A Concise Explanation For Why Americans Ain’t Buyin’ What President Obama Is Sellin’ On Health Care
Wednesday, March 10th, 2010To little avail, I tried explaining why Health Care Reform scares Americans on Bloggingheads the other day. While, Democrats haggle over the details of health care reform, they’re ignoring how the entirety of the bill feels like to the American people. Rasmussen sums it up, with data:
Why can’t the president move the numbers? One reason may be that he keeps talking about details of the proposal while voters are looking at the issue in a broader context. Polling conducted earlier this week shows that 57% of voters believe that passage of the legislation would hurt the economy, while only 25% believe it would help. That makes sense in a nation where most voters believe that increases in government spending are bad for the economy.
When the president responds that the plan is deficit neutral, he runs into a pair of basic problems. The first is that voters think reducing spending is more important than reducing the deficit. So a plan that is deficit neutral with a big spending hike is not going to be well received.
But the bigger problem is that people simply don’t trust the official projections. People in Washington may live and die by the pronouncements of the Congressional Budget Office, but 81% of voters say it’s likely the plan will end up costing more than projected. Only 10% say the official numbers are likely to be on target.
As a result, 66% of voters believe passage of the president’s plan will lead to higher deficits and 78% say it’s at least somewhat likely to mean higher middle-class taxes. Even within the president’s own political party there are concerns on these fronts.
Americans just don’t believe a big government program saves money. Americans are smart. There is no evidence in the history of the universe that government programs are cost-saving ventures. And, if they do save money, they do it by cutting, denying or restricting services.
Here’s another problem, probably 10-20% of the voters all in favor of this plan already use government services. Of course another “free” government program sounds good to them. They won’t be paying for it. Meanwhile, those opposed are seeing their own taxes going up for a product that is bound to be crappy. Or, that’s how they picture it anyway.
Go to your local VA Hospital. Americans ain’t stupid.
Procedure Could Undo Dem Dreams
Wednesday, March 10th, 2010A parliamentary procedure could stand between Democrats and American cultural domination? Awesome. Via Bill Dupray this from the New York Times:
The White House and Democratic Congressional leaders said Tuesday that they were bracing for a key procedural ruling that could complicate their effort to approve major health care legislation, by requiring President Obama to sign the bill into law before Congress could revise it through an expedited budget process.
An official determination on the matter could come within days from the House and Senate parliamentarians, and could present yet another hurdle for Mr. Obama and Democratic leaders as they try to lock in support from skittish lawmakers in the House.
Meanwhile, Congressional leaders and top administration officials met in the offices of the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, on Tuesday evening trying to resolve outstanding policy differences between the chambers.
House leaders were still navigating potential pitfalls, including a dispute over provisions related to insurance coverage of abortion, while opponents of the legislation, including a leading business group, planned a new onslaught of television advertisements attacking the proposal.
Many rank-and-file House Democrats are reluctant to approve the Senate-passed health care measure without a guarantee that the Senate would follow up with changes in a budget reconciliation bill. The Senate measure included a number of provisions House members dislike, including special deals intended to secure the support of individual senators, like extra Medicaid money for Nebraska.
You know why I still say this passes? Have you ever seen Democrats so determined in your life? This is everything to them. Everything.
It’s no longer about policy. It’s about pride.
They’re going to get this thing passed or die tryin’.
No, Republicans Wouldn’t Repeal Health Care Reform
Wednesday, March 10th, 2010
One of the most maddening arguments from overly-optimistic friends of mine goes like this: Even if the Democrats pass health care reform, Republicans can run against it and say they’d repeal it and then look like heroes when they do it.
The only problem with this flawed logic? The veto pen of Barack Obama for two more years. The only other problem with this flawed logic? David Harsanyi captures it:
To begin with, there exists almost no historical evidence to suggest Republicans will possess either the fortitude or the power to undo a massive government entitlement program.
Can we trust them? Most of you will remember it was the Republican Party’s leadership that pressured conservatives to vote for the fiscally irresponsible Medicare Part D program in 2003. (Democrats like to argue that this illustrates GOP hypocrisy. Perhaps. With Obamacare, the GOP has a chance at redemption.)
Then there are conspicuous problems to consider. Republicans do not possess 60 votes in the Senate — and likely won’t for awhile. Best case scenario, they will have to deal with a president who will veto their efforts to undo the sole “accomplishment” of his presidency.
