Wednesday, December 23, 2009

Did Congress Just Create the Tenth Circle of Hell?

The Health Care Bill passed the Congress but not without a sort of mordant humor. Most of the belly laughs come as Obama’s representatives in the Congress try to sell the package to the public by appearing on television and telling why ObamaCare, high taxes, congressional bribery, exploding deficits, health care rationing, death panels, different rules for different states, and a bunch of hidden bomblets which have yet to explode are so good for America. So where’s the funny part?

The funny part always comes when Obama’s mandarin of the moment introduces the topic, as Claire McCaskill did this morning on Fox News, by talking about the “previous administration.” This funny part can be recited first, or in the middle, or it can be recited last, but it will ALWAYS be recited. Senator John Kerry did the same when he appeared on the Fox Business Channel today with Don Imus.

The question as to when the Obama administration and its unctuous mouthpieces will take accountability for anything can be answered in this way: “Never.” Democratic Party shills and talking heads are not even embarrassed to recite this Sesame-street level ditty of indictment of the “previous administration.” Is this a case of pervasive and widespread “penis envy” (as Sigmund Freund would call it) that Obama and his staunchest supporters always measure their every action (or lack thereof) against those of George Bush? Democrats have seized the opportunity of open field running to jam a one-party bill down America’s throat, even while the majority of Americans don’t like the way it’s been written, and even less the way it’s been done.

Don’t these glorified sock puppets who appear to rationalize a poor offering realize that the public is angry—after they stop laughing, that is? When are the ObamaCare nanny-statists going to cut the Minister of Propaganda routine and realize that people are not as stupid as the Democrats presume them to be and that they do not like to be misled. “You lie!” said Joe Wilson. A better choice of words might have been: “You fib!” Or perhaps: “You propagandize!” Or maybe “You play politics with human life!” Or how about “You do not believe in representative democracy!” Well, some of those won’t fit on a bumper sticker.

What the Congress passed was a tangle of legislation which will strangle any attempts at clarity or focus upon the aspects of the health care system which really do need “reform.” But to call this “reform” is to call Pol Pot a social engineer for moving urban Cambodians to the country. How can “reform” not apply to doctors hit by extortionist tort insurance payments? How can “reform” prohibit buying insurance across state lines? How can “reform” prohibit buying medications from Canada? How can “reform” involve cutting 500 billion dollars from Medicare benefits just as millions of baby boomers are retiring after paying for it for all their working lives? How can “reform” guarantee profits to insurance and drug companies and their lobbies in perpetuity as a sop to obtain their silence if not their support?

There were about two provisions of the health care which could have been amended under true health care reform and which are in the current bill. Insurance companies will not be able to set maximum limits on coverage of the insured and they will not be able to reject persons with pre-existing conditions from coverage. What we needed was a reform of the catastrophic health care provisions, free market health care, tort reform, and the ability to buy medications from Canada. That could have been done without descending into the labyrinth of Congressional Democrats’ version of health care pork and bribery. What Congress needs to do now is summon the genius of Dante so that this bill, and the people who shoved it down our throats, may be consigned to yet another of his famous Circles of Hell.

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