Government bureaucrats aren’t good at much, but they are efficient at making words lose their meaning. For example, the affordable part of the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, really means forcing healthy millennials to buy insurance they cannot afford. We have also learned that a government shutdown actually means 87 percent of the government remains open, with about 80 percent of all federal employees working while the rest are scheduled to receive back pay from taxpayers.
Further, President Obama – known for world-class linguistic gymnastics – held a press conference this week to announce that he will compromise but not negotiate with congressional Republicans. Even the most astute political observers couldn’t honestly explain what that means.
One word the government seems to know the definition of is “bully.” This so-called shutdown has made it painfully obvious that the government will still bully average Americans to get what it wants.
From keeping World War II veterans out of open-air memorials to keeping tourists from pulling off the road to view Mount Rushmore, blocking access to privately run hotels and restaurants on federal land, and even blocking elderly people from their homes on federally-owned Lake Mead in Arizona, the National Park Service has worked diligently to make the shutdown as painful as possible.
The Obama Administration even turned off the Amber Alert website for missing children – only turning it back on when the story made the Drudge Report and conservatives protested. Just how much does a president care about the public, when he is willing to put children at extra risk for political purposes?
These types of vindictive theatrics are childish and unnecessary. It is expensive for the government to build barricades and arrange for the security necessary to keep people from enjoying monuments and parks. Everything that has happened during the shutdown is optional, as the federal government quickly rolled out the red carpet for a rally on the National Mall for amnesty with Nancy Pelosi and crowds of union members.
This intentional injury is the best proof that government cannot be trusted with our health care. As Thomas Jefferson noted, “A government big enough to give you everything you want, is a government big enough to take away everything that you have.” Only government can legally use coercion, so the bigger it becomes, the more liberty it will take away.
Now with the launch of the Obamacare exchanges, we’re also getting a taste of what government-run healthcare looks like. With a three-year notice, the government couldn’t build a website capable of managing even a light load of account registrants. Obamacare websites are dysfunctional, premiums offered are outrageous, and the media is having a difficult time locating anyone who actually completed the application process.
Unfortunately, the government will adapt. The law is already working as designed, creating just enough of a mess to push us down the road toward a single-payer system. At every step of the way, low-level government employees will have access to the most intimate details of your medical records – and there is no doubt that the government will not hesitate to use this newfound authority to bully you to get what it wants.
Conservatives must not give in to the government bully. We must continue to fight Obamacare at every turn.
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