OUR "SOCIALIST" IN CHIEF? NOT BY MY DICTIONARY!

If more people did this, Americans would be healthier and health care costs would go down. So, tin foil hat wearers: emulate your Prez. and get out and exercise! That will show the Socialist in Chief!

"socialism
[soh-shuh-liz-uhm]

noun
1.
a theory or system of social organization that advocates the vesting of the ownership and control of the means of production and distribution, of capital, land, etc., in the community as a whole."

The next time you read a comment by a tin foil hat wearer decrying Obama as a "Socialist" for advocating the expansion of health insurance to the heretofore uncovered, you might consider asking that person if he or she intends to sign up for Medicare on his/her 65th birthday. Because Obama Care (the Health Insurance Reform Act, or "Affordable Care Act"), is decidedly the most un-socialistic program that the Democrats and President Obama could have devised. Early on, before any legislation had been introduced in Congress, President Obama met with the top honchos in the hospital and pharmaceutical industry and assured them that there would not even be a consideration of a public option (allowing uncovered individuals to purchase health insurance from a government source, as opposed to private enterprise- for profit insurance companies), let alone the very simple and efficient "Medicare for All" proposition. Expanding Medicare gradually from both ends (young and old) would have been the preferred means, because the system is already in place. Obama did not even consider a "single payer plan" which would have saved billions in administrative costs for health care providers.

So, here's the deal: Obama = capitalist/free enterprise advocate. He devised and implemented a plan which will shuttle billions of dollars of private funds (via the dreaded "mandate") and public funds (via subsidies) to private enterprise, i.e. insurance companies (via the dreaded "mandate"), drug companies, hospitals, physicians, and other health care providers. Had he been a "socialist," the plan could not have been attacked in the courts, would have cost far less (suppose we simply allowed people to buy into Medicare at a price set at the average incremental cost of the coverage- the net tax expenditure would have been zero, yet more people would be covered), and those ridiculous attack ads we are going to see more of would have no traction.

One more time, tin foil hat wearers: do you plan to sign up for Medicare at age 65? That makes you a willing participant in Socialism! Welcome to the 20th (not 21st) century!