The Five Developmental Stages of the Progressive Beast, Part V: Barack H. Obama, Hope, Change & Health Care

*Written by Rob Rimes.

*This article is broken into five parts with each being released a few days apart. This is due to the size of the article. Here is PART I, PART II, PART III & PART IV.

6. Stage Five – Barack H. Obama, Hope, Change & Health Care:

“This is the moment when we must build on the wealth that open markets have created, and share its benefits more equitably. Trade has been a cornerstone of our growth and global development. But we will not be able to sustain this growth if it favors the few, and not the many.” – Barack Hussein Obama

As we’ve travelled through the last 110 years or so in this article, no other progressive leader’s tyranny truly hits home like our current president, Barack Hussein Obama. Barry O, just like his predecessors in the progressive movement, stormed into the White House with big promises and signs of “change” and “hope”. Obama was almost deified by the media before he was even sworn in. Hell, Obama pimped himself out as the messiah of the lefties when in his campaign speeches he spoke of parting waters and rising seas and all that other weird crap. Truth is, he is a man, a man with bad heroes and bad people around him. The results of his vision and the company he keeps can only lead to chaos. He isn’t the second coming, his disciples are idiots and and he can’t turn water into wine. Well, he can turn it into shit but no one really wants shit.

Luckily, Obama didn’t come to us with some massive plan like the New Deal or the Great Society. If he did, this country would’ve collapsed under its own weight, not that it isn’t doing that now, it is just happening slower than it could have happened. His biggest piece of progressive legislation was his health care reform bill, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act or PPACA. The media has dubbed this monster of a law, Obamacare. This bill is so monstrous and tyrannical that the Republican Party swept in and stole the 2010 midterm elections: taking back the House of Representatives, as well as just falling short of taking back the Senate. Obamacare is also the catalyst for the formation of the fiscally conservative Tea Party movement. Opposition to this bill is out in full force and there are dozens of different attempts going on simultaneously to repeal the bill. More than half the states in the U.S. are opposed to the bill. How’s that for a blatant rejection of progressivism?!

There are several reasons why people are so strongly against this newest form of progressive tyranny. For starters, it is unconstitutional for the federal government to force any citizen to buy something. In this case, the government is forcing Americans to buy health insurance, whether they feel that they need it or whether can even afford it. So what happens if you can’t afford it? Well, like with everything the government tries to enforce, you will get fined. If you still don’t get insurance, you get fined again and more heavily. Now with all these fines, one definitely can’t afford it. So what happens? An even bigger fine! Well, what if you can’t pay the fines? Quite simply, you go to jail. In a nutshell, the federal gun is pressed to your temple and no matter what, you are forced to participate. Where is the freedom in that? One nation under God? More like one nation under the gun.

Another problem, that should just be obvious to anyone, is that this is government run health care. What has the government ever done effectively? Do you trust these nimrods to make wise decisions and have your best interest at heart when you are a huge financial liability that could be easily eliminated? I’m not saying that they are going to go into your hospital room and put a pillow over your face. However, the government will have the ability to make the decision of whether or not the person on their deathbed needs to move on to the afterlife or not. This right has seemingly been taken away from the family and loved ones of the patient. So okay, I guess figuratively the government can come into your hospital room and put a pillow over your face. Naw, that’s not fucking tyrannical or anything!

Super economist, social theorist, author and political philosopher Thomas Sowell wrote:

“Letting old people die instead of saving their lives will undoubtedly reduce medical payments considerably. But old people have that option already– and seldom choose to exercise it, despite clever people who talk about a “duty to die.”

A government-run system will take that decision out of the hands of the elderly or their families, and thereby “bring down the cost of medical care.” A stranger’s death is much easier to take, especially if you are a bureaucrat making that decision in Washington.”

The cost of health care is the big issue pushing for the implementation of a socialized solution. Obamacare, the socialized fix to the problem, claims to drive costs down and to make health care affordable and fair for everyone, even those with pre-existing conditions. Barack Obama obviously hasn’t learned the lessons of history or even studied up on the causes of the high cost of medical care. The reason why health care is expensive is due to government meddling. So how is more meddling going to fix the problem? Realistically, it will drive prices up even more. In fact, one year after Obamacare was signed into law, it has been announced that health care costs are going to rise 8.5 percent going into 2012!

