The Right Prescription
Behold a Trojan Pony
Speaker Nancy’s nag will soon go lame.
Last week the Congressional Budget Office “scored” the House of Representatives’ revised health insurance “public option” and found it would charge premiums higher than those of private insurance and attract only six million buyers.
Thus, the growing worry that a public option would undercut private policies and soon drive them out of business seemed to evaporate. Speaker Pelosi, cheerleader for a “public option,” gloated that the consolidated House bill came in under President Obama’s declared ceiling cost of $900 billion and would not add to the deficit.
The case for passage seemed airtight — for the moment. House liberals had wheeled in a Trojan Pony (too small to be a horse and, unlike the Trojan Horse, it couldn’t hold enough soldiers to rout the enemy).
The CGO scores only what it is given (and is scrupulously objective in its work). It had been given a public option with enough restrictions to raise its initial cost; hence would attract few buyers. This was done to soften the opposition of moderate House Democrats.
Left-wing Democrats for decades have sought government-run universal health insurance. They are driven by ideology, not a desire for universal good health. They believe in outcomes, not opportunity. In the case of health care, that means that those who cannot pay for health insurance will get it cost-free from the government. Those who are deemed unable to pay will grow in number with each passing year. Never mind that countries with universal government “care” have rationing and long waits. Precise equality is more important than healthy citizens.
The left has been at this so long that it is willing to settle for incrementalism. Case in point: S-CHIPS (State Children’s Insurance Plan System), which Congress expanded this year. The stated goal: make sure all children have health coverage. Now eligible are families with incomes up to $60,000 annually whose children can be up to 25 years of age. You can see where this is headed.
So it will be with Pelosi’s deceptively toothless “public option.” If the bill passes with this in it, they will settle for it this way for a year or so, then “strengthen” it so that premiums plunge.
When they do, many small businesses will decide that paying the government tax for not covering their employees will cost less than covering them and — surprise! — millions will be forced to flock to the “public option.” Then, goodbye private insurance and all that Obama talk about “if you like your coverage you get to keep it.”
With a majority of Americans telling pollsters they do not like sweeping health care “reform” of the sort Obama and his Congressional allies have been cooking up, it will take little time for organized opposition to unmask the current “public option” for Trojan Pony it is.
Furthermore, the pony will soon go lame for two others reasons. Until several days ago, Obamacare had in it a sop to buy off the American Medical Association. That sop was a replacement of $247 billion in Medicare fee cuts to doctors. This was shot down in the Senate by all Republicans, 11 Democrats and Independent Joe Lieberman. Take the $247 billion out of the total Obamacare price tag and it comes in just under the magical total of $900 billion.
As to the claim that Obamacare will not add “one dime” to the deficit, it would be briefly true only because the plan’s proposed new taxes would be levied beginning next year, but the benefits would not kick in for five years. Present projections only go out for 10. Some deal: pay for it for 10 years; get five years worth of benefits. If Mr. Obama were a health or life insurance salesman and tried to sell policies that way, he’d be shown the door by the customers.
And so the Trojan Pony will indeed soon go lame.
About the Author
Peter Hannaford was closely associated for a number of years with the late President Reagan, beginning in the California Governor’s office. His latest book is Presidential Retreats.
Letter to the Editor View all comments (23) | Leave a comment
Related Articles
More Articles by Peter Hannaford
More Articles From The Right Prescription
http://spectator.org/archives/2009/11/03/behold-a-trojan-pony
Follow us:
ADVERTISEMENT
The Spectacle Blog
The #FreeKate Narrative Melts Down: Lies Exposed in Florida Teen Sex Case
Robert Stacy McCain | 5.25.13
SPONSORED LINKS
FLASHBACK TO: 1995
-
Pope Culture
A man of faith in a godless age is hitting Americans where it hurts.
-
Why the GOP Does Not, Like, Totally Suck
Mr. and Mrs. American Spectator Reader, let P.J. O’Rourke talk sense to your kids.
-
Dames at Sea
-
In the Absence of Guns
In Britain, defending your property can get you life.
-
The Metaphysical Martini
-
Counting the Costs of Clintonism
The debacle of this president’s administration is both a cause and a symptom of the decline of American values. Unless Congress impeaches him, that decline will go on unchecked. An eminent jurist surveys the damage and assesses the chances for the recovery of our culture.
