I’m sorry. I just don’t buy it. I read President Obama’s comments from his press conference last night (sorry, I just have a hard time listening to him) and I am shaking my head. The language is sounding near-Orwellian. Just last week, we heard Vice President Biden say this:

“Now, people when I say that look at me and say, ‘What are you talking about, Joe? You’re telling me we have to go spend money to keep from going bankrupt?’ The answer is yes, that’s what I’m telling you.”

Then, the President said this last night:

This debate is not a game for these Americans, and they can’t afford to wait any longer for reform. They’re counting on us to get this done. They’re looking to us for leadership. And we can’t let them down. We will pass reform that lowers cost, promotes choice, and provides coverage that every American can count on. And we will do it this year.

Now, remember that the President is discussing a plan that, as currently described, will create this (click the image to see it full-size):

How does any coherent human being describe an organization like this run by the US government as a way to “lower costs” and “promote choice”? The whole argument is based on the idea that central planning of the entire health care system of this nation will make the system more efficient and more cost-effective. I seem to remember another superpower that thought central planning was the way to go. It didn’t work out for them. I just find it hard to believe that any government agency can cause something to get cheaper. You can’t legislate the laws of economics. The costs have to get paid. Prices only go down when there is choice and competition. Government can only limit choices and lower competition. It cannot artificially improve either one. It’s best bet is to get out of the way and let the market provide the solutions.

When I get this deep into a complex issue, I usually back up and start at the beginning by asking, “What problem are we trying to solve?” It’s easy for the solution to take on a life of its own and lose track of the original problem. So, what is the problem here? Well, according to the President it’s about providing coverage for the “47 million Americans” who are currently uninsured. Who are these people?

Professor Dominick T. Armentano summarizes the myth of the 47 million pretty well here. Let’s turn his numbers into raw math:

• 47 million uninsured according to the US Census Bureau
• Approximately 10 million of those are illegal aliens who should not be covered in any case.
• Approximately 17 million are people making more than $50,000 a year who choose not to purchase insurance. So, it’s not an availability problem, but an issue of liberty.
• Also, people who lose their jobs are recorded as uninsured, but most individuals changing jobs will regain insurance within four months. This is a temporary situation.
• Furthermore, there are millions of Americans who qualify for federal or state-offered medical benefits who simply don’t sign up or who are considered uninsured because some government agency is already taking care of things.

Professor Armentano concludes that, with some reasonable estimates, the number of chronically uninsured is closer to 8-10 million. This is roughly three percent of the population. Is it really worth radically disrupting the entire industry and the vast majority of the population that is sufficiently covered to try to gather up that small number? Sure, these are people who need help. Sure, the industry as a whole needs help, but central planning, higher taxes, bigger deficits, more debt, and decreased liberty are not the solution here.

Human nature is to do what benefits yourself. Instead of building a huge bureaucracy to force people to do what isn’t their natural inclination, it is better to make it financially beneficial to do the right thing. Make the payment and the services more closely related. That will cause the patient to shop for the best deal. Remove the danger of a good doctor being wiped out by a lawsuit, and he will make better decisions about what tests and services are necessary and which are not. Further separating the service from the payment will incline people to overuse the services because they feel “free”. That will not lower costs.

The kicker here is the vast damage this kind of legislation can do to the industry. With some legislation, the laws can just be repealed and society can return to its previous state. This legislation will likely drive private insurance companies out of business, or at least change them dramatically. So, even if this monstrosity is repealed, the landscape will be changed and we could be in a world of hurt for some time.

This is something that needs to be prevented now. We can’t afford to “wait and see” and hope to clean it up later.

So, temperatures have been flat for the last decade. The science supporting the idea of anthropogenic global warming is becoming more suspect. Neither China nor India has any interest in reducing their carbon emissions. So, now is the time to cripple ourselves economically to make ourselves feel good about cutting carbon emissions even though it will have almost no effect. I must be missing something. Why, again, is this imperative? Why is this not a regressive tax?

