ObamaCare: Same Song, Second Verse

After being rocked by election defeats in New Jersey, Virginia, and Massachusetts and the growing public disapproval of his health care takeover, Obama and congressional Democrats were reeling. The American people had spoken, and what they said was Obama was taking the country in the wrong direction with the wrong approach.
Obama and the Democrats paused for a bit. We started to wonder if they had seen the light. Was ObamaCare dead? Obama then stated he wanted to “reach out” to Republicans… get their input and suggestions on health care. He even proposed a health care “summit” for this Thursday. Then… he released his “updated” plan. He rejected conservative input and has put forward the same kind of scheme as before. We didn’t want more government before, and we certainly don’t want it now!
That’s right. ObamaCare is back, and the president hasn’t learned one thing from his first year in office. He is still bent on “reshaping” America using tenets far removed from the freedom and liberty values that built this country.
As noted by Philip Klein in <a href=”http://spectator.org/blog/2010/02/22/obama-hc-proposal-has-more-spe” target=”top”>The American Spectator</a>, “President Obama on Monday unveiled a new health care proposal that adds spending provisions and raises taxes without making any real concessions to Republicans ahead of this week’s health care summit.”
<a href=”http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/summary-presidents-proposal.pdf” target=”top”>++ Read Obama’s plan here</a>
Obama’s plan is simply a tweaked version of the House and Senate plans. It contains no public option (the government’s own health insurance company), but as noted in <a href=”http://theplumline.whorunsgov.com/health-care/white-house-if-gop-filibusters-well-pass-health-reform-via-reconciliation/” target=”top”>The Plum Line</a>, the plan “does not preclude a reconciliation vote on the public option later.”
If you decide not to get health insurance, you will have to pay a tax. This is surely an unconstitutional move by the federal government. Taxes will be raised for higher income families, and Obama’s plan will put government in control of monitoring the premiums that private businesses (health insurance companies) can charge or change their rates. As noted in the AP story <a href=”http://www.gopusa.com/news/2010/february/0223_ins_rates1.shtml” target=”top”>Calif. insurer to face questioning over rate hike</a>, California’s regulatory board is already looking into practices of a health insurance company. The states have the power to regulate these business. The federal government needs to stay out of the way!
<a href=”http://republicanleader.house.gov/News/DocumentSingle.aspx?DocumentID=171326″ target=”top”>In a press release</a>, House Republican Leader John Boehner said that Obama has “crippled the credibility of this week’s summit by proposing the same massive government takeover of health care based on a partisan bill the American people have already rejected.”
Boehner also focuses on a key point which is the main reason why I felt that the Republicans should NOT be participating in this summit. Obama has given speech after speech and shut the Republicans out of the health care debate. The result has been plummeting public opinion for the Democrats’ health care bill. Now, Obama puts forward essentially the same plan, and the Republicans are giving it legitimacy by participating in the summit. The Republicans would do much better by taking their own plan to the American people.
<blockquote>Boehner: “This week’s summit clearly has all the makings of a Democratic infomercial for continuing on a partisan course that relies on more backroom deals and parliamentary tricks to circumvent the will of the American people and jam through a massive government takeover of health care.”</blockquote>
In another <a href=”http://spectator.org/blog/2010/02/22/obama-destroys-pledge-to-allow” target=”top”>Philip Klein</a> notes Obama’s pledge: “If you like your health care plan, you’ll be able to keep your health care plan, period.” He then analyzes Obama’s “new” proposal, stating, “While a number of provisions in the existing House and Senate health care bills would undermine that pledge, the proposal Obama unveiled today takes a sledgehammer to it.”
<blockquote>All of the new requirements proposed by Obama would increase premiums, and by definition, alter the composition of those insurance plans. The White House would argue that it is changing the policies for the better. But the entire point of having “grandfathered plans” was to protect a class of policies from changes imposed by the new legislation. Put another way, the provision to allow people to keep their “grandfathered plans” is rendered meaningless when the federal government is dictating what is in them.</blockquote>
The American people can not sit back and coast on their recent victories. Much like we saw during the debate on illegal immigration, as soon as a bill was defeated, a new bill was put forward in the hopes that the American people had “calmed down.” Well, we are not calming down. In fact, we have only just begun. We do NOT want bigger, more powerful government. Obama and company surely must realize this, and yet they are pushing forward anyone. It’s our turn. And our push is mightier than theirs.