Like a Cessna pilot deliberately flying into a tornado, President Obama is risking political life and limb to push through healthcare legislation that Americans do not like and do not want. The administration has bullied and sermonized relentlessly for an overhaul of the way this country metes out medical care, despite increasing resistance. Their response? They know best.
They know better than the Congressional Budget Office, they know better than their own Bluedog legislators, they know better than the medical community and the "special interests" groups. Certainly, they know better than ordinary citizens. Yet, when pushed for specifics, it doesn't sound like they know anything at all.
Granted, a nation should not be managed by polling. President Clinton was especially attuned to daily polling, and as a result got virtually nothing accomplished - nothing on healthcare, nothing on education, nothing on security issues, nothing on energy, nothing on Mideast peace, nothing on Social Security or Medicare reform - and yet some consider him a great leader. The memorable acts from the Clinton presidency were not legislative.
On the other hand, President Bush, in his second term, paid no attention to the country's mood. As a result, he left the country bitterly divided and coughed up his own party to defeat.
Still, I imagine most Americans are offended by the notion that their views do not count. Especially with a new president who promised transparency, and who was thought to have the pulse of the nation. Why doesn't the president deal with the hard questions - such as the likely explosion of demand that will result from expanding insurance to the uninsured? On how you can cut costs without cutting care? On how slicing Medicare will still allow for the same services? The back-and-forth on healthcare has been shallow. Instead of supplying answers to the questions Americans have, President Obama simply repeats the same untruths, over and over, but more forcefully. He's like the American tourist trying to order dinner in English; he's sure that if he shouts his order loud enough, the Parisian waiter will eventually bring him what he wants.
For instance, President Obama keeps telling us that insuring tens of millions of additional Americans will bring down costs. That is patently untrue, as the CBO has said. He keeps saying that Medicare coverage won't change. Since cutting Medicare costs is the backbone of the plan to fund the wider net, that is clearly false. He has said that "reform will keep the government out of your healthcare decisions." Given that a key notion is setting up results-based analysis, does anyone really believe that? He has said that he will not sign any bill "that adds one dime to our deficit over the next decade." Come on. Even if some of the concepts embraced by the administration pan out, such as electronic record keeping, the changes will not reduce costs significantly in the next decade.
It is ironic that Obama cites Bush's expanded Medicare prescription benefits as one of the reasons he inherited an outsized budget deficit. Guess what? Giving millions of people more medical care costs money! This past weekend both Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner and Larry Summers hinted at having to raise taxes to pay for healthcare reform. How often has the president repeated his campaign mantra that "you will not see any of your taxes increase one single dime?" My guess- Americans will not be stunned.
That's really the point, isn't it? Americans are not stupid. They can size up the reality of a situation, and what they hear of "healthcare reform" is that it will cost them plenty, and possibly undermine the world's greatest medical system. Most have heard about the disaster that is the U.K. medical system. One survey published last year indicated that a sizeable percentage of Brits had attempted "self-dentistry." Instead of waiting months to see a dentist, thousands are buying household glue to stick down their fillings. Doesn't that say it all? Even our National Coalition on Health Care, a great booster of the president's program, reports that the U.K. system is experiencing "serious problems with its funding, service and staff" - in particular citing long waits for routine treatments and procedures.
Closer to home, Americans have witnessed the train wreck that is Massachusetts, the lone state that has implemented universal coverage, except...oops...for some 30,000 legal immigrants recently cut out of the program as state legislators struggle to tamp down soaring costs.
Despite non-stop campaigning from the president, Americans are not sure he knows best about healthcare. They're even more skeptical that Congress - charged with writing the bill- knows best. A poll out from Gallup last week said that two-thirds of Americans "see themselves as more knowledgeable than members of Congress over healthcare reform." In other words, voters trust their own judgment, and as far as healthcare legislation is concerned, they are wary. They are right to be cautious. As the president has repeated endlessly, healthcare expenditures constitute 16% of the economy. Isn't that the biggest single reason to "proceed with caution"?