I loved this take on it by The Tax Foundation:

Anyone who has played, watched, or coached a Little League game has seen players just learning the game make some basic mistakes. The players are forgiven, of course, because they are still learning under the tutelage of their coaches. Kids run the wrong direction, forget to throw the ball to first base, or even end up on the wrong side of the field. It’s understandable, really, that in the confusion of one team leaving the field and another team taking the field, that someone can end up in the wrong dugout. This is usually remedied quickly when the player realizes he doesn’t recognize the dugout or the kids standing around him and he’ll bolt across the field as the opposing team heckles and parents in the stand chuckle quietly.

So, what do you do with an otherwise intelligent adult with no teacher or coach who ends up on the wrong side and refuses to admit it? This is exactly what has happened to Barack Obama in regards to the Honduras “coup”. First off, it was not a coup. A coup is a calculated breaking of the law by powers that want to take control. It’s usually followed by a new leader explaining why it was necessary and how the law of the land will change under the new leadership. Traditionally, it’s also been followed by that leader being leader for an indefinite period of time.

In Honduras, it was the government itself that ordered the army to arrest and expel President Zelaya because he was breaking the law and threatening to subvert that country’s constitution. The new leader sworn in to replace Zelaya was the next in line according to their constitution. He is a civilian and has promised to hold elections in November as usual. The army did not install their own leader. The army did not change the law of the land. The army was enforcing the law of the land as ordered by the Supreme Court of Honduras.

Apparently, President Obama has not had this thirty second summary communicated to him and he, almost immediately, condemned these actions and insisted that Zelaya be reinstated. The American public, like parents in the Little League stands, watched the leader of their team (the leader of the free world) running to the wrong side. Obama finds himself making the same demands of Honduras as Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez and Cuba’s Fidel Castro, both anti-American dictators of their countries. He stands shoulder-to-shoulder with thugs and opposes the rule of law in a democracy.

This Washington Times editorial summarizes the situation well and comes to this conclusion:

Whatever the outcome of the crisis in Honduras, Mr. Obama has failed another key test of international leadership. The United States is in an increasingly perilous position in Latin America and needs solid allies to stem the anti-American tide being led by Venezuela. Mr. Obama should think twice before rushing to stand beside the likes of dictators such as Mr. Chavez and Cuba’s Fidel Castro. They support Mr. Zelaya because he is a fellow traveler, a socialist in good standing, a member of their anti-gringo alliance. There’s no reason for America to support him.

In Little League, a coach or parent will encourage the child and suggest a correction for the mistake. Then, hopefully, the child will learn the lesson and not make the same mistake again. Of course, Little League games don’t quite carry the weight of international politics. There are no coaches or parents that have the President’s ear. There are too few critical press outlets that will challenge his decisions and postulate alternatives. So, the public sits in the stands and waits to see what he’ll do next.

Will Mr. Obama realize that he’s on the wrong side and run for the other dugout? Or, not wanting to admit his error, will he defiantly stay on the wrong side only to increase the hidden laughter of his newfound teammates? Or, worst of all, will he remain where he is because he knows exactly what he’s saying and approves? None of these choices present a very impressive picture of this President learning the basic rules of the game.

Update: This article in The Christian Science Monitor is from a citizen of Honduras and only reinforces what we already know. It also has the effect of making President Obama look even more foolish. He starts:

Sometimes, the whole world prefers a lie to the truth. The White House, the United Nations, the Organization of American States, and much of the media have condemned the ouster of Honduran President Manuel Zelaya this past weekend as a coup d’état.

That is nonsense.

And, he concludes with a passion I love hearing:

Don’t believe the coup myth. The Honduran military acted entirely within the bounds of the Constitution. The military gained nothing but the respect of the nation by its actions.

I am extremely proud of my compatriots. Finally, we have decided to stand up and become a country of laws, not men. From now on, here in Honduras, no one will be above the law.