comes back from the conference committee without the amendment banning public funding of abortions she
will lose ten to fifteen votes toward final passage. The bill only passed by five votes,
Second, the message that the bill will not increase the deficit, either in the short or long term, and that it will reduce
the costs of medical care are groundless fantasies based om hypothetical projections much like those used to pass
Medicare and Medicaid, both of which are now nearly bankrupt and continue fueling the deficit. It's a lie, plain and
simple. If you believe it you might as well believe in the Easter Bunny!
Third, the notion that the only tax increases will be for the wealthiest class is false on its face. In fact, taxes will
go up on small businesses -- that's right, the ones run by Joe and Mary Middleclass. And those new taxes on wheelchairs,
crutches, breathing assistance machines and the like. Do you believe that only the wealthy buy such things" If ever there
was a true gouge, this is it. Let's take healthcare for the poor out of grandma's social security. It's obscene!
Fourth, if you believe it's possible to whack $400M out of a program like Medicare without reducing the availability
and quality of care, then please say hello to the tooth fairy for me. If this government can save that much in fraud and
waste then why didn't they start doing it when Obama took office and use it to avoid some of the bailouts? They can't
do anything like what they're promising. The Congressional Budget Office knows it and I guarantee you that senior
Americans know it.
Fifth, how can any sane adult believe that an entity that makes and enforces the rules governing health insurance
can go into direct competition with those who have to live by those rules without gradually squeezing them out
of business? This is one of the biggest Obama lies of all, and it's so obvious it's hardly worth arguing. It's why
Joe Lieberman (I-CT) and Mary Landrieu (D-LA) have said they won't vote for any bill that inclides the "public
option," and why Repuiblicans unanimously oppose it.
Finally, if you want to look through a crystal ball at the future of government run healthcare, just look at what
a wonderful job it has done with the H1N1 vaccine that's been too little, too late and is still not available to
all of the at risk. This is what big givernment does to just about everything it touches. It can't even accurately
count the jobs that have been produced (or not) by the great stimulus boondoggle that should never have been.
But the fact that in spite of the obvious mendacity with which this president and the Democratic party have
tried to sell America this tripe, they continue to trumpet it from the rooftops, even applauding themselves for
thinking of it, The resaon this administration has abandoned the prosecution of marijuana violators is that they
hope more Americans will smoke themselves into a stoned stupor until they can slide through a entitlement
program that will hopelessly indenture future generations to an unsustainable debt, and not fix anything now
in the bargain. Joe Lieberman, Blcnahe Lincoln, Ben Nelson and Mary Landirieu are the key senators who
can block this misbegotten bill from ever soming up for a vote. Write or call them if you can. Tell them you;re
counting on them to see through the lies and vote "no" for cloture. Maybe that will finally give this "Abortion
Presidnet" something to think about.