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The Spectacle Blog
Michael F. Cannon is sounding the alarm on Health and Human Services secretary Kathleen Sebelius’s disturbing attitude toward free speech among health insurance companies:
President Obama’s Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius is still threatening to bankrupt insurance companies who tell their customers that ObamaCare‘s mandates will increase premiums by more than 2 percent, even though her department’s projections show that, starting this week, just one of the law’s new mandates will increase some premiums by nearly 7 percent.
In a CBS News story last week, Sebelius tried to defend those indefensible threats:
But don’t the insurance companies have a right to make their own analyses and claims to their customers?
“Absolutely, they have a right to communicate with their customers,” replied HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius. “We just want to make sure that communication is as accurate as possible.”
The government can and should police fraud — but that’s not what Sebelius is doing. She is suppressing legitimate differences of opinion in the pursuit of political gain.
The power to bully companies into silence is just one of many, many powers ripe for abuse granted to Sebelius in the health care bill. Philip Klein explored a number of those powers in an article for the June issue of the Spectator.
View all comments (10) | Leave a comment
More Blog Posts by Joseph Lawler
http://spectator.org/blog/2010/09/20/sebelius-as-speech-czar
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Eric Cartman| 9.20.10 @ 12:32PM
Typical Lefty bullying. Just wait until they get their hands on this idea from the UK:
http://www.cnbc.com/id/39265847
Dixie Pixie| 9.20.10 @ 4:32PM
Greetings Eric.
I hope this day sees you well.
Tip O’Neill proposed much the same idea during the Carter Administration. The idea of the Federal government having control of all paychecks by being the only transfer agent died a quick death.
The reason is simple. The business community quickly realized they would lose control of their employes when they lost control of payroll disbursements. The Federal government would then control all labor agreements and arrangements. Total control of all companies would soon follow.
The business solution is simple. Convert all employes to Venders of Skilled Services and pay the venders cash on a per job basis. Then it becomes the IRS's problem to collect taxes from the Vendors .
Eric Cartman| 9.20.10 @ 5:02PM
WOW! Didn't know that - thanks for the heads up. Thank you for your wishes. Have a nasty cold that turned into pneumonia. Getting better, tho - thanks to Big Pharma. Thanks, Dixie Pixie!
Sherry| 9.20.10 @ 8:52PM
you call that a solution? Lets grow government even larger. The solution is to throw Obama and his czars out of office and repeal the healthcare bill. The doctors know what to do and so do the people there is a much better solution. As Reagan said "Government isn't the Solution it's the Problem".
Dixie Pixie| 9.20.10 @ 11:11PM
Hello Sherry
You must have missed the point I was trying to make. So I will try to explain.
The IRS and the Federal government have been forcing all employees in to ever larger corporate systems because it is easier for the IRS to collect taxes from a single large corporation than multiple small venders. In short the IRS have for decades been offloading the tax collection responsibility to the major corporations because the IRS could never follow what the profusion of micro-business were doing.
Add in the factor that under-reporting of income and therefor tax lost was common among small venders means the IRS workload increases by two orders of magnitude and collections drop in proportion to under-reporting. For the IRS paying by cash to multiple vendors formally called employees is a accounting nightmare. That is why the IRS forced Tip O'Neill to fold.
On a larger point, Kathleen Sebelius's intent to cause systemic lying throughout the healthcare system is certain to insure the true costs are hidden. As a result there will be constant lying for profit as all parties game the healthcare system. Good luck finding out what costs what after that starts.
Eric, I hope you will get better soon.
Just stay away from Obama's little white pill.
That one is the final checkout pill.
Booger| 9.20.10 @ 12:40PM
Democrats are as trustworthy with political power as Iran is with nuclear power.
albert constantine jr.| 9.20.10 @ 1:45PM
Future requirement of all health insurance communication: "I'm Kathleen Sebelius, and I approve this message".
Stan Redmond| 9.20.10 @ 2:51PM
You are free to communicate with your customers as long as you tell them what we want you to tell them.
It is truly frightening that this woman now has power over every aspect of your life. It's tyranny, plain and simple.
Sherry | 9.20.10 @ 8:48PM
Not only is she committing a crime by trying to limit freedom of speech, but she also somehow thinks that American's are stupid. Those that have been paying already for their insurance will definitely notice the increase and surprisingly enough they at least most of them will be smart enough to figure out that they are paying more than 2%. So Kathleen please don't patronize us we aren't as stupid as you liberal progressives think we are.
Yosemeti Sam| 9.21.10 @ 1:06AM
"" Sebelius as "Speech Czar" ...."
Well, um, Ms. S - try on the free speech, come November 2, 2010, that'll bunch up your panties!
LOL.