By Elois Zeanah
It’s par for candidates to use personal campaign funds to pay consultants to conjure visual images to persuade voters. It’s unprecedented, though, for a presidential candidate, once elected, to use tax dollars to appoint a “behavioral science czar” to do the same thing to manipulate the masses. Does Obama feel the mojo of his “cultist personality” and his “oratory prowess” is no longer sufficient to sell his health care reform message? I’m offended that the leader of our nation uses our taxes to probe how we think and how to persuade us through mental telegraphing to follow him when he’s wrong. The problem is not the message or how well he reads a teleprompter. The problem is a matter of truth and trust. His words don’t match his works.
Obama stated: “This is not just about the 47 million Americans who don’t have any health insurance at all. Reform is about…the fact that the biggest driving force behind our federal deficit is the skyrocketing cost of Medicare and Medicaid.”
The oratory touches me. I’m persuaded. But then why not fix the problems behind the skyrocketing costs of these two government-run health programs – instead of expanding and making them more expensive and increasing not reducing deficits? (Independent consultants and the General Accounting Office, the Congressional watchdog, detail how his proposals will grow government, raise taxes, restrict American liberties, and overwhelm federal and state budgets, deficits and debt.)
Medicare and Medicaid Fraud Consume Over $100 Billion Yearly
If the real reasons for health care reform are to reduce costs and make insurance affordable, shouldn’t government fix failures and cut costs before beating up on doctors, hospitals and insurance companies and demanding that they cut costs so government can have more to spend? The truth is: Fraud consumes 15% to 18% of total costs in government health care programs and only 1% in private health insurance programs. Is there a disconnect here between our President’s words and works?
Obama Proposes to Expand Medicare and Medicaid
Obama cites Medicare as an example of how his health care plan will control costs. Undoubtedly the President is aware that Medicare and Medicaid pay only part of the bill to hospitals and doctors, creating a “hidden tax” for the rest of us. Right now the average American worker pays $1800 more for health care per family because Medicare and Medicaid don’t cover costs of treatment. I haven’t heard this addressed. Expanding Medicare and Medicaid will only exacerbate the problems. Surely our President knows that Medicare does not control costs, does not manage fraud, and does not balance its budget. Medicare has a $38 trillion in unfunded liabilities! How would expanding these two government-run programs reduce costs and make insurance affordable?
Obama’s Conversion to Fix Health Care System is New
And what’s behind Obama’s sudden concern about the urgency to fix the health care system when he repeatedly fought past proposals to do so as a Senator? This makes me suspicious about a possible hidden agenda. Is health care reform really about coverage for “uninsured Americans”; or is the agenda about expanding government, seizing more of our liberties, making more of us dependent on government, and putting more control of our private lives in the hands of big government? Sorry, but I have to ask: Is the President trying to control our mind and our money?
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