March 3, 2011
Fine-Tuning the Shackles
Loathe handcuffs and leg irons? No problem. We'll adjust the restraints
slightly. Shave a gram off the weight. Paint them a new color. And throw away
the key.
Feel liberated?
Nobody in a chain gang would be fooled.
But the Obama Administration expects phony "concessions" in the implementation
of last year's Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act ("Obamacare," for
short) to be treated as a sign of generous and reasonable compromise. The
president supports an amendment to the health care law that, according to the
New York Times, would "allow states to opt out of its most burdensome
requirements three years earlier than currently permitted."
If you dislike the program's taxes and mandates, which after all constitute
Obamacare's most burdensome requirements, you'd approve. Right? All we need do
is move in 2014 to some state that has opted out . . .
Not so fast. The state programs would have to cover just as many people and be
just as "comprehensive and affordable" as the federal program. How to do this
except by forcing people to participate?
The amended legislation would also allow states to establish single-payer
systems in which the state government is the only insurer of health care.
Compromise?
As Michael Cannon observes, "President Obama's move is not about giving states
more flexibility. It's about moving the nation even faster toward his ideal of
a Canadian- or British-style single-payer health-care system." Which is where
Obama and many Democrats have been hankering to go all along.
This is Common Sense. I'm Paul Jacob.
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Paul Jacob is President of Citizens in Charge and Citizens in Charge
Foundation, which sponsors both Common Sense and Paul's weekly Townhall Column.
The opinions expressed in Common Sense are Paul Jacob's and do not necessarily
reflect the opinions of Citizens in Charge or Citizens in Charge Foundation.
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