Actually, not just mine, but Chuck Norris‘ as well. I kid you not – read below!
So, protesting the Democrats’ initiative to reform the nation’s healthcare system is now “unAmerican”. Y’know, I used to think House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was as dumb as a bag of doorknobs, but now I know that’s just being insulting – insulting, that is, to a bag of doorknobs.
Maybe the way Sarah Palin put it was crude and perhaps a little over the top, but to a government bureaucrat one’s plan that includes mandatory “end of life planning” for seniors is another’s “death panel”. Fine. But if you don’t think having the government in charge of the nation’s health care system isn’t going to lead to rationing at both ends of the life spectrum, you’re smokin’ something you shouldn’t be.
To me, it still comes down to this: if the Democrats were so very concerned about the “47 million” (which are really only about 14 million, BTW) who don’t have health insurance, why not just bail them out like they’ve done to GM? Call it “Cash For Coverage”. It would certainly be a helluva lot cheaper than a radical, full-system overhaul, right?
You know why? Because that’s not what this is all about, never has been. This is, pure and simple, nothing but the ultimate government power grab scheme to force private healthcare providers and insurers out of business and everyone into a single-payor plan that the government would then run. And by doing so, they now have what they’ve always wanted – control over every freakin’ aspect of your life.
Think about it: once the government controls the purse strings of everyone’s healthcare, they can legislate virtually anything in the name of reducing healthcare costs. The government can dictate what you eat, what you drive, what you do for a living, how many children you can have, how you raise your children – take it, Chuck:
Dirty secret No. 1 in Obamacare is about the government’s coming into homes and usurping parental rights over child care and development.
It’s outlined in sections 440 and 1904 of the House bill (Page 838), under the heading “home visitation programs for families with young children and families expecting children.” The programs (provided via grants to states) would educate parents on child behavior and parenting skills.
The bill says that the government agents, “well-trained and competent staff,” would “provide parents with knowledge of age-appropriate child development in cognitive, language, social, emotional, and motor domains … modeling, consulting, and coaching on parenting practices,” and “skills to interact with their child to enhance age-appropriate development.”
Are you kidding me?! With whose parental principles and values? Their own? Certain experts’? From what field and theory of childhood development? As if there are one-size-fits-all parenting techniques! Do we really believe they would contextualize and personalize every form of parenting in their education, or would they merely universally indoctrinate with their own?
Are we to assume the state’s mediators would understand every parent’s social or religious core values on parenting? Or would they teach some secular-progressive and religiously neutered version of parental values and wisdom? And if they were to consult and coach those who expect babies, would they ever decide circumstances to be not beneficial for the children and encourage abortions?
…how long you can live, and yes, who lives and who dies – all decisions will be made solely on the basis of controlling healthcare costs. Because that’s how the damned government thinks – they don’t give a shit about you and me. And all know how good a job this government is doing at controlling costs, right?
What President Obama and the Democrats are doing here is not just fiscal insanity given their already out-of-control spending, inherently dishonest, and incredibly cynical, it is, pure and simple, fascism. Don’t believe me? Look the term up – I’m not just tossing around fancy words for my own benefit.
In this way, Sarah Palin is spot on: what President Obama and the Democrats are proposing is not just destructive to this nation’s long-term fiscal health and social welfare, but, in their seeking to destroy the very foundations underlying our most basic freedoms through the institution of a government program that will, by its very design, dictate every aspect of people’s lives, it is evil.
And it must be stopped. At any and all cost.
My two cents: Unless you’re paying for your cancer treatment or kidney dialysis completely out of your own pocket, then you are using “other people’s” money. Someone will always have to represent the “other people”. If it’s not the government, it’s an insurance company or a hospital. Who do you trust? Personally, I don’t trust any of them to do what’s right for me. The government is inefficient but their Christmas bonuses aren’t larger if they deny a procedure, either. I think the good of getting those 14 or 47 million people health care and giving Americans another option outweighs the wildly over-exaggerated bad.
Comment by Rob — August 12, 2009 @ 1:57 pm
OK, wonder why the comment counter isn’t working and why the comment was gone this morning. Anyway, I thought I should add that I do understand why a lot of people would like to stick with the devil they know. I have excellent health insurance compared to most. People, like me, are overreacting in my opinion. I haven’t heard anything yet that will threaten your current coverage.
Comment by Rob — August 13, 2009 @ 6:31 am
Sorry, Rb, but I have to disagree. The second a public option is made available, nearly every employer will dump their coverage and dump their employees into the public option.
Why?
They’ll save money by not having to supply health insurance any more There will no longer be a public “option”, there will be the public health plan for all. President Hope & Change and all the libs will get their wish of a single-payer system, because all the private insurance companies will go out of business because they can’t afford to provide the same coverage while running a deficit, as the government can do.
Will there be “death committees”? No, I don’t think so, but more rationing than the current system of private insurance allows for will occur.
The only way any public option could work is with Draconian requirements for entry; those with pre-existing conditions and poverty-level incomes ONLY. No exceptions or additions. Then leave the rest of the industry alone.
Comment by Dave Richard — August 14, 2009 @ 3:03 am
I don’t know why anyone thinks that a public option spells the end of private enterprise. Insurance companies won’t go quietly into the good night. They’ll compete. Public schools haven’t put private ones out of business. The post office hasn’t put FEDEX or UPS out of business.
As far as employers dumping health insurance benefits for their employees, what’s stopping them from doing so now? As health care costs continue to rise, more and more employers will be crippled by the cost of the premiums. What’s the right’s solution for that?
Comment by Rob — August 17, 2009 @ 6:24 pm