There is a story making its way through the blogosphere concerning the “white flag” from White House pertaining to the public option. Nobody is buying it. What is being bought is time – time to allow someone to turn the pressure relief valve and time for RHINOCare to make its way out of the Senate Finance Committee. Obama and the liberals in Congress, well aware that co-operatives are a Trojan Horse for a single payer system, are only to happy to assist in keeping the pressure off in the hope of one of two outcomes. The first – by removing pressure from the public, the administration is free to apply its own pressure to ensure a public option. Second, less public pressure increases the chance the RHINOcare option makes its way out of the Senate Finance committee. But as I have said before, there are already procedural amendments in place to kill ObamaCare as long as pressure is brought to bear on five Republican Senators in the Finance Committee. Read on.

Memorize and repeat the following like a mantra:

A cooperative is nothing more than a Trojan Horse for single payer healthcare.

Remember these five Senators:

• Chuck Grassley
  United States Senator, Iowa
• Olympia J. Snowe
  United States Senator, Maine
• Susan Collins
  United States Senator, Maine
• Michael Enzi
  United States Senator, Wyoming
• Lindsey Graham
  United States Senator, South Carolina

You can contact them here.

What do they all have in common? All are members of the Senate Finance Committee, the only committee with a chance at a reaching a bi-partisan compromise on health care reform. Many are already touting the end of the public option, which is slated to be replaced by co-operatives. But is this really a victory? The answer is a resounding NO. These five Republicans with an annoying proclivity to reach across the aisle are about to sell out America.

Dan Mitchell of the CATO institute comments on an article by Dr. Lawrence Hunter titled RHINOCare: A U.S. Chamber of Horrors:

People are beginning to catch on to the fact that RHINOCare is the real danger, which will smuggle in ObamaCare as a ‘bipartisan compromise.’ Dan Mitchell discusses health care on FBN. A five minute video well worth the time. Watch Here

. Dr. Hunters post is a lesson in the legislative process and a dire warning:

Members of the U.S. House of Representatives are back home under siege from angry constituents terrified over the House version of ObamaCare…. Meanwhile, a few Republican Senators remain huddled with Democrats on Capitol Hill trying to construct a legislative Trojan RHINO with ObamaCare hiding inside disguised as a bipartisan compromise. Call it RHINOCare—Republican Healthcare In Name Only—and it is nothing but a ploy to deceive people into inviting government-run healthcare into America.

The thought of the federal government taking over healthcare terrifies people. The revelation that the health bill in the U.S. House of Representatives (H.R. 3200) would mandate “end-of-life counseling” every five years for every American age 65 and older has galvanized people’s opposition to a federal takeover. Although nothing in the bill explicitly requires medical care to be withheld from sick seniors, it is clear that the system being established is designed to control healthcare costs by pinching the flow and supply of care to seniors—all under the guise of “cost containment.”

The President is proposing a “cut-Medicare-first” strategy of cost control, and people have caught on. On top of that, the provision in the bill for mandatory “life counseling” (read “death and dying counseling”) is the final straw that convinces seniors that nationalized healthcare will put them out in the cold and into an early grave. The remarks of a senior citizen at a recent Gate City, Virginia town hall meeting perfectly expresses the views of many older people: “The federal government just wants me to feel guilty for going on living.”

Democrat Rick Boucher who represents Virginia’s ninth congressional district is illustrative of the Democrats representing conservative constituents who are feeling the heat on healthcare. Constituents flooded Boucher’s office with calls and letters, and last week he voted against the House health bill when it came to a vote in the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

But that isn’t the end of the story. Boucher also provides a case study of how one can expect the political drama on healthcare to play out as the debate heads into this congressional recess and beyond. Democrats like Boucher, who represent conservative districts and are feeling the heat from constituents, are attempting to tip toe through a political mind field as they try both to satisfy the folks back home while they toe the party line in Washington.

