Back in 2013 I wrote an article called “Let the People Decide,” which you can read here, wherein I argued that the people, you know, those who elected politicians to pass laws on our behalf, ought to have a say in what laws are passed. Specifically, I discussed legislation concerning Obamacare, Illegal Immigration and the definition of marriage. On Comprehensive Immigration Reform I noted:

We are, for some reason, entrusting our elected leaders to handle this very sensitive potential piece of legislation, one that will affect America and what she becomes in a most profound way, without a proper discussion about the horrendous effects on a massive scale it will have. On such a monumental issue with monumental consequences, shouldn’t we have an open debate, one that is not controlled by the media, so that every side is allowed to be heard fairly?

Congressional Republicans now find themselves in the midst of the healthcare debate, with an opportunity to make good on their promise to repeal and replace Obamacare, and they’re missing the point.

First of all, they’re having such a hard time repealing a piece of awful legislation because they’re also trying to replace it, and I understand why. Obama and company made such a mess out of healthcare with Obamacare that to simply and immediately repeal it could leave many Americans in a bad place and possibly feeling betrayed. That would do immense harm to the Republican party, potentially affecting the outcomes of future elections.

The point Congress is missing, though, is that government has no business involving itself in healthcare. Obamacare is free to exist but only as a private entity absent any government involvement, which means no individual mandate to purchase healthcare insurance.

At this stage, however, it’s important to have a plan, a backup plan and another backup plan. It’s also important to consult with professionals who actually know something about the issue. Why aren’t we involving doctors, medical professionals, healthcare insurance specialists, and other experts in the field? They are the ones who can really offer advice and knowledge that most who serve in Congress simply don’t have.

And what’s the real rush? I’d rather Congress take the time to get it right than to push something through just for the sake of saying they got it done. That’s usually when bad legislation gets passed.

Once they do hash out a sensible plan a passing majority of Republicans can agree on, I want to hear a discussion about the pros and cons, advantages and disadvantages, for and against a proposed bill. The people deserve that. The last thing they need to do is make the same mistakes made with Obamacare.

Like I suggested in my 2013 article, I want a debate and discussion publicly aired without the  mainstream media being overly involved. That means no panel of moderators playing biased political tricks and laying sneaky traps by asking “gotcha” questions. Sorry CNN, you’re fake news and have no credibility. There should be no mainstream media involved other than to air the discussion and organize commercial breaks. That’s about it.

I don’t even want to hear much from the key politicians who craft the bill. I want to hear from experts so that all can hear what needs to be heard about such an important topic. Then I want Congress to hear from American citizens. I can’t trust politicians to pass laws on issues they’re not familiar with, much less be able to understand and explain complex principles about those very specific issues? Much of Congress is comprised of lawyers and bureaucrats. Why would we leave such important tasks solely in their hands?

Tom Folden is a political strategist, conservative thinker, and Editor of RightWingWriter.com, a website for conservative viewpoints. A human rights activist, he is a firm believer in the Constitution and the rule of law. He is also a singer/songwriter and recording artist. For interviews and/or appearances, please contact him at spencergroup@hotmail.com.

Last Thursday Senate Republicans presented their own version of a healthcare bill as a replacement for Obamacare, as if it needs to be replaced. It doesn’t but Republicans are still feverishly trying to appeal to Democrats in offering them an alternative they could be satisfied with. Democrats, however, have been indoctrinated into believing that healthcare is a right. It is not a right, it’s a commodity.

Right off the bat Senators Mike Lee, Rand Paul, Ted Cruz and Ron Johnson vowed to not vote for this bill unless it is amended. This Senate bill, as well as the House version and of course the original bill which became Obamacare, has a price tag of over a trillion dollars. A major point of repealing and replacing Obamacare is to eliminate costs, not add to them. That’s why it is important to repeal Obamacare and not replace it.

As I’ve been saying for years, the government has no place in tampering with healthcare. Capitalism already creates opportunities for the free market to work the way it’s supposed to, through competition. The only role government has as regards healthcare is to ensure that no one is taken advantage of or treated unfairly.

Individual insurance companies should be able to choose what coverage they want to offer. After all, like any other company, they exist to provide a service and make a profit. The more variety of coverage insurance companies offer, such as to patients with pre-existing conditions, the more profitable they can be. The more companies compete, through capitalism and the free market system, the less patients have to pay. That is a solution-based approach to healthcare.

