Dr. Lawrence Hunter of the Social Security Institute has a ringside seat of what is really happening in the ObamaCare negotiations and it is not anything like any of us would expect.

Serious pressure is building and the momentum is on our side. However, without the knowledge of what is actually happening behind the scenes, the grave we are digging for ObamaCare could actually become our own graves. Our collective effort could all be for naught if we allow the construction of any scaffolding for a public option. Liberals are very patient about realizing their agenda. They will build upon any infrastructure that allows for a Trojan Horse to a single payer system. And Republicans are often the unwitting contributors of legislation that is not in our best interests. More damage is done in the name of bi-partisanship and those Republicans with a proclivity to reach across the aisle need to be reigned in. We are so close and now is not the time to go wobbly.

The word from Dr. Hunter: Don’t get all excited about Obama dropping the public option. It is a head fake. Republicans should stop all negotiations with the Democrats, kill any ObamaCare bill and start over. And don’t thing that big pharma and the big insurance are our friends in this battle. The real behind the scenes maneuvering is a hodgepodge of nefarious backroom deals. I have talked with Lawrence Hunter and communicated with him via email for about two weeks now. My understanding of the real inner workings of the beltway have increased an order of magnitude and many of my previous beliefs exposed as nothing less than naivety. Prepare to be educated, entertained, and re-invigorated at the same time. Our energy needs to be directed now towards Congress, where the message must be clear – kill this bill. No co-ops, no bill written by big insurance companies or big pharma, no nothing. Hit reset, start over, and create a bill for the American people that keeps the government out of our business, allows for competition in the private sector, stops the creation of large insurance cartels and allows smaller insurance companies to thrive and compete. In short, a bill for the people, not the government, not big pharma, and not big insurance. Time for the lobbyists to go home, for we are the biggest lobby of all and we are awake. Let us be clear on this. Any Republican who wishes to usurp our will and allow ObamaCare to pass with the public option, a Trojan Horse public option, a large influence by big pharma, or big insurance will face political extinction. As all of the current bills fit this description, the sane choice is to stop and start over.

For an eye-opening view of what is really going on read Obama Jettisons Public Option Right on Cue and Phase Change in Healthcare Negotiations. Dr. Hunter’s bio can also be found on this site. He served as President Ronald Reagan’s policy adviser and has a long and distinguished career.

Dr. Hunter described the current landscape to me very well. To paraphrase Dr. Hunter:

There is a fundamental fissure that divides our camp. On one side stand those who believe some healthcare bill will pass this year. On the other side of the divide stand those who believe it is possible to checkmate the Obama Administration and prevent any bill from passing this year. The outcome of the healthcare-reform struggle will be determined by which view governs our strategy and activities from here on out.

This game is ours to lose, and there is nothing President Obama or his congressional Democrats can do on their own to win it if we don’t make a mistake. Any deviation from the strategy to “Kill Bill” is a mistake. To take a sport’s analogy, the fastest way to lose this game is to start thinking about the next game. If we are thinking and talking policy, we are thinking about the next game because there is no way a sufficient amount of good policy can make its way into a bill this year to make it acceptable. Hence “Kill Bill”, period.

We are now entering the End Game, and no matter how brilliant our Opening Game and Middle Game were – and they were brilliant – we will throw it all away if we fail to make the transition in our play. You can’t win at golf if you can’t putt; you can’t win at basketball if you can’t hit free throws; you can’t win at chess if you can’t play the end game; and you can’t win at politics if you can’t be ruthless in playing the political end game. That is why Democrats repeatedly beat us – we play policy when we should be playing politics while they play politics from beginning to end.

All politics and no policy makes a political party corrupt and degenerate but all policy and no politics makes a political party just plain dense. The little ditty about the Democrats being the evil party and the Republicans being the party of dim bulbs didn’t arise out of thin air.

If we assume some bill will pass, we can pretty well bet that prophecy will become self-fulfilling and some bill will pass.

If we have confidence we can stop all comers, we stand a very good chance of succeeding. But we will only stop all comers if we lay policy aside and do whatever is necessary to defeat the bill, which means all of our energy and resources must be concentrated on preventing a single Republican from defecting.

The debate is entering the stage (the Obama counter-offensive stage) in which any continued discussion of policy (what we should do or what we would accept) is counterproductive to defeating a bill. Look, I know that many of us in this struggle are policy wonks and medical professionals with very strong views about what should be done and about how negligent the Republican Party was for not doing them when they were in power.

