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Conservative Blog Post for October 13, 2009

‘Duh’ Economics   

Democrats this morning scrambled to contain damage resulting from release of a report highly critical of the health care takeover plan currently being debated in the US Senate.  The report – paid for by the Insurance industry and undertaken by highly respected Price Waterhouse Coopers – claims that the current plan would drive costs for an average individual up by at least $600 per year and would result in additional premiums of $1,700 per year for family coverage by 2013. 

This prediction drew the predictable Democrat reaction.  “Hatchet Job,” said a spokesperson from Senator Max Baucus’ (d-MT) office.  “Fundamentally Flawed” added AARP.  Without specifically addressing the reasons the study was flawed or incorrect, liberals proceeded with their usual method of handling dissent – impugning the motivations of the messenger.   “Insurance Company and Industry Greed,” seemed to be the central theme coming from Congressional Democrats. 

Price Waterhouse Coopers has been crunching numbers well before Barack Obama was riding the waves and attending his private high school in Hawaii.  The well-respected firm wouldn’t put its professional reputation into the cross-hairs of the Democrat party character assassination squads unless it was absolutely sure of its position – regardless of who paid for it.   Despite what Democrats claim, corporate integrity is alive and well in the US. 

The study identifies three central economic themes that Democrats can’t seem to grasp.  So for the purpose of identification, we’ll call these  ‘Duh’ principles .  Leftists who reject or can’t understand the principles of Economics just won’t get it, but perhaps the use of ‘Duh’ can shame them at least into listening.

‘Duh’ Principle 1 – Additional requirements placed upon an industry drives up costs to providers. 

As the Price Waterhouse Coopers study points out, heaping more responsibility on the industry will result in rapidly escalating costs to those organization that currently provide insurance services.  The only thing difficult to understand here is why Democrats have such a hard time understanding. 

Covering pre-existing conditions – although perhaps a noble objective – requires the industry to assume payment responsibilities for conditions they do not currently have to cover.  Does this increase their costs?  Of course it does!  There are a myriad of new requirements in the proposed legislation under consideration in both houses of Congress as well.  Each will drive up provider costs.

‘Duh’ Principle 2 – Higher provider costs means higher prices for consumers.

Will these new requirements directly increase costs to consumers?  It better or the company will soon fail.  Every organization must generate a profit for its shareholders or owners to remain viable.  It also may be that the government intends for insurance providers to fail so that the government option – or complete federal takeover of the insurance industry – will become the only remaining course.

When Democrats can’t tax value from an offending group or industry, they typically resort to adding costs and responsibilities to somebody else.  Astonishingly, the Democrat theme is that shareholders – not customers – absorb cost and tax increases.   As shareholders are viewed as members of the oppressive wealth class, this is an acceptable course.  

Shareholders can’t operate any business without a respectable profit margin.  They will compel the organization to pass on any additional costs to consumers.  And if all insurance providers must meet the same new set of requirements, all insurance company prices will rise concurrently.  There will be no advantage in moving from one provider to another.   One additional note on shareholders; most of these folks are average Americans that own portions of health provider companies as part of their stock holdings or 401(k) plans.  These aren’t rich New Englanders (like the Kennedys and Kerrys) who spend their summers on Martha’s Vineyard.

Unfortunately for them, Democrats are going to get blamed for rising health care costs at the same time service levels to customers will decrease.   As there are no Republicans around to blame, Washington lefties will have to face public wrath on their own.    So what are they to do?  There really is only one option – which the left will never accept.

‘Duh’ Principle 3 – Only by decreasing operating costs and lowering risk can the cost of health care be reduced. 

In addition to dumping service requirements on the health care industry, Government can influence the cost of doing business in only two additional ways; setting legal standards and taxation.  Democrats have allowed the legal industry to drive the cost of American health care well above the rate of inflation. Risk of being sued is a primary financial consideration for every medical professional.   And although nearly all Americans agree that fair compensation should be paid to victims of malpractice, the punitive damages – those damages that are awarded to a victim and his attorney as punishment for a wrong doing – are out of control.   John Edwards has a mansion and a mistress as proof of how much money the legal industry bleeds from the misfortunes of others.

