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Governing against the will of the people

By Scott Tibbs, March 23, 2010

They finally did it. Barack Obama and the Democrats have finally passed health care "reform" after decades of trying. In doing so, they are telling the American people that what we believe does not matter and they will do what they want.

For over a year now, polls have consistently shown that the American people do not want a massive government takeover of health care. There have been Tea Party protests, people showed up in droves at town hall meetings, and Capitol Hill phone lines and e-mail boxes have been filled with people opposing this bill. The Democrats don't care what you think. Democrats have made it clear that they will ram this down your throat whether you want it or not, and they are willing to lose their seats in November to get this passed.

This opens the door for government to regulate every aspect of your life. After all, if the government is paying for your health care, the government has a reason to control what you can eat, how much exercise you get and whether your overall lifestyle meets their whims. If you don't think this is true, consider how many of the arguments against things like smoking and trans fats are based on how much they cost the government. If the government does not like your diet and lifestyle, they will move to force you to change it. That may not happen right away or even in the next decade, but rest assured it will happen.

Democrats have been squealing that this will reduce the deficit. That is just silly. We took a huge step to making access to health care a national entitlement. You simply cannot create that kind of an entitlement without costs starting to spiral far beyond what was predicted. It has been well established that the cost of Medicare is many times greater than what was estimated when it was passed in the 1960's. We are going to face a crushing tax burden to pay for this disaster.

The Republicans will probably take the House in November, and they may take the Senate as well. Do not expect this can be repealed or even repaired, other than minor tinkering at the edges. This is the law of the land and will continue to be so. This also creates another third rail, as inevitable cost overruns will make it necessary to reform this "reform" and cut the cost of it, but will there be statesmen with the courage to make the hard choices and make the cuts in the face of accusations that we are taking away people's health care?

A year ago, Rush Limbaugh had for words about Obama: "I hope he fails." Obama has succeeded, and now the country will fail. We're entering a very dangerous time that will impact our economic prosperity, our liberty and our political system for decades. We don't know what it will look like in 20 years, but we will be much worse off than we are today.