But politics has a flow and a rhythm to it—it moves in seasonal cycles. As difficult as it may be for we policy wonks and medical professionals to accept, the season for substance and policy has ended and will not return until after the healthcare reform debate is put on the shelf, which means until after we defeat any and all comers during this Congress. If we try to exploit Obama’s weakness now by trying to craft a bill he will accept that we can live with, we not only will strengthen and empower him, we almost certainly will create a monster that will get out of control in very short order.

Continuing to focus on substance (other than to criticize the substance of the Obama/Dem bills) will divide and divert us, and it will allow Republicans such as Olympia Snowe to avoid her responsibility to ensure good policy for the American people by doing whatever is necessary to defeat a bill.

You can see what I mean coming through clearly in this Washington Post article: The Divisions in the White House Over Health-Care Reform

Snowe is scared to be the sole Republican supporting this bill, not to mention the Republican who ensures the passage of this bill. The reprisals within her caucus could be tremendous. If Snowe drops off the bill, using the budget reconciliation process will probably be a necessity.

As long as we continue talking about alternatives and options, we encourage her to continue negotiating whether that is our intent or not. And, rather than fearing Reconciliation, we should relish forcing the Dems into that corner because if they go down that path we can checkmate them.

We must agree among ourselves that our strategy is to “Kill Bill”, any bill, every bill, a big bill, a little bill, kill them all. If we can’t pledge that to each other, we don’t have the right stuff to win.

Also read the following posts from Dr. Hunter:

Trojan Rhino Smuggles In ObamaCare As “Bipartisan Compromise”

Senator Bob Bennett should stop negotiating. This post contains the two Jim Demint Amendments I have written about extensively after hearing about them from Lewis K. Uhler and Dr. Hunter. In a nutshell, these two amendments would make it impossible to pass ObamaCare under reconciliation, something even Robert Byrd is on the record as opposing. One amendment was voted on unanimously and the other by a wide margin of 79-14. Remarkably, Senate Budget Committee Chairman, Kent Conrad, allowed the DeMint 60-vote requirement to be removed from the Budget Resolution in Conference. Also included are links to the amendments and the roll call for the second amendment that passed by 79-14.

Also of interest is this story from The Hill:

GOP readies wave of objections to stall healthcare bill in Senate

Sen. Judd Gregg has hundreds of procedural objections ready for a healthcare plan Democrats want to speed through the Senate.

Gregg (N.H.), the senior Republican on the Budget Committee, told The Hill in a recent interview that Republicans will wage a vicious fight if Democrats try to circumvent Senate rules and use a budget maneuver to pass a trillion-dollar healthcare plan with a simple majority.

Our strategy is now clear and it becomes increasing apparent to me that not only can we stop reconciliation, but ObamaCare itself. Keep up the pressure on Congress, especially your Senators. Let them know you are aware of the Demint amendments and demand the Senate follow its own rules. As Americans, there are all sorts of rules that we must follow. And as Americans we are sick and tired of a privileged group that lives by the motto “Rules for thee, but not for me”. Enough is enough.

In other news and opinion:

Another Snowe Job

White House Floating “Snowe” Trigger

ObamaCare: Public option + trigger = exit strategy?

“I believe Jesus would vote yes for a public option”

Video: Rep. Pete Stark tells interviewer, “Get the f**k out of here or I’ll throw you out the window”

CNN poll: Majority now oppose ObamaCare

Did Rangel pay off Ethics Committee members?

Video: Van Jones and “revolution”

Obama planning Sister Souljah moment over public option

Another Reason Government-Sponsored Health Care Is Destined to Fail

MoveOn.org Thug Bites Off Protester’s Finger At Obamacare Rally!

Yes We Cannibal

The Holdren & Letterman lovefest

Wrong Turns: How Obama’s Health-Care Push Went Astray.

POLITICS: When Does School Start? The President Doesn’t Know

Turbo Tax Tim tucks tail

The NHS “death pathway”. Chilling.

A Truther Czar?… Obama’s Green Czar Van Jones Believes Bush Government was Behind 9-11

This Wouldn’t Be Happening If Obama Were President

Hands off my health care. Teeth off my hands.

Is There Any More Point to Talking About Health Care?

Operation “Hall Pass on That”

Last Friday, my wife and I attended the counter-protest in support of Whole Foods in Austin. The night before we learned of the planned boycott and that Austin was one of three major cities on this list. The boycott from leftists nutroots is directly related to CEO John Mackey’s audacity to disagree with Obama on health care reform. There is a strange twist to the story, though.

