A Further Perspective
The Mind Boggles
Marvel at the insanity of the process we have allowed to steer the fate of the Republic.
Haven’t you heard? Baucus got his caucus to snow Snowe, the health insurance form got reformed, and the public is plumb out of options. If that ain’t cause for celebration where you are, you must be living elsewhere than our nation’s capital. And for that matter you may soon be running out of your own capital too.
There are many quibbles to be had with the bill recently voted out of committee by a bunch of Senators who should meet the same fate. These are matters of substance, critiques possible only to the limited extent the contents of the legislation are known. But let us put aside for the moment our discontent with the content. It behooves us instead to take a moment to marvel at the insanity of the process we have allowed to steer the fate of the Republic.
Think about this. We have decisions made about matters desperately close to home, affecting our health and wealth, our lives and livelihoods, and by whom? A group of Senators, fairly capable people, farm the work out to aides of whom we know nothing. Who are these people and how is their capability determined, their efficiency measured, their accuracy gauged? The work produced by these ciphers in their crypts is hardly understood by the legislators, then subject to manipulation by jurists. It seems unimaginable that your life and mine may be offered as human sacrifices to the meddling of these wizards of Oz hiding behind their curtains.
Number two: it is astonishing that we undertake sweeping steps based on the most rudimentary projections of outcomes. How many months and years would a private firm have to invest in study upon study before it undertook a project affecting hundreds of millions of people and trillions of dollars? Look for example at the pharmaceutical firms. Before they can bring a drug to market, they must spend fifty to a hundred million dollars in research and testing. That is for one single solitary drug.
Has the Senate, or the Congressional Budget Office, spent a fraction of that in limning the outcome of a massive health-care overhaul? Nah, they throw a few numbers together, extrapolate from a series of questionable premises, and plop a paper down with a figure that is treated as gospel. Is anyone testing past CBO projections to assay the degree of precision they achieve? We do know that Medicare was never going to cost more than 4 billion dollars a year. And yet we trust this system to dictate the prescription of all the drugs by all the doctors for all the citizens… a system no company could rely on for a single medication.
Point three: it is utter madness to create open-ended commitments with no mechanism to impose restraint when it overreaches or simply grows too big. It has been a favored feint of Obama and the Congressional Democrats to cite as an advantage for public health insurance the fact that it does not “need” to show a profit. But the need to show a profit is what we count on to regulate the insurance companies. A profit is a barometer of systemic efficiency. These public plans go hog-wild, and if we complain about the money being lost, we are answered by higher taxes.
Who are these people? What are they doing? Are they qualified to do it? Is anybody? How do they know the results they will bring? Can they possibly know? What is their track record in previous undertakings? Is anyone keeping track? Are there consequences to them if they fail? What guarantees do we have that if they mess up someone will clean up the mess? With questions like these, it is the height of irresponsibility to trust the fate of a country to this apparatus.
The cherry-on-top came earlier this week when the insurance industry unveiled a report by Price Waterhouse predicting vastly higher insurance costs if this bill is enacted. Within minutes members of Congress were deriding the bias and distortion of this finding. The irony here is mind-boggling. The worst accountants in the world are heaping scorn on the best accountants in the world, telling them to mind their own business. They should better stay with what they know, industries which make sense, plan carefully, deliver well, track results punctiliously and discard what does not work.
About the Author
Jay D. Homnick, commentator and humorist, is a frequent contributor to The American Spectator. He also writes for Human Events. Here he speaks at the Rally for Religious Freedom in Miami on June 8, 2012.
Letter to the Editor View all comments (37) | Leave a comment
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sagman888| 10.15.09 @ 7:06AM
Mr. Hommick is dead-on here. The people in charge are rushing us all off a cliff, but all they see ahead are sunny uplands.
Or maybe not. As others have noted, if a great economic crisis ensues as a result of the madness pushed through today, the government will be "forced" to step in and take draconian measures to save us all.
