The Right Prescription
Thin Reids
Sifting through the claims of the Medicine Man party.
The rhetorical misdirection of the Democrats on health care is impossible to exaggerate. Nancy Pelosi is now calling the public option the "consumer option." Say anything, that's the strategy at this point.
The Democrats are more like medicine men than health care experts. That the plan wouldn't take full effect for some years appeals to them. Once people start complaining about rationing and high taxes, many of the Democrats, like medicine men who scoot to the next village before their "cures" are exposed as frauds, will have left office and become health care lobbyists.
"Bipartisanship" for President Obama consists of talking with Republicans who already agree with him. But even that bogus definition won't hold up now that Olympia Snowe has distanced herself from Harry Reid's plan.
Still, Reid has come up with an opt-out provision for an opt-out president who likes deceptive compromises. "Our public option isn't a left proposal or a right proposal," said Reid at the press conference announcing the opt-out. "This is a consensus, a compromise that represents months of hard work and debate and will benefit all Americans."
Obama likes to appear as if he is taking the middle position between conservatism and liberalism even as he intends to sweep past the old liberal one. It is always more instructive to look at the fine print in his plans than his summaries of them. And what he denies today he can decree tomorrow. During the primary with Hillary Clinton, he found it useful to run to her right on the issue of compulsory insurance. Now he thinks it is a great idea.
His denials about abortion funding in the heath care bill are equally interim and disingenuous. The plan deliberately excludes the Hyde Amendment, but listening to Obama's speeches and his aides' opportunistic comments (Robert Gibbs, batting away an objection at a recent press conference, said, "There's a law that precludes the use of federal funds for abortion") one would think it does apply to the plan and that Obama was one of its co-authors. Would Obama have voted for the Hyde Amendment when it was first proposed? No, and were it re-submitted to him now, he would never sign it. He denies that illegal immigrants fall under the plan, then calls for an amnesty that would guarantee it.
An opt-out public option in any case wouldn't stay one for very long. It is a way station like the Defense of Marriage Act that the Democrats have to occupy temporarily while making other plans. But it is contrary to the egalitarian thrust of their legislation. If government-run health care is a "right," then how can they rest until all states carry it?
That Obama and the Democrats have had to resort to a range of gimmicks and semantic somersaults in this debate contradicts their claim of widespread support for the public option. If the public supports it in polls, that's because they don't know what the "public option" is. The same polls indicate that the public's confidence in the federal government is plummeting. How can one square the two if the public understood the public option to mean insurance provided by the federal government?
So the game is to keep the people confused, thinking it is a "consumer option," as Pelosi spins, or something else, but never to let them see the fine print about it written up in Harry Reid's office.
To pep up their spirits, Democrats have been chortling about George W. Bush's recent appearance as a motivational speaker. But Obama's failed presidency is a topic they won't broach. His primary accomplishments so far are a stimulus package that hasn't stimulated the economy and a peacekeeping award won without any discernible peacekeeping. The pressure is on to sign a bill, any bill, and claim "sweeping health care reform" before the people know what has hit them.
About the Author
George Neumayr is a contributing editor to The American Spectator.
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Galen| 10.29.09 @ 7:51AM
Reid made a promise to Snowe that he broke.
Surprisingly,polticians words to each other are
bonds. By breaking his promise Reid has put all on notice that he 's a poltroon . The sooner he's gone the better.
J. Kelley| 10.29.09 @ 8:05AM
For those old enough to remember the 55 mile per hour speed limit. It had the opt-out provision, except the States who opted-out had their Federal Gas tax cut off. So no State opted-out. Could we expect the same thing with this Gov. run Health Care. Bet the farm on it.
JGreen| 10.29.09 @ 11:22AM
Actually, one state did opt out of the 55 mile per hour speed limit law and ironically it was Nevada. Maybe we need some states to start seceding. The less people the Feds get to 'govern' the better.
Don L| 10.29.09 @ 8:16AM
Evil is as evil does. People who would slaughter an innocent child outside of the womb, would have little trouble controlling our most private choices, and laughing at the very concept of freedom.
Ironic that "choice" in healthcare was a democratic super-mantra and "privacy with one's physician" was an inalienble right granted by the leftist Supreme Court as it mysteriously found it in emenations from penumbras during Roe Vs Wade; America's version of the final solution.
Now inconvenient the left's so called "rights" fall to the wayside (actually, thown under the bus with those fifty million innocent unborns) as the "Culture of Death's" tenacles grab each of us.
Lullaby's, Legends and Lies| 10.29.09 @ 8:35AM
“Gimmicks, Semantics, and Somersaults”: If this Bill passes, what State in their “right” mind would Opt-Out of it then, if they’re just going to be paying for it in the end anyway through Taxes? No State will Opt-Out out of it, if this thing passes, not one single one. They might as well get something out of it, if they’re going to be forced to pay into it anyway, unless they’re a complete Sucker!!
This Opt-Out Option is just another disguise to hide Government run Health Care (Consumer Option? WTF Pelosi?), it’s just another Lie, in a long line of Lies from the Democratic Congress. Did you actually expect anything else from Harry Reid (Rhetorical question!!)?
