When you examine Obamacare in detail, you find that the facts of the legislation contradict most of the selling points that the Liberals used as their basis for voting for the bill.
#1 – 18 Million People Added to Medicare while Cutting $500 Billion from the Program
Obamacare claims to cover 34 million new individuals with insurance. The primary approach that the legislation uses to cover the uninsured is to expand the number of people under Medicare. Yes, Medicare. The same Medicare that was already scheduled to go bankrupt by 2017 before Obamacare passed. The new legislation will add 18 million people to Medicare while reducing funding for Medicare by $500 billion. Thus there is no choice but to reduce benefits to the existing Medicare recipients. Given that more than half of the doctors in the United States do not accept Medicare, the further constraint of doctor availability will be another form of institutionalized rationing.
#2 – 17.1 Million Individuals with Private Insurance Will Lose Their Existing Coverage
Although more people are covered under Obamacare, the plan also causes a major redistribution of how individuals are covered for health care. 1.4 million citizens will lose their employer sponsored coverage and 15.7 will lose their other private coverage while they are shifted to either Medicare, “exchanges” under the plan, or will become uninsured. Yes about 1 million individuals with insurance today will become uninsured and have no coverage under Obamacare. So the economics of Obamacare will cause at least 17.1 million Americans to lose their existing coverage under Obamacare although the President assured us all that we would be able to keep our existing plans.
#3 – $502 Billion in Additional Taxes
I thought the President said that he wasn’t raising taxes on the majority of Americans? Well under Obamacare, that is another falsehood. Between 2010 and 2019, Obama is raising taxes by $502 Billion to cover his new plan. These taxes come from the Health Insurance Mandates, the Hospital Insurance tax and 15 other additional taxes and mandates under the plan.
#4 – 2700 Pages of Bureaucracy
The legislation is one the largest and most unwieldy pieces of legislation in history. No wonder Nancy Pelosi said we need to pass the bill so we can find out what is in it. Just as a comparison, President Clinton’s Healthcare Bill from 1994 was half the size of Obamacare. The bill that established the whole Social Security Administration in 1935 was 64 pages.
#5 – Adding to the Budget Deficit Rather Than Cutting $124 Billion
Proponents of Obamacare claim the plan is cutting the budget deficit by $124 Billion. Even the Congressional Budget Office and Senate Budget Committee have revealed the facts and this isn’t true. The plan double counts savings in many areas that cause Obamacare to be a large addition to the Deficit. Obamacare double counts savings of $529 Billion in Medicare cuts, $70 Billion in the CLASS system, and $29 Billion in savings in Social Security Taxes. In addition, the plan counts on saving $283 Billion in the “Doc Fix” provision that isn’t paid for and increases discretionary spending by $115 Billion. Actually the Deficit will balloon under Obamacare just as it has during the President’s first two years in office.
#6 – Obamacare Gives the Government Control Over 50% of the Health Care System
By 2013, Obamacare will create an infrastructure that gives the Government control over half of the healthcare in America. By 2018, the Government will be in control of over 53% of all health care. That curve continues to scale up over time. So to claim that Obamacare isn’t Government controlled health care when it gives the Government control over half of the system is simply a lie.
#7 – 28 States Filing Suit
Over half of the States are filing suit against the Federal Government challenging the constitutionality of the Individual Mandate which forces citizens to purchase insurance. These States include 164 million citizens who make up 53 percent of the U.S. population while encompassing 285 of the Electoral College votes. Of course this suit will eventually be settled by the Supreme Court. Many people feel that the Supreme Court ruling will be a close due to the swing vote of Justice Kennedy. By looking at Kennedy’s prior positions, it seems very likely he will rule that Obamacare is unconstitutional due to the individual mandate.
