American Elephants

Americans have a sense that there is something dreadfully wrong with the health care system being foisted upon them by an out-of-control Congress and the President.  The video of Nancy Pelosi”s smug statement that “We  have to pass the bill so you can find out what’s in it” has gone viral.  But do Americans actually understand just what the law does?  Representative Kevin Brady (R-TX) had his staff prepare a study of the law and a flow chart that explains how the major provisions will work. Economist Kevin Hassett of AEI describes it as:

[A] terrifying road map that shows Democrats have launched America on the most reckless policy experiment in its history, the economic equivalent of the Bay of Pigs invasion.

For a view large enough so that you can discern all its amazing intricacies, click here, and you should be able to enlarge it even more.  See the pale yellow star in the lower right-hand corner?  That is you — the patient.  The chart, made public on July 28, provides Americans with a preview of the impact the law will have on their lives and the lives of their families.  Kevin Hassett continues:

This is clearly a candidate for most disorganized organizational chart ever.  It shows that the health system is complex, yes, but also ornate.  The new law creates 68 grant programs, 47 bureaucratic entities, 29 demonstration or pilot programs, six regulatory systems, six compliance standards and two entitlements.

Getting that massive enterprise up and running will be next to impossible.  So Democrats streamlined the process by granting Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius the authority to make judgments that can’t be challenged either administratively or through the courts.

This monarchical protection from challenges is extended as well to the development of new patient-care models under Obama’s controversial recess appointment, Donald Berwick, whom Republicans are calling the rationer-in-chief.  Berwick will run the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, where he can experiment with ways to use administrative fiat to move our system toward the socialized medicine of Europe, which he has at times embraced.         (emphasis mine)

The whole piece is titled: “Obamacare Only looks Worse Upon Further Review.“   Please read it all.  It’s not long, but it is so important that you know what this legislation will do to you.

I find the idea of placing any decision about my health care in the hands of Kathleen Sebelius or Donald Berwick absolutely terrifying.  There is not much in this world that is a more personal matter than decisions about your own health that take place between you and your physician. The  idea that these blowhards in Congress feel that they can arrogate to themselves and to their friends and appointees control over my life and the lives of my loved ones is absolutely wrong and evil.

They want control, but from studying the chart, it apparent that they are clueless, and suffused with a monumental degree of sheer hubris. There is nothing that the government does well.  They can’t even distribute money to stimulate the economy without fraud, waste and sheer stupidity. But in producing this bill they have exceeded even their worst mistakes. The chart is appalling, but you cannot show on paper the pain that it will cause.

57 percent of Americans say the health care plan is bad for the country, 59% favor repeal.  That simply demonstrates the number of people who do not yet understand what their government has in store for them.