Obamacare 2 (Guest Post)

Note:This is a guest post by JRB

To quote the OLD MAN’s Shakepeare (Hamlet, ACT III, Scene II),

“The lady doth protest too much, methinks!”

Responding to your posts, each in turn:

First, if you check the current legislative initiatives, the Government-run public option is back in, just as I predicted.

Second, if you read Congressman Frank’s public blitherings, he clearly states that a public option is the one sure way to achieve a single-payer (i.e., government run) system. Why? Because the mandates within the legislation will force people who change jobs into the public option, as will definitions which exclude private alternatives. These weaseling maneuvers, which Congress hopes the public won’t recognize, resurrect the old Henry Ford dictum. I.e., “you can have any color you want, so long as it’s black.”

Third, “King Herod” (the insurance industry) generally makes about a 2-3% profit margin on its product sales. That’s $20-30mm per billion in sales, or $12-18mm after the government exacts their levy. Large grocery chains make about 1% on sales. The low margins, and ergo prices, derive directly from competition, that horrible, blood-sucking capitalistic invention.

Fourth, you are spot-on w.r.t. the Patriot Act’s constitutional violations. It authorizes, among other things, self-authorized search warrants by the FBI without judicial approval. This is a clear violation of the Constitution (Amendment IV).

http://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/constitution.billofrights.html#amendmentiv).

I never stated, or implied, that Obama or the DUMBocrats had a monopoly on constitutional misogyny.

Fifth, your interaction with your physician regarding a health issue isn’t an interstate transaction; ergo it’s not covered under the seventeen specifically allowed federal prerogatives. Indeed the Framer’s original intent, within the Commerce Clause, was to ensure that one state did not prohibit another state from offering products & services to the first state’s citizenry.

Sixth, Aetna & CIGNA have no God-given rights (I’m glad you capitalized God; your parents clearly did something right!). If you don’t like their prohibitions/exclusions, don’t engage them. If they’re so dismissive of the public good, and a myriad of people agree with you, they’ll soon be out of business, just another of those awful characteristics of capitalism.

Seventh, Amendment IX, as you correctly quote, says that unenumerated rights “shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.” Amen to that! Please focus on the last three words, “by the people.” The people retain such rights, not the government. Nowhere does it state, or imply, that the federal government shall assume the administration of these rights on behalf of the people. If anything, it confers the securing of such rights to the states, but only after sanctioning by the citizenry. Ergo, the “explosion” you reference seems to be a “dud”.

Eighth, note who the current legislation excludes:
• Congress
• Government employees
• Union members
Is there anything in this “fraternity” that inspires consternation? Please tell me why any of these group deserves exemption from the laws they are set to impose on the rest of us.

Ninth, there is a delicious irony in your comment that,

“the government-run Death Panels are slow and inefficient by American standards”

while advocating that we have government run health care. So, you admit that the government has “death panels”, and, by logical extension, your proposition is that it’s better to have a slow and inefficiently run system, which delays poor decisions, rather than have a faster and more efficient system that engenders good decisions. Sounds like a pyrrhic trade off to me.

Tenth, pray tell, do you have health care, and from whence does it derive?

Lastly, please keep the incendiary nature of these polemics in perspective. I have known you since you were born. You are an intelligent, passionate, accomplished and articulate young man. I am as proud of you as are your parents, and as if you were my own progeny. Your views may change as life unfolds. Simply leave yourself open that one’s perspective may be altered as youthful idealism confronts reality.