Response to the Obama Health Care Agenda

“I happen to be a proponent of a single-payer universal health care program.” – Barack Obama, AFL-CIO conference, 2003

“My commitment is to make sure that we’ve got universal health care for all Americans by the end of my first term as president.” – Barack Obama, SEIU Health Care forum, 2007

“And here’s what you need to know.  First, I will not sign a plan that adds one dime to our deficits — either now or in the future. I will not sign it if it adds one dime to the deficit, now or in the future, period.” – Barack Obama, To a Joint Session of Congress, September 9, 2009

Obama is lying to us, and so too are Congressional Democrats. They have been lying to us since the start of the recent health care “debate.” But there can be no honest debate when there is a complete lack of honesty. I watched Obama attempt to explain his “new” health care plan on Wednesday – and I was dumbfounded. His speech was rampant with counterintuitiveness.

Obama laments that insurance companies “ration health care based on who’s sick and who’s healthy; who can pay and who can’t.” First of all, insurance companies don’t offer health care, so they can’t “ration” it. They provide insurance plans that help pay for certain procedures and treatments. And there is nothing inherently wrong with basing an insurance plan or compensation on who is sick and who is not – that’s the whole idea of health care. If you’re sick, you pay more because it costs more to get the treatment you need. Healthy people do not need medicine or medical procedures. Likewise, if you can pay for a policy or treatment, then you purchase it – and the insurance will cover you, reimburse you, or do part or neither, depending on the specifics of your plan.

Obama also laments that people can lose their insurance if they change jobs and that businesses have to choose between either hiring additional workers or providing insurance to existing employees. He does not, however, make the case that it is the responsibility of business owners to provide health care insurance to their employees in the first place.

Obama even complains about the federal government not being able to afford the increasing costs of health care. But again, he does not acknowledge the argument that government shouldn’t be in the business of providing people with health care or insurance. It is not one of the federal government’s constitutional powers, no matter how many people in our Congress, the White House, or our judiciary believe it is.

One of the real kickers from Obama’s speech was this statement:

“On one end of the spectrum, there are some who have suggested scrapping our system of private insurance and replacing it with a government-run health care system.”

Yes – some people have indeed suggested that. In fact, it has been Obama and his Democrat colleagues! Obama has been advocating a “single-payer” or “universal” health care system for many years. Are we to believe that he has suddenly changed his mind?

Does this sound like a man who understands failure and why things go wrong?

“I admire Senator Clinton and Bill Clinton for having tried in 1993. But they did it the wrong way. ‘Cause what they did was, they went behind closed doors, and they tried to come up with a plan without even including some key members of Congress – including members of their own party…the Clinton plan was dead on arrival…because they had not enlisted the American People into the conversation.” – Barack Obama, 2007

Does this sound like a man who doesn’t believe in universal health care or who has actually learned the lessons of the past? Did he and Democrats in Congress not just repeat the same exact process?

I can go on and on, picking apart his speech and pointing out his blatant lies and misrepresentations, but I need to cut to the chase.

We are being lied to. We are being set up for a single-payer system. The plans of Obama and the Democrat Congress pave the way for such a system by imposing absurd regulations, restrictions, and fines on individuals and businesses alike. The numbers and the policies don’t add up. Common sense ought to tell us that.

Obama claims his plan will eliminate pre-existing conditions while at the same time, keep premiums from rising, or even reduce them from their current levels. This plan is untenable. If insurance companies are forced to accept people with conditions that are known to increase their expenses, then premiums must necessarily rise. Forcing premiums to stay low will simply drive the insurance companies out of business. After all, why would they bother taking the business risk to provide a product or service if they cannot make any reasonable profit from it?

It can be argued that the actual goal is to purposely drive insurance companies out of business. Why would that be the administration’s objective? To pave the way for a single-payer system, run (of course) by the federal government. If insurance companies cannot operate because of the new laws, then the government will inevitably, and gladly, step in and take over. Does this really seem unlikely to happen?

Obama also claims his plan will only cost $100 billion per year – as if that’s just play money. (Perhaps it is to someone who gloriously praises one “stimulus” bill that cost nearly $800 billion.) But then, just a few sentences later, he stated that his proposal will “bring down our deficit by up to a trillion dollars over the next two decades.” Translation: It will cost us $2 trillion over the next two decades, but we will save – perhaps – $1 trillion. Further translation: We will still be at least $1 trillion in the hole. Of course, this is assuming that the projected costs are accurate – which, as our history indicates, is not likely.

