According to Health and Human Services Secretary, Kathleen Sebelius, a government-run takeover of the nation’s health care system—the so-called public “option—is “not the essential element” to reform. As it turns out, socialized medicine is not all that essential to the American people, either.
According to Rasmussen Reports, 54 percent of voters believe that no health care legislation this year would be a better option than the current bill, which only 35 percent support.
That’s right. The American people prefer—by a 1.54 to 1 ratio—that Congress do nothing rather than take up the abomination that presently sits on the floor of the House, awaiting the August recess to end. No alternative legislation. No compromise. Nothing.
They simply want Congress to vote “No.” And not just, “no,” but “Hell no!” Because, they want Congress to follow a timeless principle that should be familiar to all in the medical profession: “Do no harm.”
Which, of course, is no wonder. Americans do not want a bureaucracy deciding who gets care and who does not. They do not want a public system whose purpose is to crowd out and eliminate private health options. They do not want the same unsustainable costs that have plagued Social Security and Medicare—some $104 trillion of unfunded liabilities—for decades to bring down the entire health care system. And they do not think that bankrupting the nation is worth the price.
After all, that would all be quite harmful, both to their families and to their nation.
Nor do they want any sort of incremental approach that opens the door wide open for what the Left really wants: a single payer system where solely the government administers health care. A Platonic “utopia.” One without private options. One without incentives to enter the medical profession. One without the profit motive to develop life-saving drugs, treatments, and surgeries.
That is why the American people will be rallying in towns and cities around the nation this Saturday, August 22nd in front of Congressional district offices and elsewhere. Much to the surprise of the politicos when they returned home this month touting a $1.5 trillion monstrosity, Americans actually like their health care when they consider the government-run alternative.
Dubbed the “Recess Rally,” concerned citizens nationwide will be giving their Congressmen and women an earful this weekend over what is proving to be an increasingly unpopular piece of legislation. Americans for Limited Government is co-sponsoring the event, which will turn up in most every Congressional district in the country.
As ALG President Bill Wilson promised on July 31st, “There are going to be boots on the ground in districts across the country, and they’re not going to be happy when the politicians return home for their August recess and try to defend this mealy-mouth ‘compromise’ reached by the Blue Dogs.” But not because he summoned them. Not because ALG had operatives rolling out the “Astroturf” for political purposes. Not because talk radio told them to.
But because they care. As shocking as it is for the power elite, the American people actually do care about the future health of their families and prosperity of their nation. And they do not want to live in a socialist economy with incrementally nationalized industries, be it housing, banking, education, automobiles, or health care.
“There’s still a pretty big level of anger toward an unresponsive government,” said NetRight Nation director Adam Bitely, also a co-sponsor of Saturday’s rally, in an exclusive interview with ALG News. He has been monitoring the health care debate closely via his high-tech blog aggregation system. And he said that the current unrest in districts across the country, at town halls and in front of Congressional offices, are a genuine outgrowth of the April 15th nationwide tea party events.
“The tea party movement is still alive and well. They’re vibrant. And I’d say that what we’re seeing with the health care issue and these town hall meetings, this is the exact same theme, applied to a specific piece of legislation,” Bitely explained.
When asked if the tea parties were taking lead in the national dialogue over ObamaCare, Bitely said, “Are they taking the lead? They are the lead. They have set the tone for the entire debate thus far.” And he said efforts to discredit citizens visiting with their Congressmen in August mirrored similar efforts to discredit the tea parties in April, when Barack Obama claimed to not even know about them.
Only this time, they have gone a step further, calling them “un-American,” “Brown Shirts,” “political terrorists,” “evil mongers,” “uncivilized,” and comparing their rhetoric to that of Timothy McVeigh. For merely stating their opposition to the single largest government takeover in the history of the Republic. For expressing their constitutionally-protected right to dissent. For telling Congress to not to take away their private health options.
What the powerful have forgotten, however, is that the people do not need them. Instead, it is they who need the people in order to keep their power.
And if the politicians do not wish to be deemed “non-essential” personnel by their own constituents, they had better start listening and “do no harm.” Do nothing, in fact.
Robert Romano is the ALG Senior News Editor.
