Observations On The Health Care Debate

To me, the Federal government should do only those things that can’t be done by smaller levels of government (i.e. state, county, local) or by the private sector.

What are those things?

• Military
• Minting currency
• Interstate crime (FBI)
• Federal Courts
• Taxes.

And not much else. I’m sure that people could come up with a list of more things that only the federal government can do, and I would agree with many or most of them. But making a comprehensive list is not the point of this essay.

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If I had to make a list of things that the federal government shouldn’t do, ever, the three things that are on top of the list are.

1. Health Care
2. Health Care
3. Health Care

Reason one, It’s just not their job. Reason two is that I have absolutely zero confidence the ability of the federal government to manage such a huge undertaking. I only base that on how the government manages every single thing they’ve ever done. And reason three is that I recognized very early on that the plan was being sold to Americans on a foundation of things that weren’t true, and that the President knew weren’t true at the moment he was saying that. How can a plan that couldn’t be presented honestly in order to get it passed be a good thing? Some might argue with me about reason one. They might say that the Commerce Clause of the Constitution allows for it. Let’s take a look at that. I am about to insert the Commerce Clause in its entirety. So get some coffee, stretch your legs, go the to the bathroom, and prepare for some long arduous reading.

The Commerce Clause.

“To regulate commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes."

That’s it. That’s the whole thing. Every single word of the Commerce Clause. Sixteen words.

• I’m not a state. Are you?
• I’m not a foreign nation. Are you?
• I’m not an Indian tribe. Are you?

So where in that group of sixteen words do you find the authority for the government to manage health care. So, even if it’s a wonderful idea, and even if the federal government was capable of managing it, it’s still not their job. As for the federal government being up for the task of managing it, well, based on the rollout, I believe I’ve been pretty well vindicated on that score. The web portal was the easy part, and look how badly the government screwed that up. They say it’s fixed, but does anyone really believe that? If you do, I have some land to show you in Florida as soon as the tide goes out. Apparently, the front end is better, but not fixed, and the back end is still a disaster. They can’t calculate how much of a subsidy to bill the insurance companies for, so they are letting the insurance companies “estimate” how much taxpayer subsidy money they should get, and “true it up” later. What an amazing confluence of mega-wrong. Should we be allowed to “estimate” how much of a income tax refund we will get, and “true it up” at a later date? And now for reason three. The lies. I was browsing my old Facebook postings, and found this little gem from November 14, 2009. "If you like your current plan, you can keep it" is true, in the same spirit of, "It depends on what your definition of 'IS' is." Verbal sleight of hand. It means that your current plan will be grandfathered, but, if you drop it after a certain date, or if your employer changes plans, or any number of other reasons, you won't be able to get it back. The intention is to phase out all private insurance. Period. If it was obvious then that he was lying, why is it such a big surprise now? On other postings, I documented how many dimes my taxes went up, even though I make less (far less, unfortunately) than 250,000 dollars per year. Medical devices tax was one way. Perhaps the most egregious was when the law mandated that instead of being able to divert 5,000 dollars from our income into a pretax FSA account, we would be limited to 2,500. That’s 2,500 that we weren’t paying taxes on before, but are now. How is that not a tax increase? Early on, the President went on TV one morning and did a sales pitch to the nation that really got me angry, and I lost it. I posted a rant on Facebook (that I’ve since taken down) that was filled with profanity. Not normally my style, as people who know me can tell you. I just couldn’t understand how he could say so many things that weren’t true, and can understand even less how he got away with it. A liberal friend (whom I’ve known since 1975) unfriended me over it, which made me realize that if I wanted to preach to people other than “the choir”, I would have to refrain from harsh language, and refer to the President in a respectful manner even when I was exposing his lies. Didn’t help much. People who want to believe the President will believe him (or as they think of Obama, Him) no matter what. They will turn a blind eye, and a deaf ear to his lies, no matter how blatant. If you mention Obama’s pledge to use public campaign financing, and how quickly he broke it, his supporters won’t even recall it, or they will justify in some way. Same for his pledge not to hire lobbyists. (Go to the White House, close your eyes, spin around, and spit in any direction, and you will likely hit a lobbyist.) And his pledge to “outlaw” (yes, that was the word he used. Outlaw) the practice of earmark spending. Will, the first bill he ever signed was filled with earmarks, and every bill since. I’m not talking about things that he wanted to do, and tried to do, but just wasn’t able to, such as closing Guantanamo. I’m talking about things he said that weren’t true, and he knew they weren’t true while he was saying them. Top among the lies were the ones about health care.

• If you like your plan, you can keep your plan.
• If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor.
• If you make under 250,000 dollars per year, my plan will not cause your taxes to go up by one dime.
• Americans will see their premiums go down by 2,500 dollars a year.
• It will be as easy as buying from Amazon.

It seems the shine is coming off of his halo a little bit now. Jon Stewart, David Letterman and other liberal comedians are trash talking him. The New York Times has printed some unflattering thing about him. Some democrats are edging away from him. President Clinton called on him to keep his promise about being able to keep your plan. And have you noticed that many are now using the phrase “Affordable Care Act” instead of “ObamaCare”. What’s that about? To paraphrase Shakespeare, an onion by any other name will still make you cry. That's the way I see it.