Waxmanism, the New McCarthyism |
By CFIF Staff
Thursday, August 20 2009 |
Since over-the-top name calling is the new sine qua non (see Boethius) of public policy debate, from the President on down to the congressional backbench second through ninth circles of hell (see Dante), let’s just get real deep in the big muddy with the rest of them. That civil discourse stuff, which we once supported, is for varsity losers. Henry Waxman is the Joseph McCarthy of the Left. Actually, that’s a disservice to McCarthy, who was at least a patriot. Waxman, nominally Chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee and a principal architect of the infamous House version of “health care reform,” is, in reality, just a petty martinet from Hollywood, which is weird, given the McCarthy comparison, don’t you think? With Waxman, are you now or have ever been a member of the Communist Party has metamorphosed (see Kafka, bugs) into are you now or have you ever been paid for work and how much (including salary, bonus, grant date fair value of stock and option awards, the realized value of all sales of stock and exercised options, non-equity incentive plan compensation, change in pension value and nonqualified deferred compensation earnings and all other compensation including perquisites)... That’s part – a small part, mind you – of the “request” that Waxman and some toady named Bart Stupak, Chairman of the House Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, have sent to the “largest” health insurance companies, 52 of them, to be exact, which is a lot of largest. The “request,” dated August 17, is not a subpoena as some news outlets have erroneously reported...at least not yet. And, oh by the way, please provide some of the information by September 4 and the rest by September 14. You do see what is happening here, don’t you, dear readers? Ever since the Obama/Pelosi/Waxman et al government takeover of health care got the raspberry from the American people, who are far from done, and the President’s poll numbers went down faster than a nuclear sub, which are also still far from done, a desperate search for villains other than Obama/Pelosi/Waxman et al has ensued post haste. Town Hallers, tea baggers, Nazis (see Pelosi), evil (see Reid) and otherwise fishy folks (see Obama) who just want to keep government hands off our last remaining privates are becoming far too numerous, diverse and effective for comfort (see polling). Thus did “health care reform” metamorphose (see Kafka, bugs, again) into “health insurance reform,” with the “villains” clearly identified as those greedy, grubby health insurance companies. Couldn’t be the drug companies; they cut a deal, and none of them seem responsible for the red and blue (and purple and green) Obama-branded ecstasy pills out there. Couldn’t be the AMA or AARP; they’re in the tank, albeit with blood in the water. Going after docs was getting a bit scary; they go to work with sharp implements. We have no particular brief for or against health insurance companies. As with any segment of society or business, there are some bad apples, but, by and large, they are necessary and they are what they are and do what they do. Nevertheless, they are about to be demonized – because an overreaching administration and an overreaching liberal Congress are having near-death visions because of their own excesses. Since reason and logic are no longer part of any truly effective public policy debate, we are not surprised that an analysis by Dr. Mark J. Perry, a professor of economics and finance at the University of Michigan, is being soundly ignored. Dr. Perry simply looked at a table of “Profit Margins by Industry.” And where did the soon-to-be savaged and vilified health insurance companies (categorized in the table as “health care plans”) fit? Eighty-sixth. With a whopping profit margin of 3.3 percent. They could more than double their profit margins by running restaurants and almost double them by making footwear. If they really wanted to go for the gold in profit margins, they’d be brewing beer with 25.9 percent profit margins. Just to put health insurance companies’ profits in the appropriate context, let’s look only at the profit margins of other health-related fields. Why, there’s “REIT – Healthcare Facilities” at 24.3 percent; “Drug Manufacturers – Major” at 16.5 percent; “Drug Delivery” at 13.5 percent; “Healthcare Information Services” at 9.3 percent; “Home Health Care” at 8.4 percent; “Drugs – Generic” at 6.6 percent; “Accident & Health Insurance” at 3.8 percent; “Hospitals” at 3.6 percent and, finally, the lowly “Health Care Plans” at 3.3 percent. That’s a lot of numbers, for which we apologize, but that’s context, in a vicious juggernaut for the government to control our health care and demonize anyone who stands in the way. Just to close the circle, all you Hollywood Liberals who think Chairman Waxman is oh so cool, you might want to remember, if any of you are still old enough, when your guys were in the dock. These kind of tactics come around and go around, and history won’t differentiate the ideology. P.S. All you liberal morons who wish to label us as thugs, would you please make that “intellectual thugs,” otherwise the Latin and literary references are wasted. At least we didn’t observe that Waxman is a short man with a mustache, as was Hitler. |
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