Posted on 07/23/2009 2:58:53 PM PDT by jazusamo
Distracting the audience's attention is one of the ways magicians pull off some of their tricks. President Barack Obama's televised news conference on medical care shows that he is something of a magician when it comes to politics.
The big trick for the president is to convince the public that he can add tens of millions of people to his government medical care plan without raising the costs. But an analysis by the Congressional Budget Office showed that Obamacare would in fact raise the costs and increase the deficit by billions of dollars.
With both common sense and economic analysis saying that Obama cannot expand government medical care without expanding the already runaway federal deficit, it is quite a trick to get the public to believe otherwise-- a big challenge requiring big distractions.
One of those distractions has been to blame current high costs on scapegoats whom the president can rein in. Talking about the high pay of the CEOs of pharmaceutical companies is one of those distractions.
In an industry where developing just one new pharmaceutical drug can cost a billion dollars, whether the head of a mega-billion-dollar pharmaceutical company is paid a million dollars a year, 20 million dollars or works free of charge is not likely to raise or lower the cost of the medicine you buy by one dollar.
But, if making the CEO's pay an issue can distract your attention from the impossible math used by Barack Obama and his supporters, then that is a trick worthy of Houdini.
Insurance companies are another distraction and a scapegoat because they do not insure "pre-existing conditions." Stop and think about it: If you could wait until you got sick to take out health insurance, why would you buy that insurance while you are well?
You could avoid paying all those premiums and then-- after you got sick-- take out health insurance and let the premiums paid by other people pay for your medical treatment.
That is not "bringing down the cost of health care." It is sticking somebody else with paying those costs. So is taxing "the rich." So is passing on those costs to your children and grandchildren through government deficit spending.
When Obama makes the insurance companies the villains for not insuring pre-existing conditions, that gives him another distraction and enables him to be another escape artist, like Houdini.
What is the point of government-controlled medical care if it is not going to lower costs but just shuffle them around, like a shell game?
The government does not have some magic wand that can "bring down the cost of health care." It can buy a smaller quantity or lower quality of medical care, as other countries with government-run medical care do.
It can decide not to spend as much money on the elderly as is being spent now. That can save a lot of money-- if you think having a parent die earlier is a bargain.
The idea of a "duty to die" has been making some headway in recent years around the fringes of the left. It is perfectly consistent with the fundamental notion of the left, that decisions should be transferred from ordinary citizens to government elites.
Liberals don't have to advocate it. But, once you have bureaucrats empowered to decide what treatments you can and cannot get, they may well decide that money spent keeping some 75-year-old grandmother alive for a couple of more years could be better spent politically by enabling ten younger people to have acupuncture or visit a shrink.
Even if her children or grandchildren are willing to spend their own money to keep grandma alive, when bureaucrats control the necessary technology or medication they may decide that it is not for sale.
Those pushing for government-controlled medical care say that you can keep your doctor. But bureaucrats in Washington will decide whether what your doctor prescribes will be allowed. Talking about your doctor is another distraction from the crucial question of who will actually have the power to decide, which can be the power of life and death.
gee, is Medicare paying for Granny’s dialysis?? You have time to say goodbye.
Talk about ignorance! She was too dumb to know that the insurance company would think she was just rubbing their nose in it. Some people just don’t understand anything.
I do. Sowell is terrific.
At 79, this is one old geezer Obama doesn’t really want to parse words with.
Sowell is a treasure.
I do. Sowell is terrific.
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I agree but did you click that youtube link?
I did after your reply. But that's not Sowell -- its Rev. Manning. I've seen the clip before and I hope both black and white people listen to him.
Hey, its not something for nothing. What do you think they pay taxes for?
But of course when you try to explain that they don't pay that much in taxes, they get upset and hostile.
I got into a "discussion" one time, with a buddy of mine. A very whiny, b!t@#y buddy. Everything for him reverts back to evil rich people. Especially conservatives. I tried to explain to him that it cost on average of $11,000 per child per year, of tax money, to send a kid to public schools. And that his $30,000 a year job, didn't pay enough in federal income taxes to cover him and his wife and their tax burden, let alone the 3 kids he sends to public school for around $30 g's a year. And that a rich person is the one carrying his load.
Imagine...he became even more whiny and b!t@#y (of course that was my intent)
Its funny, you mention something about "personal" responsibility on issues and instantly people claim personal responsibility. The moment you point out how they expect feel entitled to $1000 of service for $1 they get all upset and hostile.
They can't discuss facts. But they argue emotion.
I knew it was Manning, I never said it was Sowell. I think their message is similiar but Sowell says it in an oh, so classy way and Manning gets right down in the trench and makes the dirt fly. Sometimes Manning is so over the top that I can hardly bear to watch him but I have a tremendous admiration for his courage, I think he is literally laying his life on the line to try to stop what is happening to America.
Amen to that. I think even Obama is smart enough not to try it, he knows he mentally inferior. :)
Yes, and schooling is a particularly egregious example. There might be a few people in million-dollar houses whose local taxes cover the cost of their one child, but just about everyone is making others pay for their kids' "free education."
Ping
Ironically we have that with medicare/medicaid which will eventually HAVE to deny care to seniors to keep the the country from collapsing in debt. Right now we print and borrow money to pay foreigners to care for the elderly (medicare/medicaid). This cant keep up.
No, I am not saying to trust democrats with health care they plan on mandating the young and healthy share the costs with the sick and elderly.
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