The first thing to realize is that House Majority Leader Nancy Pelosi has a number of free passes to hand out to Democrats like Boucher. This phenomenon was evident on Cap-and-Trade when she was able to release 42 Democrats to vote against the measure—it carried the House by a margin of 219 to 212—which makes it crystal clear how out of touch Boucher, who did not use his free pass, has become with his district.

The drill works this way. First, the majority leader determines how many of her flock want to vote against the measure. Then she gets about the business of buying and intimidating as many Republican votes as possible (she got eight Republicans on Cap-and-Trade). Finally, when she knows how many yea votes she can rely on, she distributes free passes to as many of her Democrats in a pinch as she can allowing them to vote against the party line and still leave a safe margin of victory.

In the case of healthcare, the game is going to be a little more complicated since it will involve tacit coordination between the House and the Senate and between the Democratic Leadership and critical Senate Republicans—all designed to give Democrats such as Boucher a safe path around the voters. Again, Congressman Boucher illustrates how it will happen.

Boucher has prepared the ground by drawing a false distinction between a “public option” (i.e., a government insurance plan that would compete against private insurance companies) and so-called “co-op insurance providers,” which he will claim are private, not government, providers. (Read his Jesuitical distinction here.) The fact is, co-ops set up a camouflaged, backdoor takeover. Co ops will be analogous to the other quasi-public companies, so-called “government-sponsored enterprises” (GSEs) such as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac—a new Frannie Med—where the government-backed, government-subsidized system crowds out the private sector and then eventually goes belly up. Government will then blame the “market” for failing and demand a full public takeover.

This is the kind of political cover Democrats in conservative districts, such as Boucher, require. And here is where the U.S. Senate enters the Hand Jive. With the assistance of a few clueless Republicans on the Senate Finance Committee (Grassley and Snowe) and other squishy Republicans such as Bob Bennett from Utah (see his version of RHINOCare here), Senate Democrats are preparing a bi-partisan “compromise” that provides the cover both for renegade Republicans who are desperate to vote “yea” for something and for Democrats like Boucher who find themselves stuck between a rock and a hard place.

According to recent press reports, the gang of six—three Democrats and the two above Republicans plus Wyoming Republican Mike Enzi—wants to put lipstick on this pig by replacing a public option with co-ops and substituting a mandate that all individuals purchase healthcare for one that requires all employers to provide healthcare for their workers. They will call it a great victory for “market-based” medicine and private industry; they will get the endorsement of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and AARP; they will promote it as “bipartisan; and they will demagogue anyone who opposes the “bipartisan compromise” as an “extremist disinformationist” who will go onto the White House watch list.

It is all a charade, a masquerade, an exercise in mass deception and demagoguery designed to slip a government takeover of healthcare past a skeptical and distrustful public. All it would take to strip away the fig leaf and expose the “compromise” for the indecency it is would be for the Senate Republicans to blow the whistle. Unfortunately, enough Senate Republicans and business interests appear to be in on the construction of this Trojan RHINO and the RHINOcare it is smuggling into America that it may be difficult to stop. Make no mistake, RHINOCare is just ObamaCare in drag, and it will be a U.S. Chamber of Horrors.

Read more from Dr. Hunter on RHINOCare here. One House Republican, Rep. Joseph Cao (La.) is already leaning over the fence to the other side and count on more doing so with Pelosi’s legislative strategy. Representative Cao’s requirement to sell out to the public option – no federal funds for abortion. The rest of the bill apparently presents no problem for Rep. Cao.

