President Barack Obama has completely discredited himself with his reckless, arrogant and high-pressure handling of his socialized medicine scheme. The only thing keeping his diving approval ratings above single digits other than blind partisanship and the dependency class he is voraciously expanding is the public's partial unawareness of the unmitigated horrors of this plan.
I have begun to go through H.R. 3200, the House bill Obama is telling us we must adopt (or some facsimile thereof) lest the world come to an end. It's a good thing for Obama that everyone doesn't have the time or inclination to do what I'm doing and that he still has an appreciable cult following that doesn't demand scrutiny in exchange for its unconditional support.
But his good will is fading fast and will fade faster the more people learn about this outrage, which explains his uncompromising demand that the bill be passed immediately -- even before he realizes what it contains.
Can you imagine the arrogance of a man who insists we have to pass a bill while simultaneously admitting he is unaware of a provision that would prohibit the reacquisition of private insurance by those who lose their coverage? Can you imagine him -- after getting caught with his pants down on this issue -- saying he will not sign a bill with such a provision yet simultaneously browbeating Congress to push through the bill that contains that very provision so he can sign it? Way beyond amazing!
I urge you to read as much of this bill as you can stomach. If you do, you'll never again doubt the Democrats' insatiable appetite for government control or their infinite trust in bureaucratic wisdom and efficiency. Marginally prudent people wouldn't place this much discretion over such an enormously complex operation in even Solomon's hands.
Let me just alert you to a few stunningly disturbing provisions in the bill, juxtaposed with certain patently irreconcilable statements Obama has made on these subjects.
First, his stated objectives for the bill are to control health care costs en route to fiscal responsibility, increase patient choices over their care, and secure health care coverage for all Americans.
Well, please tell me how Obama retains any believability on the issue of fiscal responsibility when he has deliberately saddled our heirs with a national debt they can't pay, through growth-crushing "stimulus" packages and a cap-and-tax boondoggle offered as a capitalism-sin offering to the earth goddess Gaia?
Further, how does he get around the fact that his bill, as scored by the Congressional Budget Office, would be some $239 billion in the red assuming everything goes perfectly in this static world he only imagines to exist?
And the absurdity of saying that government, by fiat, can guarantee a lid on costs is criminally naive or dishonest and flies in the face of government's abysmal track record on wage and price controls and on predicting costs for Medicare and Medicaid.
For him to say he will not sign a bill unless it is revenue-neutral sets a new standard for hubris. It is impossible for any mortal to predict -- in a dynamic economy -- whether anything this complex would come anywhere close to revenue neutrality.
But how about the security of health care coverage Obama is promising? Well, read the bill itself (at least pages 29 through 37), which not only establishes a government committee to recommend and ultimately adopt a benefits package but also sets out annual dollar limitations on coverage of those benefits.
So not everything is covered, Mr. President, and even things that are are subject to dollar limitations. And yet you look the American people in the face and tell us the bill would "keep government out of health care decisions"? I'm telling you, this is mind-blowing deceit. It just can't be ignorance.
Also, check out the provision on Page 32 that injects political correctness standards into the committee's membership. The committee -- to be appointed by the president and the comptroller general -- shall include experts in "racial and ethnic disparities." Doesn't it just give you a warm and fuzzy feeling that Obama would place on the committee those who share his attitude, for example, about the institutional racism of the Cambridge Police Department?
If you assume these provisions don't smack of "1984," check out the Big Brother provision on Page 22, which establishes the government's power to audit employers who have the audacity to self-insure.
Maybe Obama should consider just ignoring the Constitution, bypassing Congress and unilaterally signing this bill into law, as he did the nuclear arms reduction fiasco he negotiated with Russia. After all, though I've just scratched the surface here, I have seen and reported enough to make the unequivocal statement that if this bill goes through, people will likely revolt when they fully realize the unconscionable, intrusive hellfire it contains.