On Wednesday, President Obama signed the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) bill into law declaring, "This is good...with one of the first bills I sign...we fulfill one of the highest responsibilities that we have. To insure the health and well being of our nation's children." It was a peculiar phrase, "we fulfill." One might wonder whether the president with "we" was referring to his and the First Lady's responsibility to keep the First Kids healthy and well. But I have a sneaking suspicion "we" has a rather corporate implication, viz. the federal government.
So, what's the big deal with ensuring some poor, underprivileged American kids get ample access to quality health care? In a phrase, "socialized medicine." We have no further to look than to our Anglo brethren in the north to find evidence of the failure of socialized medicine (that the Canadian economy is a wholly-dependent division of American GDP is the only reason the Canucks' health care system hasn't utterly collapsed). But a treatise on the vices of socialized medicine is a subject for another time. Let's dive quickly into why this bill of socialism, in particular, is a recipe for disaster.
First, the notion that SCHIP provides coverage for "poor, underprivileged kids" is simply not true, no matter how much grandstanding the Obama administration commits on behalf of the disenfranchised. The original version of SCHIP, if you recall, was foisted upon the people by the Bush Administration during the 1997 session. In that version, Republicans had forced in a concession by the House Democrats of an $80,000 income cap. Families earning more than that would not qualify for benefits under SCHIP. When SCHIP was hurriedly reintroduced in the wee hours of this session, the income cap was mysteriously absent. Republicans in House had not been consulted nor even informed. Now signed into law, ALL children qualify for SCHIP coverage--including Bill Gates' three children.
As Michael F. Cannon reveals, SCHIP fails in its intent to cover underprivileged children because "out of every ten children added to the SCHIP rolls, six already had private coverage." As with most federal intervention into the private and local realms, the unintended consequences are as great or greater than those intended. With one swipe of a pen, Obama has guaranteed that 60% of children enrolling in SCHIP will do so by pulling their insurance premiums out of the market and thereby deprive a starving economy of revenue. But hey, no fear; these 6 of 10 will be getting better coverage through SCHIP, right? Wrong. This brings us to the second failure of SCHIP.
Cannon quotes economist Robert Kaestner: “The proposition that health insurance is the cure for adverse health outcomes among poor and near-poor children has not been adequately demonstrated.” Never mind the not-so-poor 60-percenters, the poor kids targeted by SCHIP aren't even guaranteed to get improved, "quality health care." One wonders then, if SCHIP cannot offer a reasonable presumption of improvement in health care for the poor and uninsured, why were Obama, Pelosi, Reid, et. al. so hell-bent on passing it? More on that later.
SCHIP fails as well in much the same way federal welfare programs do. Highlighted by the 1996 titan battle between Gingrich Republicans and the Clinton Administration, Welfare to Work was whittled down after it was exposed that overly robust unemployment benefits actually encouraged folks to sit at home rather than beat the pavement looking for gainful employment. SCHIP similarly provides a stiff disincentive for parents of children enrolled in the program to seek better, higher paying jobs with which to afford private insurance. The economic impact is obvious.
Cannon cites the 1996 elimination of medicaid for non-citizens as case in point for how limiting federal benefits actually encourages folks to seek them out in the private sector. He explains that after 1996, non-citizens "sought out jobs that provided benefits, and were so successful that the employer-provided insurance completely offset the loss in government benefits. In fact, in the states that offered the fewest benefits, the immigrant insurance rate rose."
Last, in the dark of night with cloak and dagger, House Democrats also stripped SCHIP of its original citizenship requirement. Yes, they did that. So, not only does the newly passed boondoggle offer insurance coverage for all American children, it provides insurance for all non-American children. In recent years over 80 hospitals have gone out of business in California alone under the weight of uninsured emergency care, which hospitals are required by law to provide without question. Other states have witnessed similar phenomena. It's no surprise then that illegal immigrants flock to these states, knowing full well that every sneeze, sniffle, and ear-ache will get treated at the emergency room for free.
