Soros-backed socialists lean on Obama to hurry up government-run "health care"

Socialized medicine--Part 3; also: Obama's parade of lemons, McCain bails out Napolitano

By Wes Vernon

"Activist" groups lavishly funded by multi-billionaire George Soros — the de facto leader of the Democrat Party — have ordered their puppet in the White House and their Reid-Pelosi minions on Capitol Hill to stop talking, even talking with private health interests behind closed doors — where they are accused of plotting to "cave" to (gasp!) the "for profit" private insurance industry.

(And we all know how capitalist profits are inherently evil, don't we? Except for Democrat Party leader Soros, who swims in billions — says he is having a "glorious crisis" — while the rest of us watch our portfolios/savings plummet.)

Our guess is they have nothing to worry about as far as President Obama is concerned. What these socialist activists have reason to fear is the reaction of the American people when they become acquainted with the details likely to emerge in the witches brew in store for them if socialized medicine comes to America.

The screamer to rescue the GOP?

Howard Dean — the former Democrat Party chairman — says "single payer" health care is coming in the age of Obama and that Republicans had better not call it "socialized medicine" or they will lose more ground at the polls.

While some may be deeply moved by Mr. Dean's tender concerns for the well-being of the GOP, Republicans would do well to respond by bringing back and updating the "Harry and Louise" TV commercials that were so effective in bringing down the socialist plot of Hillarycare in 1993.

Has the "private" health care market failed?

The most frequent argument of government health care advocates is that the private system has been tried and found wanting.

Actually, what we have had for the past nearly 70 years stops short of being an unfettered "private" system.

In 1942, Congress took the first step toward "third-party" health involvement by granting a tax break to those employers offering their workforce health insurance. The crack-in-the-door here was the fact that during World War II, wages were frozen, so the idea of giving employees a break was used to justify this step toward government intervention. That started the train rolling down the government path from which it has never looked back.

Later, Congress followed up with Medicare, Medicaid, and S-CHIP (a "children's" health program) whose beneficiaries include families who are not poor.

Today, you cannot walk into most doctors' offices without finding some fulltime employees who do nothing but shuffle papers related to government programs or regulations. That hardly qualifies as purely "private" health care.

There are a few doctors who won't take Medicare patients, because it doesn't pay them to stay in business otherwise. The jack-boot socialist mentality would like to disallow that option on the part of the health care provider.

The Obama Plan

Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.), Chairman of Finance, and Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.) — Chairman of Health, Education, and Labor — are working on an "overhaul" health bill that they promise to finish writing by sometime in June. The "reforms" they envision will be far worse than the disease. And the Soros activists have demanded that these servants respond to their master's crack of the whip and stick to the public sector so as to eliminate the "profit" motive.

What it would look like

We anxiously await those details, especially the fine print. But this column is indebted to Grace-Marie Turner of the Galen Institute, who has reviewed Obama's public pronouncements, as well those of his associates and the writings of those who have the president's ear, and concluded the following:

Taxpayers will finance health care for the growing U.S. population. Obama would create a new National Health Insurance Exchange (NHIE) that would serve as a clearing house for people who buy insurance.

Through the NHIE, you would get to buy into a new federal health plan or purchase private coverage.

Sounds like a reasonable choice, right? So the feds are not really herding us like cattle into a big impersonal federal plan, are they? Read on:

Obama's plan would assign the government as the arbiter as to what type of coverage the private plans may offer. As Turner puts it: "The government would be the referee as well as a player, able to change the rules to stay ahead."

So next time you go to a football game, you won't mind if your team is beholden to the rules made up by the coach of the opposing team who will also blow the ref's whistle to rule your team's touchdown really wasn't a touchdown — simply because he decided it wasn't. You're OK with that, right?

Bottom line is that all private health insurance will ultimately disappear, leaving Big Brother government as the be-all and end-all in health care. The federal plan will have the benefit of government price control and policing authority, as well as taxpayer-subsidized administrative overhead. Anyone raising a voice against it will forever be a bull's eye for Marxist demagogues accusing him of wanting to toss sick people out into the snow.

Parade of lemons — 1

The woman tapped to lead Obama's charge for socialized medicine is Kathleen Sebelius. Like Tom Daschle before her, the Kansas governor had her tax problems, but unlike Daschle, she toughed it out and survived her confirmation hearing. Senator Baucus's committee gave her the green light this past week on a 15-8 vote. The only Republican yes votes came from Sen. Olympia Snowe (Maine), a pro-abortion RINO — and Sen. Pat Roberts (Kansas), a onetime administrative aide to the governor's Republican father-in-law, then Congressman Keith Sebelius.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid indicated he would call up her nomination for a Senate floor vote a short time after this column is slated for posting.