Two amendments offered prior to the health care debate in both chamber of Congress by Jim Demint can derail ObamaCare. This last story is a must read to truly understand how to derail the cooperative and public options. We can then start over and do it right. Why jam co-ops down our throats until we understand and can debate the pitfalls? Make no mistake, allowing co-operative(s) opens the door to future legislation turning them into a public option. Co-operatives cannot be allowed – not now, not ever. Read Critics: Co-ops Are Disguised Public Plan

Everyone seems all excited the Blue Dogs will kill ObamaCare. While I don’t disagree, Dr. Lawrence Hunter’s approach to defeating ObamaCare tackles the real problem. It also just makes sense to attack on multiple fronts and not count of a single strategy for victory against the most offensive liberty stealing legislation debated in my lifetime. I believe Mr. Limbaugh should at least take a look at the information written about the subject. If the Republican’s stand shoulder to shoulder, the Democrats would be hard pressed to ignore the two amendments mentioned in the link above for reasons provided in that post. Again, I strongly encourage the reader to carefully read ObamaCare Can Be Stopped Dead In Its Tracks.

A great deal of articles are covering the Blue Dog angle (for an example see here), but more often than not, Blue Dog’s in the House growl but don’t bite. To rely on this strategy alone is not only dangerous, it is negligent. Who knows what pitfalls await us when the competing bills from the House and Senate make it to conference to reconcile and negotiate a single bill? The time to kill ObamaCare is now.

The current approach has created too much distrust of Congress and for good reason – the bill itself was not even read by most members and would create a hodgepodge of bureaucracies that a chaos theory expert would find impossible to follow. The time for healthcare reform will be when serious legislatures control both Chambers of Congress and the White House. I’d say somewhere around 2012. We need adults, not ego driven, maniacal robots beholden to special interests.

Obama’s true colors, now apparent to all, are not pretty. Socialist, political thug, tacit or direct approval of a citizen spy program and strong polling evidence of many voters experiencing buyers remorse. If Obama teaches us anything it is caveat emptor. Don’t look for Americans to be voting with their emotions at the expense of thinking anytime soon.

The time for games is over and it is time for this approach described to go viral. I know the National Tax-Limitation Committee is working hard to get the word out. However, unless the reader wants to see ObamaCare brought in through the backdoor with the help of five Senate Republican’s, it is time the nation woke up to the fact there are backroom deals in progress to sell out America. The final result will be ObamaCare, unless you take action.

Go viral with this. If you are concerned, contact your Senator and insist that all Senators adhere to Senator Demint amendments. After all, one was voted on unanimously and the other by a large margin of 79-14. In particular, put some serious hard pressure on the five Senators above. Let them know we are not buying what they are peddling. It is time to kill ObamaCare and start over, with the goal of real health care reform with an open process, no backroom deals, and complete transparency to the public. Send this link in an email to all your friends and have them forward it. Use the social networks. Call and email every conservative talk radio show and get the word out. Use the “Share This” button at the bottom of this post. The recess is almost over. If we don’t take action now, healthcare as we have come to know it will also be over.

The time for games is over. This “compromise” is another way of spitting in our collective faces. I, for one, have no intention of putting up with it. You?

In other news and opinion:

Co-ops: A ‘Public Option’ By Another Name

Glenn Reynolds with some excellent observation and links to add to the arsenal. We need all the weapons we can get. I hope he starts to take a serious look at co-ops. I would be interested in hearing his opinion.

Hot Air: Dem Senator: Public option is dead; Update: Sebelius video added. Not so fast Senator.

Also from Hot Air: Quotes of the day. Always a pleasure to read.

White House public option ploy: A trial balloon, not a white flag. Dirty tricks.

Time to ration health care for illegal aliens

The Public Option – Individual Mandate Two-step

Why you shouldn’t believe the “public option may be off the table” spin

Obama White Flag on Health Care is a Red Herring

Public Option: It Ain’t Over Til It’s Over

Do you trust Obama’s slum lords?

Hot Air’s Ed Morrissey in his post White flag or trial balloon? believes the fake out is immaterial. I strongly disagree. We are well on our way to a single payer system should the Senate Finance Committee convince the public that cooperatives are anything other than a pathway to a single payer system.

Is ObamaCare Constitutional?


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This entry was posted on Sunday, August 16th, 2009 at 10:08 pm and is filed under General Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.