The Blog Less Traveled

Wow. What a demonstration of leadership. A Democratic president was able to get an overwhelmingly Democratic House and Democratic Senate to pass a bill giving the federal government even more power over the American people. Gee, that’s sort of like being in awe if Jane Fonda was able to get most Hollywood celebrities to donate to a liberal cause. Not that hard, folks. Yet that’s exactly what’s happened. The mainstream media are falling all over themselves touting what a great leader he is. I’m waiting now for some Democratic politician or liberal talking head to submit a proposal for Obama to be added to Mt. Rushmore. This guy is pathetic. He’s never led a day in his life and he still doesn’t know what it means to lead. His advisors give him the policy of the week (or more appropriately “weak”), and he goes out and tries to sell it. There’s absolutely no coherent strategy in anything this administration is doing, unless, of course, you want to call Socialism a strategy. However, that’s not a strategy – it’s an ideology.

To further demonstrate how inept this man is as a leader, he goes out and gives a speech where he clearly is mocking his adversaries. There’s nothing wrong with a President going out and trying to sell his plan. However, it’s so un-presidential to act like a child by trying to belittle the Republicans. He’s out there gloating and acting like an immature teenager after winning something. Taunting Republicans that want to repeal this bill by saying to them, “Go for it” is pretty weak as a strategy, if you ask me. He is the most arrogant and out of touch president in history. He and his Democratic cohorts didn’t listen to the majority of American people when they told them that they didn’t want this boondoggle of a bill. He is so completely ego-driven, it’s unbelievable.

If we get any more of his misguided policies shoved down our throats and put into law, this country will cease to be the United States of America, as we know it. For all intent and purposes, we will become the United Socialist States of America. Obama has clearly pushed the tiller to the left. Will this country be able to right itself before it’s too late?

There’s a great article by Ann Coulter on the current Obamacare legislation in Congress. I realize she can be a very polarizing figure in some of the things that she says and does. Her columns are usually dripping with sarcasm. However, her recent column is as clear and concise of a response to the Democratic proposal as you’ll likely find anywhere. If you’re looking for a straightforward way to quickly improve healthcare, this is it. It would require no bureaucratic involvement and could be implemented immediately. There would be zero burden to the taxpayer. Anyone with an IQ greater than dirt should be able to understand what she’s saying.

Below is her unedited column.

Liberals keep complaining that Republicans don’t have a plan for reforming health care in America. I have a plan!

It’s a one-page bill creating a free market in health insurance. Let’s all pause here for a moment so liberals can Google the term “free market.”

Nearly every problem with health care in this country — apart from trial lawyers and out-of-date magazines in doctors’ waiting rooms — would be solved by my plan.

In the first sentence, Congress will amend the McCarran-Ferguson Act to allow interstate competition in health insurance.

We can’t have a free market in health insurance until Congress eliminates the antitrust exemption protecting health insurance companies from competition. If Democrats really wanted to punish insurance companies, which they manifestly do not, they’d make insurers compete.

The very next sentence of my bill provides that the exclusive regulator of insurance companies will be the state where the company’s home office is. Every insurance company in the country would incorporate in the state with the fewest government mandates, just as most corporations are based in Delaware today.

That’s the only way to bypass idiotic state mandates, requiring all insurance plans offered in the state to cover, for example, the Zone Diet, sex-change operations, and whatever it is that poor Heidi Montag has done to herself this week.

President Obama says we need national health care because Natoma Canfield of Ohio had to drop her insurance when she couldn’t afford the $6,700 premiums, and now she’s got cancer.

Much as I admire Obama’s use of terminally ill human beings as political props, let me point out here that perhaps Natoma could have afforded insurance had she not been required by Ohio’s state insurance mandates to purchase a plan that covers infertility treatments and unlimited OB/GYN visits, among other things.

It sounds like Natoma could have used a plan that covered only the basics — you know, things like cancer.

The third sentence of my bill would prohibit the federal government from regulating insurance companies, except for normal laws and regulations that apply to all companies.
Freed from onerous state and federal mandates turning insurance companies into public utilities, insurers would be allowed to offer a whole smorgasbord of insurance plans, finally giving consumers a choice.

Instead of Harry Reid deciding whether your insurance plan covers Viagra, this decision would be made by you, the consumer. (I apologize for using the terms “Harry Reid” and “Viagra” in the same sentence. I promise that won’t happen again.)