It’s not the role of government in a capitalistic system to create laws that affect the relationship between patient and physician. It’s not even for the government to make sure that people with pre-existing conditions are covered. And it’s certainly not for government to mandate that Americans must purchase health insurance, as was the case with Obamacare. In this case it is the responsibility of government to ensure that no one is forced to purchase healthcare. That is tyrannical and unconstitutional, despite any U.S. Supreme Court ruling.

I’d like to see a law that makes it mandatory to publically address the nation when a controversial bill, such as this needless healthcare bill, comes before the House or the Senate. When a bill meets a certain criteria of controversy, Congressional leaders would be responsible to inform citizens of what the bill is, what it says and does, who it will affect and how. Each party would have an opportunity to voice their positions and no interruptions would be tolerated. The public would then be able to weigh in and express its approval or non-approval. Congresspersons who are smart will listen to the public and vote the right way, representing their constituents. If after passage the new law is different than described (like Obamacare was founded to be), that part of the bill must either be altered to what it was described as, or gotten rid of from the rest of the law. If that proves not to be a solution, the law should be scrapped altogether and repealed entirely.

Tom Folden is a political strategist, conservative thinker, and Editor of RightWingWriter.com, a website for conservative viewpoints. A human rights activist, he is a firm believer in the Constitution and the rule of law. He is also a singer/songwriter and recording artist. For interviews and/or appearances, please contact him at spencergroup@hotmail.com.

In 2010, with control of the House, Senate and presidency, former President Barack Obama and Democrats pushed through the misnomered “Affordable Care Act” on the sly. With no support from Republicans, Americans were aghast at the dirty political game Democrats played. Little or no discussion was allowed on debatably the worst bill in American history.

To most people’s astonishment, Nancy Pelosi stated that we must pass the bill to find out what’s in it. Needless to say, this angered the right. Can you imagine if people lived their lives the way Pelosi proscribed? Can you imagine going into a restaurant, seeing an item on the menu with no description and the waiter says, “You have to order it to find out what’s in it?”

Obama himself promised that Obamacare would allow Americans to keep their doctors if they liked their doctors, keep their current plans if they liked their current plans, and that costs would drop $2,500 per year for the average family. All these promises were broken and costs actually rose.

Americans elected Donald Trump because he promised to repeal and replace Obamacare. Repealing it is the right thing to do but why replace it? Government has no business in healthcare. We are not a communist or socialist society, thank God.

Healthcare should be between a doctor and his/her patients and contrary to the opinions of most on the left, healthcare is not a “right.” People should have the right to access healthcare if they can pay for it themselves, but the wealthiest Americans shouldn’t be forced to pay for the healthcare of others the way Obamacare mandated. Certainly, no one should be obligated to purchase healthcare as Obamacare also mandated.

With the new American Health Care Act bill, which is slated to be voted on today, we still don’t know what’s in it. Americans haven’t been privy to all the details of this bill and able to mull it over for themselves. The GOP would be wise not to make the same mistakes the left made in passing Obamacare. There should be a thorough analysis and open discussion about the pros and cons of this new bill and the public should be able to weigh in, after all it affects them.

Passing Obamacare in the middle of the night was deceptive, conniving and a politically rotten thing to do. We expect that from the left, but the right needs to take the higher road where this bill is concerned. Since I haven’t seen the bill or heard much about it, my gut tells me this isn’t the best we can do. This bill may be terrific, amazing and phenomenal, but let’s find out first.

Tom Folden is a political strategist, conservative thinker, and Editor of RightWingWriter.com, a website for conservative viewpoints. A Tea Party original, he is a firm believer in the Constitution and the rule of law. He is also a singer/songwriter and recording artist. For interviews and/or appearances, please contact him at spencergroup@hotmail.com.

Today I received an email from Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) announcing the Supreme Court ruling on Obamacare as a victory and calling for Republicans to join with them. So I had to respond. Below is the message from the senator (thank God she is not running for another term) followed by my message back to her.

Dear Friend:

Today we shared an incredible moment in our nation’s history. The Supreme Court, in a 6-3 decision, delivered a victory for the millions of Americans who now have affordable health care – many of them for the first time in their lives – because of Obamacare.

After all the lawsuits and more than 50 votes in Congress to repeal or weaken Obamacare, it is long past time for Republicans to end their efforts to undermine the Affordable Care Act and join us in fulfilling the promise of quality, affordable health care for all.

