Why the Heroes- “Moderate” Senators- are Actually the Villians Who Have Betrayed Our Trust and Bankrupted our Nation.
The Greatest Taxpayer Rip-Off in U.S. History.
By Wayne Allyn Root, Author
The Conscience of a Libertarian: Empowering the Citizen Revolution with God, Guns, Gambling & Tax Cuts
My understanding of human nature, negotiating, and deal making skills have taken me from being an S.O.B. (son of a butcher) to a successful small businessman and Vice Presidential nominee of America’s Third Party. For months I´ve predicted on TV and radio appearances exactly how universal healthcare would be proposed, debated, negotiated and passed- against the wishes of the American people.
As I´ve predicted, here is how Obama and his minions are pulling off the greatest bait and switch, taxpayer rip-off in American political history. They started by asking for something so big, so absurd, so unrealistic that it set the tone for the entire negotiation knowing it was nothing more than a “bait and switch”. Then, after much arguing and debating that they would never do the deal without that absurd demand, they “compromise” and accept something smaller, but still totally absurd. Everyone smiles, shakes hands, pats each other on the back and feels they’ve walked away a winner. But only one party won big, and the other lost big. They just don’t realize it, all because of the art of negotiation and the use of “bait and switch.” The American taxpayer is the big loser in this deal.
Let’s use the example of an agent representing a star athlete. Assume you´re the agent. You ask for $15 million per year for 10 years for your client- a $150,000,000 contract- knowing that other similar athletes get only $5 million per year for 5 years- a $25 million contract. By asking for a long-term contract worth six times more than other athletes are getting you create a distraction. Then, for good measure and additional distraction you throw in one more demand that irritates everyone — a demand your client flies free on the ballclub’s private jet up to 20 times a year for the next 10 years. At $40,000 per private jet flight, that’s an $8,000,000 perk (over 10 years). And just for good measure you also ask for a $5 million condo to be thrown into the deal for free.
Now you negotiate for months, all the time refusing to come off either the $15 million per year salary demand, or the 10 year term. But it’s the dual distractions of the private jet and the multi-million condo that stick in everyone’s craw. You refuse to drop any of those terms- all the while screaming that you will never do the deal without those perks. You do all this knowing that your client couldn’t care less about the private jet or the condo. Even your client thinks the demands are absurd. But you assure your client that the distraction will take everyone’s mind off the $15 million and the 10 year term.
You are so convincing in your refusal to ever compromise that the ballclub hires an expensive team of lawyers to negotiate a compromise with you. These lawyers are “master negotiators.” After the big guns sit at the table, suddenly there is a breakthrough. You give up the private jet, even though you claim that your client will never forgive you. Soon you give up the $5 million condo. Everyone quickly agrees on a 7-year deal for $10 million per year. The ballclub feels victorious and they are thrilled to pay $2 million to the lawyer-negotiators for negotiating such a “favorable deal.”
What’s the reality? Your client only deserved 5 years for $5 million per year, for a total of $25 million. You would have been THRILLED to win the negotiation by getting him 5 years for $10 million= $50 million. But you actually got him 7 years for $10 million per year= $70 million. You hit a grand slam home run! You gained $20 million more than your wildest imagination. All because you started with an absurd number you were never serious about getting in the first place, and added in two giant distractions that you never wanted in the first place.
That is exactly how Universal Healthcare is being negotiated. AND IT WAS THE PLAN FROM THE BEGINNING. Ask for over a trillion dollars of new spending and demand a “public option.” Liberal Democratic Senators and Congressman have screamed, day and night, from coast to coast, about how they would never vote for any plan that doesn’t include a “public option” for months now. They called it a “deal killer.” But they never expected to pass a “public option.” That was the distraction from day one. Once they convinced the public they would never give up the “public option” they controlled the negotiation. The words “public option” became the bogey-man. All the media talked about day and night for months was the dreaded “public option.” But Democrats knew they’d never get a “public option.” It was merely a distraction so moderate Democrat Senators like Joe Liebermann, Ben Nelson and Blanche Lincoln would look like heroes riding to the rescue of the public…and liberal Democrats would look like fair men and women looking to compromise on the best deal possible to “save” our healthcare system.
