BY DR. CURTIS H. LAUB

Congresswoman Kathy Dahlkemper is proud of her courageous efforts to add abortion protections to the health care bill that was recently passed by the House of Representatives. This “courageous” act could be the textbook definition of “putting lipstick on a pig.” I’m all for preventing taxpayer dollars going to fund the murder of innocent children, but there is a long list of other failings in this bill, any one of which should be fatal to the whole effort.

Where is the protection against huge new taxes on all income classes and ages? These new taxes will crush the fragile economic recovery our nation is experiencing. (In a classic example of legislative dishonesty, the taxes start right away, but the “urgent” health care programs don’t start for four years. Thus, is the plan made budget neutral for the first 10 years. Then what? How stupid do they think we are?) The current recovery is already stalling and unemployment continues to rise because the fear of massive new taxes and employee costs makes employers afraid to hire, even if the need for workers is there.

What about protection against huge Medicare cuts which will increase the out-of-pocket cost of health care for our senior citizens? Their fixed incomes are already doomed to decline in purchasing power by government mismanagement of the economy and money supply.

Where are the protections against the rationing of health care, which is inevitable in a bill which seeks to place a cap on expenditures while doing nothing to reduce costs? Indeed, the “one size fits all” coverage mandates will actually result in huge increases in costs.

What about protections against massive government deficits, which will be inevitable, once private insurance companies are driven into bankruptcy by taxpayer-subsidized government “competition?” The taxpayers, all of us, will then be left to foot the bill alone. These deficits, in amounts beyond comprehension and unprecedented in all of history, will doom our children and grandchildren to live in a European-style high tax, high unemployment, slow growth economy forever. Who will pay this debt back?

What about protection from the scheduled reimbursement cuts to doctors and the lack of protection against frivolous lawsuits, both of which will drive more and more doctors, like me, from their practices and dissuade the best and brightest students from ever entering the medical profession? Who will be left to treat all the aging boomers now entering their “golden years?”

Where is the protection from stagnating medical research, and what about all the miracle drugs which will either never be developed or never used, because of bureaucratic interference and limited budgets? Death rates due to cancer and other treatable diseases in Canada and Europe are much higher than in the U.S. because the best, and naturally more expensive, drugs are simply not offered. Of course, the long lines waiting for treatment will kill a bunch more.

What about protection from the massive unfunded Medicaid mandates which the plan dumps on the already struggling states? This will drive every one of them to financial ruin and bankruptcy. The inevitable result is higher state taxes and even more lost jobs and slower growth. Several states (also known as the laboratories of democracy) have already tried programs similar to the proposed national plan. The results are clear and uniform. All of these states are seeing busted budgets, massive cost over-runs and they are all struggling to cut back access and raise prices. Why are the Democrats ignoring this experience?

As you can see, Congresswoman Dahlkemper forgot to protect a few things.

In yet another example of dishonesty, the Democrats claim that Republicans have no answers and are in favor of the status quo. Nothing could be further from the truth. Everyone agrees that there are problems with the current health care system. Far from being the “party of no,” the Republicans offer targeted fixes which will correct the problems of cost and availability while actually saving money and without destroying what is, in fact, the best health care system in the world.

I was in Washington on Nov. 5, standing on the Capitol lawn with tens of thousands of other scared patriots. I could feel the fear, the frustration and, yes, the anger that drew these thousands of people, on very short notice, to Congresswoman Michele Bachmann’s “emergency House call.” They were there to wake up an imperial government that was ignoring the message of the August town hall meetings and the lopsided poll numbers against this act of legislative malpractice. At the conclusion of this rousing demonstration, I then went to Congresswoman Dahlkemper’s office in the Cannon Building to exercise my constitutional right to “petition my government.” After a long wait to get through security, I was allowed to spend several minutes with an aide (the gentle-lady herself was “unavailable”) discussing the long list of fatal flaws in the House bill. Among the things I stressed to the nice lady was the fact that the good citizens of northwest Pennsylvania were suffering in this economic crisis, and that a job-killing tax increase was the last thing we needed. I was rewarded with a patronizing smile and a figurative pat on the head for my efforts.

In passing this bill, Rep. Dahlkemper and her Democratic fellow travelers may be either delusional or dishonest; but, regardless, they are definitely dangerous. Luckily, getting this horrible bill through the Senate will be more difficult than it was in the House. However, we must not forget how Congresswoman Dahlkemper betrayed her oath, her constituents and her country in casting her vote in favor of this un-American, socialist monstrosity. We can make things better next November, if it isn’t already too late by then. In the meantime, make some noise!



Laub, M.D., is a Meadville resident.