Physicians must limit their exposure to lawsuits by ordering every test, exam and treatment imaginable for each patient – regardless of the likelihood of success.  This is termed ‘defensive’ medicine, which provides only marginal benefit to the patient and significantly escalates cost to the provider.  A legal reform effort that would limit punitive damages but leave actual damages up to court discretion would be hugely helpful in lowering the cost of doing business in health care.  And lowering costs allows physicians and insurance providers to compete for customers with better rates.   Unfortunately, the American Bar Association and the legal community is a primary owner of the Democrat party and will never allow their ability to leech a huge income off the misfortunes of others to be restricted. 

Increased taxation only elevates costs to the provider and applies further upward pressure on the price structure.  Upward pressure applied to the entire industry only raises internal costs, and as we have already seen raises costs to consumers. 

So the three ‘Duh’ Principles of Economics are obvious to all who look, read and research the health care issues.  Democrats who live as ostriches or only watch CNN, continue to believe that laws of economics do not apply to them or their policies.  And even though consumers may be gullible for a while, consumers can add and subtract.  When they see their costs outpacing their ability to pay, Democrats will be held accountable. 

Obama to the Rescue – of the GOP – Three Ways Obama Helps Republicans

Following His theatrical –if misleading – address to the nation last Wednesday, President Obama sought to galvanize support for taking over the US Health Care industry.  Instead he added fortitude and backbone to the resistance.

Despite Congressman Wilson pointing out Obama’s inaccurate statement regarding coverage for illegal aliens, the speech failed to change public opinion.  (It is telling that despite a flood of contributions to Wilson’s congressional opponent from lunatic lefties anxious to feel better about themselves, the South Carolina district he represents remains firmly in support of their GOP rep.)

By refusing to come clean on several obvious issues, such as coverage for illegal aliens and the outrageous cost of His proposals, Obama unwittingly united the opposition yet again.  Supporters of His efforts to ruin American Health Care for most citizens were already united behind him – all 32% of the population.  Unfortunately for the Prez, the opposition just got stronger.  Obama has only himself to blame.

Failing to answer questions after 23 speeches on the matter is tantamount to lying.  Most voters who aren’t committed leftists keep waiting for answers as to how this thing is really to be paid for, where in the world –specifically – can $500 billion in savings be found within the Medicare program and how can government health boards (seriously) NOT act as death panels when their main duty will be to enforce cost controls and regulation on seniors needing treatment.   If there are no practical and realistic answers offered, most people that think for themselves conclude that the ones offering the plan really don’t know how it will work and are therefore not to be trusted.

Obama and his minions have simply not answered questions and are burning up what is left of the trust the voters left with them last year.    Other than simply denying that ‘bad things’ will occur, Obama and the leftist Democrats offer no substantive argument that will move public opinion.  Some Democrats – particularly in the Senate – seem smart enough to understand this and are already at work crafting a bit of legislation that will allow Obama to save face by claiming a win on health care reform without actually delivering very much. 

Still, the damage may be done.  Democrats know they will lose seats in the mid-term elections next year.  However, their President is putting them in the untenable position of supporting a plan that has no logical expectation of delivering the results Obama is promising.  Pelosi doesn’t care…she will be re-elected by her lunatic fringe district.  However, people like Ben Nelson (D-NE) and Mary Landrieu (D-LA) do care – they represent entire states that do not support the health care takeover.

Conservative candidates in relatively red states like Nebraska and Louisiana (now that the Bayou Democrat’s election-stealing network has been broken up) are already running against the President.  Obama offers such a clear example of liberalism out-of-control and elitist government that refuses to answer questions or provide specific details regarding important matters, that any Democrat is painted with this image.  And in the Bayou State, Obama is already dragging Democrat prospects into the alligator pit.  Senator Vitter – beset by his own personal misbehavior – is mounting a VERY strong candidacy for re-election by simply presenting himself as one who opposes the Obama policies.  Right now, he is looking tough to beat.

