President Obama’s rhetoric last night summoned the memory of
“1984,” George Orwell’s novel of a nightmarish future — where the
slogan of the rulers is “War is peace; freedom is slavery; ignorance is
strength.”

         The president assures us that he will cut health-care
spending…by adding $1 trillion to health-care spending.

         He says that “health-care decisions will not be made by
government”…while he sets up a new Federal Health Board to tell
doctors what treatments they can offer and to whom and under what
circumstances.

                     Obama told the media, “I will free doctors to make
good health-care decisions”…by telling the physicians what to do.
                 
When the president says he guarantees the “same
coverage” to people who like their current health-insurance policies,
he means that their current HMOs, insurers and doctors will be the ones
to implement the protocols and instructions the government hands down
to them — not that we’ll have our current freedom of decision-making.

                     When he blandly assures us that we will “stop
paying for things that don’t make us healthier,” he really means that
his Federal Health Board will overrule your doctor and stop him from
using his own best judgment in your treatment.

         The president will “get the politics out of health care” by
putting it under government control.

         Obama says that he will not “add to the deficit” to fund health
care. But the bill reported out by Rep. Charlie Rangel’s Ways and Means
Committee leaves $550 billion unfunded.

         The president says that he’ll identify savings that will reduce
the need for more taxes — even though the Congressional Budget Office
refuses to say that his “savings” will actually work and warns that the
bill will really be added to the deficit.

         He repeatedly tells us that he’ll cut health-care spending.
What he means is that he will cut doctors’ incomes and will turn down
patients — particularly the elderly — when they seek medical care
that his bureaucrats disapprove of.

         And he ignores that cutting incomes in the medical field will
reduce the number of doctors and force further rationing of care.

         The president opines that he will replace the most “expensive
care” with the “best care” by empowering government officials who have
never met you to substitute their judgment for that of your doctor, who
has examined you thoroughly.

         When Obama laments that “14,000 people lose their insurance
every day,” he is referring to the job losses that his own failed
efforts to end the recession have permitted.

         He warns that health-care costs are gobbling up money that
employers should use to raise wages and worker pay — yet the plans he
backs would require employers to pay 8 percent of their payroll as a
tax or provide insurance to their workers.

         The Obama plan highlights greater preventive care — but, at
the same time, cuts medical incomes and so will cut the number of
doctors who might provide it.

         The stimulus package, in the Gospel According to Barack, was
“designed” to work over the next two years. But at the time, he
demanded immediate passage to “jump-start the economy” — something
that clearly did not happen.

         Medicare and Medicaid are “driving the deficit” even as he
increased the amount of red ink by at least $800 billion in six months
with little, if any, increase in the cost of either program.

         He says he “expects” banks to repay their TARP money. In fact,
they’re lining up around the block to do so — but the Treasury will
only permit a handful of them to do so.

         In summary, Obama’s health program will promote “lower cost and
more choice” by increasing spending by $1 trillion, telling patients
what care they’re permitted to have, and limiting their access to
quality care.

        Orwell’s heirs should sue for violation of copyright.

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