-
Chuck McHagel
It won’t take long for conservatives to scratch this presidential wannabe off their 2008 scorecard.
-
The Legacy of Old John and Mother Fresh-Roasted
-
It’s the Best Time of the Year
The American Christmas, like the songs that celebrate it, makes room for everybody under the rainbow. Is that why so many people seem to be hostile to it?
-
The Bush Crack-Up
Was the President done in by the economy, or by the politics of the economy?
Clip of the Day
H/T to National Review Online
ADVERTISEMENT
Don L| 11.3.09 @ 7:51AM
Everything they do is not merely suspect, but evil. They are diabolically unscrupulous and are merely moving their chess pieces around the chess board of freedom, at will.
I fear, nothing will stop them, short of force, for that is what they will have to use before they subjegate free people to their Marxist ideology.
People who enthusiastically slaughter innocent pre-borns and just borns, in and out of the womb, wouldn't hesitate to use whatever means necessary to bring about their "final solution" to what they abhor most, our freedom.
Doomed Boomer| 11.3.09 @ 5:06PM
Don L you are so right to call Pelosi and her ilk evil. I experience the same visceral reaction whenever I read about their diabolical plans to take over this great country. My fear is that I'll be dead and gone before I see the guillotine reinstituted for these fools.
Hunter| 11.3.09 @ 8:13AM
I belive I need health care right now, I am sick to death of having these idiots trying to cram their version of health care down my throat! Every day is the same old over and over, same dam pig with more and more make up (lipstick). It causes me pain to see a president so desperate, to have to go on so many tv shows to grovel and whine. Give me a break! Now its Pelosi the hag trying to slide her trojan nag over on us. The more they push this moronic peice of crap down the road the more it stinks!
Lullaby's, Legends and Lies| 11.3.09 @ 9:30AM
We've got this great "cure all" for anything that ails you in the Army,.. just Drink Water!! And it's a lot cheaper, than this Pelosi/Reid fiasco, and it's good for the environment too.
Shamus| 11.3.09 @ 8:53AM
The plan ramps up in a strange way. Taxes go up right away, but benefits start later. The cost of health insurance will go up in 2010, but the subsidies won't be available for several years. This means that the number of uninsured will increase for several years as people are priced out of the market. Perversely, the people who lose their insurance due to mandated price increases will then be fined because they can't afford it. The plan will not only increase prices for health insurance, but also raise taxes and cause people to lose insurance coverage.
Choey| 11.3.09 @ 9:52AM
So the taxes get collected 5 years before the benefits kick in. Anyone who thinks congress won't have spent every dime plus more before the benefits start must be visiting from another planet.
Al Adab| 11.3.09 @ 10:31AM
Troajn horses take many forms. This one even has a smoke screen incarnation. While the opposition focuses on health care mandates, the statists push through the hate crimes bill as an amendment. and a plethora of other draconian (from the greek also) measures. We are distracted by one issue and they pursue their agenda behind the curtain.
The country is in big trouble folks, and it surely makes clear that the price of Freedom is eternal vigilance. Who thought the day would come when we had to defend our Liberties against our own government? Watch your backs.
Radioman777| 11.3.09 @ 1:12PM
They want equality for all... Except themselves. After all, "All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others."
Decorative painting | 11.4.09 @ 2:46AM
Yiwu Huangtao Arts & Crafts Co., Ltd:
Decorative painting
Leather crafts
Decorative painting | 11.4.09 @ 2:46AM
eather paint
Home decorative painting
Shirley Robertson| 11.4.09 @ 6:04AM
If this plan of the administration is so great, why did Mr. Reid "make a deal that all his state would get it free"? Why not all states? Why hasn't the media jumped all over this?
Pingback| 11.4.09 @ 10:46AM
Twitter Trackbacks for The American Spectator : Behold a Trojan Pony [spectator.org] links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Johnny Knuckles| 11.4.09 @ 2:55PM
Geld this nag!
Thursday, Nov. 5
Washington D.C.
Details:
http://marklevinshow.com/Artic.....spid=32364
www.sunglass-mall.com | 4.5.10 @ 8:45PM
You won't have to worry about having your sunglass merchandise to gather dust on its display racks waiting for the summer season to commence www.sunglass-mall.com