Instead of insurance companies jumping to the tune of politicians bought by health-care lobbyists, they would jump to tune of hundreds of millions of Americans buying health insurance on the free market.

Hypochondriac liberals could still buy the aromatherapy plan and normal people would be able to buy plans that only cover things such as major illness, accidents and disease. (Again — things like Natoma Canfield’s cancer.)

This would, in effect, transform medical insurance into … a form of insurance!

My bill will solve nearly every problem allegedly addressed by ObamaCare — and mine entails zero cost to the taxpayer. Indeed, a free market in health insurance would produce major tax savings as layers of government bureaucrats, unnecessary to medical service in America, get fired.

For example, in a free market, the government wouldn’t need to prohibit insurance companies from excluding “pre-existing conditions.”

Of course, an insurance company has to be able to refuse NEW customers with “pre-existing conditions.” Otherwise, everyone would just wait to get sick to buy insurance. It’s the same reason you can’t buy fire insurance on a house that’s already on fire.

That isn’t an “insurance company”; it’s what’s known as a “Christian charity.”

What Democrats are insinuating when they denounce exclusions of “pre-existing conditions” is an insurance company using the “pre-existing condition” ruse to deny coverage to a current policy holder — someone who’s been paying into the plan, year after year.

Any insurance company operating in the free market that pulled that trick wouldn’t stay in business long.

If hotels were as heavily regulated as health insurance is, right now I’d be explaining to you why the government doesn’t need to mandate that hotels offer rooms with beds. If they didn’t, they’d go out of business.

I’m sure people who lived in the old Soviet Union thought it was crazy to leave groceries to the free market. (“But what if they don’t stock the food we want?”)

The market is a more powerful enforcement mechanism than indolent government bureaucrats. If you don’t believe me, ask Toyota about six months from now.

Right now, insurance companies are protected by government regulations from having to honor their contracts. Violating contracts isn’t so easy when competitors are lurking, ready to steal your customers.

In addition to saving taxpayer money and providing better health insurance, my plan also saves trees by being 2,199 pages shorter than the Democrats’ plan.

Feel free to steal it, Republicans!

To go to Ann Coulter’s original article, click here.

Pants on the ground,
Pants on the ground,
Lookin’ like a fool with your pants on the ground!

Well, I just couldn’t resist. I think this is as apropos a metaphor as you can get concerning Obama and his Presidency. Mr. Transparency is finally being seen by the majority of liberal and conservative thinking Americans for what he truly is. He is an extreme Socialist at heart and will do anything to further his agenda. The Healthcare bill and how it was conceived and presented to the American people will be a great history lesson for years to come. Never in recent history has the arrogance and sheer underhanded political maneuvering been so blatant. The President and the Democrats in Congress are equally responsible for this debacle. To think that they were so close to ramming this monetary nightmare through Congress is unbelievable. I, for one, am extremely grateful that the people of Massachusetts elected Scott Brown as their next Senator. Without that vote, Obama would now be signing that bill into law. Thank you, Massachusetts.

What I still don’t understand is why it took so long for people to see the truth in all of this. If this was such a good program for the American people, why did the Democrats have to write this bill in such secrecy and behind closed doors? Why did they have to bribe so many members of their own party? Why did Obama hold closed-door sessions with labor union bosses and give them “sweetheart” deals? Representative Joe Wilson was right when he told Obama, “You lie!,” during his speech to Congress last September. He lied about the real substance of the bill and he lied to the American people when he said the Healthcare bill proceedings would be televised on C-Span. He also lied when he said he would have no lobbyists in his administration. And despite Obama always criticizing the Bush administration for “sweetheart” deals with favored contractors, the Obama administration recently awarded a $25 million federal contract to a company owned by a Democratic campaign contributor without any competitive bids. How many times do you get a free pass on all this before the people say, “Enough is enough!”

So, there you have it America. The man who campaigned and promised hope, change and transparency is finally being seen for the deceitful and Socialist politician that he really is. A Chicago-style politician at his finest. Tomorrow will be his State of the Union address. I’m sure he’ll try to minimize all his blunders and lies and blame most things on the past administration. That’s always his excuse when his failed policies don’t work. Hopefully, most Americans will see through this charade. This man is NOT worthy of the Presidency – never was, never will be.