It's more than our standard of living that's at stake, or our safety in a dangerous world. It's our very freedom that's at risk. And why. Because Americans in great numbers took a flyer on an unknown Chicago pol and gave one party everything.
We deserve the politicians we elect and the outcomes they impose.
Jeff Perren | 10.15.09 @ 9:20AM
I agree with the spirit of sagman888's comments, but add this: this process has been going on for 100 years, ever since the introduction of Progressivism in politics. It's continued with only slight deceleration for a few years here and there. We're at the tail end of a century long effort. Obama and the current Congress are the culmination, not an aberration.
tenn slim| 10.15.09 @ 10:03AM
Jeff.
You are entirely correct. The process is now reaching fruition. We have but our selves to blame.
What we can do is save the latest teenage generation. They are far more informed than I or you ever were.
Semper Fi
end
Walter| 10.15.09 @ 2:15PM
Jeff,
IMHO:
I agree that this erosion of freedom has been going on for a long time. But if you read history you will see that it has literally been going on since day one of the Republic.
My belief is that any people are only as free as the powers-that-be allow them to be. And it is only the beneficence or the malevolence of those powers that separates the early Republic from a Soviet Union or what we see here today.
This country was protected for 2 centuries by a respect and love for its Constitution and its Judeo-Christian beliefs, both of which seem to be in decline today.
Bud| 10.15.09 @ 11:12PM
Your commentary is correct to the degree that We The People accept the premise that there exist "powers that be". When we buy into the idea that we are accountable to elected leaders, and not vice versa, we are doomed.
Walter| 10.16.09 @ 8:41AM
Bud,
I didn't mean to say that we are accountable to our elected representatives, just that common people, by establishing any form of government, give their permission to be governed by those they choose as governors, under the system they allow to be created.
I maintain that it is only the values of the governors that determine the degree of freedom in a political system. Unfortunately, our current set of governors seem more interested in personal and group power than in establishing a just and flourishing atmosphere of freedom.
Tenn Slim| 10.15.09 @ 10:08AM
sagma...Or maybe not
My greatest fear is exactly that. We are sitting on a FP powder keg, while OBNA plays golf. A 9/11 hit + OBNA opportunists, may well push the Left over the edge. Along with the USA>
It is hard to imagine the Left being satisfied with one defeat after another in Congress, a repeat of the August Townhalls cannot be tolerated. Hence the urgency, secrecy, and deals. OBNA fight with FOX, Rush, are diversions. The Left has ONE goal, the demise of the USA System and by gum they will succeed.
Only our Creator, and our cold dead hand can prevent this.
End
Alan Brooks| 10.15.09 @ 10:37PM
Right, you deserved for example Clinton's second term when you ran Dole in '96.
Alan Brooks| 10.15.09 @ 10:40PM
We deserve the politicians we elect and the outcomes they impose."
And the mediocrities you nominate and run, but do not elect.
Alan Brooks| 10.15.09 @ 10:41PM
"We deserve the politicians we elect and the outcomes they impose."
and you'll continue to compound your errors.
Margie| 10.16.09 @ 2:21PM
Did you vote for Clinton, Alan?
Louis Jenkins| 10.15.09 @ 8:22AM
Wizard of OZ? The mysterious Wizards behind the curtains? It is the Wicked Witch and her flying monkeys that are leading this nation. "I'll get you my pretty, and your 401 K too!!" In fact, the flying monkeys exhibit better behavior and discipline than those in the District of Crimminals.
Old Soldier| 10.15.09 @ 8:43AM
Have any of these people ever read the Constitution and its Amendments? I know they all sworn an oath to protect it, but they are politicians.
Pingback| 10.15.09 @ 9:15AM
Twitter Trackbacks for The American Spectator : The Mind Boggles [spectator.org] on links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Tenn Slim| 10.15.09 @ 10:00AM
All
My opine. The behind the scenes folks are academically trained Leftist, almost 100%. The Interns, staffers, writers, "experts" almost w/o exception come from the NE Academic and the Left Coast Academic schools. These posts are sought after, from the days of thier freshman entry. Pol Sci, Public Affairs, Urban development, Statistician, (NOTE Zero accountants) comprise the staffs. Add to the mix, outlines, white papers, journals, essays, etc from the Leftist Center for American Progress, and you have our system.
