{"id":2047,"date":"2009-11-12T17:40:48","date_gmt":"2009-11-12T22:40:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/?p=2047"},"modified":"2009-11-12T17:40:48","modified_gmt":"2009-11-12T22:40:48","slug":"and-they-wonder-why-we-have-tea-parties","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/2047\/and-they-wonder-why-we-have-tea-parties\/","title":{"rendered":"And They Wonder Why We Have Tea Parties"},"content":{"rendered":"

In one of the best critiques of action without regard to consequences, celebrated chaos theoretician Ian<\/a> Malcolm<\/a> said about overzealous experts that they were “so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn’t stop to think if they should.”<\/p>\n

From bio-ethics to evidence-based public policy, it is astounding that the 220 members of the U.S. House of Representatives and at least a score of senators who support the Obama Administration\u2019s health care \u201creform\u201d plan cannot answer the following question:<\/p>\n

It\u2019s one of the most basic, kitchen-table questions of the entire reform debate: Would the sweeping $900 billion overhaul actually lower spiraling insurance premiums for everyone?<\/p>\n

No one really knows.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And it\u2019s not just that people haven\u2019t read the bill, or studies analyzing its impact on the cost of health care. It\u2019s that the data doesn\u2019t exist<\/em>.<\/p>\n

At a recent Senate health committee hearing, two health care rivals \u2013 Douglas Holtz-Eakin, an economic adviser to Sen. John McCain\u2019s presidential campaign, and Jonathan Gruber, an economics professor whose work is cited often by the White House \u2013 agreed comprehensive, objective evidence wasn\u2019t available for small and large businesses.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s insane,\u201d Holtz-Eakin said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Agreed. Thankfully, at least one Democratic Senator thinks information \u2013 not just assurances \u2013 is needed before committing American taxpayers to a trillion dollar decision.<\/p>\n

The lack of data prompted Sen. Evan Bayh (D-Ind.) to request a broad analysis from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office on premiums, which he said was \u201ca basic, bottom-line question that we have to have answered before we can decide if this is an intelligent thing to do.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Now we see why Senator Bayh didn\u2019t make the cut to be Vice President. He likes to consult factually-based, non-partisan research before voting in favor of the largest expansion of federal social services in 40 years.<\/p>\n

Characteristically, top Obama advisors have a different view \u2013 one that chooses the devil we don\u2019t know instead of the devil we do.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think you could always use more data,\u201d (White House Health Czar Nancy-Ann) DeParle said, but added that \u201cwe have plenty of data on where things are and where things are headed without reform.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Did you catch the barely concealed contempt for \u201cbusiness as usual\u201d and the stifled urge to blame the previous administration?<\/p>\n

All this would be comical if there weren\u2019t a $787 billion stimulus package in circulation, the consequences of which still defy an ability to be measured or predicted. To their credit, some Democratic caucus members are joining Senator Bayh\u2019s (belated) rush to judge the health care \u201creform\u201d bill on its merits.<\/p>\n

Lawmakers say they are hungry for data that assures them they are not voting for a bill that does the opposite what they have intended.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to see an objective, third-party analysis from people who don\u2019t have a conflict of interest,\u201d said Sen. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.). \u201cI like evidence.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Good. So do the people being asked to finance health care \u201creform\u201d unto the nth generation.<\/p>\n

You can read the entire article from Politico<\/em> here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In one of the best critiques of action without regard to consequences, celebrated chaos theoretician Ian Malcolm said about overzealous experts that they were “so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn’t stop to think if they should.” From bio-ethics to evidence-based public policy, it is astounding that the 220 members of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[489,465,488,490,24,179,44],"class_list":["post-2047","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-posts","tag-evan-bayh","tag-health-care-reform","tag-ian-malcolm","tag-kent-conrad","tag-obama","tag-stimulus","tag-white-house"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2047","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2047"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2047\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2055,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2047\/revisions\/2055"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2047"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2047"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2047"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}