Health Care to Immigration Magic: Obamastyle Reform

Understanding Obamastyle is a step by step sales job. All politicians engage in the same process to a greater or lesser extent, but this President knows no other way to address an issue besides his magical scenario of problem and solution.

Here’s what we can expect from Obamastyle reform on the immigration front, an illogical assignment of responsibility and penalty to randomly selected groups unrelated to the group most directly associated with the problem in order to redefine the problem, the cause of the problem and create a new entitlement.

First, start out with the expression of GOOD INTENTIONS. Like healthcare “reform,” the President starts out with nice sentiments. And like in the case of healthcare reform, BEWARE!

This week, for Thanksgiving, in his weekly message, the President couldn’t resist pushing for immigration reform by stating, “We give thanks for the generations that followed, people of all races and religions who arrived here from every country on earth and worked to build something better for themselves and for us.” Nice thought, but NO RELEVANCE for illegal immigration, hope you didn’t wax illogical on that one.

Second, the President reframes the problem and creates a new victim and victimizer class. You can tell whether you’ve been sold by answering the following question: What or who is to blame for the particular problem?

When it comes to the healthcare crisis, what were you sold on? Is it the fault of the sick people? Is it the fault of some sick people who are sick because they are old or smoke? Is it the fault of the insurance companies? Did it ever enter your mind that what is being charged by healthcare providers is outrageous?

Similarly with immigration, what are you attributing as the CAUSE of the problem? Is it poor border controls? Poor enforcement? The employers who like hiring cheap labor? Does it enter your mind that the lawbreakers, the illegals carry blame?

If you misidentify the problem, you CANNOT come up with a solution that works.

Third, the President’s idea of reform is to help one group of people by creating a new entitlement, whether it’s to extra financial help or by exempting certain people from what the rest of us have to live with.

I object to the use of “Undocumented,” or any other euphemism for illegals. They should not get a better break than CITIZEN lawbreakers in our society. We see employers penalize individuals on probation, individuals who had drug problems and were convicted of drug crimes, and even people with bad credit get penalized in the job market. By choosing illegals over citizens facing similar challenges, the President’s immigration reform like healthcare reform creates an entitlement, in this case for illegals over US citizens.

Whatever else you want to imagine illegals are, they are ILLEGAL. Their mere presence here is evidence of a law broken, and that’s without knowing what went on in their prior existence in their own country. This is not xenophobic banter, this is the reality, we PENALIZE Americans in our system by creating a GET OUT OF TROUBLE FREE option for those who enter our country illegally.

We also provide superior treatment of illegals for subsequent crimes stemming from that first crime of entering the country illegally. We forgive them the purchase, manufacture and/or use of phony ID. We forgive them the avoidance of paying taxes. We forgive them providing false information regarding their identities, all CRIMES that US citizens are penalized for FOREVER, even if they were simply a teenager using a false ID to buy a drink, let alone an adult citizen using a false ID.

Under Obamacare, those with pre-existing conditions not only can’t be denied insurance (of which I approve), but they can’t be charged more for insurance—BUT it IS perfectly legitimate and made a part of the law that it is OK to charge someone who is older or smokes more for insurance, and because of the change in ratio it’s OK to charge more to young people for insurance in order to “HELP” those with pre-existing conditions EVEN IF that person has never YET “COST” insurance companies more than other insureds. The shift is arbitrary and unfair because three groups of people, those who are older, younger and those who smoke are being charged to cover the expenses of those with pre-existing conditions.

Fourth, failing to tackle big business.

The President can talk a lot of empty wind about insurance companies, but the roadmap for Obamacare was produced by the insurance industry, he’s been their puppet all along (see AHIP document of 2008). Also significant, outside of government world of entitlements, Veterans benefits, Medicare, the changes Obama neglected to focus on the outrageous prices charged to patients for medical treatments, by undermining the already eroding concept of group health plans, the ONLY way and the way utilized in government world to negotiate the tradeoff of quantity for price, we’ll give you all our group members for a better rate.

Instead of paying doctors to withhold care based on outcomes, the Act could have easily paid employers for having group health plans similar to those available in government world and applying them to the rest of the population. Strengthening group plans by incentivizing employers to provide them would have enabled employers to negotiate on behalf of the group of people they could direct to a particular healthcare provider.

Instead, by encouraging the ultimate demise of the private sector group health plan by making minimal penalties to employers for not offering such plans, by increasing costs to employers for such plans, and by encouraging more “contributions” from individuals, Obama has really created two parallel systems of healthcare, one for those eligible for entitlements, and the other for everyone else who is helping to pay for those entitlements. Obamacare increases the money that goes to entitlements by creating a new group of individuals, those eligible to participate and get Federal dollars by meeting criteria to participate in government world, the health exchanges.

The President intends to do the same thing with illegal immigrants. The most direct approach would be to Federalize E-Verify mandates and create stiffer penalties for employers of any illegal by creating an automatic responsibility for hiring of such illegal in addition to paying the expense of deporting the illegal, (which runs between $10,000 and $12,000 per person which is why the government has no interest in doing it). Instead, the President will create a path to citizenship that includes using E-verify in the future rather than fairly applying it to all workers of any employer, allowing the continued employment of illegals and allowing the continued financial incentives for employers to keep employing illegals.

Fifth, making it about “The Children.”

One of the most infuriating approaches is arguing on behalf of the children. Under Obamacare there are essential benefits for children including dental but the Act omits ANY LIMIT on what can be charged to employees for their dependent coverage, you know, THE CHILDREN. Plans that are limited in what they can charge to employees have no such barrier when it comes to what they can charge for that employees’ children. This includes young and older children, those up to age 26.

Because of this idiocy, likely more “children” will be uninsured or unable to get quality medical care than ever before. Simultaneously, once these children reach the age of 18, they will be, if they’re lucky enough to gain employment required to purchase some insurance (even if it’s completely inadequate to cover the expenses of illness) in order to avoid penalties under Obamacare.

Similarly with illegals, Obama made his executive order giving amnesty to illegals up to the age of 30 based on their innocence as “children.” Even if in your own imagination you can buy this argument, since when do children not suffer because of what their parents do as citizens in this country?

In our country children suffer for their parents’ crimes and condition directly and indirectly all the time, poverty, introduction to the drug culture, alcoholism, child abuse, hunger all DIRECTLY related to their parents’ actions, not the children’s. Recently our government’s benign approach to our citizen children was to reduce SNAP food assistance.

And, as our citizen children come of age THEY have to take on the responsibilities of adulthood. They don’t get to say my parent was a drug user therefore I am a drug user and had to illegally purchase drugs, or that drugs are self-medication from the scars of child abuse and poverty. They are held accountable. Similarly, illegals who are the children of illegals cannot simply continue to expand the excuse for generations that their parents were illegals and therefore everyone in their family is exempt from immigration laws and gets to use fake ID, avoid taxes and manipulate the system of a government foreign to their own.

Sixth, emphasize the good and lie about or ignore the bad. This one is self-explanatory, no? Or are you still loving it? Be honest, what didn’t you know about Obamacare?

Seventh, time the provisions of “Reform” so that people don’t know until it happens.

It’s been law since 2010, but its impact is only being felt in 2014 as effective dates kick in. Timing is also being used to put off some of the provisions, some not kicking in until 2020. Want to read the Affordable Care Act now, or wait and see some more?

Look for the same in immigration. It will be a drawn out process that ultimately will advocate amnesty, a sort of “American Express” approach stating that “Membership has its privileges.” Selling a way out that ultimately will leave the road open for a legalization of paying for citizenship.

Eighth, if confronted with reality, lie, evade and reinforce using steps one through five.