And let’s not forget the fact that the current health care estimates have been calculated based on ten years of taxation, fines, and allegedly cutting Medicare, but only six years of new spending. Even with this type of fraudulent accounting, the program still adds to our debt.

As Obama and Congressional Democrats have stated, they are not worried about what this will do to their re-election chances. They have an opportunity to “transform” the power and role of our federal government, and they are going to take advantage of it while they still can. They don’t really care about those who are uninsured or cannot afford insurance or medical expenses. They only care that they can make the federal government the answer to whatever problems exist.

These people are distracting us with health care while simultaneously ramming it down our throats. They are making the debate about how we are going to solve problems with the federal government’s involvement, not whether the federal government ought to be involved in health care in the first place. At the same time, they are completely ignoring the real problems we are facing as a nation: our massive debt, our faltering economy, and a lack of responsibility and accountability at all levels in both public and private affairs. If they can keep us distracted with the false premises of health care and their intention to shove it through Congress, they can deflect attention from the fact that they have no clue how to govern or do things that will actually put this country back on the right track.

This is no blunder or coincidence. These people are socialists. They always have been and they probably always will be. Sure, they call themselves “progressives” – Obama, Clinton, Holder, Pelosi…all of them – but what is their ultimate agenda? To expand government, to put a strangle-hold on what’s left of our supposedly “free” market, and to control what we do as individuals. They are socialist to their cores, whether they believe it, admit it, or not. Some will deny it and claim they are merely the target of the “extremist right-wing.” They are afraid to admit what they are because they know that what they advocate is a failure and will be rejected by most of the American public (hopefully).

Some of them are worse than others. We have communists, Marxists, Maoists and fascists working closely with Obama and inside the walls of Congress. Some even admit to their extremist ideologies – not when they know the public is watching and listening, of course. They must hide, but when they’re exposed, they deny it or pretend that they have been taken out of context. Essentially, they are cowards. When confronted about their true agenda, they hide behind doublespeak, lies, ad hominem arguments, and utter denial.

Make no mistake – Obama and his cronies and colleagues have not let go of their desire to achieve a “universal” health care system in this country. They will lay the foundation for it with the legislation they are pushing right now, if it is ultimately passed. Nearly every aspect of the bills they have introduced and voted on moves this country one step closer to a single-payer system.

The socialists in our government want to force individuals – against their will and regardless if they can afford it – to carry health insurance. They want to force business owners – against their will and regardless if they can afford it – to offer insurance plans to their employees. They want to regulate and limit the costs of premiums while forcing insurance companies to cover everyone with pre-existing conditions. They want to create a new government bureaucracy that will oversee costs and quality, set new standards, and define employment and health care terminology for individuals and companies alike. They want to tax and fine individuals and businesses for either not having or providing insurance or for earning “more than their fair share” of money.

These are not solutions put forth by people who want to ensure better health care, increased insurance coverage, and lower costs. These are solutions put forth by power-hungry redistributionists who intend to destroy the system we have.

Let’s not confuse the issue or sugar-coat it. These socialists are lying to our faces about their intentions, the legislation they have created, and the inevitable effects of it. They won’t take “no” for an answer and they don’t care what the repercussions will be. They view success as whether or not they can subvert the Constitution and the constitutional processes we have enjoyed for the past 221 years (although the past 100 years have seen those increasingly fade away). They view success and failure as whether or not we are more dependent on and supportive of an ever-expansive government.

These people are a danger to our liberties and they are a danger to the welfare of our entire republic. We are losing the fight and we are losing our country to socialists. Some people will read this and claim that it is harmful rhetoric, but is it? And harmful to whom? The socialists?

You tell me – do you believe that your liberties are better protected today than they were a decade ago? Do you believe that the liberties you have today will be just as secure a decade from now?

Perhaps this country needs a refresher course on tyranny. No worries – we may soon receive some free government education on that very subject.

Copyright © 2010 by RationalLiberty.com

All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or copied in any form or by any means without written permission by the author.

__________________________________________________________________________________