Liberalism is the Big Lie: ObamaCare Embodies It

In today's Chicago Tribune, a sneering Eric Zorn dismisses concerns about Americans being forced to pay for health care they don't want. Where's his liberal sensibility on civil liberties?

18 states are now challenging ObamaCare. Gee, why is that? Individual mandates, something our President Barack Obama opposed as a candidate. And is Zorn really endorsing the unfunded mandate shell game that will cost Illinois another billion or so it doesn't have? The state is already bankrupt. We are facing huge tax increases under this Dem mismanagement and further loss of Illinois jobs, yet we're probably going to be forced to pay for expensive "health care" like in- vitro fertilization? Is this a life-threatening illness? Should we all have to pay for someone's lifestyle choice?

The CBO is garbage in garbage out. They can't extrapolate and make logical further pronouncements--they work for the Congressional majority of the time, which is Democrat these days. Though what are we hearing now after ObamaCare has passed--that we are on a fiscally unsustainable path, with talk of equally ruinous, job-killing higher taxes:

Elmendorf also declined to estimate what a VAT tax level would need to be to cover the 2020 debt, which the CBO predicted will be 90 percent of GDP.

In talking about that 90-percent figure, Elmendorf's low-key, clinical assessment drew chuckles from a group of reporters at a breakfast hosted by the Christian Science Monitor:

"That would put us in a very select group of developed countries," he said. "There are relatively few developed countries that have debt-to-GDP ratios that high."

Hahaha a laugh a minute. A basket-case economy, how hilarious. Presumably those chuckling are Zorn's clueless, elitist MSM counterparts.

Is it a "Big Lie" to deduce common sense consequences--more than 16,000 IRS agents? That's no joke to most Americans. After all, they are taxing us just for living. You can judge the results of the bill for yourselves, the Republican House Ways and Means members report is here. "Democrats’ Health Care Bill Contains Massive Expansion of IRS’s Power". Highlights:

• IRS agents verify if you have “acceptable” health care coverage;
  
• IRS has the authority to fine you up to $2,250 or 2 percent of your income (whichever is greater) for failure to prove that you have purchased “minimum essential coverage;”
  
• IRS can confiscate your tax refund;
  
• IRS audits are likely to increase;
  
• IRS will need up to $10 billion to administer the new health care program this decade;
  
• IRS may need to hire as many as 16,500 additional auditors, agents and other employees to investigate and collect billions in new taxes from Americans; and
  
• Nearly half of all these new individual mandate taxes will be paid by Americans earning less than 300 percent of poverty ($66,150 for a family of four.)

The Senate bill which ultimately passed doesn't outline enforcement penalties, but the original House bill implied jail time, confirmed by Congress' Joint Committee on Taxation, so we haven't conjured this worry out of thin air. And who knows what these unprincipled Dems will shove through next? No, they probably won't be toting guns, despite libertarian Rep. Ron Paul's assertion, but maybe he can't forget what happened in a neighboring congressional district-- the thuggish and horrifying civil liberties abuse at Waco--children died at the hands of the ATF trying to "save" them-- under the Dem Clinton administration. Yes, Koresh was nuts but the government was criminally incompetent--76 people died.

Perhaps we could look at what the IRS has to say on the matter. The head of the IRS himself prissily confirms they have their ways--they will have the power of the purse--grabbing your refund.

Let's consider another consequence of the IRS onslaught--some have wondered whether this is a bug or feature of the ObamaCare bill--a backdoor way to destroy the private insurance market and usher in a Big Government takeover. We are already seeing this start to happen in blue Massachusetts, the closest blueprint to ObamaCare. To non-profits. Harvard. Lots of supposedly "greedy" liberals squealing over there, being demonized by their governor, another Obama blueprint. WSJ:

This week it became impossible in Massachusetts for small businesses and individuals to buy health-care coverage after Governor Deval Patrick imposed price controls on premiums. Read on, because under ObamaCare this kind of political showdown will soon be coming to an insurance market near you. [snip]

Yet all of the major Massachusetts insurers are nonprofits. Three of largest four—Blue Cross Blue Shield, Tufts Health Plan and Fallon Community Health—posted operating losses in 2009. In an emergency suit heard in Boston superior court yesterday, they argued that the arbitrary rate cap will result in another $100 million in collective losses this year and make it impossible to pay the anticipated cost of claims. It may even threaten the near-term solvency of some companies. So until the matter is resolved, the insurers have simply stopped selling new policies.

University of Chicago Professor of Law Richard A. Epstein details the pending disaster that is ObamaCare.

Zorn jokes about the right to seize our firstborn. Well, we know the consequences to the unborn. Death to the innocent in the womb, life saving drugs denied to those deemed unworthy, the elderly shunted to the side. Freedoms lost in a myriad of ways. And then there's the issue of making future generations pay for the American Dream they may never enjoy.

In his patronizing, orchestrated attempt to "unpack" the Big Lie, Zorn misses the Big Picture once again.

Forced to pay, left to die.

There is no liberty left in liberalism.

Liberalism is the Big Lie.

--crossposted at BackyardConservative