Sincerely,

 

Barbara Boxer

United States Senator

Be assured today’s Supreme Court decision is not a win for Americans by any stretch of the imagination. In fact, I believe you are only imagining that it is a win. To be sure, Obamacare (erroneously called the Affordable Care Act) is an unmitigated disaster for millions of Americans. Covered California is also a huge disaster. I’m so sick of all the lying that President Obama has been doing when he claims that it is so successful. I understand he wants this to be his crowning achievement in office but most people with a brain understand the negative impact this “law” has and they understand even more the deception behind his rhetoric. It’s unfortunate he and your party have much of the nation fooled. It’s unfortunate he and your party get away with lying to the American people.

Make no mistake, we didn’t share an incredible moment in our nation’s history today. You shared with your party an incredible duping of American citizens, even those who voted for you. Indeed it is incredible that you and your party were able to get away with this unconstitutional act. Now the country must pay for it. Soon we’ll see doctors retiring, healthcare worsening, people’s health suffering and companies and corporations leaving the country in droves. How’s that for a crowning achievement?

This bill was unscrupulously passed into law without it being adequately debated. When Rep. Nancy Pelosi says congress has to pass the bill so we can find out what’s in it, don’t you think that is a huge red flag? And you complain about Republicans opposing it. What is wrong with you, Senator? This is no cause for celebration. It is cause for mourning.

On October 21, 2013 the sitting president Barack Hussein Obama gave a speech in the White House Rose Garden on how wonderful Obamacare is and that the only thing wrong with it are a few minor kinks on the website that need to be worked out. The launch of this website www.healthcare.gov has been such an unmitigated disaster that the president needed to come out and implement damage control. Here is some of what he had to say:

“The essence of the law, the health insurance that’s available to people, is working just fine.”

This doesn’t make much sense to me. The essence of the law is not the availability of health insurance. It’s the fact that it’s a law that mandates people purchase health insurance. And no, it’s not working just fine.

“In some cases, actually, it’s exceeding expectations. The prices are lower than we expected, the choice is greater than we expected,” he continues.

Baloney. It is not working and he knows it. He just tells everybody it is so they’ll believe him (because that trick has worked for him in the past). The way he delivers those false words sounds convincing to his low information voting base, and that’s good enough for the mainstream media.

Additionally, prices are higher for a majority of Americans in a majority of states, regardless of their age. The only people for whom prices are lower are those subsidized in some ways, meaning taxpayers, you and I, are helping pay for their insurance.

“The problem has been that the website that’s supposed to make it easier to apply for and purchase the insurance is not working the way it should for everybody. And there’s no sugar-coating it. The website has been too slow, people have been getting stuck during the application process, and I think it’s fair to say that nobody’s more frustrated by that than I am,” he blathers on.

Actually, it’s not fair to say. He did not have to endure the frustration of trying to go online and purchase his own awful product, one he tries to sell as “good” and “great.”

“Precisely because the product is good, I want the cash registers to work, I want the checkout lines to be smooth, so I want people to be able to get this great product. And there’s no excuse for the problems.”

Admitting to a problem with the rollout of his signature legislation is much easier than admitting to the failures of his signature legislation. But what Obama did not say, as Dick Morris pointed out in his line-by-line analysis of Obama’s speech, is that a large number of Americans are not purchasing the new government-mandated health insurance. If they were, wouldn’t the president be boasting about it? It certainly would be easier to believe him if it were so, but it simply is not.

He also doesn’t mention that those contracted to build the website www.healthcare.gov were his campaign donors. One would think that for $634 million, and three years to perfect, the website designed for the most massive entitlement program America has ever seen should be flawless and the launch should be seamless. But government is usually good at one thing and one thing only: wasting taxpayers’ money.

In just about any speech President Obama gives, he lies and speaks in opposites. By that I mean he says things that are the exact opposite of what they really are. Take, for instance, the speech he delivered from the White House South Court Auditorium on September 16, 2013, just minutes after the Navy Yard shooting in the same city.

As Republicans steadily gain traction toward defunding the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, better known as “Obamacare,” Obama found it necessary to counter this effort by ripping into the GOP. His objective was to refocus the attention away from the truth and toward falsehoods that his constituents, the low information voters, will easily buy into.

