Response to Karl Rove and others who say President Obama has a hearing problem

The President Isn’t Tone Deaf, He’s Tyrannical

Richard Amerling, MD

February 23, 2010

I’ve about had it with pundits telling us the president is “tone deaf,” that he just is “out of touch” with the American Taxpayer. No one is that dense. Mr. Obama knows exactly how the majority of Americans view him and his policies; he simply chooses to ignore us. The latest version of the “health care reform” bill, according the Wall St. Journal Editorial page, “manages to take the worst of both the House and Senate bills and combine them into something more destructive.” The White House hopes to stage a “bipartisan” summit, then force the mega-sausage through both houses of Congress via “reconciliation” to avoid having to muster 60 votes in the Senate. Should this happen, we will no longer have a representative Republic. Rather, we will be experiencing a dictatorship, or a “soft tyranny,” to quote Mark Levin’s use of Alexis DeToqueville’s term.

The White House, and the leaders of the Congressional Democrats know full well this is their one and only opportunity to acheive a federal takeover of the health care sector of the economy. They know their majorities are at risk come November. They know going down this path will spell the end of many of their political careers. Harry Reid, like Evan Bayh and others, will resign rather than face the voters one more time. Why are they falling on their swords?

Federal control of health care has been the long sought after dream of the leftists, in this country and elsewhere. Nothing else creates such massive dependence on big government. As has been demonstrated time and again, once an entitlement is in place, with all the necessary bureaucracy, it is near impossible to undo. After the United Kingdom created the National Health Service after World War II, no political party or politician (with the exception of Margaret Thatcher, who helped restore a private medical alternative) had the temerity to suggest dismantling it, despite its enormous cost, intractable problems with access, and declining quality of care. It cemented a welfare state mentality, and hastened the decline of a once great empire. There is little grounds to hope things would be different in the USA, should an NHS equivalent be launched by this administration.

There was never much of a serious debate in Congress, as the Republicans were nearly completely shut out of negotiations. Nothing will change during the upcoming “bipartisan” summit. The bills were manufactured behind closed doors in secret meetings with a host of lobbyists and assorted special interests, and required blatant bribes of recalcitrant Democrats, to pass. The rhetoric about covering the “uninsured,” allowing you to keep your current policy, and “bending the cost curve downward” were blown away by careful reading of the bills, and by the CBO and GAO analyses of costs. Even with all the new spending, millions would remain uninsured. Millions more would be consigned to Medicaid, a second-rate system that is bankrupting state and local governments. By deciding who and what is covered, and dictating premiums, the federal government would be effectively nationalizing the insurance industry, with catastrophic results for patients, hospitals, and the medical profession. And, in spite of duplicitous accounting, costs skyrocket.

The legislation gives enormous power to central health boards and to the Secretary of Health and Human Services to decide which procedures and medications are medically necessary, and to pass judgment on whether physicians are qualified to participate, based on achieving “quality benchmarks.” This is unparalleled central control of medical practice.

We are beyond needing to convince Americans this process is a disaster. Poll after poll and dramatic electoral turnarounds in previously blue states is more than ample evidence that the vast majority of Americans reject this attempted takeover. We are at the precipice of dictatorship, where our elected officials rush full speed towards socialism and the destruction of our economy, against our will. What means remain at our disposal?

Forget about the White House; Obama could care less. Washington DC was paralyzed last week for four days by a blizzard. We must create a blizzard of phone calls, faxes and emails to our representatives in Congress. The House bill passed by a handful of votes. Convince them we will vote them out of office if they go along with tyranny. If this fails, we must have a human blizzard descend on the capitol to block the streets and close down the Congress until they respect our wishes.

This fight is not only about health care; it is about personal freedom. We must not trade it away for empty promises of utopia. All freedom-loving citizens must make a stand and not allow this to pass.