Obama spent last week campaigning for health care reform, at one point getting some college-age fans worked up about all the free stuff — “free” preventive care and “free” checkups, and so forth — they would receive if his version of health care reform passed.
Which brings us to another stumbling block. If health care is now a “right” and “free” to an ever-growing group of Americans — people who believe stuff can be had for “free” — are Republicans really going to snatch it away from them?
You can already picture the hideous debate, as Republicans fold in the face of accusations that they are working for the murderous profit- mongers against the underprivileged victims of a wretched capitalistic system. (Even today, Jim Bunning stood nearly alone.)
What, in all the years of watching Republicans in action gives any conservative, libertarian or even small-government moderate any faith in these people? It suggest a sweet idealism that I find refreshing, but also stupid.
Every shred of energy needs to be expended to prevent this disaster from starting. Those who suggest it can be repealed need to think of a drug user. Heroin is extraordinarily addictive. Stopping a person after the first hit, is nigh to impossible. After the third? Forget it.
Those who suggest repealing this bill, will be asking heroin addicts across the country to take themselves off the drug. That’s what government entitlements are: Societal Drugs. They hook a person, and he doesn’t even know he’s dying until it’s too late and his freedom is gone.
Better to hide the drugs and destroy them forever, than to allow a person one hit. This health care bill MUST be stopped now or there will be no stopping it later.
Podcast & A Poll: More Rangling Over Health Care Reform & Reconciliation
Monday, March 8th, 2010Poll: Patriot Room bloggers Clyde Middleton and Bill Dupray say it’s dead. Steve Schippert of Threatswatch isn’t sure. I say that it could still pass. Who’s right?
Welcome to the second (and long delayed!) edition of the Liberty Pundits podcast. Melissa, Bill, Clyde, and Steve discuss health care, the every-changing story on the American Jihadists caught or not caught, the developing 2012 POTUS run, and a few other interesting topics.
Yes, President Obama Is A Smoking Hypocrite
Monday, March 1st, 2010There’s lots of hang-wringing over whether the President’s cancer sticks make him look hypocritical about the government health care he’s trying to ram through Congress so he looks useful.
Quite simply: he’s a hypocrite in the leftist usage of the term. Technically, being a hypocrite is saying that something is bad (i.e. smoking), but not really believing it’s bad, and doing it anyway–just precluding it for others. But technicalities don’t matter to the left, so let’s just say President Obama is a hypocrite.
Now, unlike the leftists, I figure most people with ideals are going to be imperfect with those ideals. In fact, perfection is nigh to impossible as humans are fallible–even those with high ideals that urge those ideals for everyone.
It is a horrible place to be culturally, to have the opinion that no standards matter because no one can 100% live up to them. Liberals know this, which is why the religion Antropogenic Global Warming is more a set of rules “good for thee, but not for me.” And they truly are hypocrites–they don’t really believe the world is going to end tomorrow. If they did, they’d actually modify some behavior. But liberalism is about the state being God and nosing into everyone’s life.
Enter Barack Obama and smoking. Currently, he’s trying to get health care legislation passed that would require me to pay more so that a guy like him doesn’t have to pay extra because of his upped chances of all forms of cancer.
The health care reform that President Obama seeks will become a vehicle for the state to manage everyone’s lives….well, everyone’s life but his. And that’s the problem.
It’s one thing to hold high ideals. It’s another thing for the state to mandate those ideals and have power over an individual’s life. That’s what will happen. How can we be sure that will happen? Well, it’s happening in Massachusetts right now. From the Wall Street Journal:
Natural experiments are rare in politics, but few are as instructive as the prototype for ObamaCare that Massachusetts set in motion in 2006. The bills for “universal coverage” are now coming due, and it appears the state political class is prepared to do lasting damage to one of America’s top-flight health-care systems.
Last month, Democratic Governor Deval Patrick landed a neutron bomb, proposing hard price controls across almost all Massachusetts health care. State regulators already have the power to cap insurance premiums, which Mr. Patrick is activating.
So, people with bad behaviors drive up costs, they are transmitted to everyone and the costs for care goes up, the quality goes down and people are stuck. In essence, bad behavior is rewarded and so more bad behavior happens. And smoking is a very bad behavior health-wise.
President Obama should be a paragon of health care virtue if he’s going to be talking about health care. He should be the one that lifts up the health, down trodden and not be a drag on the system. But smokers are a drag on the system.
