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Obama's health care campaign sells bad medicine
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Watching the President of the United States campaign for his health care legislation is a witness to how far the citizens of our country have strayed from our fundamental understanding of the U.S. Constitution. The last time I checked it was the legislative branch that was to make legislation and, let me check real quick...there it is, the president is part of the executive branch. Interesting enough but the news does not seem to be covering this simple fact. They are covering every speech along his campaign trail.
Monday his campaign took him to Glendale, PA where he overstated the estimate of savings as $1 trillion over the next decade. He claimed his figure was from the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office, the same office that estimated it would save $132 billion dollars. Even though I was educated in a public school in California the number would appear to be some $868 billion dollars different but, then again, he is campaigning and we all remember what Nancy Pelosi said about Obama and campaign rhetoric. In January she reminded reporters, "There are a number of things he was for on the campaign trail." It seems this time he is for selling health care insurance legislation using inflated numbers while forgetting he is no longer a senator and he was elected president. Many mistakenly believed that meant a suspension of his campaigning while he did something like, you know, execute.
In St. Louis, on Wednesday, it was time for more campaign spin on an obvious tale he is hoping to put everyone in the country asleep with, like a bedtime story with no happily ever after ending. The Washington Post reported Pres. Obama as saying, "I don't believe we should give either the government or the insurance companies more control over health care in America. I want to give you more control over health care in America." More control by dictating insurance terms for everyone to follow does not equate to citizens having more control.
Reform to give people more control would be the removal of barriers to competition, reductions in price-setting regulation caused by Medicaid, changes in malpractice suits so doctors could actually practice medicine without the ever increasing premiums for malpractice insurance, ending the connection between employment and health insurance, and other free market approaches. Reading through Obama's plan, the senate plan, house plan, or even Republican Senator Bob Bennett's plan reveal no such efforts to increase citizen control.
Every major plan being sold right now increases government control and the last time anyone checked more government control never equates to more control by the people. The beauty of campaigning is reality and truth do not need to be considered. Often those two ingredients reduce the impact of passionate stump speeches. After all America, he says he 'wants' to give us more control, not that he 'will' give us more control. It is a lot like transparency in government or the ending of the era of lobbyists inside government. Those were among the many things he wanted to do but then haven't we all wanted to do things before that we simply could not really do?
Here is one thing Pres. Obama and his marketing team in Congress and the White House really should learn from history. There was a time snake oil salesmen travelled the country peddling their lotions, potions and wares as the cure people needed for what ailed them. On the first visit to a town sales could be brisk but if it turned out to be bad medicine subsequent visits could be very difficult. No matter the marketing efforts eventually people are smarter than marketers and a bad product is recognized as such. Even if you change the product but keep the same pitch man the towns folks would know the reputation of the seller and sales would be flat or the salesman could find himself run out of town. Your reputation precedes you Mr. Obama and what you are selling is more bad medicine. 2010 is the year we begin to run you and the other snake oil salesmen right out of our town!
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