ObamaCare Full of Contradictions

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ObamaCare Full of Contradictions

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich has an excellent column in Human Events analyzing the obvious contradictions in ObamaCare. Here are a few excerpts:
What follows is a list, in no particular order, of the contradictions between the President’s promises and the reality of Democratic health care reform. Add them up and it’s hard to see how President Obama doesn’t reject the bill Congress seems likely to send him.
Contradiction #1:  As far back as the campaign, President Obama promised he wouldn’t raise taxes on Americans making less than $250,000.  But an analysis by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) found that at least 71 percent of the individual mandate penalties in Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus’s (D-MT) bill would be paid by Americans earning less than $250,000.  The Senate Finance bill also levies $215 billion in new taxes on employers and health insurers for offering high-value insurance benefits, which will surely be passed onto all consumers.
Contradiction #2:  In his speech to the Joint Session of Congress, the President was adamant:  “I will not sign [a bill] if it adds one dime to the deficit, now or in the future, period.” And yet House bill H.R. 3200 will increase the deficit by an amazing $239 billion over the next decade.
Contradiction #3:  In his speech to the Joint Session of Congress last month and elsewhere, the President has reassured nervous Americans that if they like their current coverage, his reform will let them keep it. Unless you happen to have Medicare Advantage, that is. Or employer provided insurance. The director of the nonpartisan CBO testified before the Senate that, under the Senate bill, the benefits of seniors under Medicare Advantage would be cut in half. And an analysis of the House bill found that 88 million people will lose their current insurance under government health care.
Contradiction #7:  One of President Obama’s main rationales for health care reform is that it is necessary for economic recovery. Working against this promise is the provision in the Senate bill that will tax small businesses — the engine of American economic growth and job creation — that can’t afford to purchase health insurance for their employees.  It’s hard to see how the economy recovers when small businesses are prevented from hiring new workers by a new government tax.
According to Gary Bauer, “If America were a direct democracy, ObamaCare would be declared D.O.A. Recent polling from Scott Rasmussen shows that American voters are rejecting key elements of the plan by wide margins.”
Consider these recent results:

  • A central component of ObamaCare is the individual mandate to purchase health insurance or pay an excise tax. According to Rasmussen, only 32% of voters support the idea of the federal government forcing all Americans to buy health insurance. One-third of Democrats oppose the mandate, as do 59% of Independents. But the framework for this “reform” collapses without the government dictating how you must spend your money.
  • On the “public option,” 63% of voters say that it is more important for the government to guarantee that no one would be forced to give up their current insurance than for the government to provide a “public option.” Just 29% of voters felt it was more important for the government to provide a “public option” for healthcare. In other words, most voters don’t want government-run healthcare. What they want are improvements to what they currently have. But as we reported yesterday, the “public option” is the prime objective of liberal Democrats determined to drive us toward socialized medicine.
  • When it comes to paying higher taxes for the new ObamaCare entitlement, by a margin of 59%-to-22% voters support a guarantee prohibiting tax hikes on families making less than $250,000 a year. Republicans in the Senate Finance Committee tried to make good on the president’s promise not to raise taxes, but Democrats defeated their amendment.

Bauer writes, “But America is a republic, not a democracy. We have elections to choose the politicians who will make critical decisions for us. Evidently, you’re not very happy with the decisions your representatives are making. If you don’t like the decisions coming out of Washington, then you will have an opportunity next November to change the politicians making them.”

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