Thanks Randy Gage for sharing this insight!
If you wonder how to enact change in an electorate and introduce an
expensive program that will end up costing the taxpayers trillions
of dollars, it couldn't be done any better than the Obama
administration did with the health care plan in the U.S. And it
offers some tangible lessons in how governments can break the laws
of prosperity and seemingly get away with it.
Now of course laws of prosperity cannot truly be broken. But when
you can resort to simply printing more money when deficits appear,
it can look that way on the surface.
The way to get any boondoggle government program like this through
is tried and tested: Pander to the entitlement mentality of the
herd promising increased benefits, cook the budget books to
minimize the apparent cost, and promise to balance the budget on
the backs of those evil, greedy rich people.
And as their election demonstrated, no one has done this better in
decades than the President Obama and his campaign team. In this
case, they took their "yes we can" and "time for a change" themes
and hung them like gaudy necklaces around the health care plan.
The basic strategy was genius, utilizing the proverbial boiling the
frog analogy that corny motivational speakers have been using for
decades.
Gradually introduce the new entitlements and hook the herd on them
like a crack dealer does with the goods. Create a disconnect
between the new goodies and the budget deficits they create. By
the time the collateral damage become apparent, the frog is already
cooked.
In this case, the administration used the audacity of hype, er,
hope, to actually suggest the plan will CUT $74 billion from the
deficit. (And if you believe that, I have some ocean front
property in Arizona to sell you.)
Now how would anyone believe this to begin with you may wonder...
Well it's what Hollywood calls "suspending disbelief." Kind of
like when Pam Ewing woke up and Bobby walked out of the shower on
Dallas and assured her those couple of years he had been dead was
just a dream.
All the herd wants to hear is that the evil insurance companies
can't cut them, the evil drugs companies will have to provide them
with free prescriptions, and those rich, golfing doctors will have
to treat them. And naturally these "rights" should be paid for by
taxing the rest of those money-grubbing rich people.
It sounds good, looks good, and even looks good on paper. And the
campaign was run about as brilliantly as president Obama's
election, allowing the administration to accomplish what scores of
other Robin Hood wannabe's over the years have failed at.
Unfortunately for the administration, they omitted to deal with one
pesky little chink in the armor...
That is the Security and Exchange Commissions rule requiring
companies to restate their earnings to reflect present value of
long-term health plan liabilities.
So last week AT&T was the first company to comply, announcing that
it will have to make a $1 billion write down because of the new
health care bill. (Companies that offer prescription drug benefits
to their retirees instead of dumping them onto Medical and other
government entitlement programs are hit hard by the new law.)
So now the administration has Commerce Secretary Gary Locke
blogging and hitting the TV circuit attacking companies that "imply
that reform will raise costs for them." He went so far as to say
on CNBC that these companies making the statements were "premature
and irresponsible."
House Democrats have even announced that they will drag these
companies into hearings in April because they conflict with
independent analysis that shows the new plan will actually "bring
down costs."
Yeah, right.
But of course these companies are simply doing what they are
required by law. So it will be interesting to see how this all
plays out.
The new health care plan is just as Vice President Biden so aptly
described it, "a big fucking deal." As in big fucking deficits.
But once you give the kiddies the crack, they're hooked.
So the real question will be how they play out this requirement
that companies restate their earnings to reflect the actual cost of
all these new goodies for the herd.
As long as they keep hyping it as those evil, greedy capitalists
trying to rip off the little guy, that should play very well in
Peoria. So the new bill should survive and be immensely
popular with the herd.
Unfortunately for them, it will actually lead to more layoffs,
downsizing and corporate bankruptcy, because while you can create
the illusion of breaking prosperity laws, you can't actually break
them.
The only free cheese is in the mousetrap.
-RG
Isagenix Nutritional Cleansing
