Despite all the hoopla from the Administration and its media shills about how wonderful it is that a certain, arbitrary number of American citizens have “signed up” for ObamaCare by particular benchmark dates, the fact remains this federal law is rotten from start to finish. It remains one of those rare pieces of legislation that contains on balance not one positive provision; not a single worthwhile crossed “t” or dotted “i.”
Still, we taxpayers continue to pay billions for ObamaCare’s implementation, even as it forces millions of citizens into healthcare plans that do not meet their needs and into relationships with doctors not of their choice. As the finest healthcare system on the planet unravels and burns because of ObamaCare, our generation’s Nero fiddles and bloviates about how great it is, and how “easy-peasey” it is to become an ObamaCare member, in the childish phraseology of Valerie Jarrett, one of the President’s key advisers.
In the 2013 edition of his annual Wastebook, Republican Sen. Tom Coburn lists the year’s most wasteful government programs, all funded by taxpayer dollars. Some of these programs range from tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars -- such as $390,000 spent by NASA to dress a man in a green costume to teach kids about global warming on YouTube. Others -- like the $65 million in federal relief funds for Hurricane Sandy spent by state and local politicians on tourism-related television ads -- reach nine figures and beyond. The point of the Wastebook is to illustrate by concrete examples the amount of federal waste occurring every day, all across America.
Yet, there is one government program that needs no special attention, and ranks as the most wasteful, ineffectual attempt at federal micromanagement since Prohibition: ObamaCare. The damage wrought by ObamaCare can be measured in many ways: its astronomical economic costs, its negative impact on personal freedom, or the irreparable damage visited on America’s healthcare system. By whatever yardstick one uses, the law is and will be a disaster.
Often, wasteful government programs are limited in their impact to economic loss, such as funding irrelevant scientific studies with no real-world application. Other examples, like the $1.7-billion NSA data center under construction in Utah that cannot keep its equipment from melting down, have serious civil liberties implications that spread the damage far beyond economic costs.
In a class by itself is ObamaCare, which not only hands taxpayers another $17 trillion in long-term unfunded liabilities, and forces employers to choose between religious freedom and crippling IRS fines, but also directly affects the health and well being of every single American. This nightmare scenario hits doctors, patients and hospitals even as the healthcare industry struggles to meet an ever-changing flood of regulatory requirements that already were making healthcare more expensive and less efficient, not better.
The cognitive dissonance displayed by top Obama Administration officials -- seeing the reality of ObamaCare, yet denying any problem is more than just a temporary “glitch” -- only exacerbates this devastation. Rather than hit the brakes and find a viable, long-term solution to close the Pandora’s Box they have opened, Democrats have turned a blind-eye to Obama’s illegal “work-arounds” that defy the rule of law and jeopardize the balance of power between the White House and Congress. Some of these “fixes” were passed in a matter of seconds, without even so much as a heads-up to members of Congress that a vote was occurring. Each change, delay, or “Executive decision” has only served as warning to Americans that the trouble we see now is just the tip of the iceberg; a small glimpse of things to come.
Clearly, electoral politics are more important to Democrats than the general welfare of the American public, as revealed right off the bat in the rush to launch ObamaCare even before its $379 million website was functional (and it still is not working correctly). Winning elections and achieving legislative “victories” was the true motivation for this shoddily constructed model of healthcare “reform.” Now, as we say in the South, many of these Democrats who supported ObamaCare as legislation, are being hoisted on their own petard – staring at defeat this November.
There are legislative and appropriations measures Republicans in the House, and even the Senate, can take in the interim to slow down parts of ObamaCare; as well as to stop the President’s unlawful steps to delay certain provisions to make his Administration look better, or at least not look so bad. It is to be hoped that between now and the 2016 national election, those steps will be taken.
The overarching goal, however, must be to ensure that the Republican nominee for President two years hence defeats Hillary Clinton or whoever the Democrats nominate. This is essential because ObamaCare will crash and burn; it will fail. And we must do everything in our power to make certain no supporter of this legislative monstrosity is residing at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue to pick up the pieces when the downfall comes.