You see, John Mackey pays for his employees’ health insurance premiums – 100% of it to be exact. He is a proponent of organic foods, and a great philanthropist. While I don’t agree with Mr. Mackey on many issues, I feel he has the right, like any American, to voice his opinion. In 2006 Mr. Mackey wrote a letter to his staff announcing that he would reduce his own salary to $1 a year, donate his stock portfolio to charity and set up a $100,000 emergency fund for staff facing personal problems. He wrote: “I am now 53 years old and I have reached a place in my life where I no longer want to work for money, but simply for the joy of the work itself and to better answer the call to service that I feel so clearly in my own heart.”

While CEO of Whole Foods Market in 2008, he earned a total compensation of just $33,831, which included a base salary of $1, and a cash bonus of $33,830. He has instituted caps on executive pay at the company. Sounds like a really bad guy to me.

With only 12 hours notice, we equaled the number of protesters and stood in the stifling heat of Texas for over 1 1/2 hours – some on our side stayed longer. The protest started at noon and at the stroke of 1:00, all of the 18-25 year olds who made up the entire opposition all but disappeared. Hmm, I wonder how much they were paid?

At one point, some half-wit leaned out his car window and flipped us the bird. My wife yelled out “No, you’re number one”. We all joined the chant, relishing the look of consternation on the young man’s face and noting how disarmed he was by our response, especially since most of us were flashing the piece sign in response.

Shoppers stopped by to give us drinks, and Whole Food employees of the store came out in the 105 degree heat and offered both sides some water. I don’t know how many times others approached us, thanked us, and mentioned they never shopped at Whole Foods before, but intended to stop by whenever possible. The average spent was, by my calculation, about $100.00 per person. Whole Foods was busier than usual. How’s that boycott working out for ya? Oh, and thanks for going nuts all over Glen Beck – he is now stronger and more popular than ever. We could not have done it with you. You can’t buy that type of publicity, so I offer my deepest and sincerest thanks to every lefty working to move forward the cause of conservatism, fiscal responsibility, and making Obama and the liberal left look nuttier by the day. Thanks a bunch guys and keep up the good work.

By the way, how does it feel to be your own worse enemy?

It was then that Judy Holloway introduced herself. Judy runs the organization Texas Tea Party Patriots, and she was so impressed by my wife’s handling of the bird flipper, we soon found ourselves asked to attend an invitation only town hall inside the Austin capital building the following day, August 22nd. The speaker, C.L. Gray, M.D., is founder of Physicians for Reform. Democrats and Republican’s were invited and told to leave their signs at home. This was to be a cordial and informative town hall.

I taped most of the first hour, which dealt mostly with the philosophy of healthcare from Plato, through Hippocrates, onward to Frederick Nietzsche, the Nazis, and ending with modern day eugenics and some contemporary players in this movement – including the White House health czar Ezekiel Immanuel. It was chilling to say the least. Dr. Gray went out of his way to assure us he was not comparing anyone to the Nazis. Sorry Nancy Pelosi, but we have it on tape. He was a quite, well-spoken presenter and moderator.

I am still attempting to pull the first hour together in a video to upload to YouTube. It is a must see. The second hour centered on solutions to our healthcare problems – real solutions – with a subsequent Q&A session. I did not catch most of the second hour on video. However, I strongly recommend the following two links:

The History: Schools of Thought – Hippocrates vs. Plato and the main site.

Here you can check out solutions which include insurance reform, tax reform, tort reform, and secondary reforms. It is a real eye opener.

In other news and opinion:

“Let’s keep turning people out for these!”

So much for the Greatest Transition in World History

Culture of corruption: Daschle edition

Rasmussen: Obama passion index at -12. Hopeless and changeless.

Congresswoman says some senators ‘Neanderthals’. Did the Congresswoman read the bill? I think not. And let’s not forget Maxine at her best, intentions laid bare. If a Neanderthal is against Socialism, an ideology Maxine passionately identifies with as evidenced in the linked video, then count me in.

I am John Galt. I am a Neanderthal.

Read about ObamaCare from Peter Ferrara at The Heatland Institute: Rationing, Higher Taxes, and Lower Quality Care. The pdf of the entire study can be found here. Print it out, read it, move it forward. The report is a scathing and frank overview of ObamaCare. Peter Ferrara’s bio can be found on Limit Taxes:

Peter Ferrara is Director of Entitlement and Budget Policy at the Institute for Policy Innovation, and General Counsel of the American Civil Rights Union. He served in the White House Office of Policy Development under President Reagan, and as Associate Deputy Attorney General of the United States under the first President Bush. He is a graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Law School.

