Health Care Reform - Malice Or Stupidity?

Over the past few month sit has become apparent to anyone really paying attention to the machinations of Congress and the Obama Administration that one of two scenarios are playing themselves out.

The first one – Congress and Obama really haven't a clue about how an economy really works, where the money comes from, and who it is that creates real jobs, meaning jobs that actually add to the Gross Domestic Product. (There are a few exceptions to this, such as police, fire, and other vital municipal services that keep our towns and cities running). To the Dems running the show, the money just appears as if by magic, or they take it away from the wealthy.

The second one – Congress and Obama really do understand all of the above, but they don't care because they have socialist agenda they're going to push even if they have to destroy the greatest nation on Earth to in order to achieve it.

A philosopher (which one, I don't recall at present) once said something along the lines of “Do not ascribe to malice that which can be explained by stupidity.” Therefore, I am leaning more towards the first scenario rather than the second, though the roots of the second could easily be the cause of the first.

A perfect example of this is the so-called health reform legislation being pushed by the White House and slavishly written by the Democrats in Congress. As the WSJ called it, it is reckless of Congress to do it.

Say this about the 1,018-page health-care bill that House Democrats unveiled this week and that President Obama heartily endorsed: It finally reveals at least some of the price of the reckless ambitions of our current government. With huge majorities and a President in a rush to outrun the declining popularity of his agenda, Democrats are bidding to impose an unrepealable European-style welfare state in a matter of weeks.

They are setting us down a path that Europe has followed, one that hasn't worked, is still a drag on the EU economy and they are doing it as quickly as they can they know that there will be a backlash by the American people once they see what all of these programs will cost and how it will negatively affect their lives. The Democrats have forgotten that one does not create prosperity by impoverishing the people, particularly those who actually create the jobs. (Of course I am assuming they knew it to begin with, a bad assumption, I admit.)

Opposition to the spending spree and destruction of the health care system is growing, even among Democrats. While wholesale defections haven't happened, with a little more time to digest what the health care reform bill really says and what it will cost, more than a few Congressional Democrats may balk at supporting something that will more than likely get them voted out of office.

Even staunch liberals are horrified at what they see and are blanching at the costs of Obamacare.

It's pretty bad for the Democrats hoping to cram through a massive reform of the entire health insurance industry in just a few weeks when they lose a die-hard Democrat like Susan Estrich. But she's extremely skeptical of this whole health care fantasy that her pals in Washington are trying to peddle to the country.

The idea that somehow you're going to tax the "rich" enough to pay for quality health care for every American who doesn't have it, can't afford it or stands to lose it, not to mention for all of the undocumented aliens who receive it for free now and presumably will continue to in Obama health land, is almost laughable. It's one of those things candidates say in campaigns, ignoring the fact that it doesn't add up. But in a bill that might pass? Add a 5 percent surtax on every small business in the country that makes $250,000 or more? This is going to create jobs? What am I missing?

We're being promised pie in the sky - health care that won't change for all those who like their plans and low-cost health care for everyone, including those who are uninsured now. And no taxes on anyone except for those despicable rich people who should pony up as their patriotic duty. It's a fairy tale and one that won't end with everyone living happily every after.

It's obvious no one bothered looking at the real numbers for what all of this will really cost, ignoring the other tax hikes to pay for all of the other Hopey-Changey programs and cash giveaways Obama's been trying to sell to the American people since before he took office. Neither he or the Democrats in Congress seem to understand that the piggy bank is empty and that the rest of us aren't going to bankrupt ourselves in order to pour even more of our hard earned money into that bottomless pit. There's no way they'll be able to spin this as being good for anyone but them.

I recall that at one point it was estimated that if the government took all of the income from the rich to pay for all of these wonderful 'free' programs the IRS would collect about $400 billion. As compared to what Obama wants to spend that's a drop in the bucket. (We could also count on the amount the IRS collected the second year from the rich would come to, oh, let's see...umm...carry the 1...to about $0. The rich would either be poor and have no more money to take or they would have fled with their wealth and taken their businesses to friendlier tax climes. I certainly wouldn't blame them.)

Never mind that health care reform will neither reform nor provide adequate health care unless one defines such reform as “destruction of a very good health care system that is by no means perfect, and replacing it with system that is very poor at providing health care and cuts costs by denying care to those most needing it.” I guess we should also ignore another side effect of such reform : stifling medical innovation and research. That has certainly happened in every other nation that has imposed this kind of health care system upon its populace. Most of the medical advances now come heavily from the US. It is moribund in the UK, Canada, France, and most other nations in the EU.

That is the fate of the American health care system if Obama and his Democrat lemmings in Congress get their way.