There are four things wrong with Obamacare:
#1 - The way the law was drafted
#2 - The way the law was passed
#3 - The way the law was upheld by Supreme Court
#4 - The effect
#1 - The way the law was drafted and sold to the American people:
- Obama and the Democrats lied about virtually every component of the bill - the cost (to the nation as a whole and to individuals), the coverage, its impact on the deficit, its impact on level of care, its impact on the private insurance industry, and its impact on the most innovative healthcare system in the world.
- The entire bill was drafted without Republican input and behind closed doors despite Obama’s repeated promise to broadcast the debate on CSPAN.
- Bribes and kickbacks of senators in return for their vote.
- “We have to pass the bill to see what’s in it” Nancy Pelosi.
- Not a single Congressman read the bill before they voted on it (and I would venture a bet that few have read it since).
"I love these members that get up and say 'READ THE BILL.' What good is reading the bill if it's a thousand pages, and you don't have two days and two lawyers to find out what it means after you've read the bill?" -- Rep. John Conyers (D-MI)
“It will be of little avail to the people, that the laws are made by men of their own choice, if the laws be so voluminous that they cannot be read, or so incoherent that they cannot be understood. . . ” - James Madison, The Federalist #62
- Obama emphatically denied it was a tax. He knew it would never pass if it was represented as a tax.
“How is that not a tax?" George Stephanopoulos
"A responsibility to get health insurance is not a tax increase," Obama
- The bill was ultimately passed using a budget reconciliation method rather than a full vote on the House floor.
- Despite repeated promises that this bill was not a tax, one of the administration’s arguments before the Supreme Court was just that, “it IS a tax”, therefore it is constitutional under Congress’ right to levy taxes.
- Instead of sending the bill back to Congress, Chief Justice John Roberts essentially re-wrote the law circumventing Article I, section 7 of the Constitution - "All bills for raising revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives". The Obamacare bill was originated in the Senate! Judicial activism at its worse.
- Over 1,000 Obamacare waivers were granted within several months of the bill's passage, mostly to Democrat constituents (at one point 20% of the waivers were provided to Nancy Pelosi’s district). If this is the greatest piece of legislation in history why are waivers necessary? Why are senatorial bribes necessary?
- It is estimated that 20 million people will lose their current health insurance because it will become too expensive given all of the mandates.
- The private insurance industry will die leaving only the government (single-payer). Think of your doctor’s office as a national DMV.
- It gives the federal government essentially unlimited taxation power and amounts to the largest tax increase in world history.
- Obama promised insurance rates would decline by $2,500 a year. As of the last update of this post, studies show rates are up an average of $2,500 a year.
- Obama promised the bill would lower the deficit and cost no more than $1 trillion. Both claims have been proven false.
- Ultimately, the quality of healthcare will decline as thousands of doctors retire because they can no longer make a living serving more patients for less money, Medicaid will get dropped by doctor’s offices due to low and delayed reimbursements, rationing of care will occur just like it does in every country that has socialized medicine, bureaucrats will make healthcare decisions for us, death panels will be established for end-of-life decisioning (yes it’s in the bill) and a massive bureaucracy will reign over us (you thought the TSA was big).