Stupid people might buy into this crap, but then again, stupid people voted last year too, so stupid people, will remain stupid, until they decide to learn something (not likely). Let’s not let up on the pressure against this legislation, until this whole thing implodes (please let it implode on the floor of the Senate on live TV)!!
Let's Go Yankees!! (Sorry, but I had too)
drgreg| 10.29.09 @ 9:11AM
deceptive: deceitful, duplicitous, fraudulent, counterfeit, underhanded, cunning, crafty, sly, guileful, scheming, treacherous, Machiavellian; disingenuous, untrustworthy, unscrupulous, unprincipled, dishonest, insincere, false; informal crooked, sharp, shady, sneaky, tricky, foxy.
Pingback| 10.29.09 @ 9:25AM
The real cost of Obamacare | Worth Reading links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Pingback| 10.29.09 @ 9:37AM
The American Spectator : Thin Reids | Obama Snafu links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Jobe| 10.29.09 @ 9:58AM
Sure the states can opt out. Opt out of coverage, that is. What they cannot opt out of is paying for the coverage of everyone else but themselves. For themselves, they will seek their own insurance plans, somewhat like those who seek their own schools. Whenever the "government" comes up with any idea that is supposed to be good for me, I ask myself: What has the government done right in the past 100 years? The answer, of course, is win WWII, and even that was done in a bumbling fashion.
Rmm| 10.29.09 @ 10:02AM
The nightmare continues. Either Reid & Pelosi think we are dimwhits, or they simply don't give a rats behind what the majority thinks about this jerry-rigged, soon to be, train-wreak.
Rmm| 10.29.09 @ 10:48AM
I take that back, about soon to be. The mere fact that this bill would not take effect until after the next Presidential election, shows the embeded deceit in Zeros mad dash for reform now. Hell, by then we will be on to something else, this will have been forgotten about until it bites us in the ass in 2013 . One thing you can't take away from Zero, he has mastered the game of blowing smoke , and that idiot pose with the cocked right finger.
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How to Cure Acne Overnight – Too Good to be True? | HEALTHY LIVING TIPS links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Pingback| 10.29.09 @ 1:57PM
Twitter Trackbacks for The American Spectator : Thin Reids [spectator.org] on Topsy. links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Cybercorrespondent| 10.29.09 @ 3:28PM
Political points to ponder
What would happen if any other political party pushed for a cap and trade bill that could create green jobs of which 9 out of 10 created would be unsustainable, require government subsidizing and cost the nations economy millions of real jobs? And this is not to mention the increase in manufacturing costs that would be passed on to us in time of depression.
No matter if you are a Democrat, Republican, Libertarian or an Independent, what do you think is going to happen when the government revenues are down and spending is quadrupled? As one senator from Florida was categorized as, “One must be a fry short of a happy meal” to believe that wiping out the U.S. dollar and reducing the purchasing power of our salaries and retirement savings is a good thing.
How do you think the media or yourself would react if the republicans were the majority party and were negotiating behind closed doors on a republican senator’s proposal to overhaul one of our economy's largest industries, especially when it hasn't been written yet? On an almost straight party-line vote, Democrats in the Senate Finance Committee squashed an amendment by Senator Jim Bunning that would have required the Obama, Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reed and the Baucus healthcare or “rob our children and their children bill” to be posted on the Internet for all Americans to read for 72 hours prior to the Committee voting on it.
There are Republicans who should be voted out of office as well. They are the ones who didn’t listen to the American people and under the veil of "negotiations," kept the “rob our children and their children” bill scheme to socialize the nation's health care system alive. And those are not the only ones. Every politician who allowed the Federal Reserve to loan two trillion dollars without knowing to whom, for what or the disclosure of terms should be investigated, made accountable for their irresponsibility and thrown out of office as well. Sleeping on the job is no excuse.
The Federal Reserve has no real oversight and it’s time for these politicians to get the message loud and clear. We need to learn from our past mistakes and before voting, find out the candidate’s passed association’s, voting record, speeches made and most importantly, don’t let the progressives in the media or celebrities who receive bribes from the likes of George Soros brain wash you. The buss is speeding to go over a cliff and we need to get hold of the staring wheel and the brakes.
Cybercorrespondent
cybercorrespondent@gmail.com
Oldefarte| 10.29.09 @ 4:54PM
Obama and this bunch of liberals running the government are the biggest bunch of LIARS the world has ever seen, and anyone believing or trusting in what they say is nothing but a FOOL!!!!
DaveS| 10.29.09 @ 8:25PM
Just a spoon full of sugar makes the medicine go down. Man up! Knock the spoon out of her hands!
Pingback| 10.29.09 @ 8:46PM
Health Care BS - DOES THE PUBLIC REALLY WANT THE PUBLIC OPTION? links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
GEDoug| 10.31.09 @ 12:29PM
I have no doubt the bill has all sorts of hidden penalties making 'opting out' costly, example....this bait and switch language regrading medical liability.
Section 2531, entitled “Medical Liability Alternatives,” establishes an incentive program for states to adopt and implement alternatives to medical liability litigation. [But]…… a state is not eligible for the incentive payments if that state puts a law on the books that limits attorneys’ fees or imposes caps on damages.
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