From The Heart Land Institute article introduction:

President Barack Obama and Congressional Democrats are rushing to enact legislation that would overhaul the way health care is financed and delivered in the United States. It would dramatically increase the role of government in virtually all aspects of health care. Such an initiative should be carefully studied to determine whether it actually solves problems in the health care arena or makes them worse.

National health plans similar to what President Obama is proposing have been adopted in other countries. They always start out promising universal access and free or reduced-price health care. But they end up with massive institutional bureaucracies whose purpose and function are to deny health care and medical services. Often they fail to control spending despite resorting to withholding care to politically weak groups.

President Obama insists that his plan to fundamentally restructure health care is needed to reduce costs. He has touted a report from his Council of Economic Advisors that specifies exactly how that would be done. That report, however, elaborates a policy of thorough government health care rationing achieved through government control of the financing and delivery of care.

This study will explain how the health policy changes President Obama and Congressional Democrats support would cause millions of Americans to lose their choice of doctors and insurance coverage, require that access to care be strictly rationed, and cause the quality of care to deteriorate. Despite all this sacrifice, nationalizing health insurance in America would require major tax increases, slow economic growth, and increase the national debt.

Part 2 of this study describes the Obama health plan as it is presented in legislation being debated in Congress. Part 3 explains how the Obama health plan would result in the loss of freedom of choice. In particular, it shows how you would not be free under President Obama’s plan to keep your current health insurance because employers would “dump”millions of people into a one-size-fits-all government-run program. Part 4 explains how the Obama plan would give government the power to ration health care, including the power to deny access to the elderly, who need it the most.

Part 5 explains how, despite rationing, the Obama health plan would increase health costs. Part 6 describes the intractable entitlement crisis America already faces based on the undeliverable promises made for Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. The Obama health plan would recklessly add yet another unfunded middle-class entitlement program, this one giving subsidies for families earning $88,000 per year and more.

Part 7 discusses the health policy reforms America should adopt, based on expanding patient power and choice in a market-based health care system. These reforms would provide a true health care safety net that would ensure no one suffers without essential health care while reducing costs and preserving those parts of the current health care system that work. Part 8 presents a brief summary and concluding remarks.

Today, Americans enjoy the best health care and medical services in the world, an important part of our high standard of living. President Obama has said “my view is that health care reform should be guided by a simple principle: fix what’s broken and build on what works.” But that is not what his plan would do. Instead, he would tear down what is good about the current system and replace it with old-fashioned and outdated socialized medicine policies adopted by other countries, reflecting their lower living standards. It would be a terrible mistake.

Move it forward.

Related: Read My Discussion With Lewis K. Uhler – How 5 Republican Senators May Hold The Future Of Healthcare In Their Hands. Lewis K. Uhler held many positions under Ronald Reagan and is the Founder and President of the Limit Taxes organization. I cannot express the importance of getting this information out there. Call Sean, Rush, or Glenn and get the message out not only of the information in the post concerning Mr. Uhler, but the above information from Peter Ferrara as well. Send it as a tip to your favorite mega-blogger.

Get. The. Word. Out.

In other news and opinion:

White House: You’re not un-American, but you are still corporate shills so just pipe down

Be careful: DOT inspector general challenges O’s stimulus spending.

Overflow crowd at Maryland town hall.

Obama Kabuki theater in Portsmouth; crowd chants “YES, WE CAN!;” little girl laments “mean things” on protest signs; O lies about single-payer supportin-portsmouth/

Correcting misinformation about ObamaCare

You have got to be kidding me. Obama: Government health care will be like, um, the post office.

More here (emphasis mine):

In a just-completed New Hampshire town hall meeting, President Obama stated that he never said he supported a single-payer health care system. But as clearly evidenced by this video, in 2003, he declared: “I happen to be a proponent of a single payer universal health care plan.”

Meanwhile, at another point of today’s town hall meeting, Obama was pushing back against the idea that the creation of a new government-run plan would drive private insurers out of business, and he said that UPS and FedEx were doing fine, but “it’s the post office that’s always having problems.” Oops!

The gaffe arose from the inherent contradiction of those arguing for the introduction of a government government-run plan. On the one hand, Obama and other supporters of the idea argue that we need to have a strong government plan to create more efficiency, drive down prices, and “keep private insurers honest.” Yet at the same time, they have to make it appear weaker to push back against those of us who argue that it will threaten private insurance and move us toward a single-payer system. So then you get statements in which Obama, in the course of arguing for a government-run system, takes a shot at the government-run post office.

And Obama makes our case for us. Case closed and thanks Barry!

Another Obamian slip.