Though the McCain-Kennedy amnesty bill was ultimately defeated, fear not ye open-borders fanatics: SCHIP will draw in the masses of illegal immigrants from wide and far. With it, the Obama administration seems intent on stimulated not just the U.S. economy but the Mexican and Latin-American economies as well...albeit with U.S. tax dollars.
Liberals love to paint conservatives as cold-hearted, nasty, selfish beasts. But let's be honest. We, all of us, want nothing more than to see our nation's children healthy and strong. Clearly, SCHIP doesn't do the trick. The question, then, isn't if we should provide the best health coverage for them, rather the question is who should provide it. And that brings us full circle to a question about the legitimacy of socialized medicine. After all, the intent of this rather worthless legislation is not what meets the eye. Obama and company have aimed at nationalized health care ever since HillaryCare went down in flames ten years ago. And SCHIP, my friends, is the proverbial camel's nose under the national tent.
More on the dangers of nationalized health care later...
Sunday, February 8, 2009
Sunday, January 25, 2009
Alea iacta est...
I would be remiss if I didn't take time and care to reflect on President Obama's first days in office. So, to all of you waiting on 'bated breath, here goes.
For those who haven't bothered to take notice, we are apparently in the midst of a somewhat severe economic crisis. Our federal "experts" have indicated, as well, that without immediate and broad-sweeping action from the federal government, our present crisis could deepen to a full blown depression.
Note: the last depression was ended only by the onset of WWII--not by the New Deal as some would have us believe. In fact, in the years leading up to the war, unemployment crept from 13% to 17%...surely not a lasting tribute to FDR's shovels and bridges program. I'll return to this point in another post.
So this is our current political context to be sure, and all eyes are on the Obama administration as to how they'll deal with this crisis.
Enter the Immaculate Inauguration of the Anointed One...
Leading up to the inauguration, Team Obama conscripted, planned, appointed, announced and reaffirmed all of its political and human resources necessary to bring to the fore a full juggernaut worthy of the Obama campaign leviathan, aimed at heading off such an impending depression. Meanwhile, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid stood at the ready, pens and gavels in hand prepared to push through the largest economic stimulus package in the history of the modern world...
...then on Wednesday--his first full day in office after a half-day of Mardi Gras-like fete and fair--one would expect President Obama, heir-apparent, the Halo, His Hopiness the Great Unifier, to act swiftly and decisively to "remake America." Nope.
Instead, the first taste of "change" and "hope" for America came in the form of an intensively divisive political agenda.
Posted immediately on the White House website was a rather extensive list of policy positions, under the heading "Support for the GLBT Community," which the administration will press forward:
-Expand Hate Crimes Statutes [translation: ban the public positions by conservative/religious communities against homosexuality]
-Fight Workplace Discrimination [translation: ban the use of sexual orientation as an employment criterion by employers who have a moral objection to it]
-Support Full Civil Unions and Federal Rights for LGBT Couples [translation: repeal the Defense of Marriage Act]
-Oppose a Constitutional Ban on Same-Sex Marriage [self-explanatory]
-Repeal Don't Ask-Don't Tell [translation: force a morale-debilitating policy of housing openly homosexual troops with either other]
-Expand Adoption Rights [translation: allow homosexual "couples" to enjoy full adoption rights]
-Promote AIDS Prevention [translation: mandated sex education, in-school contraception/abortion, free needles to drug addicts]
-Empower Women to Prevent HIV/AIDS [translation: offer free microbicides to sexually miscreant women]
Not be outdone, Obama ordered the closing of the Guantanamo Bay prison camp. Now, no matter your feelings on war in general or the WOT specifically, this prison both has housed some of the most notorious terrorists in the world and has been the wellspring of some of the most critical intelligence information with which we have prevented further domestic terrorist attacks over the last eight years. That foreign terrorists don't possess American civil rights really ought to go without mention, but this is a postmodern America where nothing is sacred any longer.
