The Worst Legislation EVER?

I'm used to hyperbole so this might be viewed as a bit of a stretch, but the following tidbits might actually be true:

The Healthcare Bill the Senate passed might well be the WORST LEGISLATION EVER PASSED.  Once it goes through the House (and it surely will), it will enact so many destructive components to our nation's economy that it may just surpass the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act of 1930, the Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798, and the Escaped Slaves Act of 1831 for pure stupidity.  Allow me to explain a few things that this bill does, without the propaganda of Senate Democrats to bolster it.


- The CBO projected that it will add an additional $2.4 TRILLION to the nation's deficit over the next ten years.  Who knows how much this entitlement will cost after that?  For those keeping score, that's equal to 17% of America's annual production.  This means we will have to give up about 1/6th of all our wealth that we create in one year to pay for this legislation over the next decade.


- It will increase taxes on all Americans by about $1.5 TRILLION on the next decade.  President Obama famously claimed that he "will not raise taxes on any Americans making over $250,000 a year" until he changed that to "$200,000" and then "$150,000" and later changed it to "$100,000" and then "$75,000".  Well now, this legislation settles it at "$0".  EVERY SINGLE AMERICAN WILL SEE THEIR TAXES RAISED.  This is plainly written into the bill.


- It will cut $500 BILLION from Medicare over the next ten years.  That's right: the very entitlement that Democrats and liberals have threatened to kill others to protect is going to be gutted like the fresh catch of the day with all the aplomb of the bad guy in Texas Chainsaw Massacre.  The only problem here is that all of the benefits that Medicare is legally obligated to provide will remain meaning that an ADDITIONAL $500 BILLION hole is now opened up in a program that will literally be out of money i.e. bankrupt in a decade.


- It will give the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) unprecedented authority over medical decisions.  You read that right: bureacrats from an unelected government body will dictate medical care standards to physicians, surgeons and specialists based solely on accounting tables.  If you have a medical malady and require treatment that costs money, YOUR DOCTOR WILL NO LONGER HAVE AUTHORITY TO TREAT YOU.  This is not hyperbole; this provision is a central tenet of the "reform".  The idea is that the lowest cost alternative of care will be used.  The only problem is that every patient and every medical situation is different and requires a trained physician to make decisions on what is needed for treatment.  Sometimes, the cheapest alternative is not the most effective to heal people's ailments.  Under this legislation, they'll no longer be allowed to do that.


- The CMS will be excluded from lawsuits over these treatment decisions.  The private insurance industry is liable for all the payment decisions they make.  If you don't agree with a judgement by your health insurer, you have the right as an American to seek legal retribution to overturn their decision, and also to seek damages from the insurer if their decision leads to medical harm.  But the Feds have cleverly excluded their own body, the CMS, from ever having to be sued over these decisions.  This is patently unconstitutional and absurdly wrong.


- Medical device makers will no longer be allowed to set their own prices for new innovations.  Currently, such manufacturers spends hundreds of millions of dollars annually to create novel medical inventions to improve patient care and combat illness.  This legislation allows the CMS to set prices for all medical innovations that "resemble" previous products, based on the prices for those other innovations.  There's only one problem: medical innovators introduce newer versions of older devices and medicines on a continuous basis so they can incrementally improve their products.  The advantage of this approach is that consumers benefit from all this innovation all the time.  If they don't like the price of the newer version, they can use a competitors product (if one exists) or an older version of that product.  Now, consumers will have to wait until suitably "new" innovations are brought to market by the medical device makers so they are exempt from rules.  Very simply, this will slow down and stifle medical innovation.  For proof of this, look at Britain's National Health Service which is struggling to increase medical innovations in their country because onerous regulations just like this are keeping medical inventions from being made and brought to market.


This doesn't even include the NAKED BRIBERY to several states that was included in the legislation in order to get this destructive bill through the Senate.  Simply put, those exclusions for several states from having to pay their own Medicare bills violates the Equal Protection Clause of the US Constitution.  Altogether, this makes this the most heinous and truly destructive bill that the Congress of the United States has ever passed.


I'm looking forward to hearing your thoughts on this subject.