Selling To The Gullible

Well, the goal line is in sight for the final destruction of America, and the team with the ball is playing dirty and pulling out every trick in the book to get into the end zone. The most frustrating part of this two-minute drill is that the referees (the media) have made this a much closer game than it really should have been through their myopic and selective officiating.

The road leading up to this weekends vote on health care "reform" is strewn with broken promises, bribes and outright lies. Those on the left - who probably bought every product Billy Mays ever sold - try to say that the outright lies belong to the opponents of ObamaCare, but that's what makes them so gullible. Let's examine the fuzzy math of the Democrats and the chicanery they have engaged in that is responsible for the littered avenue.

The inflated and exaggerated number of "uninsured" Americans was the catalyst for the journey upon which we now find nearly completed, but that was quickly supplanted by the economic crisis that befell us at the end of the 43rd presidency. Fortune - for lack of a better term - had it that Obama and his fellows of the Triad were handed the vehicle by which to facilitate their wicked dreams.

So Universal Health Care was suddenly being advertised not only as a compassionate product, but one of alleged fiscal responsibility. In the run-up to tomorrow's vote, the books have been cooked so badly it's a wonder they didn't suffer the same fate as the book-victims of Nazi Germany. We have been told of the benefit enacting Obama's heinous program would reap, saving tons of cash while healing the lepers at a lower cost. So Utopian were the promises that it seemed a given the media would investigate and report with vigor. That never happened.

Left to the role of sole messengers, talk radio and Fox News were easily cast as the propagandists, while "genuine" journalists such as Whoopie Goldberg and Jon Stewart were hailed as the defenders of truth. While they gleefully regurgitated the wonders of socialized medicine and its savior status for all things fiscal, none of them ever exercised cognitive skills in analyzing the numbers.

While we were told that the plan would insure 30 million "previously uninsured" people, we were also told that costs would come down and care would not be rationed, taxes would not go up, and the deficit would be reduced. Still, no one in the mainstream media thought to question the ludicrousness of such an equation.

We were led to believe that the majority of doctors were behind Obama's plan by the clever use of photo-ops of "doctors" - who needed to be supplied with white lab coats by White House staffers - applauding Obama's soaring rhetoric on the virtues of "health care reform".

Democrats still had trouble mustering support from their own majority party, so the administration and the other two members of the Triad - Reid and Pelosi - resorted to buying the votes of Democrat dissenters, with our money. Republicans, smelling blood in the water, quite naturally began tearing flesh and, this time, the media had to notice. Those arm-twisters had to alter course as a result, opting not to veer from the destination, but rather to take a different route.

Desperate, as they seemed to understand that things weren't going quite as planned, and reeling from the loss of the Massachusetts Senate seat to Scott Brown, Democrats looked for ways to skirt the common rules of governance. Equating their massive overhaul of Americans' lives with mundane procedural motions, they tried to cite precedent in the Reconciliation process. Vigilant reporters took note. Then they attempted the same with the Slaughter Solution, which would allow the House to pass a Senate bill with no recorded vote and, therefore, no accountability.

In the last few days, everyone eagerly awaited the Congressional Budget Office's (CBO) assessment of the actual cost of the Obama plan, and they got a taste on Thursday, when the CBO released its latest estimate. The problem is, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the rest of the Democrat congressional cabal characterized the news as a banquet, claiming that the report vindicated their claims that their plan would save America money and cut the deficit.

That report was the CBO's best guess, however, working off of incomplete data and speculation. No matter, the Democrats proceeded before the cameras as though the numbers were gospel, but the CBO had a poison pill to disclose. Today, the CBO revealed that the preliminary budget projections Democrats touted as reason to proceed as planned was tainted by a secret plan to roll back planned cuts to doctors in the Medicare program, which aided in the illusion that the health care bill would reduce deficits over the next decade.

Did you ever wonder why the AMA backed the Obama plan? It was because that organization knew that the cuts in doctors fees was just a smoke screen designed to skew the CBO estimate. It turns out - as reported by the Associated Press - that one of the "fixes" being offered by Congress in exchange for the Slaughter Solution is the permanent repeal of the Medicare cuts.

Democrats, according to AP, planned to covertly roll back the cuts to doctors, which would "wipe out all the deficit reduction, leaving the legislation $59 billion in the red." Politico.com had broken a "leaked" memo from the Democrats, but has retracted after protests from that party. Hopefully they will verify its validity and be able to re post.

It remains to be seen how this plays out over the weekend, but I pray that the media finally sheds the web of deceit and adoration that has seemingly been spun over them and reports the truth at last. This health care bill has been sold as the best product that you'll ever hate, reminiscent of the lofty promises of Billy Mays and Ron Popiel. The big difference is that this product offers no money-back guarantee.

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Obama's Massachusetts Model

He's had four years to learn and has not...or has he?

The Obama administration and the Democrats on the Hill - in their zeal to get a massive entitlement program passed in the form of Universal Health Care - continue to tell the American people that it's all about saving money and cutting costs. Yet every time they come out with their projected costs, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) revises those numbers up.

According to reports, Obama's plans for the nation are modelled on the Massachusetts health care plan. Passed in 2006, the radical overhaul of the state’s health-care system has since experienced an "unexpected" ballooning of costs, forcing the state to raise taxes and cut benefits. In just the first four years of its existence, the cost of the state's insurance program has nearly doubled, expanding by 42%. A Rand Corporation analysis projects that health care spending in the state will double again in the next decade.

“In the absence of policy change, health care spending in Massachusetts is projected to nearly double to $123 billion in 2020, increasing 8 percent faster than the state’s gross domestic product (GDP).”

As Obama continues to assail the insurance industry and pretend to be the "defender of the consumer" - portraying the battle as one against premium increases - the cost of insurance premiums are the nation's highest. According to The Daily Caller:

Meanwhile, the cost of insurance premiums in the state is the highest in the nation, and double-digit rate hikes are expected again in 2010.

The worry, shared across the political spectrum, is that the state’s health-care spending will overwhelm the state’s budget. Already, it has forced service cuts that have irked those on both sides of the aisle.

Is this what we need on a nationwide basis? Are the Democrats oblivious to the problems facing the state of Massachusetts, or are they actively seeking to duplicate that disaster on a grander scale? One must truly wonder. Nevertheless, the road to get there looks eerily similar the road Massachusetts took. Also from The Daily Caller:

One problem the state has faced is that it failed to accurately anticipate the true cost of the program. At the time the program was signed into law, estimates indicated that the cost of Commonwealth Care, which is responsible for the program’s biggest single cost, its health insurance subsidies, would be about $725 million per year. But by 2008, those projections had been revised. New estimates indicated that the plan was to cost $869 million in 2009 and $880 million 2010, an upwards increase of nearly 20 percent.

Perhaps it would be a great idea if - before we get too far down this familiar road and end up in the same place - someone slammed on the brakes. Are you listening, Congress?

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