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The Left fights back on Obamacare

August 13, 2009 | By Amanda Reinecker

Across the nation, Americans have turned out at town-hall meetings with their Congressmen to question the wisdom of the Left's health care plan. In response, some liberals are vocally attacking Obamacare's critics.

» Read Heritage's Top 10 Reasons Why Obamacare is Wrong for America

"Upset citizens on the Right have turned out in incredible numbers," writes Heritage fellow Ernest Istook. "It has put the Left on the defensive and in counter-attack mode."

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) have called Obamacare opponents "un-American." They charge that those who question the government takeover of medicine are "orchestrating outrage" by using "scare-tactics" and spreading "disinformation" about the President's plan. And White House deputy chief of staff Jim Messina vowed to "punch back twice as hard" and retaliate against dissenters.

The Left is now working to sanitize the town halls and prevent opponents from speaking out. One Big Labor-backed group is urging its members to overwhelm Obamacare critics with sheer numbers, Istook writes, while Congressmen are trying to duck the hard questions.

 "Lost in the fight over the town-hall meetings," Heritage health policy expert Nina Owcharenko writes, "are the actual details of these bills."

» You can keep up with the facts at Heritage's FixHealthCarePolicy.com

Conservatives have hardly been able to get a word in edgewise in Congress, either. Owcharenko notes that liberals in Congress have often rejected even generous concessions and common-sense amendments offered by conservatives. One change that may have some life, however, is an amendment requiring members of Congress to forgo their lush plans and opt into the government plan.

But even if conservatives manage to tweak the plan around the edges, the overall proposal is still a terrible idea, writes Heritage economist Alison Fraser. "There are lots of bad ideas on the table in the health-reform debate."

But instead of listening to the opposition, the Left continues to push a $1 trillion government takeover of health care that, according to a study by the prestigious Lewin Group, will push 83 million people out of private-sector insurance, force 88 million out of their current, employer-provided insurance and dump 113 million into the "public option" health insurance plan.

Other Heritage work of note

  • The Heritage Foundation has become a go-to source for the facts on the health care debates. To ensure that Americans receive the most up-to-date coverage on Obamacare, Heritage experts are providing round-the-clock interviews for major media outlets. And popular conservative websites are citing Heritage research too. NewsMax.com, for example, cited Heritage research three times on Tuesday and Wednesday, and Human Events Online reproduced a Heritage fact sheet on health care.
  • In passing the "stimulus" bill, President Obama repeatedly promised to "create or save" 3.5 million new jobs by 2011. Just recently, the President praised the bill for already securing 150,000 jobs. But Heritage experts James Sherk and Rea Hederman point out that since the bill's passage, "job creation has hit new lows and the total number of hours that employees work has continued to fall." Even the pledge to "create or save" jobs is a "meaningless promise," they argue. Before lawmakers consider a new stimulus or throw more money at the old one, they should understand that "massive government spending does not stimulate private-sector job creation…it crowds out private-sector investment." Instead, Congress should keep taxes low and reduce regulatory barriers.
  • Despite a rising death toll in Afghanistan, the threat of nuclear proliferation in North Korea and Iran, and growing anti-American sentiment in Latin America, "Americans are not much interested in national security news right now," writes Heritage homeland security expert James Carafano in The Washington Times. Carafano advises Americans to avoid being lulled into complacency. Instead, we should prepare for potential crises -- and the Left's major defense cuts are not the way to do this. 
  • As prescribed by the Constitution, "the United States has one of the most decentralized systems of election administration for its national elections of any democracy," writes Heritage legal scholar Hans von Spakovsky. Therefore, states, as "chief administrators of our elections," are tasked with preventing voter fraud, but often fall short in doing so. To remedy the vulnerability of the election process, Spakovsky recommends nine "simple steps that can be taken by state legislators" that will protect "our democracy from errors and intentional fraud that can affect the integrity and security of our election process."

In other news

  • Violence erupted during a demonstration in support of former Honduran president Manuel Zelaya on Wednesday, stepping up pressure for his return. While in Mexico earlier this week, President Obama reiterated his support for Zelaya, who was ousted for violating the country's constitution in the name of Venezuelan-style socialism.
  • So far in fiscal year 2009, which ends September 30, the federal government has overspent by $1.27 trillion, or about $4,200 for every man, woman and child in America. This includes a major spike of $180.7 billion in overspending in July alone. Nevertheless, the Obama administration continues to ramp up spending and pursue a $1 trillion takeover of the health care system, an expensive cap-and-trade program, and various other costly projects.

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Amanda Reinecker is a writer for MyHeritage.org—a website for members and supporters of The Heritage Foundation. Nathaniel Ward, the Editor of MyHeritage.org, contributed to this report.