Smart Stuff from the Mailbag

Timothy Gawne sent the following email, which is too smart for me to keep to myself. He was kind enough to grant me permission to share this with you, so I hope you find it as interesting as I do.

As usual your column was wonderful. Yes, isn't it bizarre that we are "debating" something that nobody understands?

However, I think there is method in Obama's madness. Obama has people debating his words, which leaves him room to DO whatever he likes. Politically it's brilliant. For example, Obama talked about reigning in CEO pay. The talk-show hosts argued about whether we should limit the CEO pay of bailed-out banks. However, the reality of what Obama was actually doing was explicitly guaranteeing and subsidizing CEO pay. Brilliant.

Or with supreme court justice Sotomayor, he claimed he picked her because she was 'compassionate' and a Latina. So everyone debated whether being compassionate or a Latina was appropriate for picking a supreme court justice, nobody talked about the brute fact that Sotomayor overwhelmingly supports big corporations over individuals, which is almost certainly the real reason for picking her.

I propose that Obama knows exactly what he is doing, and that the complexity of the Health care 'reform' bill is by design.

From past actions, here is my interpretation of Obama's health care 'reform':

Profits for Drug and medical insurance companies will be maintained. There will be no cost controls and government will not negotiate lower prices. Illegal immigrants will be covered, which will benefit agribusiness and the cheap labor lobby in general. However, the total amount we spend on health care will fall, mostly to free up money to pay the debt created by the massive bailout of Wall Street. Therefore, the actual amount of real health care that average Americans get will be limited, and the amount they pay will skyrocket. French socialism this ain't.