The American Spectator

The Right Prescription

It's all supposed to be voluntary, those "home visits" that are tucked into the mammoth Obamacare bill. If you have a strong stomach, and stronger bottom, you can find home visitation on pages 568-595. That's Section 2951 of H.R. 3590, the Senate bill that Harry Reid brought down the chimney on Christmas Eve.

All voluntary, they say, but once you "volunteer" to have the oh-so-helpful folks from Social Services come in to help with your newborns, or with a number of other specified issues, will you ever be able to get rid of them?

The bill provides for federal funding and supervision for this vast expansion of government intrusion into family life. This is the Nanny State on steroids.

Is your family being "targeted" for such home visitations? Let's see if you fit into one of these very broad categories:

• Families where Mom is not yet 21. (No mention here whether she is married or not.)
• Families where someone is a tobacco user. (Does this include the White House? Watch out, Sasha and Malia!) Does Grandpa, whom you love and have taken in, enjoy his after-dinner pipe?
• Families where children have low student achievement, developmental delays, or disabilities.

As if that list was not wide-ranging enough, here's the net that can encompass tens of millions:

• Families with individuals who are serving or formerly served in the armed forces, including such families that have members of the armed forces who have had multiple deployments outside the United States. [Emphasis added.]

So, while Johnny gets his gun, the government steps in to "help" his family at home. Ronald Reagan used to say the most frightening words in the English language were these: I'm from the government and I'm here to help.

Who will sit atop the federal pyramid that runs this vast new invasion of family privacy? Why, it will be Sec. of Health and Human Services, Kathleen Sebelius, of course. She was the most pro-abortion governor in American history when President Obama tapped her for his Cabinet.

Do you spank your children? You should know that HHS bureaucrats think you are an abuser.
Do you support the Second Amendment? How would you like HHS bureaucrats asking your children if you maintain firearms in the home for family protection?

Do you home school your kids? Take care. Members of Congress who have tried to abolish home schooling are big backers of this health care bill. Do you wonder why?

There are abundant reasons to oppose this health care bill. Conservative leader Gary Bauer cites the colorful words of Oklahoma Democratic Congressman, Dan Boren. Mr. Boren is one of the bluest of Blue Dogs. He says: "They can break my arms. They can do whatever they want to. They'll never get my vote -- ever. They'll have to walk across my dead body if they want my vote on this issue."

Boren spoke for many concerned Democrats when he said: "...there is no chance I am voting for this bill because it raises taxes on businesses, creates job-killing mandates, grows the size of government, and cuts services to seniors."

All of this is true. But the White House is pulling out all the stops. One of their senior advisers told CNN's Gloria Borger what President Obama's people are telling wavering Democrats on Capitol Hill:

BORGER: Right. This isn't going to be subtle at all today. I think this is it. I was speaking with one senior White House adviser just before I came on the air, and he said, think of it this way. This is the last helicopter out of Saigon, OK?

Could anything be more bizarre? A senior member of the administration is comparing the President's signature measure in Congress to the forced evacuation of the U.S. Embassy in South Vietnam in 1975.

Older Americans remember the shame and heartbreak of seeing thousands of America's allies desperately clinging to U.S. Army helicopters as the North Vietnamese army closed in on South Vietnam's capital city.

We don't want to re-fight the Vietnam War, but it should not go without notice that the Democrats also controlled Capitol Hill back in 1975. The Democrats, led by Sen. Ted Kennedy and Minnesota Congressman Don Fraser, had cut off all the promised U.S. funding for the South Vietnamese armed forces that were trying to stave off a brutal Communist takeover of their country. And we're told we have to pass ObamaCare as a tribute to Ted!

Is this the kind of hope and change Mr. Obama's top advisers now want us to embrace? Are his own people thinking of this last-minute push as a debacle? Helicopters in Saigon. What a confused and confusing mess this is!

One thing is clear: Obamacare is not consistent with the values of life and liberty.

topics:
Health Care