Lieberman, Nelson and Lincoln put on world-class Hollywood acting performances. They promised to never vote for a “public option.” They stood tall. They were unmovable. They would protect us (Actually what we need protecting from is THEM). And, of course, they promised to fight tooth and nail to bring the costs below the magic figure of $1 trillion. What heroes!!! And once they won both those fights, they’d provide cover for moderate Republican turncoats like Senators Collins and Snowe of Maine. Then these “moderates” would all get to stand in front of the cameras, bathed in TV lights, looking like heroes, Hollywood stars, and friends of taxpayers, to announce a much less expensive and less onerous deal to save the American healthcare system. Lucky us!
One slight problem with all of this: It’s all a sham! One big fraud. A “bait and switch” con job on the American public. A blatant, planned rip off of taxpayers. Everyone in the Beltway clique knew from day one what the actual plan was. They never ever for one minute expected to pass a trillion dollar bill containing a “public option.” All they ever wanted was a $800 billion to $900 billion bill without a “public option.” The words public option were the bogeyman, the distraction. What liberals really wanted all along was another big spending program- just like Medicare, Medicaid, or the war on poverty. The words “public option” are meaningless and immaterial. Whether it’s one trillion dollars or less to start is also meaningless. The price doesn’t matter- and they knew that all along. The Congress will now pass a trillion dollars in new spending (that in reality will become several trillion very quickly). That will allow them to raise taxes and buy more Democrat votes by redistributing even more income from taxpayers and small business owners to Democratic voters and contributors.
It’s all a Liberal Democrat’s wildest dream come true — a new entitlement program bigger than anything they’ve imagined in decades. An opportunity for gigantic government expansion. An opportunity to hire hundreds of thousands of new government employees (union members who will vote reliably Democrat for decades to come). An opportunity to raise taxes and redistribute more income (to their voters) under the guise of “healthcare” and helping sick people. An opportunity to “addict” Americans to bigger government, and associate their health with a benevolent government ruler. An opportunity to pass more rules, regulations and mandates that put government in charge of your life – the very definition of Socialism, but with a kinder, gentler name and face.
But, most of all this is an opportunity to force the healthcare industry (17% of the U.S. economy) to pay large legal bribes (campaign contributions) to Obama and the Democratic Congress in order to get special treatment when it comes to how the rules and regulations are implemented by their bureaucratic flunkies. Once the door is opened, the cost overruns and goodies for special interests hike the bill to stratospheric heights never imagined by the American public. A trillion dollar program grows to $10 trillion within a decade, then to $50 trillion in 20 years, and finally to $100 trillion. It’s a monster- and once let out of the cage, it can never be stopped.
Just remember – this was the plan all along. And it isn’t just the liberals and Socialists we have to blame. It is also the “moderates” who played along with their game- knowing all along where this would lead. This is a disaster with or without a “public option.” It’s a trillion dollars of new spending and new taxes in the middle of a depression. It’s one of the great lies of all time- convincing us that they are spending a trillion new dollars in order to “save” money. It’s more incompetent government control over our lives. It’s the creation of trillions in new debt for a bankrupt country that reminds me more and more of the Roman Empire in its final stages. And it’s all thanks to the “moderate” heroes. They will now vote “YES” and claim they saved us. They are the turncoats who betrayed us- AGAIN. Next November we must pay them back by throwing out the entire United States Congress. Make everyone of them pay. THROW ALL THE BUMS OUT.
Wayne Allyn Root was the 2008 Libertarian Vice Presidential candidate. His new book is entitled, “The Conscience of a Libertarian: Empowering the Citizen Revolution with God, Guns, Gambling & Tax Cuts.” For more of Wayne’s views, commentaries, or to watch his many national media appearances, please visit his web site at: ROOTforAmerica.com
As Roderick Long puts it,
Those who see government power and corporate power as being in conflict, and those who seem them as being in cahoots, each have a point. The alliance between government and the corporate elite is like the partnership between church and state in the Middle Ages: each one wants to be the dominant partner, so there’s naturally some pushing and shoving from time to time; but on the other hand the two parties have a common interest in holding down the rest of us, and so the conflict rarely goes too far. The main difference between “left-wing” and “right-wing” versions of statism, as I see it, is that the former generally seek to shift the balance a bit farther in favour of the state (i.e., toward state-socialism) while the latter generally seek to shift the balance a bit farther in favour of corporatism and plutocracy. (In the U.S., the reigning versions of liberalism and conservatism are arguably both more corporatist than state-socialist; but the liberals are still a few notches farther toward state-socialism than the conservatives are.)
