HUMAN EVENTS - LEADING CONSERVATIVE MEDIA SINCE 1944
03/31/2010
On the "Today" show this Tuesday, President Obama claimed the massive government takeover of health care the Democrats passed without a single Republican vote was a "middle of the road" bill that incorporated many Republican ideas.
One Republican idea allegedly incorporated into the Democrats' health care monstrosity is "medical malpractice reform." Needless to say, the Democrats' idea of malpractice reform is less than nothing. Until trial lawyers are screaming bloody murder, there has been no medical malpractice reform.
The Democrats' "malpractice" section merely encourages the states to set up commissions to "study" tort reform, in the sense that frustrated mothers "encourage" their kids not to slouch. By "study," the Democrats mean "ignore."
So we get more taxpayer-funded government workers under the Democrats' "medical malpractice reform," but not one tittle of actual reform.
Democrats manifestly do not care about helping Americans get quality health care. If they did, they could not continue to support trial lawyers like John Edwards making $50 million by bringing junk lawsuits against doctors who are saving people's lives. (At least Edwards has not done anything else to publicly disgrace himself since then.)
At a minimum, any health care bill that purports to improve Americans' health, rather than trial lawyers' bank accounts, must include a loser-pays rule and a restriction on damages to actual losses -- as opposed to punitive damages, which mostly serve to enrich the John Edwardses of the world, and their mistresses.
The Democrats also lyingly claim their health care reform includes the Republican ideas of competition across state lines.
I know they're lying because -- well, first because I read the bill -- but also because Democrats are genetically incapable of understanding the free market. You might say it's a pre-existing condition with them.
True, you can buy insurance across state lines under the new health insurance law -- but only after the Democrats have created a national commission telling all insurance companies what they are required to cover.
That's not as bad as the current patchwork of state mandates -- it's worse!
At least before the passage of ObamaCare you could move to states such as Idaho or Kentucky, where all insurance plans aren't required to cover fertility treatment, restless leg syndrome and social anxiety disorder.
Under federal mandates, there will be no escape.
That's right, a single, one-size-fits-all, jammed-down-your-throat national plan is what the Democrats mean when they say their plan includes "competition across state lines."
How much do you want to bet that the national commission in Washington will mandate coverage for every form of shopping addiction treatment, body image therapy and sex-change operations with mandatory mental health counseling, but not injuries from hunting accidents or smoking-related illnesses?
The Democrats compare their new health care bill to entitlements like Medicare and Medicaid. But those are welfare, not health care. They may go to deserving welfare recipients, but they are a government-enforced gift from the young to the old (Medicare), and from the middle class to the poor (Medicaid).
There's no reason why most Americans shouldn't be able to buy our own medical insurance the same way we buy our own cell phones, hair care and cars.
And just incidentally, Medicare and Medicaid are projected to go bankrupt slightly before the United States of America is projected to go bankrupt. So turning all of health care into a larger Medicare program may need a little more thinking through.
These programs will have to be reconfigured at some point, but how society takes care of the old and the poor should be put in a separate box from how the non-elderly and non-poor should obtain health care.
Democrats want to turn the entire citizenry into welfare recipients.
A few weeks ago, The New York Times ran an editorial noting the amazing fact that, by the middle of this year, there will be an estimated 6.8 billion people on Earth -- and 5 billion will have cell phones! (Even more astounding, at least one of them is seated directly behind me every time I go to the movies.)
How did that happen without a Democrat president and Congress using bribes, parliamentary tricks and arcane non-voting maneuvers to pass a massive, hugely expensive National Cell Phone Reform Act?
How did that happen without Barney Frank and Henry Waxman personally designing the 3-foot-long, 26-pound, ugly green $4,000 cell phone we all have to use?
How did that happen without Obama signing the National Cell Phone Reform bill, as a poor 10-year-old black kid who couldn't afford to text-message his friends looked on?
The reason nearly everyone in the universe has a cell phone is that President Reagan did to telephones the exact opposite of what the Democrats have just done with health care.
Before Reagan came into office, we had one phone company, ridiculously expensive rates and one phone model. Reagan split up AT&T, deregulated phone service and gave America a competitive market in phones. The rest is history.
If you can grasp how inexpensive cell phones in a rainbow of colors and wonders like the iPhone could never have been created under a National Cell Phone Reform Act, you can understand what a disaster ObamaCare is going to be for health care in America.
Ann Coulter is Legal Affairs Correspondent for HUMAN EVENTS and author of "High Crimes and Misdemeanors," "Slander," ""How to Talk to a Liberal (If You Must)," "Godless," "If Democrats Had Any Brains, They'd Be Republicans" and most recently, Guilty: Liberal "Victims" and their Assault on America.
