Well, Isn't That ... Special

The Obama presidency just keeps on getting weirder and weirder.

First of all, one of the reasons that President Obama won so handily against Sen. John McCain was that he would somehow make us more loved and respected abroad.

That hasn't worked out well. See this:

A majority of Americans say the United States is less respected in the world than it was two years ago and think President Obama and other Democrats fall short of Republicans on the issue of national security, a new poll finds.

The Democracy Corps-Third Way survey released Monday finds that by a 10-point margin -- 51 percent to 41 percent -- Americans think the standing of the U.S. dropped during the first 13 months of Mr. Obama's presidency.

Hmmmm...isn't that ... special?




But this is the real eye-brow raiser: while vilifying the insurance companies, President Obama is also effectively writing them a check for $336bn. Huh?

You read it right: read this.

You see, if the Health Care bill goes through, President Obama's administration of the bill would give people $336bn to buy health insurance. Which means ... it ends up with the insurance companies.


This is where the rhetoric and reality have clearly parted ways.

And the rhetoric is just turning bizarre. Read this:

The president's pitch was part denunciation of insurance companies — "they continue to ration care on the basis of who's sick and who's healthy," he said — and part criticism of his Republican critics. "You had 10 years. What happened? What were you doing?" he taunted members of a party that held the White House for eight years and control of Congress for a dozen.

They continue to ration care on the basis of who's sick and who's healthy?

That is ... well, just plain bizarre. Of course insurance companies ration care on the basis of who is sick and who is healthy: the healthy don't need health care, the sick do.

And taunting the opposition, who never made health care the single-issue make-and-break-the-budget-and-economy obsession that it is with the Democrats?

The only answer to such a taunt - again, AP's words, not mine - is "We spent ten years pointing out that what you want to do can only bankrupt the country".

President Obama hasn't even started to govern: he is still in campaign mode, and he's behaved very much like he behaved in the Senate after being elected: he's a slacker. And yes, I am serious: he let Congress do the heavy lifting for health care, and is now all worried that it won't pass. If President Obama was truly as serious about health care as he says he is, then he would not have deferred to Congress for the mockeries of law-making that both the House and Senate versions of the bill are.


The joke here is not only the American voter, but on the entire insurance industry.

You see, President Obama simply doesn't comprehend what insurance is really all about: it's not about paying for your health care. Paying for your health care is a budget item amongst all other budget items in your own personal finances: you take out insurance so that this becomes a constant, rather than a variable, allowing you to plan more accurately and with less uncertainty. If health insurance didn't exist and everyone paid-as-you-go, then either you save up for contingencies, creating a reserve for unexpected illnesses and the like, or you go into debt to pay the bills.

What President Obama is doing is creating a health entitlement, the idea that it is the role of the government to take that burden off your back.

What he abysmally fails to state is that someone has to pay the bills. President Obama and the Democrats want to tax the rich to do this, but this is why the Democrats are fundamentally incapable of governing: given the strong price increases in health costs, the goal should be to cut costs, rather than take the money from others.

Without tort reform, there can be no meaningful reduction of health care costs. Remove the profit motive from suing doctors, more often due to the fact that health care isn't perfect and can't save everyone's lives, rather than because of actual malfeasance or incompetence, and health care costs will go down.

But instead, what does President Obama do?

This:

The president's proposal would give the government the right to limit excessive premium increases — a provision included after one firm announced a 39 percent increase in the price of individual policies sold in California. ... It asks companies to "post on your Web sites the justification for any individual or small group rate increases you have implemented or proposed in 2010."

Post justification on your web site?

What is this, junior high school?

Sorry: this cannot be taken seriously. This is not what a leader does. This is what a slacker does. Don't tell me the hours and hours that he may have put it: sheer effort does not make a leader.

Ye Gods.