Here are some problems with Democare – or maybe today I should call it Grinchycare…
*This bill is fundamentally unconstitutional: Is it the proper role of government to create another behemoth and force American citizens to participate? The Constitution guarantees us the “Right to Privacy”. The US Supreme Court has already ruled on a constitutionally mandated zone of personal privacy that must remain free of government regulation. As the court explained in Planned Parenthood v. Casey (1992), “these matters, involving the most intimate and personal choices a person may make in a lifetime, choices central to personal dignity and autonomy, are central to the liberty protected by the Fourteenth Amendment. At the heart of liberty is the right to define one’s own concept of existence, of meaning, of the universe, and the mystery of human life.” If the Supreme Court overturns this ruling, they gut Roe v Wade….what a dilemma…
A liberal blogger recently posted: “If Congress does not have the power to create a modest public option which competes with private health plans in the marketplace, then it certainly does not have the authority to create Medicare. Similarly, Congress’ power to spend money to benefit the general welfare is the basis for Social Security, federal education funding, Medicaid”
I think that’s something we can agree on! They should NOT have that power. Article 1, Section 8 of our Constitution is not a carte blanche to do whatever the heck they want, in spite of the vote in the Senate that asserted the contrary.
*This bill does NOT cut costs – in fact, it increases costs dramatically – $298 billion over the next 9 years and $1.8 trillion in its first “real” 10 years, 2014 (the first year the plan provides any services) through 2023. It increases the deficit by $740 BILLION in the real first 10 years.
The latest on cost from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services released recently ago show billions of dollars in increased costs through 2019 – and that is with 4 years of no service, just collecting taxes. The CMS report says that the legislation would result in “numerous changes in the way that health care insurance is provided and paid for in the U.S., and the scope and magnitude of these changes are such that few precedents exist for use in estimation.”
Yesterday, the CBO said “Oopsies” as they admitted they had double-counted Medicare savings. Gotta love that fuzzy math.
An economist in favor of Obamacare wrote recently in the New Yorker that he expected the tax rate for the wealthy to top 60%. He also said that “expanding health care coverage now and worrying later about its long-term consequences is an eminently defensible strategy.” It will make American society more “equitable,” and justifies a little “subterfuge” with the numbers.
“But let’s not pretend that it isn’t a big deal, or that it will be self-financing, or that it will work out exactly as planned. It won’t.
Many Democratic insiders know all this, or most of it. What is really unfolding, I suspect, is the scenario that many conservatives feared. The Obama Administration, like the Bush Administration before it (and many other Administrations before that) is creating a new entitlement program, which, once established, will be virtually impossible to rescind. At some point in the future, the fiscal consequences of the reform will have to be dealt with in a more meaningful way, but by then the principle of (near) universal coverage will be well established. Even a twenty-first-century Ronald Reagan will have great difficult overturning it.”
*This bill provides for federal funds to be used for abortions – the Stupak amendment passes in the House, but a key Dem said the very next day it would not remain in the bill. The Nelson amendment failed in the Senate and even with the so-called compromises on abortion funding, this bill DOES provide that federal funds be used to pay for ending the life of a baby.
*This bill suppresses research. It creates a new institute, with a new czar, that would allow the Institute to withhold funding from any institution that produces findings inconsistent with the agency’s view of the “bounds of evidence”, meaning anyone they disagree with will have funds withheld.
In 2007, AcademyHealth published a study that noted that
the problem of government agencies embargoing or otherwise suppressing health care and public health research is significant, and in fact is a far worse problem than the oft-cited issue of excess influence by pharmaceutical manufacturers. Researchers were over three times as likely to experience interference from government sponsors than industrial funders. More recently, the revelations of manipulation of peer-review and misconduct regarding research used to support the global warming agenda, from the e-mails “hacked” from the University of East Anglia’s Climate Research Unit, further indicates the vulnerability of the process of integrity of science to the machinations of those with a political axe to grind.
*strips medical decision-making from healthcare providers and turning it over to government bureaucrats. According to a Wall Street Journal article dated Dec 23,
It all starts with the sweeping power that the Senate bill gives to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. The agency will be given the authority to unilaterally write new rules on when medical devices and drugs can be used, and how they should be priced. In particular, the Obama team wants to give the agency the power to decide when a cheaper medical option will suffice for a given problem and, in turn, when Medicare only has to pay for the least costly alternative. The government has already sought to acquire this same power administratively. But on Tuesday the Obama Justice department got swatted down by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, in what the judges described in their opinion as an attempt by Mr. Obama’s legal team to “end-run around the statute [Medicare].”
So, they stuffed that ability into the Reid version of the bill.
*fudges numbers. The real number is of uninsured Americans is significantly lower than the 48 or 50 million frequently claimed. Take away 9 to 13 million illegal immigrants and an additional 9 million on Medicaid “accidentally” counted as “uninsured” and claims then, that the uninsured will drop to “only” 23 million Americans are more of a smoke and mirrors game than anything else.
Even the Daily Kos – a far left website – says re-election prospects are tightly tied to passing healthcare legislation WITH a public option. For example, 84% of Democrats polled said that if a Dem voted against healthcare legislation, they should have a strong primary challenger. The Daily Kos concludes this is going to hurt Harry Reid more than anyone. One can only hope.
The Democrats recognize this is their last chance. Mid-term elections will see them losing their super-majority and many believe they could lose their majority. The bleeding has already begun, as a 4th Democrat in a ‘hot seat’ has said he will “retire gracefully” and this week, a freshman Democrat from Arkansas switched party affiliations and became a Republican.
White House Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer told POLITICO: “If President Obama doesn’t pass health reform, it’s hard to imagine another president ever taking on this Herculean task. For those whose life’s work is reforming health care, this may be the last train leaving the station.”
Vice President Joe Biden said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe”: “If health care does not pass in this Congress … it’s going to be kicked back for a generation.”
So, this morning at 5:16 am local time, the Senate version of Grinchycare passed on a 60-39 vote. The fleecing was quickly followed by the fleeing of those same Senators back to their home states. Wonder if any of those 60 Senators will hold town halls over the Christmas break???
In the last month, we have seen a freshman Democrat switch parties (after the national Dems pumped a million dollars into that race) and 11 House Dems state they will not seek re-election. Of those 11, 7 are believed to be in districts where the GOP is likely to win.
