Government Guinea Pigs

Among the many deceptions in the current health care bills, perhaps the most devious is the accounting trick whereby new tax revenues begin immediately, but the new expenses begin a year after Pres. Obama faces reelection. Proper accounting rules require that these two streams of funds be matched to understand the bill’s impact, but for some reason the GAO can’t see through the chicanery and has pronounced the bills to cost around $1.2 trillion instead of well over $2 trillion. Even that figure is understated. If the government were required to use the accounting it enforces on private pension and health care plans, the real cost would be over $10 trillion.

Aside from the hidden crippling costs, this accounting deception is actually an opportunity to stop socialized health care’s worst abuses. Since taxpayers will not face rationing and the outlawing of many of their current plans until 2013, Democrats should impose these restrictions on federal employees immediately.

While many conservatives and libertarians oppose socialized health care because it is unconstitutional and will cripple medical advances that would otherwise save lives, the average voter opposes it because of uncertainty. Middle America fears that the health care they depend on will be degraded, e.g. Medicare cuts, rationing, death panels. Since the bills are about 2,000 pages long, nobody knows their full implications for health care in the US. Will any of the promised savings be realized? Will any of the predicted market disruptions harm the health care system? The Democrats are truly selling a leap of faith.

Rather than making retirees and small businesses the Guinea pigs for a massive government power grab, the Democrats’ accounting tricks allow several years to experiment on their constituents instead. Perhaps the Democrats would be less flippant with their promises of a socialist paradise if government union workers were the target.

Senate Republicans should offer an amendment whereby federal employees are automatically enrolled in the system reserved for everyone else. Perhaps then the Democrats would become far more careful about their glossy assurances. Democrats have proven highly partisan by exempting unions from punishing taxes on their luxurious health care plans. Likewise, the Democrats have protected trial lawyers from any restrictions on their health care racket. A ‘universal punishment’ amendment would inject a badly needed dose of honesty into the debate.

Sen. Coburn has introduced a likeminded amendment that forces Congress to accept the government health care system, but that is a weak tool. Congress knows that, since there are only 535 of them, they can remake their rules at will. Rewriting the rules for millions of federal employees would be much more difficult. If voters want clarity in the health care debate, Coburn should expand his amendment to include all federal employees. With their real constituents’ health on the line, Democrats might finally appreciate the gravity of their plans.