But whether the special interests who are the primary beneficiaries of state power are mainly within the state apparatus or mainly outside it, the actual application of state power remains much the same. Hence it is a mistake to suppose that the corporatist-plutocratic version of statism is in any interesting sense less statist than the state-socialist version.
But it is an all-too-common mistake – and this tendency to underestimate the chasm between free markets and corporatism is enormously beneficial to the state, enabling a slick bait-and-switch. When free markets and government grants of privilege to business are conflated, those who are attracted to free markets are easily duped into supporting plutocracy, thus swelling the ranks of statism’s right wing – while those who are turned off by plutocracy are likewise easily duped into opposing free markets, thereby swelling the ranks of statism’s left wing. (These are the two tendencies that Kevin Carson calls “vulgar libertarianism” and “vulgar liberalism,” respectively.)
As one of the villains in The Fountainhead explains in a moment of frankness, talking about the choice Europe was then facing between communism and fascism:
The largely (though not completely) illusory conflict between state-oriented Palpatine and corporate-oriented Dooku in the Star Wars prequels is a nice dramatisation of the same principle.
This dynamic applies in particular to the debate over health care policy. The contrast between, say, the Canadian and American approaches is frequently described – by both sides – as a contrast between a “governmental” or “socialised” system on the one hand, and a “market-based” or “free enterprise” system on the other. But the American health care system bears little resemblance to a free market; instead it represents massive government intervention on behalf of private special interests, from insurance companies to the medical establishment. The choice between the American and Canadian models is simply a choice between different two different flavours of statism – each with somewhat different vices, it’s true (e.g., do you prefer higher prices or longer waits?), but ultimately coming down to a matter of the percentage to which control of your healthcare is exercised by people sitting in government offices as opposed to being exercised by people sitting in governmentally-privileged “private” offices – but in either case by ambitious, avaricious apparatchiks who aren’t you.
So what would a libertarian approach to health care policy look like? At a minimum it would have to include:
Until the unlikely day when the Republican Party embraces this program, let’s hear no more of their favouring a free-market approach to health care.
Why would it be a “scam” to not give hospitals your address and phone number? They have no right to the information.
paulie // Dec 9, 2009:
“Don’t give them your real address and number.
Duh!”
[[email protected]
263 Eucalyptus Court
Chula Vista
CAlifornia
91910-3030
619.420.0209
like scam artists ????]
I have no input with the Root campaign or even his handlers and I have been and will continue to be a critic of his. At least until I see an improvement.
Anyhow for what it is worth here is my on the fly release of what I think a candidate should have to say on this issue.
For immediate release:
Libertarian Party Congressional candidate Lysander Spooner today called on Congress to abolish occupational licensing laws in an effort to reform healthcare. “The first thing is to rid the nation of the occupational licensing laws that deprive patients of access to alternative care. Occupational licensing laws have their roots in the history of racial discrimination and were part of the post Civil War Black Codes which were intended to keep the newly freed slaves out of the marketplace.
Occupational licensing laws restrict the practices of midwives as well as a number of other alternative practitioners but do nothing to protect consumers from fraudulent practitioners. They are a restraint on trade and deprive patients, especially women of a choice.
The state bodies that regulate the profession have too often become arms of the medical profession and do little or nothing to protect patients. No business should be allowed to be self policing any more than another. Would the country be better off if used car salesmen were allowed to police themselves or how about bartenders?”
The preamble to the Constitution reads in part “We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice…”. If to “establish Justice” means anything then the government should create adequate liability laws to protect patients against fraud, theft of services and injury from others.”
Ridding the nation of occupational licensing laws which restrict trade and are an infringement on the public’s freedom to choose is just one of a number of reforms that the Congress should make according to Spooner.
Spooner also went on to call for the abolition of the FDA, repeal of the McCarran-Ferguson Act and said that state should repeal their Certificate of Needs laws where they exist.
Spooner concluded his comments with this statement; “If the concept of equality is to mean anything in our society midwives should have the same right to practice as publishers have to print.”
Don’t give them your real address and number.
Duh!
“So what alternative does Mr. Root suggest?”
Tax cuts, deregulation and free markets. Which means if you’re too poor to pay taxes anyway and can’t afford your doctor bills you’ll be getting lots of calls and even home visits from your friendly neighborhood collection agency.
So what alternative does Mr. Root suggest?