Universal Healthcare Is Built On A Foundation Of Lies

The universal healthcare legislation pending in Congress is built on a foundation of lies and deceit. Everything from its provisions to its costs to the methods of passage is one lie after another.

In the movie Random Hearts Harrison Ford and Kristin Scott Thomas play a pair of strangers whose respective spouses die together in a plane crash. As the movie progresses both Ford and Thomas discover how little they knew about their spouses. Eventually, Ford turns to Thomas and says:

The same can be said of the Obama universal healthcare legislation pending before Congress.

The purpose of the legislation — Lie No. 1. Despite the stated intention of liberals to provide healthcare to all Americans, the pending legislation still will not cover between 12 and 25 million people depending on which version is passed and whether you count illegal immigrants or not. The same result could have occurred by modifying Medicaid without destroying the nations healthcare system. But this is not about providing healthcare, it’s about power — expanding a dependent class to insure re-election.

The cost of the legislation — Lie No. 2. In both the House and Senate versions of Obamacare, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has pegged their respective costs at less than $1 Trillion over ten years. However, to get to that figure, both the House and the Senate designed their respective bills so that the tax increases inherent in both would begin immediately while the expenditure will be delayed for four years. In other words the CBO calculation contains ten years of tax revenues and six years of expenditures. So what happens in year eleven? Well, using fundamental algebra and assuming that the CBO trn-year estimates of $850 Billion are accurate, the national debt will increase by an additional $14.2 Billion annually and that is before you build in ten years of inflation. Assuming two and one-half percent inflation (a conservative estimate) that figure becomes $18.2 Billion in the eleventh year. Assuming a ten percent inflation rate — closer to what medical costs have been running — that figure becomes $40.5 Billion in the eleventh year. If the legislation is worthwhile, why is it necessary to lie about its true cost?

The contents of the legislation — Lies No. 3-5. Both the House and Senate versions exceed 1000 pages The general multiplier from legislation to rules for implementation is 100:1 The only purpose that can be served by burying the American populace in so much verbage is to confound and confuse. In Montana, there are a series of statutes that are entitled the Axioms of Law. My favorite is “Superfluity does not vitiate.” – loosely translated that means just because you use a lot of words does not make it true. Here is what I mean:

Lie No 3 — Covering the Uninsured
President Obama stated categorically that universal healthcare would not apply to illegal immigrants. To be precise, the legislation will not contain specific language applying it to illegals; however, it will contain language that limits what you can ask a recipient including his resident status. Thus it will work just like welfare payments in Oregon. There is a specific statute that requires one to be a lawful resident but an unbroken string of Democrat governors has prohibited checking on a recipients status. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to quickly learn that lying about your status will not suffer you any adverse consequences. If you can’t ask or check then people will lie about their status. It is deceitful to declare that the legislation will not apply to illegal immigrants when you know, in operation, that it will.

Lie No 4 — Tax Dollars for Abortion.
President Obama also said that no tax dollars will be used to fund abortions. The House has a specific provision prohibiting it. However, the Senate has concocted a scheme that allegedly segregates tax dollars from premium payments. This is the same sort of scam that United Way used when initially confronted by prospective donors who did not want their contributions to go to Planned Parenthood — the nation’s premier abortion advocates. The net effect was that Planned Parenthood continued to receive the same level of support from United Way, they just re-juggled the distribution of funds. Unless the provisions in the House bill are incorporated into the Senate Bill, abortions will be funded by tax dollars.

Lie No. 5 — Maintaining Your Current Insurance Policy.
President Obama stated categorically that you will be allowed to keep your current health insurance. Two factors make that statement baloney. First, the “penalty” on employers for not providing health insurance will be less than they are currently paying to provide the health insurance. In other words businesses can cut their expenses by not providing health insurance, paying the penalty and forcing their employees on to the public option. And second, the public option will be subsidized and thus provided at a lower price than private insurers. Yes, you will have a choice but it will be an uneconomic choice and, in short order, private insurers cannot compete and will be driven out of the business. The only exception will be for the very rich who can and will provide a private healthcare option for themselves, joined of course by the exceptions for the Congress and its employees.

Lie No. 6 – Moderate and Blue Dog Democrats and the two Independents will oppose the measure without concessions on the public option, illegal immigrants and abortion.
There are fifty-eight Democrats and two Independents — one a Socialist and the other a survivor of a purge by the Far Left. Only fifty-one Democrats are required to pass the bill and/or provide amendments. The Democrats only need the sixty vote supermajority on a procedural vote to eliminate a threatened fillibuster. They got that last Friday. There are not enough Moderate and Blue Dog Democrats, even if they are joined by all of the Republicans to muster a majority to alter the provisions of the bill regarding the public option, illegal immigrants and abortion —AND THEY KNOW IT. These liars have knowingly given away their only leverage and thus insured that the legislation will not only pass but it will pass with provisions that they claim to oppose. These liars can now safely vote against the final bill so that they can deny responsibility before their voters while at the same time giving their party leadership precisely the only vote that counted. In essence they have voted for the bill at its critical point and will vote against it when it doesn’t matter. Liars all.

The worthiness of this legislation is demonstrated repeatedly by the need to lie, deceive and obfuscate. And why, you ask, will our politicians do that? Quite simply, because they can. They have been getting away with it for decades and the voters seldom hold them accountable. But the final beauty of a democracy is that voters generally get what they deserve.