By framing healthcare in America as a “crisis,” the left can easily mislead people onto its side of the issue. The Clintons did this in their administration in the ‘90s by creating a “healthcare crisis.” Most Americans knew that there really was no such thing, but the left used this myth to mislead the rest of America into buying into this story so that the Clinton administration could create another massive bureaucracy they could control.

Today we actually do have a healthcare crisis, but it’s not because so many millions of Americans don’t have healthcare or healthcare insurance. It’s because Obama and the left have created one by pushing and passing Obamacare. The real crisis is that the quality of healthcare is going to suffer because of this awful piece of legislation. And costs will rise as a result.

The left has managed to convince many Americans that they have a “right” to healthcare when this is simply absurd. Certainly we have a right to purchase healthcare insurance, but the government doesn’t have a right to force us to purchase healthcare insurance, as is mandated by Obamacare. It would be nice to have it but we don’t live in a utopia the left is trying to create, nor will we ever.

But that doesn’t stop Obama from trying to push it on us, as he has done since the onset of his administration. In his address to the nation on Monday, he pulled no punches and attacked those who know better about the effect Obamacare will have on the economy. He claimed “one party” (the GOP) promises economic chaos by not funding Obamacare. Yes, Mr. President, that is exactly what it will do. In fact, it already has. Just look at all the major corporations that have decided to cut down their employees’ hours because of it.

He speaks as if Obamacare is going to cure all of America’s economic woes.

“A lot of the, uh, horror stories that were predicted about how this was gonna [sic] shoot rates way up and there were gonna [sic] be death panels, and all that stuff,” he says, “none of that stuff happened. And there’s no evidence that the law, which has helped keep costs down to their lowest figures, is holding back economic growth.”

I would advise Obama, and the rest of the country to read the law. It actually does call for a panel to determine whether a patient can receive a certain treatment, which could in fact be life-saving. I call that a death panel.

As far as the law keeping costs down, I would remind him that the bill was originally estimated to cost around $800 billion. The CBO currently estimates that it will cost $1.8 trillion, a far cry from its original figure.

He makes the claim that no “serious economist” would say that repealing Obamacare is the number one thing that must be done to boost economic growth. Serious economists think that Obamacare is a good thing for the economy? I would beg to differ. I don’t think he understands what a serious economist is or how one thinks.

Obama also says he is “more than willing to work with Republicans, where they have specific suggestions, to make our health care system work better.” Again, he is the one who has been unwilling to budge. Republicans have put out plans to do this. Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) have been a viable option for years, but since it is not a Democrat idea, and it doesn’t expand government, Obama and the left will hear nothing of it.

“After all the work in the past five years” that his team has “put into Obamacare,” he continues, “are some of these folks so beholden to one extreme wing of their party that they’re willing to tank the entire economy just because they can’t get their way on this issue? Are they really willing to hurt people just to score political points?”

For you Mr. Obama, yes they are. They, too, have been blinded and brainwashed by you and the ignorant, short-sided ideas of your party and your quest for a utopian society.

“I will not negotiate over the full faith and credit of the United States,” he chides. “This country has worked too hard for too long to dig out of a crisis just to see the Representatives here in Washington purposely cause another crisis.”

Wait a minute, Mr. President. Your pal Rahm Emmanuel welcomes crises. He suggested to not let one go to waste.

Continuing to blame Republicans, he lectures, “Let’s stop the threats, stop the political posturing, let’s keep the government open, let’s pay our bills on time, let’s pass a budget, let’s work together to do what the American people sent us here to do: create jobs, grow our economy, expand opportunity. That’s what we need to do.”

What a noble idea. If only Democrats were inclined to take his advice. Republicans want to keep the government open. They just want to shut down Obamacare, which is a good thing. Obamacare stifles the creation of jobs, the growth of our economy and the expansion of opportunity. Additionally, Republicans were sent to Congress to repeal Obamacare.

“It’s time for responsible Republicans who share these goals,” Obama continues, “and there are a number of folks out there who I think, uh, are decent folks, I’ve got some disagreements with them on some issues, but who genuinely want to see the economy grow and want what’s best for the American people, it’s time for those Republicans to stand up and they gotta [sic] decide what they want to prioritize.”

Talk about a run-on sentence. And talk about political posturing, what he earlier scolded Republicans for. This is how Obama operates. It’s important to understand this. The way he delivers a speech is designed toward demeaning his opposition and deceiving the public who don’t know better (i.e. the low information voters). By speaking to them and saying things that aren’t true, that he knows they’ll believe, he deliberately lies to the American people.