Democrats knew they would have an uphill battle to maintain their House and Senate margins.  Unfortunately for them, Obama has given every conservative candidate a clear illustration of what liberalism means to America.  Americans are rightfully scared enough to at least pay attention.

Obama is adding to a potential GOP Revival in three central ways, including:

Arrogance – By stating that “we will call you out for your inaccuracies” the President is acting like a bully who is in fact, unwilling to talk about specific details.  Besides, this is an empty threat.  Republican opponents seem all too willing to have this conversation, as they have actually read the bills.  Democrats –especially those who have read the bills – are absolutely afraid to discuss the implications publicly.  Obama seems to either have not read the legislation or is absolutely dishonest about what the language means.  To Democrat’s credit though, the bills are written so poorly and in such legalese that Obama thought that as any good lawyer does– He could interpret it any way which suited Him.  This just isn’t good enough for American voters.  And should the attempt be made in the Senate to pass the Health Care disaster bill via reconciliation – look for a major GOP sweep next fall.

Attitude – A standard political tactic – if you are not for this plan, you are ignorant.  Unfortunately, the grass roots nature of the town hall resistance movement really is “grass-roots.”  For all its attempts to be a good organizer the GOP has great difficulty organizing a picnic – much less setting up the kind of opposition Congressional lefties ran into in their home districts last month.  For Obama and Pelosi to accuse the opposition of being Republican plants or being just plain ignorant is insulting to the very people to whom Obama owes his job.   They won’t forget.

Ineptitude – Team Obama believes that a good speech solves all problems.  They fail to distinguish between a good speech and good theatrics.  Obama is great at the latter – horrible at the former.  A good speech generally includes details and specifics to make a logical point.  Unfortunately, in the delivery of 23 major addresses on Health Care, no specifics and certainly little logic have emerged.  This just makes Democrats who support the plan look silly.  They can’t answer a simple question about the ‘reasonableness’ of finding $500 billion in savings from Medicare without ridiculing whoever asked the question.  The biggest fear on the part of Team Obama is that Joe Biden gets off the reservation and starts commenting on Health Care legislation.  Republicans would need no further assistance.

Health Care Reform Speech– Obama’s Top Five Tactics

Support for Health Care takeover is quickly slipping away.  To stop the slide, President Obama has scheduled yet another prime time speech to inspire the nation to accept His wisdom over voter’s personal judgment.  Unfortunately for members of Congress, they will be required to attend this Speech.  After two disastrous press conference appearances, the President had to come up with a bigger and better way to roll out the teleprompter and make one more pitch for taking over one sixth of the US economy.    Whether the President will actually roll out any new ideas is a mystery.  The networks weren’t going to forgo reruns of Hannah Montana to cove another presser, so He had to make this a speech before a joint session of the US Congress.

Obama advisors have hung on to the childish belief that a strong personality and effective communication are more important than facts.  The plain fact is that the current health care proposals will result in:

• exceptionally high costs to taxpayers,
• rationing of care,
• IRS involvement in the health care industry,
• restrictions on freedom of choice regarding end of life issues, and
• on and on

Congress made the mistake of letting the public read the bills Democrats were proposing.  Rational discussion of the proposal then led to the logical conclusion that all of these ‘really bad’ things will in fact become reality should the Democrat’s plan become law.  The only chance the Democrats had was to withhold the content of the legislation until after it was passed.   Team Obama believes that a good speech can overcome these realities.

How stupid does the President believe the American people are?  We will certainly find out Wednesday evening.  Basing His decision to speak to the country before a joint session of Congress, President Obama will employ five –until recently- tried and true Democrat tactics to regain support for taking over the American health care industry.   However, unless  He plainly removes the ‘public option’ from the legislation – a point he went the opposite direction on in his AFL-CIO speech over the weekend – Obama will show that he doesn’t respect American’s ability to reason for themselves.  Should He take this tack, He may ruin the rest of his Presidency.  And to quote a famous pirate, “one can only hope.”

