by Doug Powers
The Powers That Be
10/27/09
Financially, most state budgets are more strapped than a dominatrix who just rear-ended a pickup truck loaded with bungee cords, and Harry Reid knows that. This is why Harry’s latest “cave” to placate the wishy-washy moderates is anything but:
Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid will announce his support for establishing a government-run health-insurance program that would allow individual states to opt out of the plan, a Democratic aide said today.
I haven’t seen this section of the bill, but one thing is certain: It will be easier to get Michael Moore through the eye of a needle than for states to opt out of Obamacare.
There will be countless additional funding measures attached so as to ensure that if states opt out, they’ll go even more broke than they already are.
Technically states can opt out of federal education guidelines and run their own public schools any way they see fit — as long as they don’t mind losing millions in federal funding that states have come to depend on.
Technically states can opt out of the federal drinking age and set their own legal age for the consumption of alcoholic beverages — as long as they don’t mind losing millions in federal highway funding.
Hospitals also receive plenty of federal money. Guess what’s going to disappear if your state “opts out” of Obamacare? And if the system ends up as “single payer,” which is Obama’s stated goal, any state opting out would essentially have no health care system whatsoever, because no doubt any physician working outside a single-payer umbrella would have his or her medical license revoked, as would pharmacists and medical facilities in opt-out states. Other than that, states will be free to do whatever they want.
States will not opt out of any government-designed health care bill, because Obama, Reid and Pelosi will make them an offer they can’t refuse.