Thomas Sowell, in regards to the high cost of health care said:

“Providing free lunches to people who go to hospital emergency rooms is one of the reasons for the current high costs of medical care for others. Politicians mandating what insurance companies must cover is another free lunch that leads to higher premiums for medical insurance– and fewer people who can afford it.”

You can cut the costs of medical two ways. By lowering either the quality or the quantity. This has been done all over the word where socialized medical programs currently exist. In Europe, many countries have to bring in doctors and specialists from third world countries, due to eliminating cost. This dramatically effects the quality of health care, as doctors from these regions aren’t as advanced and as versed in medicine as the expensive doctors in the rich countries.

Reducing costs by force has also had a negative impact on the Medicare and Medicaid programs established by LBJ under his Great Society in the 1960′s. You see, payments for patients under these programs has been reduced but now there are a large amount of doctors who refuse to take on any new patients with Medicare or Medicaid benefits. In trying to reduce the price of medical care, the government has reduced the availability of medical care.

In the United States, our medical system is far superior because we haven’t had to take the extreme measures that the UK and other countries have had to. For instance, these countries have been forced to reduce costs drastically. In doing so, many of these countries don’t offer the best medication available, as it is more expensive. Therefore the people suffer. The best pain killers are rationed or not even offered. Therefore the people suffer. They are also highly selective over the use of MRIs, CAT scans and other highly expensive medical procedures. Therefore the people suffer. Are you starting to see the pattern?

As far as cutting costs goes, Thomas Sowell said:

“If you think the government can lower medical costs by eliminating “waste, fraud and abuse,” as some Washington politicians claim, the logical question is: Why haven’t they done that already?

Over the years, scandal after scandal has shown waste, fraud and abuse to be rampant in Medicare and Medicaid. Why would anyone imagine that a new government medical program will do what existing government medical programs have clearly failed to do?”

Now, when looking back on everything I’ve written about the two Roosevelts, Woodrow Wilson and LBJ, you should be able to see the pattern here. You should be able to recognize where all this is headed. It isn’t headed anywhere good. Whether Obamacare was created with the best of intentions or not, isn’t even the issue. The issues is that when looking at the economic blunders of the past, it is quite obvious that this will produce similar results. Then again, the Wilsons, Roosevelts and Johnsons of America, are the ones promoted as heroes. It is mind-boggling that their failed policies are considered successes. This goes to show that the Keynesian side of the economic coin, where all these guys sit, is a giant pile of shit. The progressives and liberals however, refuse to look at the solid proof and only concern themselves with finding a “moral” solution, regardless of the consequences. But really, what is moral about helping a few by robbing the many? Realistically, even those seemingly helped at first, are only stripped of their self-reliance and thus, become losers in the long run. In the end, the “morally superior” stance of the left is oxy-moronic and creates a lose/lose situation for everyone.

7. Conclusion:

We’ve gone on a pretty extensive journey through time here but hopefully now, you have a better understanding of the destructive nature of progressive policy. Between the Square Deal, Wilsonian idiocy, the New Deal, the Great Society and Obamacare, we have been suffocated by the iron grip of big government. Freedom has been sacrificed for extremely bad ideas. I can’t fault the earlier progressives for trying new things but when their policies failed, they should’ve checked their ego and turned the tide.

For whatever reason, history is on the side of these idiots. I blame teachers’ unions and the Education Industrial Complex. With the vast majority of teachers being leftists, due to union pressure or just their own stupidity, it is no wonder that they, the benefactors of these policies, have presented these giant failures as successes. I’d hate to go all conspiratorial and shit, but it is about the only thing that makes sense.

In the end, the progressives are dead wrong but the people are indoctrinated with a moral code that pays no attention to basic economics. Because of this, we have a nation of people who cry for social justice and government aid, not realizing that in doing so, they are only digging their hole deeper and deeper. These people remind me of the citizens of Gotham City in 1989′s ‘Batman’. The Joker promised riches and dreams and people flocked to the streets to collect the free money he was throwing in the air. Unfortunately, they believed the hype and the promises and were then gassed and killed by the provider of those empty promises of prosperity and hope. In the real world, Batman isn’t there to save the day.

Eventually, we’re going to be in such a bad state, where we’ll have two choices. To pick ourselves up from our own bootstraps and learn to be self-reliant again or to once again turn towards a government who has perpetuated all this economic madness. I’d hate to say it but signs point to option two. The progressives have done far too much damage for it to be fixable. I guess there is a glimmer of “hope” but faith is in very short supply.