By Glenn Kimball, Corvallis
Communism’s architect, Karl Marx, prescribed methods to overthrow governments and first install Socialism, followed inevitably by pure Communism. He wrote, “Socialize medicine first, then all other activities of a nation will follow as night the day”.
When Barack Obama entered presidential office, he was immediately faced with the pressing issues of two foreign wars and escalating unemployment, but what did he do instead? He shelved them and created Obamacare first, just as Karl Marx said he should.
It’s incredible to me that so many American citizens still believe that Obamacare implements legitimate healthcare reform. It does not. It’s an instrument designed to make a larger segment of the population dependent upon federal government, thus ensuring a perpetual supply of Democratic Party voters to maintain Obama’s socialist regime in power.
Probably not one in ten US congressmen read the lengthy 1300 page Obamacare bill before signing it. Free-spending icon Nancy Pelosi said, “I guess we will have to pass it just to find out what’s in it.” Montana’s US Senator Max Baucus, who ostensibly wrote the bill and then introduced it in the US Senate, publicly admitted that he never read it. When asked why by the news media, he admonished the reporters for expecting someone as busy as him to read an entire bill. Jon Tester, Montana’s other US Senator, voted in favor of it also.
While Obamacare imposes a 2.5% “punitive tax” (fine) upon American citizens who do not wish to participate in the program, it permits administration favorites to “opt-out” of the plan. So far the United Auto Workers (UAW), SEIU and ACORN have done so. If it’s such a good deal, why don’t they choose to participate? Perhaps it’s because Obamacare subsidizes their union healthcare plans with taxpayer money.
A previously published rebuttal letter in the Missoulian listed just eight of the draconian measures contained in Obamacare, out of a total of 115 or so. Now we have an allegedly bipartisan 12-member congressional “super-committee” tasked with finding ways to reduce the deficit. You can bet that they will recommend virtually everything else except defunding all or part of Obamacare.
Obamacare is actually a tax increase bill. Embedded in it are $105.4 billion dollars in new taxes, $5 billion just this year, and $100 billion over the next eight years. Many members of Congress were astonished when recently advised of this. We should all realize that this is not just proposed spending. It is contained in legislation already voted into law and the money is currently being spent.
Obamacare’s repercussions will spread across government. 150,000 new government jobs must be created just to administer it, 15,000 new IRS agents alone. These jobs will be added to the already bloated federal employee budget.
By any other words, Obamacare is “socialized medicine”. We should anticipate that our healthcare will become as bad as it is in socialized nations like Canada and Britain. We won’t have near the number of competent doctors needed to serve our current population, much less a variously estimated 12 to 20 million illegal immigrants that Obamacare provides with free healthcare. With their wages artificially set by inexpert government bureaucrats, many US doctors plan to retire. Predictably, the government will attempt to replace them with marginally educated and inexperienced doctors from third world countries.
Despite denials, healthcare rationing will become a reality. Scheduled surgeries may require years-long waits. Access to competent specialists will be limited because Obamacare compensates all doctors equally, regardless of specialty or duration of medical training. Citizens of Canada and Britain confirm the result of their socialized medicine experiment. Many Canadians vote with their feet, traveling to the US to receive timely medical treatment.
In late news, the Eleventh US Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Obamacare is unconstitutional, primarily because it imposes a ‘fine’ for non-participation. Congress overstepped its authority in doing so. Only the Judiciary branch of government may impose fines. The next step is the US Supreme Court, where Obama’s US Justice appointees Sotomayor and Kagan await their queue.