I was sorting a pile of papers this weekend when I came upon a wrinkled, yellowed sheet that appeared to be a printout of one page of the journal I keep on the computer. It was undated, but I decided that I must have written it in the spring of 2010 because that was when Congress was about to vote on the Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare.
I’m sharing it in my column this week because I think it may remind you of what’s going on today:
“It’s Sunday afternoon, and I’ve been listening to the raging debate over the massive healthcare bill that Congress will vote on soon. I don’t know what the outcome will be, but I’m worried about it.
“I’m worried because nobody knows what this legislation really does. Since I’m not the brightest bulb on the string of political lights, I wouldn’t worry if I were the only one who didn’t understand it. But apparently the bright bulbs don’t understand it either because no one has been able to stand up and tell me what it says. No one even seems able to read it! So I don’t know what this bill provides, what it costs, or how it’s going to be paid for.
“When confronted about his pet project, our president (Obama) simply assures us that we need healthcare reform. He acts as if we’re too dumb to understand it so there’s no need for him to explain the bill. ‘Just calm down,’ he says.
“Hmm, I feel as if I’m back in kindergarten getting my school shots. The nurse said, ‘Just calm down. This won’t hurt a bit.’ Then she plunged a hypodermic into my hindquarters. It hurt.
“One Democratic senator said on TV the other day that we don’t have to worry about paying for this. He says our government is going to plug up all the graft and corruption in our current Medicare plan and save billions of dollars to put toward the new program.
‘Again I say, ‘Hmm.’ We’ve had Medicare since the 1960s. If the government hasn’t been able to stop graft and corruption in 50 years, how do they propose to do it now? And if it’s so easy, why haven’t they already done it?
“If it passes, healthcare reform doesn’t go into effect for at least four years. But taxing for it will begin immediately. Sounds as if we’re saving up for healthcare, which would be a good thing if it worked. But it hasn’t worked for Social Security, has it?
“Retiring workers think they will get Social Security benefits because their salaries have been taxed for years to provide them. But that money was spent on other give-aways as soon as it came in. It isn’t there anymore. Congress only continues to borrow the money to pay Social Security because they fear mayhem from voters if they stop it. (By the way, passage of this healthcare bill is a sign that they aren’t very worried about votes anyway, since a majority of us don’t approve of it.)
“Who’s to say taxing for healthcare won’t work out the same way? With our ballooning national deficit, will that new money simply go down the black hole of debt that everything else is being poured into? After paying these new taxes for four years, will we be told, ‘Sorry, we had to bail out a few of our other give-away programs, so we don’t have the money to give you health insurance this year? Come back in four years—but keep those payments coming!’
“I’m also worried about who will be taxed. The president says that only the wealthy will pay higher taxes. No one making under $250,000 a year will face a tax increase. I’m definitely in the Under 250K category. But last week I got a letter telling me that I make too much (on a part time job?) and that additional money will be taken out of my Social Security check to cover my Medicare.
“I’m no accountant, but I recognize a new tax when I smell one.
“Maybe I’m over-reacting. Maybe everyone really is telling the truth about this bill. Maybe it doesn’t fund abortion with federal tax dollars that came from those of us who don’t believe in abortion. But it makes me nervous when reporters ask about abortion provisions and the press secretary’s reply is, ‘Well, you know, mumblemumblemumble.’
‘And I’m a little nervous about the word reform in the phrase ‘health care reform.’ To reform simply means ‘to do differently.’ It doesn’t mean ‘to make better.’ The whole thing smells like socialized medicine to me, and that has not worked well in any country that has tried it.”
Rereading my 2010 journal entry in 2022, I’m having deja vu. Congress just passed the so-called Inflation Reduction Bill, which is really the Green New Deal bill that experts say won’t do a thing to reduce inflation, as Obamacare didn’t do a thing to help me, though my cost went up and my health services went down. You don’t reduce inflation by subsidizing electric car sales and solar farms.
But the bill’s supporters watched us swallow Obamacare with its deficiencies in 2010 and figured we’d be just as gullible 12 years later.
And I guess we are.