We have allowed this to happen cause, Like Glenn Beck says, we are apathetic, I prefer Pathetic.
Semper Fi
end
Ken (Old Texican)| 10.15.09 @ 11:02AM
Mr. Homnick
Please forgive my copy/paste here from another article today. I had not read your article yet.
Plug Mr. Wilson's article above into planning for your future...please.
I am going to use a phrase here that I very rarely use. It is one of the most damning in my vocabulary:
"the arrogance of ignorance"
This man, his team, and his blithely following congress critters have absolutely no clue, and no particular desire to put gas in the tank of the American engine that feeds us all.
So what does that mean to each of you?
Folks, "The Big Grab" is well underway, but when these twerps have grabbed all they can...it will melt away in their hands. What will be left?
They have put the American engine in a descending spiral of "diminishing returns". Productivity is spiraling down, the incredibly complex interactions of goods and services in our society are spiraling down......
As a pilot, I am well versed in an emergency maneuver called a "emergency descent spiral". It is the absolute fastest way to get an airplane on the ground without peeling the wings off.
There is one terrible danger inherent in the maneuver though: If the spiral is continued a mite too long without leveling the wings momentarily...the spiral will tighten and tighten, and becomes a "death spiral" from which there is NO recovery
Each one of you now...please read carefully. Each of you and each of your loved ones has a unique situation. Nevertheless, you need to start making a check list and filling out the priorities...
food...shelter... clothing...medical supplies, barter items etc.
Please don't spend your last dollars holding on to your mortgage and stuff. Prepare to "level your wings" for a bit if the unintended consequences get too severe.
PS: there was a quiet acceptance during the cold war that "you can't take groceries to a public fallout shelter. They will be "re-distributed".
Best of luck.
Zopilote| 10.15.09 @ 11:06AM
Think of how much fun it must be to craft legislation that will affect millions of Americans but those crafting it don't have to partake in the final boondoggle. To sit in conference, totally relaxed, and come up with a plan that will be screwed up and expensive...and say: "Here's health care folks, we did it for you because we care...but we are exempt because we are your leaders."
Son Of Sam | 10.15.09 @ 11:25AM
Herewith, absolutely ALL you need to know about healthcare "reform":
A) the politicians want it, but we the people are against it
B) None of the politicians imposing it will EVER have to be part of it
C) WE THE PEOPLE pay for their healthcare, so politicians will never run out of OUR money to pay for THEIR healthcare
D) THEIR heathcare plans are run by private companies... so Congress doesn't trust the government it's a part of!
E) WE need to not only un-elect these bozos and criminals, we need to investigate, indict, prosecute and convict them. We will never be a free people until the "refromers" who so hate America (and us) are in the ground, in prison or in exile
stand strong until freedom dawns
Son Of Sam
http://www.samadamssos.bravehost.com/
gene hauber| 10.15.09 @ 11:50AM
VEBO-VEBO-VEBO- VOTE EVERY BUM OUT
alanstorm| 10.15.09 @ 2:24PM
Old Soldier has a point:
1. Congress and the President take an oath, administered by a Federal official of some kind, to protect and defend the constitution.
2. They then procede to ignore, or work to dismantle, said document.
3. Can't we arrest them all for lying to a Federal official?
Everly Waverly| 10.15.09 @ 4:18PM
Take any proprietor of a typical small business in a local strip-mall that's still viable and install that person as the head of our economy and you would have a better administrator of said economy than whoever are masquerading as experts now... Less than a year into this mess and it appears it's gonna get worse.
Pingback| 10.15.09 @ 8:16PM
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Pingback| 10.18.09 @ 10:30AM
Stepping Back to Look at the Health Care Debate | Axis of Right links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
bullwhacker| 10.18.09 @ 11:00AM
Its not supposed to work! Cloward-Piven, baby.
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