Now, I'm not talking about folks that due to injury/heredity/misfortune are simply not quite bright - they can't really help it, and picking on them is, at absolute best, not nice. One doesn't put them in charge of physics departments or complex ordnance, but again, not their fault.
I'm talking about those folks that are, at least allegedly, of average intelligence or better - capable of, at least in theory, intelligent action. Folks who, by virtue of their position, if they are remotely responsible should be capable and willing of studying history as a factor in their weighty ponderings and deliberations involving what really constitutes "a good idea to legislate". Hint: the list is awfully darned short.
Instead we have a group of ninnies, congress-critters, that are rushing towards their own political doom even as their leadership chivvies them into one great lemming-like leap off the public precipice in passing ObamaCaretm.
We have the National Health Service (here, here, here, here, here) of formerly great Britain to look to as a great and horrible example of what ObamaCaretm will give us, even before the cronyism and corruption kick in. With the accountability of the courts largely applicable only to physicians in private practice, such neglect and abuse prospers in an environment where meeting "management goals" is of greater importance than patient care.
Already, we hear that perhaps a third of doctors are considering entirely leaving the practice of medicine should health care reform pass. And then there are those who will take one of my former doctors (who I'd still be seeing if he wasn't 1200 miles down the road) path of refusing all insurance - private or public - and practicing medicine for cash on the barrelhead, up front, at rates comparable to local attorneys. He was happy to provide patients with documentation (at an hourly rate to create additional documentation or perform extra tests demanded by insurers), but his focus, as he put it, was "medicine, not paper-juggling".
Between the two phenomenon, if ObamaCaretm passes, we're in for a fairly rocky road even before we consider organizational responses. E.g., Caterpillar has already noted that from what they can tell from what's been disclosed, that the FIRST YEAR of ObamaCaretm will cost them One Hundred Million Dollars (or more).
Now...using Caterpillar as our example... We have a large company, in a depressed economy, in a particularly depressed segment (heavy equipment) with unionized (and costly) labor about to take a $100,000,000 hit if this thing passes. Because of the economy, they can't jack up prices to compensate for new expenses and still stay in business - folks won't buy products at those prices. Because they like to eat, simply shutting down isn't especially palatable. Moving production abroad and cutting in-country staff to the bone...well...that does make sense, with shutting down a valid "Plan B".
Now, consider this hitting the broader business community, particularly smaller and more fragile businesses. This is not unlike hurling a torch into a oil refinery and expecting calm and relaxation.
Stupid should hurt. And ObamaCare and its supporters are malignant tumors upon the body politic, finding specious reasons to sabotage or evade deliberation whenever possible, hiding legislation from analysis, and utilizing a distasteful combination of buy-off's and bribery sprinkled with constitutionally doubtful maneuvering (Slaughter Solution, anyone?) to ramrod through legislation despised by the vast majority of the American public.
How should stupid hurt? Well, elections are coming up and the first step is to make sure that every single pro-ObamaCare Representative or Senator up for election has an electable opponent - a solid threat to their re-election.
In disciplining a politician, one cannot be subtle. To my friends in the medical profession, those that remain in the the profession (as opposed to going on semi-permanent sabbatical) - desperate times call for desperate measures. Should you find yourself so emotionally distraught that you cannot summon the proper detachment and objectivity required to treat patients when faced with a CongressCritter (or their family member(s)) that voted for ObamaCare - I certainly would not be able to blame you - after all, if you can't summon that objectivity, you are required to step aside, are you not?
For the rest of us, public shunning and condemnation of these scoundrels and their families on a risk-analysis basis (if it's going to put you starving in the gutter, in jail, or otherwise shoot you in the foot...perhaps some restraint might be wise).
The best hope here is to turn up the heat, not give up the fight. There is, if naught else, repeal.
3 comments:
The big flaw with the premise behind Atlas Shrugged was that it assumed that successful corporations were essentially one man shows, that if "the guy in charge" quit the corporation would fail. That wasn't true when Rand wrote it, and it's not true now. (Which isn't a problem if you read it as a cautionary tale...)
But if corporations start failing or bailing left and right, it may have the same effect as "Going Galt."
Concur... AND Walgreens out west just advised they will take no more Medicaid patients...
Too many people are simply focusing on next November, and how we're going to toss out all of those who voted for this nonsense. Which, of course, we are, but that doesn't go far enough.
The 'representatives' attempting to pass this bill are engaged in no less than an full-on assault upon the Constitution, economy, freedom and future of America. Regardless of the fate of this bill, we must take careful note of who voted for it, and make absolutely certain that not one of them ever holds any elected office anywhere in America, ever again.
Wherever in the USA they go, if they run for dogcatcher, someone must be there to say "No way--I remember what you did back there," and work against them. Voting for anything like Obamacare must be seen, now and forever, as pushing the Big Red Button that will absolutely annihilate any hope of any future political career.
No apologies, no changes of heart, no second chances. When a person commits a firearm crime, they are deprived of their right to bear arms. When a person assaults our rights under cover of law, they should be deprived of their right to influence the political process.
That's The Way I See It.
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