So here are the top five predicted tactics that the President will employ to save the movement to ruin American Health Care:

5.  Demonize – the opposition – A tactic that brings back memories of Ted Kennedy vs. Robert Bork and Bill Clinton vs. anyone with a brain, President Obama will accuse conservatives and Republicans of not offering their own version of health care reform.  Conservatives believe that another version of taking over the health care system is not acceptable and of course have not offered an alternative.   Two Republican ideas already shot down in Congress were:

• Restricting care to US Citizens only by requiring some proof of citizenship, and
• Allowing insurance carriers to compete nationwide – something not currently allowed

The failure of these options indicates that Congressional lefties intend to provide health care to illegal aliens at taxpayer expense and intend to restrict consumer’s ability to purchase plans from better carriers in other states.   The latter option also ensures a lower degree of competition which results in higher prices and costs to American consumers.

4.  Paint a grand vision – for American Society – President Obama believes that He won the election because of his ‘Hope and Change’ message.  The slogan worked even though it was void of specifics.  The problem with health care is that Democrats committed their ideas to paper in the proposed legislation and now that the specifics are available to anyone who can read.  Most of those that did read the bills are very much against the proposals.    Obama believes that painting the vision of a grand and kind nation that takes better care of its illegal aliens than it does of its senior citizens will turn into a sure winner in 2012.  Obama better hope that these senior citizens won’t be around to vote in 2012.

3.  Engage in high theater and drama – by telling stories – The Hollywood lefties have offered a bit of advice to the President in that a good performance will go a long way to convince people to take action that is not in their best interest.  The President will no doubt have one or two (possibly more) heart touching, tear jerking stories of those who suffered terribly because of a lack of health insurance.  Of course the media will fail to validate any of these stories.  Theater and drama are hallmarks of Democrat administrations, but as movie producers have known for generations, the same film only draws well for one or two weekends.  After that, the support withers considerably.   Obama is doing yet another ‘rerun’ of his past health care speeches.  Past reruns haven’t fared well and have only driven support lower.  This speech may send support straight into the tank.  “One can only hope.”

2.  Make it Personal – After all, the Obama Presidency is all about Obama.  After the passing of the last Kennedy, there is no longer any unofficial American Royalty.  MSNBC loser Chris Mathews opined that Obama is the “last Kennedy brother” because Teddy anointed Him during the last election.  Despite the complicity of most in the Washington/New York media club, Americans really don’t want a royal system of government run by decrees and executive edicts.  Obama and the Democrats would very much like such a system as long as they are the ones in power.  Look for the President to bring up his family’s health history as part of the theater and drama act in a last ditch effort to make the story compelling, personal and worthy of throwing one’s own common sense and judgment out the window. 

1.  Simply deny – that bad things will happen (IRS involvement, Rationing, End-of-Life, No Freedom of Choice). This is perhaps the most interesting tactic to expect. Obama and the Congressional supporters who tried to force-feed health care takeover to the American voters have simply denied that the bad things will happen.  Obama has time and again stated that rationing won’t happen, you will be able to keep your insurance plan if you like it, and on and on.  What kind of argument is this?  As the Monty Python troop noted long ago, “simply denying something isn’t an argument.”    Obama is indeed becoming worthy of an appearance on Monty Python’s Flying Circus – if only they were still taping.  Repeating the same message over and over hasn’t been effective and won’t be in the future.  If Obama can’t provide specific examples of how and why rationing will not occur, and how 500ish billion can be cut from Medicare (for redistribution to illegal aliens and others who can afford insurance but won’t pay for it) without causing a restriction on available treatment to seniors, He will certainly lose this argument as well.

Obama is up against the crushing weight of logic in the Health Care Debate.   Americans are over the ‘Hope and Change’ message and want specifics that can be debated.  And when they are debated in a free and open forum, Americans should be over the ‘health care takeover’ as well.  One can only hope.