The Hill Has Ayes By Derek Gilbert - March 29, 2010        Tweet

Bart Stupak got what he wanted.

No, not a guarantee that federal funds won't be used to fund abortions. Political cover.

The Democratic congressman from Michigan avoided the label of traitor, the man who broke the spine of the Obama presidency, while claiming faithfulness to a value considered sacred by millions of Americans.

The concession by President Obama, an Executive Order directing that no federal funds disbursed under the health care reform bill be used to pay for abortions, is all for show. The Hyde Amendment, which already bans the use of Department of Health and Human Services funds for abortions, somehow poses no obstacle to sending 350 million federal tax dollars a year to Planned Parenthood. The rationale seems to be that funding an abortionist is OK if the money doesn't directly pay for the murders.

It's a dodge any ten-year-old can see through. Fraternities at my college used a similar ploy to get around a school policy against selling beer. Instead of a cover charge, we sold plastic cups for $2 apiece—and nobody got into the house without a cup.

The passage of the health care bill by the House marks a new low in the history of the United States. People with no grasp of history may view the talk of socialism as fear-mongering, but the truth is in the Constitution. Congress has exceeded its legal authority, plain and simple.

While the Constitution grants the legislature jurisdiction over interstate commerce, Congress has no authority to force American citizens to buy a service. Unlike auto insurance, which is required only if you choose to drive, the bill passed by the House Sunday requires insurance for every citizen who chooses to draw breath.

Legal issues aside, the implications of this bill are staggering. With the federal government in control of health care, nearly every aspect of your life is subject to oversight. Virtually any human activity can be regulated on the basis of its impact on health, from eating to exercise to sexual choices—although you can bet that's one area that won't be touched.

Government control is what this bill is about. It's Econ 101: artificially expanding the demand for health care while artificially suppressing its price mean a contraction in supply—rationing.

It's basic supply and demand. There are only so many doctors, nurses, hospitals, pharmacies, and EMTs to go around. Putting 32 million more people on insurance would normally, in a free market, lead to an increase of price. The opportunity for profit would draw more students to med schools to meet the new demand. Supply would eventually catch up with demand and prices would settle back to equilibrium.

But health care isn't a free market now, and it became less so this week. Since the government will write the checks for this flood of new health care consumers, it will—it must—contain costs to keep the nation solvent.

What's the easiest, simplest way to control expenses? Service cuts. Rationing is inevitable. (And Soylent Green is people.)

But contrary to what we'll hear ad nauseum from now until November, the Republican Party is not the answer. The GOP's respect for the Constitution is conveniently timed, considering that it was MIA when the Bush administration was voiding habeas corpus, gutting the 4th Amendment, handing $700 billion to Wall Street, and using presidential signing statements to ignore laws it didn't like.

The GOP shares the blame for this legislative Leviathan. When the Republican Party occupied the White House and both chambers of Congress, it committed the nation to two unnecessary wars and plunged it into then-record deficits with the greatest expansion in non-military discretionary spending since FDR. W's Compassionate Conservatism was more liberal than LBJ's Great Society.

And now, even with two-thirds of the American public opposed to this bill, a leading Senate Republican, John Cornyn of Texas, already says he's unwilling to repeal it, or at least not all of it. Too many good parts to the bill, apparently.

You see, the battle between the two major parties isn't about whether bigger, more intrusive government is good for America—it's about which party gets to push the buttons and pull the levers.

Shame on us if we let either party con us into believing anything different.

Derek P. Gilbert co-hosts a weekly Internet talk show, P.I.D. Radio, with his wife, author Sharon K. Gilbert, and hosts A View From the Bunker, a weekly interview program.  He previously hosted The Drive, the #1-rated afternoon radio talk show in Columbia/Jefferson City, Missouri.  His published novels are Iron Dragons and The God Conspiracy.

Email Derek at derek at peeringintodarkness dot com. His website is www.derekpgilbert.com.