ObamaCare can and must be repealed

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/politics/obama/ct-oped-1005-byrne-20101005,0,3014554.column

by Dennis Byrne

Can ObamaCare, the most complex, far-reaching and epically destructive legislation enacted in living memory be repealed?


The thought is at once alluring or repulsive, reasonable or batty, depending on your politics. My politics say repeal is necessary and possible.

At first blush, it would seem impossible. Powerful interests are aligned on both sides and, presumably, a tie or standoff would go to the status quo. Even if Republicans could take control of both houses of Congress next month (some starry-eyed partisans are perilously taking a Democratic trouncing for granted), they still face a president whose name is permanently attached to this law. ObamaCare opponents would have to be clever, indeed, to craft a strategy that could foil a near certain veto by President Barack Obama.

Inertia also favors the status quo, as well as the populous' exhaustion with the yearlong health care hostilities. In their desire for an armistice, much of the public just might not want to restart the war.

Except that all the old rules are out the window. Polls show that opposition to ObamaCare has not abated since its passage in March, when it faced great public antipathy.

In fact, pollster.com has reported that ObamaCare is even less popular now than when it passed.


Some Democrats, recognizing the continuing demands for repeal by a majority — not just a plurality — have tried to hide behind a "mend it, don't end it" strategy. But that still leaves them in the minority.

What's keeping up the public pressure? You would have expected some opponents to have dropped off after the law's passage, having accepted a fait accompli. The Obama administration has encouraged that with a publicity blitz that included mailings to Americans about ObamaCare's great boons and an Andy Griffith television spot touting ObamaCare to seniors. (Five senators have asked for an investigation to determine whether the ads violate laws against using tax money for campaign purposes.) Whatever little success such propaganda has achieved apparently has been offset by Americans disillusioned by increasing evidence of ObamaCare's failures.

Just a few of them: ObamaCare was supposed to stop increasing health insurance premiums, even lower them in some cases. But a PriceWaterhouseCoopers study projected that premiums in a decade could rise 111 percent with ObamaCare, compared with 79 percent without ObamaCare. A review by John Goodman of the National Center for Policy Analysis finds that 87 million Americans "will no longer be able to retain the health plan they have and the number could be as high as 117 million."

Section 1311 of the new health care act will give the secretary of Health and Human Services and her minions the power to establish "guidelines" that will sting physicians with fines if they are not followed. This has led to the creation of Docs4PatientCare, a group of doctors who are leaving letters in their waiting rooms warning patients of the impact of ObamaCare. The letter warns that in addition to "badly exacerbating the current doctor shortage," the ObamaCare will also bring about "major cost increases, rising insurance premiums, higher taxes, a decline in new medical techniques, a fall-off in the development of miracle drugs as well as rationing by government panels and bureaucrats … that will force delays of months or sometimes years for hospitalization or surgery."

But what do they know? They're only doctors who are firsthand witnesses to this train wreck.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi famously insisted that we have to pass ObamaCare to find out what's in it. Now, we're finding out that this 1,000-plus page law has left so much out that bureaucrats, far from any kind of public accountability, (e.g. the Medicare Independent Payment Advisory Board) will be making crucial decisions. It only stands to reason: A mere 1,000 pages is inherently unable to regulate and manage the nation's entire health care system; bureaucrats will be filling in the blanks for decades to come. And what surprises they will have.

A "repeal and replace" pledge is gaining ground in the House, the place most likely to suffer the slings of voter outrage. Tactics are being debated, including House refusal to fund the law's most egregious sections. Opponents are savoring, with an eye to the 2012 election, Obama's rigid and deceptive defense of the law. Stop it for now, and replace it after fed-up voters dump everyone who gave us the law.

Political "realists" assure us that stopping the law's momentum won't work, and that repealing it is fantasy. They're not counting on the reality that as we discover more and more what's in the law, it will become ever more hated.