Or, there could be individual choice. Like my diabetic patient said, “I’d rather die than give up drinking Coca-Cola.” Well, okay. That’s his choice. But his high healthcare costs should be borne by him in the form of sky-high insurance premiums. It’s only fair. Otherwise, what’s his incentive to change? As it is, he has none. He’s using sugar as a form of slow suicide. It is not a choice I would make personally–but it is his choice.
And it’s President Obama’s choice to smoke. He can smoke himself into oblivion. His life. His choice. Don’t get angry with me, though, because I believe he should pay for his choices.
Megan McArdle On Health Care Through Reconciliation: Why They Still Try
Tuesday, February 23rd, 2010It’s far from clear that Democrats have the votes to pass anything close to this bill, even through reconciliation. Pro-life Democrats in the House may not go along with the Senate bill, which has more liberal language on abortion.
But even if they eventually go along, Speaker Pelosi could still be short of the votes she needs, thanks to attrition. To pass the Senate bill, she will probably need to flip a significant number of “no” voters into the “yes” column. Since most of the “no” voters come from relatively conservative districts, this is tantamount to asking them to commit political suicide.
I would submit that President Obama and the House and Senate leaders have been asking their members to commit political suicide from the beginning; for the cause. This is not a new development.
Yet here we are in late February watching the Democrats dance this insulting health care jig. Why? Because this is everything. They don’t care about losing their jobs. Passing this structure would be for the greater good.
This drum is one I keep on beating because I don’t think people on our side can fully comprehend the degree to which health care in the hands of the government matters to leftists.
Health care is the conduit with which to control every citizen’s life. It is core to a socialist’s world-view. It means survival for the unions.
This battle ain’t over ’til it’s over. And the Congress leaders on the left and President Obama know November will be a bloodbath anyway. They want something to show for it. Don’t underestimate their determination.
Health Care Reconciliation–AKA Jam The Legislation Through–While Using Republicans As Props
Monday, February 22nd, 2010President Obama has a long history of saying one thing and sounding so reasonable and conciliatory while doing it while taking actions that completely contradict his words.
Enter health care reform.
The President wants to have a photo op with Republicans and an opportunity to lecture then about what bad people they are (you know, the kind of bad people that represent their constituents who HATE this legislation) while simultaneously using a Senate procedure reserved for budget bills to pass the loathsome legislation.
Thankfully, John Boehner is calling the President’s disingenuous actions out.
CATO, the libertarian Think Tank says:
If anything, those price controls make the president’s new plan even more bureaucratic and government-heavy. The Senate bill would take an ill-advised stab at cost-control by imposing a tax on the highest-cost health plans. That president proposes to pare back that excise tax and instead have a panel of federal bureaucrats cap the growth in health insurance premiums for all health plans. Those new government powers could make it even harder for people to obtain the coverage and care that they need.
Well, the Health Care stuff still stinks. The GOP has a great response. Read and sign the petition here. Some of the ideas:
We ask that President Obama and Congressional Democrats join with Republican leaders to start over on health insurance reform.
We ask that they help craft sensible reforms designed to lower costs and expand access without violating individual rights or the integrity of the market.
We ask that they enact medical liability reform and put an end to frivolous lawsuits that drive up the cost of medicine.
We ask that they allow individuals and small businesses to pool together to purchase high-quality affordable health care coverage.
We ask that they allow Americans to shop for health care coverage from coast to coast and purchase insurance policies across state lines.
We ask that they create new incentives to save for current and future health care needs by allowing people to use their health savings accounts funds to pay premiums for high deductible health plans.
We ask that they guarantee individuals with pre-existing conditions or past illnesses access to affordable coverage through the expansion of state-based, high-risk pools, and reinsurance programs.
We reject any attempt by the federal government to force any American to purchase an unwanted insurance plan.
We reject any attempt to implement a government-run insurance program.
We reject individual mandates, rationing, and special deals for any state.
We reject a separate set of rules for government and private sector health insurance purchases.
We oppose any plan that betrays our senior citizens by cutting Medicare coverage, or that allocates taxpayer funds to pay for abortion.
We reject any proposal that authorizes a government takeover of any portion of our health care system.
We ask that Congress and the President above all pledge to ensure the constitutionality of any health insurance reform legislation considered by the federal government.
We implore the President and his allies to listen to the will of the American people and start over on health insurance reform.
Again, go check it out and sign on to the petition. President Obama seems inclined to ram through his ideas, even though they directly contradict the will of the people.
Are the Democrats willing to follow him over the cliff? Seems so.
