Selling Health Care Reform – a Classic Case of Misdirection

    With much fanfare and exploiting their “preponderance of propaganda,” the “Wannabe
    Peers” launched their “Health Care Reform Initiative.”  “Wannabe Peers” are the politicians
    seeking to regain of the power and prestige that belonged to the English “Peers” of the 18TH
    Century.   They want to return the world to the tyranny of 18TH Century England and see
    themselves as the “Lords”, or perhaps even the “King.”

    True to the principles of the “preponderance of propaganda,” only the positive aspects of the
    program were announced.   The “Wannabe Peers” promised that 30 million people (or was it
    50 million-it’s hard to remember because the number kept changing) would gain access to
    health care insurance.  A benevolent government would keep us all healthy.  There was no
    mention of the penalties, the increased taxes, the ballooning bureaucracy required to enforce
    “Wannabe Peers’” will on the hapless citizen or the bureaucrat empowered to control your
    access to health care.  

    What was the misdirection?  The propaganda simply took all the increases in tyranny for
    granted and tried to limit the discussion to irrelevant details.  Those details were the
    proposed public option and the fact that the “Health Care Reform Initiative” would pay for
    abortions.  These details were advanced as the only controversial portions of the proposal.  
    Both represented concessions that “Wannabe Peers” could make to enact the law.  The
    purpose was to prevent consideration of the tyranny contained in the proposal.  The public
    option and the abortion funding could easily be added later.

    The real purpose of the “Health Care Reform Initiative” is to increase the “Wannabe Peers”
    control of the individual and the nation’s wealth. Their political cronies, of course, would
    benefit financially at your expense.  

    For over 100 years, the “Wannabe Peers” have created tyranny by enacting and expanding
    laws that usurp our freedom.  These laws have given the “Wannabe Peers” the tools to
    punish political dissent and extort political support from the successful entrepreneur
    (producer) and wealthy citizens.  But until now, tools to control the average citizen have
    evaded the “Wannabe Peers.”  

    The “Health Care Reform Initiative” will provide that control of the average citizen.

    Over the last 130 years, the most onerous accomplishments of the “Wannabe Peers” have
    provided the tools to control the successful producer and limit political dissent.  These
    achievements were:
    •   The Sherman Antitrust Act
    •   The creation of the “Fourth Branch of  Government,” the bureaucracy
    •   The income tax

    The Sherman Antitrust Act is a non-objective law that makes some of the normal business
    activities of the entrepreneur illegal if a judge and jury disapprove of the business man’s
    motives for the act.  Of course, this allows the “Wannabe Peers” to prosecute or threaten
    prosecution for any of these normal business activities.  

    Prosecution or even the threat of prosecution of the entrepreneur (producer) provides the
    “Wannabe Peers” a powerful tool to punish political dissent, extort political support from the
    successful producer and reward political cronies by neutralizing their competition.   For a
    recent example of the use of the antitrust laws to intimidate and extort political support, read
    the article Antitrust and Health Care, 10/29/2009 .

    The “Fourth Branch of Government,” the bureaucracy, has the power to create rules and
    regulations which have the force of law.  The bureaucracy acts as the plaintiff, investigator,
    police, prosecutor, judge and jury.  Since the bureaucracy can make and enforce rules that
    control the operation of a business, it provides another tool the “Wannabe Peers” can use to
    control the producer.  

    Complicated income tax laws and virtually unlimited power of the “Internal Revenue Service”
    gives the “Wannabe Peers” the power to prosecute or confiscate the wealth of anyone with a
    complicated income structure.  

    However, the antitrust laws, the bureaucracy and the “IRS” are ineffective against the
    average citizen, leaving the “Wannabe Peers” to ponder how to control the rest of us.

    Actually, “Wannabe Peers” have had the answer for years.   The answer is government
    control of health care.  Sooner or later, everyone requires health care.  So control of health
    care provides control of the individual.

    What are the features of the proposed “Health Care Reform Initiative?”  Who knows?  One bill
    has passed the House of Representatives and another passed the Senate and together these
    bills contain more than 4000 pages.  To put that in prospective, the Bible is slightly over 1500
    pages long.  No one can be sure exactly what the proposed law actually mandates.  Reports
    indicate that there are significant increases in government expenditures, new taxes,
    penalties, fines, and new government bureaucracies to administer the hodgepodge.    Click
    on H.R. 3962 to read the House version of the “Health Care Reform Initiative.”  This one bill is
    1990 pages long, about 1/3 longer than the Bible and almost twice as long as the novel “Atlas
    Shrugged.”  What are the “Wannabe Peers” are hiding in that document?  There has never
    been a better example of “information overload.”

    Since the “Wannabe Peers’” objective is to gain control of your health care, the specifics are
    unimportant.   The “Health Care Reform Initiative” creates the bureaucracy to enforce and
    expand their control.    GOP.gov  lists 111 new bureaucracies created by H.R. 3962.  

    The “Health Care Reform Initiative” will give the “Wannabe Peers” the same control over the
    average citizen that the antitrust laws, the bureaucracy and the IRS give them over the
    producer and wealthy.

    Ayn Rand’s book, “We The Living” is based upon her experiences as a teenager and young
    adult in Communist Russia.  The heroine of “We The Living” had a lover with an easily cured
    but potentially fatal disease. To obtain health care for her lover, the heroine had to have an
    affair with a Communist party official.  “We The Living” shows how a government with
    control of your health care controls the individual.  The “Wannabe Peers” may not lust after
    your body but they sure want to extort political support.

    How could the “Wannabe Peers” sift through the layers of bureaucracy to target an
    individual?  It is not difficult. President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s use of the IRS to target
    political enemies provides the answer.   See FDR and the IRS, by Burton W. Folsom, Jr..

    Full implementation of the “Health Care Reform Initiative” will give the “Wannabe Peers” the
    tools for total control of the individual and create the tyranny that may be the end of the
    American Revolution.