COMMENTS ON HUMAN EVENTS
Report Abusive PostThe programs to 'help' have morphed into the ''entitlements'' that we have today. These entitlements have become a refuge for the true dregs of our society. These dregs are too Lazy, Stupid, or Dishonest to provide for themselves, much less the lazy, stupid, dishonest brats they keep procreating and dumping on us to support.
The liberals refuse to distinguish between the truly unfortunate and these dregs.
''Oh, they are all just poor victims of social injustice!! Wonderful, wonderful! So many lovely victims to rescue!!''
So, of course we are in financial trouble. NOW, I can look at www.refdesk.com for the latest figure. In the upper left area of that sight is a link (debt clock) to the national debt numbers, etc. That is how I keep track of the, now, over
$108 TRILLION in unfunded ENTITLEMENTS!
The fixed assets of the entire United Kingdom totals to at $10.5 trillion. The fixed assets of the entire United States totals to $72 trillion. Do you damn LIBERAL THIEVES understand this? And you just started another entitlement!!!
When it all starts to collapse, the aged and the truly unfortunate and the people who are just down on their luck will be tossed into the street along with all the dregs.
The liberals refuse to distinguish between the truly unfortunate and these dregs.
''Oh, they are all just poor victims of social injustice!! Wonderful, wonderful! So many lovely victims to rescue!!''
So, of course we are in financial trouble. NOW, I can look at www.refdesk.com for the latest figure. In the upper left area of that sight is a link (debt clock) to the national debt numbers, etc. That is how I keep track of the, now, over
$108 TRILLION in unfunded ENTITLEMENTS!
The fixed assets of the entire United Kingdom totals to at $10.5 trillion. The fixed assets of the entire United States totals to $72 trillion. Do you damn LIBERAL THIEVES understand this? And you just started another entitlement!!!
When it all starts to collapse, the aged and the truly unfortunate and the people who are just down on their luck will be tossed into the street along with all the dregs.
YOU DEGENERATE LIBERAL THIEVES HAVE DONE THIS!!!
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I think it is so funny how the liberals blame the insurance companies for high health insurance costs, but never mention the trial lawyers and the liberal government regulations on the insurance industry.
However, if they really wanted to do something, I am sure that there are enough of them to form their own insurance company or mutual company or something to provide health insurance at a ‘‘fair’’ price. Wow, without the obscene profits, they could compete in the open market at a very low price. Obviously, besides serving themselves, they could take all sorts of current customers away from the bad, evil, big insurance companies.
This would be real historical undeniable proof positive of what they claim!! Wow, they could really go down in history for solving this big problem through capitalism and good old American ingenuity. Just imagine the gratitude of the American people and the admiration of the rest of the world!!!
That is, of course, if the liberals are capable of taking real action. Maybe they are only good at whining, sniveling, and wanting their Mommy (government) to fix everything for them.
Mar 31, 2010 @ 05:19 PM
Dan B., Tiffin, OH
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The more we depend on the government, the more control they have on us. How has this escaped the rational thinking of the bleeding heart liberals of this country? It's like they want a all inclusive Utopia and if you disagree with them then you want to deny healthcare to select groups of people which as one liberal nutjob told me "is just sick". They don't get that this was never really about healthcare for everyone but about funneling healthcare dollars through Washington.
Mar 31, 2010 @ 05:29 PM
lezlie, Indianapoli
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Ann as always makes great "points" on the tip of her rapier. The most important point is that she very correctly points out that the Democrats want to make us all welfare recipients.
There was an excellent article in National Review describing how the Atlee government (you know him, he defeated Churchill in 1945, despite Churchill being a very successful war-time PM) using the National Health Service set off a series of dominoes that has enslaved the brits. There are families in Britain, some of at least TWO generations, where neither the man nor the woman (I'm leery of using "husband or wife" since that seems no longer necessary) have EVER held a job.
This is where nationalized healthcare takes you, it is the "Road to Serfdom" on steriods, (sorry Fredrik).
Mar 31, 2010 @ 05:30 PM
Carl Watson, Demorest Ga
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"How did that happen without a Democrat president and Congress using bribes, parliamentary tricks and arcane non-voting maneuvers to pass a massive, hugely expensive National Cell Phone Reform Act?"
How about the National Television Reform Act? Or, the National Personal Computer Reform Act? And, why didn't we need the National Appliance reform act?
Every reform bill has caused great damage to this country.
Jay
Call me when they pass the National No More Idiots In Public Office Reform Act.
Mar 31, 2010 @ 05:45 PM
Jay, Olathe, KS
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“The welfare of the people in particular has always been the alibi of tyrants, and it provides the further advantage of giving the servants of tyranny a good conscience.” - Albert Camus
Mar 31, 2010 @ 05:45 PM
Mike, Reno, N
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note: To read more comments, please go to the site litsted above; click on the title of this article and you will be redirected to Ann's article. Bee Sting