Posted by
Patrick Henry on Monday, March 22, 2010 10:21:48 PM
Reveling in their victory on healthcare reform legislation, Democrats have already
begun talking about how they now have to go out and "sell" the bill to America. This
mantra raises a couple of interesting issues. First, if this bill is such a good deal,why,
then, does it now have to be "sold?" Second, if one admits that it has to be "sold"
after the fact, then one is admitting in the same breath that it was not "bought" by
Americans prior to its passage and, therefore, that Democrats acted to impose legislation
they knew to be directly against the wishes of a majority of citizens.
This, of course, is where the waffling begins. The polls were skewed, Democrats
argue, by misinformation disseminated generously by Republicans. They further argue
that their polls showed that people actually supported the components of the legislation.
That's why they are now tasked with going out and setting the record straight.
Get real! That this turkey of a bill imposes four years of taxes on a depression weakened
economy before providing substantial benefits is not misinformation, but fact. That it
imposes a half-trillion dollars in new taxes and drains an already sinking Medicare of
about the same is not fiction, but fact. That a panel in Washington will decide what
constitutes best treatment practice (and, thus, what insurance will and will not pay for)
instead of one's own physician is reality. That 100 new bureaucracies entailing a nearly
unparalleled expansion of govrnment result from its' passage is undeniable. And how is it
not a government takeover when government decides what minimum standards policies
must meet, what is a fair price to charge for them and who must buy them -- that would
be everyone -- and then takes money (taxes) from some to pay premiums for those who
can't afford them? So it turns out that what critics have been saying about the bill are
not disinformation, but just inconvenient truths Democrats don't want anyone to hear.
And the biggest joke of all is "component polling," which only works if one includes
ALL the components. Democrats point out that when they ask people if they want pre-
existing conditions covered, most people say yes. When they ask if people want portability,
and the dissolution of lifetime and annual coverage caps, the answers are affirmative. The
problem is that they never ask those same people if they want to see a half-trillion dollars
stripped from Medicare, or 14 new taxes added to everyone, or groups of bureaucrats
miles away deciding what constitutes the best medical care. If they had asked those
questions, the predictable answers would have told them exactly why Americans liked
some of the components but hated the bill. The benefits to some are outweighed by the
penalties to almost all.
So, now the Democrats have their coveted "medical welfare," and we have the taxes
and the government meddling with which to cope. We also have the doubtfully
constitutional government mandate that we must buy a private commercial product
(health insurance). I was reading some idiotic Democrat blogger who was crowing
that even should the courts strike down the latter provision, the rest of the law would
remain intact. The guy was apparently too dumb to understand that the only way of
paying for those with pre-existing conditions and the like is to make everybody buy
insurance. And if the courts strike down the mandate the bill is bankrupt and will
fall apart like the house of cards it is.
But the president says "ignore the public polls" and "don't look at the process." It's
easy to see why he'd say that since his own poll numbers, anchored to his healthcare
millstone, are dropping like a rock, and since the arm-twisting, backroom-dealing,
bribing, extortionist tactics used by him and his Democrat cronies to eke out a bare
majority of votes even from his own party make "ugly" a pale characterization. Look
for more of the same when they go out to "sell the bill." Expect them to resort to such
demagoguery as demanding whether their critics would take away insurance from those
with pre-existing conditions. Expect them to trot out crippled children, psychotic
street people and ACORN escapees to use as props for their defense. It's their tactic
of choice. But all the sob stories in the world can't justify bankrupting an entire nation,
or depriving Americans of freedoms others have fought and died for. This is a Democrat
debacle, and Americans should make them wear it through November and beyond. Neither
Obama's slick charm nor Pelosi's unsubtle sophistry can save them from the judgment
that is coming.