President Obama did not lie when he said he wanted to remake America. Remaking America is exactly what he intended while he campaigned and it is still exactly what he intends to do now that he has power.
I don’t think the American people got President Obama’s meaning exactly. They heard rhetoric of hope and change that sounded vaguely optimistic. They did not hear the ominous undertones. They did not hear the subliminal message: America is bad and must be changed to good, i.e. to my vision.
They’re hearing it now. And they’re horrified. Is it too little, too late? Who knows? Every day that passes, the Democrats have time to arm-twist, browbeat and harass another Democrat into submission. Blood is being spilled over this legislation.
Why? This bill is everything. How is it everything?
1. It changes the American argument permanently. Right now, Americans argue between freedom and personal choice. Once health care reform, in this form, passes, the argument becomes about the particulars of the entitlement. People stop talking about whether there should be an individual mandate. They’ll start arguing about the choices within the mandate.
See the difference? The conversation gets redefined in leftist terms forever. People will bitch around the water cooler about their health care, and waiting lists, etc. They won’t consider whether they should have the entitlement to begin with. They will want to keep what they have and they won’t want it taken away–even though they steal from themselves and their children; even though they have traded great for mediocrity. They would prefer a mediocre they can count on than a great they’re not sure they’ll have again.
It is human nature to think this way. Capitalism and democracy are not easy–otherwise everyone would do it. Socialism* is easy. It’s facile and childish and comforting. It’s nearly always false comfort and there are trade-offs, but that reality hits after socialism takes root.
*NOTE: I do not think that this health care reform bill is socialist, by the way. What it is is a first step. It is the government so regulating an industry that the success or failure of the industry depends on the government–like housing, banking, the car industry and whatever else they can get their fingers into right now. It puts unprecedented power into the hands of our leaders. When it fails, and it will, the government will argue that they need to get more involved.
2. This bill is an abomination given to our children. This bill inverts the moral imperative: Rather than leaving an inheritance for our nation’s children, we enslave them to pay for their elders.
It is one thing to take care of your elders, to honor them. But the elders should leave something to the younger generation.
With this bill, healthy young people are expected to buy a product that they don’t need for the “greater good.” Baby Boomers, the biggest generation in American history are getting old and there simply aren’t enough workers to generate the funds needed to pay for their health care as they age. The solution? Boomers assault the next generation, forcing them, against their will, to pay for a product they themselves did not plan for. Boomers are woefully underfunded generally when it comes to retirement costs. They simply haven’t planned for it. Health care is just one part of it.
This immoral equation inverts responsibility.
3. This bill saves groups that don’t deserve to be saved. The number one expense for unions is their health care costs. The best unions are only 70 percent funded for their pension liabilities. The biggest share of the costs? Health care.
Why should people paid too much for jobs, with cushy retirements, and fabulous benefits that out performs the private sector, get bailed out, now, with health care reform? Why should other Americans pay for health care benefits for people whose benefits should be cut?
The bottom line is that the economy is in recession, people are losing jobs, and unions refuse to cut benefits to their members while private sector workers are enduring pay and benefit cuts. Union bosses won’t cut anything for their workers and simultaneously expect non-union members to bail them out.
Health care reform tears at fundamental threads holding our society together. Should it pass, it will reshape the American psyche from a risk-taking, freedom-loving open-mindedness to a self-protective, risk-averting, and provincial desire to protect the tiny piece of pie the citizen is granted.
Health care reform is immoral. It changes the equation from creating a legacy and gift to the next generation, to stealing from them. The debt load is such that our children are enslaved because of their parents greed and lack of restraint.
Health care reform redistributes wealth. The government bequeaths a win on irresponsible unions and businesses hoping to avoid commitments they made. The government decides. Instead of individuals and groups being forced to make the tough decisions, the government rescues them–sends them a lifeline that’s at the other end of a rope that is a noose around the necks of the very same American people.
So yes, this bill is worth fighting against. The outcome of this vote means everything to the future of America. For once, this is not hyperbole or excessive grandstanding. It’s the terrifying truth.
Melissa Clouthier blogs at MelissaClouthier.com and RightWingNews.com. She also writes at various places around the web. Melissa has her own twice-weekly podcast Right Doctor which plays on RadioForConservatives.com and can be found on her new start-up LibertyPundits.com where she also has a podcast, Malcolm & Melissa, with the LA Time’s blogger Andrew Malcolm and a weekly round-up podcast. Melissa has commentated for the BBC and various radio programs.