On the subject of sacred things, in a quite unpublicized ceremony Friday night the President signed an Executive Order rescinding the Mexico City Policy, first enacted by President Reagan. The Mexico City Policy has one simple provision: "to prohibit nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) that receive Federal funds from using those funds to pay for the performance of abortions as a method of family planning, or to motivate or coerce any person to practice abortions." NGOs are typically non-profit, public-interest (usually politically-motivated) organizations that receive part or all of their funding from appropriated tax revenues.
That the administration has moved so adamantly to allow for the direct contribution of U.S. taxpayer dollars for abortions is despicable enough. But I know I may be preaching to part of the choir here. Let's assume in a parallel universe that I were an entirely soulless, hedonistic, and selfishly Spartan kinda guy who's only moral motivation was whether I got my "cut of the federal pie" coupled with a bland sort of global humanitarianism (see "We Are the World")...or, in a word, a liberal. Observing the state of the economy and the incessant ranting about it by the Obama campaign and the "Office of the President-Elect", I would expect that the most imminent action by the newly sworn president would be about, well, the economy.
Upon hearing word of the rescinding of the Mexico City Policy, I would naturally wonder how U.S. tax dollars being spent on abortions--particularly those millions given to international NGOs and spent on abortions in other countries--would benefit me. I would go on to wonder whether President Obama really ever had as his first priority the stimulation of the economy. But, this is a parallel universe and, as we know, liberals don't think quite as logically in this universe.
I'll pull my tongue from my cheek here in summation. President Obama's first 72-hours in office have re-opened the veritable gate to Gomorrah. As a Christian I pray that Obama will experience a miraculous awakening moment in which he'll see the light and reverse course. But equally, I expect judgment for America, having taken the blessings of a nation borne in liberty and tossed them out the window. I wonder, as Lincoln did at Gettysburg, "whether that nation or any nation so conceived and so dedicated can long endure."
For those who haven't bothered to take notice, we are apparently in the midst of a somewhat severe economic crisis. Our federal "experts" have indicated, as well, that without immediate and broad-sweeping action from the federal government, our present crisis could deepen to a full blown depression.
Note: the last depression was ended only by the onset of WWII--not by the New Deal as some would have us believe. In fact, in the years leading up to the war, unemployment crept from 13% to 17%...surely not a lasting tribute to FDR's shovels and bridges program. I'll return to this point in another post.
So this is our current political context to be sure, and all eyes are on the Obama administration as to how they'll deal with this crisis.
Enter the Immaculate Inauguration of the Anointed One...
Leading up to the inauguration, Team Obama conscripted, planned, appointed, announced and reaffirmed all of its political and human resources necessary to bring to the fore a full juggernaut worthy of the Obama campaign leviathan, aimed at heading off such an impending depression. Meanwhile, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid stood at the ready, pens and gavels in hand prepared to push through the largest economic stimulus package in the history of the modern world...
...then on Wednesday--his first full day in office after a half-day of Mardi Gras-like fete and fair--one would expect President Obama, heir-apparent, the Halo, His Hopiness the Great Unifier, to act swiftly and decisively to "remake America." Nope.
Instead, the first taste of "change" and "hope" for America came in the form of an intensively divisive political agenda.
Posted immediately on the White House website was a rather extensive list of policy positions, under the heading "Support for the GLBT Community," which the administration will press forward:
-Expand Hate Crimes Statutes [translation: ban the public positions by conservative/religious communities against homosexuality]
-Fight Workplace Discrimination [translation: ban the use of sexual orientation as an employment criterion by employers who have a moral objection to it]
-Support Full Civil Unions and Federal Rights for LGBT Couples [translation: repeal the Defense of Marriage Act]
-Oppose a Constitutional Ban on Same-Sex Marriage [self-explanatory]
-Repeal Don't Ask-Don't Tell [translation: force a morale-debilitating policy of housing openly homosexual troops with either other]
-Expand Adoption Rights [translation: allow homosexual "couples" to enjoy full adoption rights]
-Promote AIDS Prevention [translation: mandated sex education, in-school contraception/abortion, free needles to drug addicts]
-Empower Women to Prevent HIV/AIDS [translation: offer free microbicides to sexually miscreant women]
Not be outdone, Obama ordered the closing of the Guantanamo Bay prison camp. Now, no matter your feelings on war in general or the WOT specifically, this prison both has housed some of the most notorious terrorists in the world and has been the wellspring of some of the most critical intelligence information with which we have prevented further domestic terrorist attacks over the last eight years. That foreign terrorists don't possess American civil rights really ought to go without mention, but this is a postmodern America where nothing is sacred any longer.
