In recent days, the Healthcare Debate has been headline news, as ordinary people (who are not usually seen at protests or at town hall meetings) are transitioning from merely shouting at their TV to getting out and directly expressing their displeasure and their concerns to their representatives.

Ironically, when ordinary individuals do what paid “community organizers” on the left have done for decades, they’re vilified as an “angry mob”, or shills for the GOP (who they’re generally JUST AS MAD AT!). Worse, they’re now being called UNAMERICAN, compared to Nazis and McVeigh, and some have been subjected to beating by SEIU union thugs! 

http://gatewaypundit.blogspot.com/2009/08/tea-party-protesters-attacked-1-man.html

It’s time to take a RATIONAL look at the ObamaCare “Health Care Reform” bill!

The rhetoric has been all about personal narratives, demonstrating the failures and shortcomings of the current system. A straw man argument is made that we have only 2 choices – between ObamaCare or maintainining the “unacceptable” Status Quo. There ARE alternative plans, but the Administration, the Democratic Congress and the Lapdog press will not discuss them.

We must move the narrative off the problems of the current system, and ask the question: Is ObamaCare a viable answer? What does the bill DO? Do we WANT what it does? Can we afford it?

Sadly, with the current occupants of the White House and the Hill, one cannot simply listen to the words they craft before the cameras. They are disingenuous at best and outright falsehoods at worst.

While focusing on the acknowledged PROBLEMS of the existing system - the age-old magician’s trick of misdirection is applied to this debate.  Never watch the hand with the wand!  What's the OTHER hand doing!?  In this case, what's IN the bill?  DOES IT fix the problem?  Does it CREATE NEW problems?  Is the "cure" worse than the "disease"? 

When they tell you “you can keep your current plan if you like it”… they don’t tell you that you CAN’T shop for a new private plan, or change your current one, or get a new one if you change jobs! Under the misleading heading of “Protecting the choice to keep current coverage”, the very first provisions of the ObamaCare bill (after the definitions), found on page 16, are nothing but LIMITATIONS on individual coverage!  It MUST be in force already when the law takes effect... Insurance companies can't write NEW policies.  If you change jobs, you lose it.  All private insurance policies must become a government-dictated cookie-cutter policy within 5 years.  They’re “grandfathering” (their word) existing policies, but your right to obtain a NEW PRIVATE policy is being ELIMINATED! Is this what you call REFORM?

Other dubious provisions include:

Pg 29: Healthcare WILL be rationed - despite what they SAY!

Pg 59: Gives Govt Realtime Access to YOUR BANK ACCOUNT – You want that?

Page 203:“The tax imposed under this section shall not be treated as tax.” Yes, it really says that.

Pg 427: Government intrusion into END OF LIFE Treatment – Grandma gets pain pills instead of life saving surgery?

Does Government do ANYTHING well?  Would you choose the VA hospital over a private hospital?  Why would you trust the same government that has bankrupted Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid with YOUR healthcare?  They couldn't even get “Cash for Clunkers”, a one month program, to work for a week before bankrupting it!

Be more informed than Congress. Read the ObamaCare Bill! Find it at: http://api.ning.com/files/rlRf26JqH8yPmA8KEDsVtabBXoDeS8DcImqXQ7Okjd*uy-wtqp*fgygCwPpIGWZVxZ8L6brLHvb6EPGft1D*Bq8RG-f9raUl/HR3200HealthCareBill.pdf

Copyright © 2009 by Doug Edelman

Doug Edelman is a conservative political commentator and has been a contributing editor for The Conservative Voice.  His work is also seen on News By Us, The American Daily, The Post Chronicle, New Media Journal, Capitol Hill Coffee House etc. For the support of his family, however, he is also an IT Consultant/Contractor and owner of a Computer Services Business.  He has taught PC Maintenance & Repair and Networking at his local Community College, and maintains a blog at http://edeldoug.blogs.com/.