First Tuesdays Strategies

By J. Warren Tompkins

While people are showing true concern about the health care policies of President Barack Obama and the Democrat-controlled Congress, the liberal elite is continuing its usual disdain for the concern of the average American. They say that if you don’t want the government taking over your health care, then you must be crazy. If you don’t want your children and grandchildren to be paying off billions of dollars of debt, you’re some sort of wingnut.

One simple example of this was when U.S. Rep. Barney Frank attacked a woman at one of his town hall meetings by asking “on what planet do you spend most of your time” and claiming that talking to her was like conversing with a dining room table.

Already, the far left is organizing to oust moderate Democrats that have listened to their constituents and are not buying the brand peddled by Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid. Recently I was forwarded a piece by liberal writer Jon Chait of The New Republic who argued, “But if health care reform fails, liberals need to understand who to blame and how to fix it. They need to start knocking off Democrats like [Kent] Conrad and Joe Lieberman, who seem to be trying to kill health care reform, even if this temporarily costs the Democrats some seats.”

These moderates, the Blue Dogs that are siding with their constituents back home, should be commended, not have to suffer being called “crooks” in the leftist blogosphere. Congressional Republicans and those Democrats that are hearing the voices of concern are doing what they were elected to do, which is represent the wishes of the people who sent them to office.

Liberals have tried, and failed, to foist health care-by-bureaucrat time and time again, for more than 60 years. There is a reason that hard-working, middle class Americans have rejected socialized medicine every time it has been broached, and why President Franklin Roosevelt knew that putting comprehensive, government-run health care in the New Deal would never fly. You put in a full day’s work and then some. You provide for your family the best way you see fit. And that’s it – you, not the government. You have the choice of what type of health care plan you want and which provider to go with. You have the choice.

The shining example of liberal arrogance on the matter was the HillaryCare debacle of the early ‘90s, when the Clinton administration went behind closed doors and then handed the plan to Congress, in effect saying that old refrain of the elite, “We know better than you.” If those in power wouldn’t listen, the voters decided that someone else should be in that place, and pro-business Republicans were elected in record numbers.

It’s happening all over again. Fortune editor-at-large Shawn Tully wrote in July that the bills currently before Congress take away all kinds of freedom of choice when it comes to an individual making their own health care decisions. For instance, you would lose your ability to take advantage of a discount on your health plan for living well, and will not be able to enjoy the relative inexpensiveness of Health Savings Accounts.

All across the country, people are showing up to town hall meetings to tell their representatives that the health care bills go too far. But, that message doesn’t seem to be making it up to the ivory tower, where liberals are saying that the Obama plan doesn’t go far enough. On Aug. 18, Politico reported that 60 House Democrats sent a letter to the President saying that they “are firm in their position that any legislation that moves forward through both chambers, and into a final proposal for the president’s signature, MUST contain a public option.”

Everyday people know what it means to create a massive new government program, and what it means to rack up unsustainable debt. On Aug. 25, the White House released new numbers that show that the federal government would have to borrow a staggering $9 billion to fund Obama’s plans over the next 10 years, and would be running outrageous budget deficits of $7.1 trillion.

The public has seen this administration in action when it came to the misspending of taxpayer dollars to bail out failing financial firms and auto companies. That’s why polling numbers have been falling for support of the Obama plan. A poll released Aug. 26 by Public Opinion Strategies shows that this go at socialized heath care is being rejected at the same level of Clinton’s failed attempt.

Only 25 percent of respondents favor the plan, and nearly half said that the more they hear about it, the less they like it. POS’ Bill McInturff said, “This data is hauntingly similar to what we saw in 1994. President Obama is learning the same lesson that the Clintons learned: Too much government intervention in the health care system can alienate more voters than it attracts.”

This poll shows that the attacks of the liberal elite are wrong. It’s not some right of the right minority that doesn’t want the government’s hand in deciding their health care options, it’s a wide range of people. POS cites statistics showing seniors, women and independents all turning a cold shoulder to bureaucratic intervention.

Overall, polling averages compiled by Pollster.com show that since February, public approval of Obama’s job on health care has dropped from 57 percent to 41 percent, while the disapproval numbers have jumped from 36 percent to 48 percent. For the plan itself, approval runs 46-38 against.

As U.S. Sen. Jim DeMint wrote on July 13, “In a certain sense, the collapsing support for the Democrats’ scheme was inevitable. After all, the initial ‘support’ was always based on the president’s gauzy aspirations rather than on the ghastly details of 800-page legislation written by a Star Wars cantina of bureaucrats and liberal committee chairmen.”

Freedom and liberty are bedrocks of our country. The average American understands that, and wants it in their professional lives as well as their personal lives. Health care, such a personal issue, crosses into both realms. The more the liberal elite shows their arrogant disdain for Middle America, the quicker they’ll find themselves at the wrong side of the ballot box.