Health Care Reform(?) Wins, America Loses: It’s Worse Than That - America May Well Be Lost
Health Care Reform(?) Wins, America Loses: It’s Worse Than That - America May Well Be Lost
By
Ken Eliasberg
We have just witnessed the final shot across America’s bow. No, correct that — this shot wasn’t across our bow; this shot landed right in the middle of our ship of state (where are ordinance is stored) and threatens to blow the ship entirely out of the water. The health care reform bill may well be the straw that breaks the American camel’s back. Why? First of all, as I have frequently observed, this Act is not about health care at all; it is about putting more and more power in the hands of the federal government.
What this bill will actually do is:
1. Dramatically add to our current economic woes (notwithstanding the price tag that
Obama would like to attach to the measure);
2. Destroy the world’s greatest health care system; and
3. Fundamentally alter the character and nature of America, i.e.
moving us right along the path to a Welfare State.
Once again, I urge the reader to conduct an independent inquiry — do your own homework; do not take anything I say on faith. And by all means please do not take seriously the utopian ramblings of my left-wing colleagues on this paper — invariably, what they say is devoid of factual support and, more typically, divorced from economic reality (or, for that matter, any reality).
1. Bankrupting America.- WE ARE BROKE!!! As a consequence, even if this piece of garbage (oops, I mean legislation) made any sense, and even if, as our bleeding heart left-wing ideologues suggest, some right to health care can be found in some implicit statement in our Constitution (or, as they occasionally suggest, somewhere in the American conscience), this measure is economically impossible. And, please, spare me any nonsense that Obama has assured us that this Act will actually save money (arguing that his statement finds support in the CBO scoring). The CBO scores based on what has been submitted to it. If what has been submitted is either without factual support (as opposed to actual lies), cannot be substantiated until we have actual experience operating under the terms of the measure, or, in the alternative, will not be implemented, all you get is an imaginary conclusion — you know, garbage in, garbage out. In other words your conclusion can never be more reliable than the premises upon which it is based, and, in the final analysis, cannot be substantiated at all until we have actual experience living with the measure in practice.
By the way, have you noticed that when most left-wing commentators and pundits (particularly the ones in this newspaper) discuss their reform proposals, they rarely, if ever, deal with the economics of the situation, i.e. how are we going to fund the measure in question? That’s because most of them not only know nothing about economics but, more to the point, they have never ever run a business and have no idea what they are talking about — you know, it’s “just my opinion.”
Here, I urge you again to use no more than your common sense, your personal experiences with having interacted with any government agency, and your awareness of the accuracy that went into cost projections with any previous piece of entitlement legislation (or, for that matter, almost any previous legislative effort). Our two previous major entitlement efforts were Social Security (1935 — FDR and the New Deal) and Medicare and Medicaid — (1965 - LBJ and the Great Society). How reliable were the cost estimates in each of those situations? How are they doing? The estimates have proved to be so far wide of the mark as to boggle the mind — to make one wonder what the hell were those guys thinking (smoking?), or were they merely engaged in wishful thinking, the stuff of which liberalism is made? The measures themselves are so far under water that it is unlikely that some of you (and certainly few, if any, of your children) will receive benefits under these programs throughout your lives (and your grandchildren will not get a dime’s worth of benefits; on the contrary, we are saddling them with a debt burden from under which they will never climb out). In short, we cannot afford this measure, even if it were a good idea— AND IT IS NOT!!!
We are going to add 32 million people to the health care rolls; eliminate pre-existing conditions as a bar to obtaining health insurance (and expect the insurance companies to cut rates — and stay in business?); and cut 500 billion dollars from medicare (try getting that one through), and do it all on a cost efficient basis? I have heard more preposterous assertions in my lifetime, but not many and none on this scale. This measure will put the economy right over the edge. And maybe that’s a good thing; maybe that’s what’s needed to really wake America up. The Tea Party movement is a good start; indeed, it’s the closest thing that I have seen to a real citizens revolt (that’s coming), and I’m delighted to see that it just might represent an awakening of the American spirit (and thus just might put a backbone back in the Republican Party — hope springs eternal). We have to take back our country before the left-wing pushes us into Banana Republic status. This Health care reform package - which, again, has absolutely nothing to do with health care - is a gigantic leap into nanny state status. In the words of that moron, Joe Biden (have you encountered a bigger imbecile in elected office — and, I’m aware that covers a huge amount of territory?), the passage of this legislation is “a big f—ing deal.” You will soon see (and feel) what a big deal this really is. It’s so big that it will break the bank! (to be continued).