#8 – Over 1000 Waivers Granted to Unions and Other FOO’s
Health and Human Services has granted over 1000 waivers covering millions of members of unions and other Friends of Obama (FOO’s). Everyone already knows how the unions purchased their influence over the President with their donations and active campaign support. However other FOO’s who were granted waivers include companies where officers and directors were major donors to Obama (Crate and Barrel, MJ Soffe, MVP Healthcare, Sieben Polk Law Firm, Alfred P Sloan & GC Harvesting, Inc. to name just a few). Although this is scandalous on its own, the real scandal will be when HHS is forced to reveal who is receiving waiver rejections. Don’t be surprised when the rejection list includes many organizations where members were donors to conservative causes.
The more and more we understand about Obamacare it becomes abundantly clear that not only did the legislators avoid reading the bill but they also didn’t bother using a calculator.
Don’t Feed the PIIGS.
One old saying goes: “Pigs get fed. Hogs get slaughtered.” In general that advice to not be too greedy tends to be true. However, Grandma wasn’t thinking about the PIIGS of Europe. (Portugal, Italy, Ireland, Greece and Spain). In this case if we are not careful, these little PIIGS are about to bring the Eurozone down and most of the world with them. After year upon year of socialist programs rewarding those who don’t want to work and punishing those who do, Greece is on the verge of financial collapse. Greece has created more debt than its economy can support, and the global financial market knows it. This is also the case for Portugal, Italy, Ireland and Spain but they aren’t yet in full-fledged financial collapse like Greece is today. Yes the other players in Europe are all scrambling to prop Greece up but eventually this will end badly. It is either going to end badly for Greece and the other PIIGS or for Europe as a whole. Ultimately it will come down to the actions of Germany. Germany is the only European economy with the strength to assume Greece’s debt and thus bail Greece out for the time being. However this move will destroy Germany’s economy. Of course, the German public isn’t at all excited about going to back to the days of rapid inflation in the Weimar republic. And then what will you do with the other PIIGS? France is acting like it can help with the Greek debacle but the reality is that the French are one financial misstep from joining the PIIGS.
Of course, the right thing to do is to let the Greeks bare the fruits of their poor financial management. They lived through the days of wine and roses so they can now deal with the days of pork ‘n beans. Let Greece out of the Euro, and let it go back to printing its own currency. Ultimately the Greeks would either print currency to continue to pay back their debt or go into default. Either scenario doesn’t destroy Europe. It just forces Greece to rebuild over a couple of decades. Countries go bankrupt and still survive. Look at Brazil and Argentina. Besides allowing Greece to live with the results of its actions will force the other PIIGS to enact the austerity measures that Portugal, Italy, Ireland and Spain desperately need to implement immediately. If they need to, the Eurozone countries can let the PIIGS out of the Euro one at a time so that each of these countries can manage their own currency. Yes this will undoubtedly lead to the end of the Euro as a currency. However the Eurozone’s socialist agenda is totally incompatible with managing a common currency across numerous countries with different fiscal and social policies. The reality is that Europe is going into a recession anyway. Letting the financial markets clean up the sovereign debt of the PIIGS through the recession is the way a global economy should work.
However the disaster scenario for the United States is not a default of all the PIIGS. That default would be painful and also deepen the Obama caused recession we will be in during 2012. The disaster scenario is to have the other Eurozone countries continue to kick the can down the road by continuing to bail out the PIIGS. Eventually that move will collapse all the economies in the Eurozone with the two most important being Germany and France. Then they will all be looking to their Big Brother to bail out the Eurozone. If the United States then assumes the debt of the all the Eurozone countries or continues to print US Dollars to cover the debt, then we’ll be slaughtered. Even without assuming all of this European debt, the current trajectory of the US economic policy is headed to reduce the net worth of all Americans. Reagan said, a rising tide lifts all boats. To paraphrase Obama, the rocks exposed by a low tide sink all boats. All boats run aground. I guess that is the picture of equality Barack Obama has been working toward. If you want a preview of where the United States will be in 3 to 5 more years of our reckless government spending, just take a close look at Greece today. You were almost right Granny. PIIGS and hogs get slaughtered.