Universal health care in America at any cost? No!

by Arnie Webre, Jr.

Last night, like millions of Americans, I watched President Barack Obama's televised news conference about health care reform.

Although he spoke in conservative terms about his very liberal, general ideas about universal health care in America, he had me until he said that taxing only rich Americans to pay for the health care reform would meet his criteria, or words to that effect.

I appreciated that the president backed off of the earlier insistence that all businesses would be punished for not providing insurance to their employees by billing them with high penalty fees.

Currently, the proposal is that small businesses that have an annual payroll of less than $250,000 are completely exempt from these penalty fees, and those with payrolls over $250,000 have their penalty fees capped at 8 percent of revenue.

That is much better than what the proposal was before last night; however, I still believe that 8 percent is too high -- it should be no more than 5 percent of any businesses revenue.

Although I genuinely admire and like President Obama, I was shocked to hear a sitting President of the United States say, in effect, that it was okay to tax only the richest Americans for the 46-million newly insured under his plan. I honestly do not remember when it was that the United States became a Marxist socialist [communist] nation.

As a matter of fact, I do not think that The United States of America is a Marxist socialist [communist] nation, and I do not remember such a thing having happened, while I was preoccupied with other things.

I have always given President Obama the benefit of any doubt because I liked him; he is affable, has a brilliant mind, and I was glad to see the United States get a worthy African-American as President. I think it was high time that we broke that glass ceiling.

Nevertheless, after I watched his televised newscast, I had a bad feeling about his approval of the idea of taxing only the richest Americans.

Communism (Marxist socialism) equals shared wealth.

The Merriam-Webster Dictionary says that the number one definition of communism is "1: social organization in which goods are held in common."

Well, I guess fiat money can be called a type of good or a type of asset. But in this case, we are not talking about asking only the richest Americans to pay for goods for the 46-million who do not have goods. We are asking a small number of rich Americans to pay for the health care services of 46-million people, who do not currently have it.

I call that Marxist socialism, communism.

President Obama calls it a community.

In an interview earlier this week, the president said that it was alright for him and other rich Americans to pay for the health care of the 46-million Americans who did not have it; "that's what a community is. We share with one another," or words to that effect.

Excuse me, but I remember very clearly when President Chavez, after having met and talked with President Obama, said that Barack Obama was more of a socialist than Chavez was, or words to that effect.

As much as I dislike what President Chavez' socialist regime has done to Venezuela, its people and its businesses, it appears that Chavez was, indeed, correct about President Obama.

Barack Obama, the U.S. President, was, as he explained his program to Americans on television last night, doing what he did to, first, get elected as a U.S. senator in the conservative state of Illinois and, secondly, to get elected as President of the United States of America.

He hid his real agenda by talking in conservative terms about his outlandishly liberal, Marxist socialist agenda. Clearly, President Obama has read The Prince, by Machiavelli. Obama understands that he must say one thing, but mean another, saying what people do not want to hear in soft, careful, comfortable, conservative language, while his real agenda is totally different than what he is projecting.

He has duped the American voters, as he is not what he represents himself to be.

Now more than ever, I thank God for the conservative Blue Dog and moderate Democrats and the Republicans, who will not let President Obama make only the richest Americans pay for the health care of 46-million newly insured Americans(1).

That is not a principal of a democracy; that is not a principal of the United States, at all -- even if most voters want something for nothing, and President Obama wants to give it to them, so he will easily be re-elected in three-and-one-half years from now.

Most of all, I thank God for the checks and balances built into our democracy by our forefathers.

Please support conservative Blue Dog and moderate Democrats and Republicans fighting the idea of only one select group of Americans paying for health care reform: the idea is un-American.

In a democracy, we help each other by choice, not by government dictate.

NOTE:
The author of this article is not a rich American, though he is proud to be an American.