Published in The New York Post July 21, 2009
If the Democrats obey President Obama’s command and pass a health-care bill by the August recess, they’ll be committing partisan suicide.
Obama’s insistence that we completely remake our health-care system — and do it two weeks after the first bill was marked up in the first committee — is too arrogant by half. It smacks of the kind of overreaching of FDR’s second term in 1937, when, after his landslide win in 1936, he tried to pack the Supreme Court to reverse its anti-New Deal rulings.
Americans are increasingly turning against Obama’s program. A Washington Post poll has the plan’s public approval below 50 percent; Rasmussen has it trailing 46-49.
For Obama to ride roughshod over Americans’ rising concerns about a matter so intimate will be too much.
What’s the rush? they’ll ask. The bill isn’t even slated to take effect until next year. You passed the stimulus package, they’ll note, in a similar rush during the administration’s first week — only to see it fall flat. Now Obama aides are claiming the package was never intended to have much effect this year!
How, voters will ask, can we cover 50 million more people without any new doctors or nurses? The answer is to ration health care, with the government deciding who’ll get hip and knee replacements, heart-bypass surgery and other medical treatments. And what does rationing mean? It means that the elderly will be denied care that they can now get whenever they want.
The Obama plan effectively repeals Medicare, putting a Federal Health Board between the elderly and their doctors. This board will instruct public and private insurance carriers on what procedures are to be approved, at what cost and for what patients.
The bulk of this rationing will fall on the elderly. We’ll have to revisit the idea that the elderly have, in the words of former Colorado Gov. Dick Lamm, “a duty to die.”
The more word gets out about what the bill contemplates, the firmer opposition will grow. That’s why Obama wants to push it through now, while he retains some popularity.
And if the bill passes? The howls of protest from the elderly the first time they’re denied care will be something to behold. It will become evident that the health-care resources being denied to the elderly are going instead to immigrants — legal and not. The anger will be enormous and instant.
Most Americans aren’t sick and don’t use medical facilities often. But the elderly constantly stay in touch with their doctors and medical providers. The curtailment of that access will become immediately apparent — and in more than enough time for the 2010 elections.
Some votes live on and on. People remember senators’ votes on the Kuwait war resolution. President Bill Clinton chose Vice President Al Gore for the 1992 ticket largely based on Gore’s vote in favor of the invasion. It sent a signal that Gore and he were a “new kind of Democrat.”
This health-care vote is similarly consequential; it will linger for years.
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[…] If the Democrats obey President Obama’s command and pass a health-care bill by the August recess, they’ll be committing partisan suicide, according to Dick Morris. Obama’s insistence that we completely remake our health-care system — and do it two weeks after the first bill was marked up in the first committee — is too arrogant by half. It smacks of the kind of overreaching of FDR’s second term in 1937, when, after his landslide win in 1936, he tried to pack the Supreme Court to reverse its anti-New Deal rulings. […]
This president is a con artist who makes you look at one hand while he does his deeds with the other hand. He also (I believe) is narcissistic because he is consumed in his self –importance and is egotistical enough to believe his way is the only correct way and those who oppose him are just selfless idiots. This is a man who would come to your house on Halloween and say ‘trick or treat’ and after giving him a treat, he would soap your windows anyway.
This health care bill is the biggest illusion ever conceived and literally being forced on the American public. In the hospital setting there are checks and balances from the doctor who prescribes the medicine, the pharmacist who formulates it, and the nurse who administers the medicine. In this bill there is only one analyst making decisions, a bureaucrat who probably does not even have a medical degree.
Something no one is thinking about is what happens when Obamacare ratchets down on reimbursements. Many of our doctors are baby boomers, do you think they will labor for less? No, they will retire leaving the U.S. with a doctor shortage. GPs/Family Practice and Pediatrician’s will be hit hardest as their margins are already very slim. Reducing Medicare reimbursements will leave seniors with fewer doctors available to see them, meaning that they will end up in already crowded ERs. Obamacare will be nothing less than a complete disaster, once it’s passed where will Canadians go for their healthcare?
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I agree fully with your article. In the evening press conference, Obama gave no clear reason for being in a hurry. I urge all legislators to carefully review all aspects of this reform effort before casting any vote.
I hope our legislators will follow the path taken by Sen. DeMint and question all aspects of reform before voting. I was amused that the senator paraphrased your Waterloo quote.
As a physician, i oppose the AMA, AHA, and AARP in their support of this reform bill. I was not polled for my position on this issue. I plan to resign my membership in the AMA immediately.
from vickie mcelroy on Wednesday 22, 2009
If health care reform is passed, it will be a disaster for me and others like me. I am bipolar and it has taken a long time to get me stabilized. I still have to see the doctor every month because I can’t get medicine refills if I don’t. I have to see the doctor EVERY month and I have to see the RIGHT doctor and I have to have the RIGHT medications. My doctor told me I could end up in a mental institution if I don’t follow what I have been doing. My doctor has got me like a normal citizen again and it would be catastrophic for me and others like me to be on limited health care. I have a neurobiological disorder or a chemical imbalance in my brain. It’s just like someone with diabetes or heart problems–you have to have constant care. I cannot wait in a waiting line!
Now Obama says health care reform is what is needed to improve the economy? I thought the stimulus bill was supposed to do that? What about the 1.3 trillion dollar budget and 700 billion dollar bailouts?
There is 300 trillion dollars in consumer debt in this country and there is no free money to spend. Reducing my $200 a month health care premium by $25 is not going to make the economy rock and roll.
Look at your mortgage. Typically the Property Tax just about doubles the note. I say index the homes at 0.75, refinance the loans at 4 to 5% and then take the 25% and pass it to the states for use in reducing property taxes. That would free up hundreds of dollars each month. Why not reduce the tax rate in the country by 50% for three years. Have 25% go towards paying of credit card debt and the other for spending. My guess is the economy would rebound in months.
Andrew Jackson once said that the country should be run by everyday Americans and not by the elite. It is obvious all the money was spent for political payback and greed; not to the consumer and American public who pay the taxes in this country. We really need to clean house and start new again with consumer advocates.
Vickie from above: I guess I will be one of those not worth treating any more–after all, mine is expensive and is a permanent illness.
[…] Another decent blogger added an interesting post on HEALTH WIN = DISASTER FOR DEMS at DickMorris.comHere’s a small excerptThe Obama plan effectively repeals Medicare, putting a Federal Health Board between the elderly and their doctors. This board will instruct public and private insurance carriers on what procedures are to be approved, at what cost and … […]