If she gets by, it will be despite the fact that she was caught being somewhat less than straightforward. Initially, she had indicated she received $12,000 in campaign support from a partial-birth abortion doctor in her state. It turned out she had received $40,000 from the abortionist.

While that issue is a cause for concern, it is unfortunate that only one member of the Baucus committee — Sen. John Kyl (R-Ariz.) — questioned whether Sebelius was committed to see that the government does not interfere with Americans' health care choices. That, after all, is the gut issue in which she will play the starring role — a very negative one that threatens to make your doctor another bureaucrat with a government paycheck.

Parade of lemons — 2

There is mounting concern over President Obama's nomination of Harold Koh to be Legal Adviser to the State Department. If confirmed, he will fit right in with the striped pants career diplomats whose foggy mindset on foreign policy dominates the culture of Foggy Bottom. Except that he just might be a tad too radical even for them.

A letter of protest signed by leading conservatives — including some with considerable foreign policy and military credentials — was being circulated for presentation to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee asking that the signatories be allowed to testify against this nomination. The man has absolutely no respect for this nation's sovereignty. Adding up his positions on a variety of international issues clearly pinpoints him as an advocate for a world government and a de facto scrapping of the U.S. Constitution.

The concerns, in part, are: (A) Koh's support for the International Criminal Court (ICC), which could haul Americans before a foreign tribunal without the constitutional rights afforded in American courts; (B) Koh's opinion that UN Security Council authorization is required before the U.S. can use military force; (C) Koh's favorable view of the CEDAW Treaty (which supports legalizing prostitution and abortion worldwide), and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child — which would effectively challenge parental authority and take the child's side if he complained he didn't like being sent to his room or whatever traditional punishment is meted out for an infraction; (D) Koh's campaign against military recruitment at Yale; (E) Koh's opinion that foreign jurisprudence may be properly used to interpret the U.S. Constitution; and (F) Koh's opposition to every aspect of the war on terrorism (Gitmo, military commissions, coercive interrogation, terrorist surveillance).

The newly-formed Sovereignty Caucus arranged for a "Special Order" session on the House floor to raise awareness about Harold Koh's bizarre worldview, which runs counter to America's best interests. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee needs to hear from citizens who object to this man going anywhere near the levers of government responsibility.

Parade of lemons — 3

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano's memo warning law officers against "right-wing extremism" (see last week's column) earned her a boatload of flak from many quarters...not the least from veterans (the memo hinted vets were vulnerable to being turned into Timothy McVeighs).

American Legion National Commander David K. Rehbein met with Secretary Napolitano for 45 minutes Thursday and accepted her apology.

Others are less forgiving. Some members of Congress are calling for her resignation or her firing. Unfortunately, neither is likely. Throughout her career, the woman has sought to make political points at the expense of the truth.

Long forgotten by many is that Miss Napolitano was an attorney for Anita Hill — the discredited accuser who tried to block the nomination of now-Justice Clarence Thomas.

During that confirmation fight — in preliminary Senate interviews behind closed doors — a friend of Hill's testified that Hill had told her she was being sexually harassed by her boss. There was just one catch. At the time of the alleged conversation, Hill had not yet gone to work for Clarence Thomas. At that point, attorney Napolitano halted the inquiry and asked to have a word with the witness. When the inquiry resumed, the witness suddenly acquired amnesia as to the timing of the conversation with Hill. The wolfpack was out to get Thomas and Napolitano was not one to let accuracy get in the way of the lynching party. It's not clear the interview was under oath — but had it been, Napolitano might have been vulnerable to the charge of suborning perjury.

The DHS secretary declared recently that crashing the U.S. Mexican border was not really a crime, but a civil matter. Ridiculous — and she had to backtrack.

Napolitano then alleged that some 9/11 terrorists had slipped over the border from Canada. That was debunked years ago. She apologized to the Canadian ambassador, who called her on it.

Bailed out again

But then along came Senator John McCain (of Napolitano's Arizona) and made the exact same allegation about Canada's alleged culpability in 9/11. Again, Canada's ambassador reflected our northern neighbor's angst over twice being unfairly zapped. (Is there something in the Arizona water?)

You have to wonder about McCain. Recently, he listed GOP governors who he thought would make ideal candidates for the 2012 GOP presidential nomination. He pointedly ignored the one governor — Alaska's Sarah Palin — who was his running mate in 2008 and who saved him from a landslide 20-point humiliation by energizing the party's base — something he himself was unable to do on his own.

Another validation as to why McCain was — for many Republicans — not their first choice for the GOP nomination last year — or their second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, or eighth.

© Wes Vernon