On the subject of sacred things, in a quite unpublicized ceremony Friday night the President signed an Executive Order rescinding the Mexico City Policy, first enacted by President Reagan. The Mexico City Policy has one simple provision: "to prohibit nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) that receive Federal funds from using those funds to pay for the performance of abortions as a method of family planning, or to motivate or coerce any person to practice abortions." NGOs are typically non-profit, public-interest (usually politically-motivated) organizations that receive part or all of their funding from appropriated tax revenues.
That the administration has moved so adamantly to allow for the direct contribution of U.S. taxpayer dollars for abortions is despicable enough. But I know I may be preaching to part of the choir here. Let's assume in a parallel universe that I were an entirely soulless, hedonistic, and selfishly Spartan kinda guy who's only moral motivation was whether I got my "cut of the federal pie" coupled with a bland sort of global humanitarianism (see "We Are the World")...or, in a word, a liberal. Observing the state of the economy and the incessant ranting about it by the Obama campaign and the "Office of the President-Elect", I would expect that the most imminent action by the newly sworn president would be about, well, the economy.
Upon hearing word of the rescinding of the Mexico City Policy, I would naturally wonder how U.S. tax dollars being spent on abortions--particularly those millions given to international NGOs and spent on abortions in other countries--would benefit me. I would go on to wonder whether President Obama really ever had as his first priority the stimulation of the economy. But, this is a parallel universe and, as we know, liberals don't think quite as logically in this universe.
I'll pull my tongue from my cheek here in summation. President Obama's first 72-hours in office have re-opened the veritable gate to Gomorrah. As a Christian I pray that Obama will experience a miraculous awakening moment in which he'll see the light and reverse course. But equally, I expect judgment for America, having taken the blessings of a nation borne in liberty and tossed them out the window. I wonder, as Lincoln did at Gettysburg, "whether that nation or any nation so conceived and so dedicated can long endure."
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
LOST and Found...
This evening, over a plate of Lemon Pepper Chicken and Mongolian Beef from our local neighborhood Pei Wei, I was ruminating on my quizzical angst for the season premier of LOST--yes, in a temporary state of pop-culture weakness last year, I allowed myself to get sucked into the cult program...but, alas, it's the only network television program I've allowed myself to waste time on. While ruminating here on this first full day of the Obama presidency, a profound realization occurred to me. The parallels between the predicament of the "Oceanic 6" and a 2009 America are staggering.
Consider this. In both scenarios, the people have found themselves in the midst of monumental crash and in a place completely unfamiliar to them. They have no idea how to get home. They choose to follow a strapping young man--the son of a drunk and international, serial philanderer--who promises to press on and get them home. But whence they finally arrive home, they discover it's not the home they remembered...
Perhaps the exploits of Jack and the "Oceanic 6" will provide some insight into where the Anointed One might lead the American people in the coming months...stay tuned.
Consider this. In both scenarios, the people have found themselves in the midst of monumental crash and in a place completely unfamiliar to them. They have no idea how to get home. They choose to follow a strapping young man--the son of a drunk and international, serial philanderer--who promises to press on and get them home. But whence they finally arrive home, they discover it's not the home they remembered...
Perhaps the exploits of Jack and the "Oceanic 6" will provide some insight into where the Anointed One might lead the American people in the coming months...stay tuned.
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