Government's insane hallucinations

Just when you think things can't get any stupider with Obamacare, things gets stupider.

Before we delve into the latest examples of utter idiocy, let's review a few benefits of the Obamacare "Affordable" Care Act, shall we?

Obamacare results in higher unemployment as employers shy away from the insane expenses and government requirements endemic in the ACA. To stay in business, many employers must reduce worker hours or reduce the number of employees. More on this later.
During a time when everyone is strapped for money, the government has no problem spending into eternity. Obamacare is no exception. This was exemplified nearly two years ago when a $17 trillion "surprise"was found in the form of a budget shortfall. "The more we learn about the bill, the more we learn it is even more unaffordable than was suspected," said Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions, the Republicans' budget chief in the Senate.
And who pays for these shortfalls? That's right. You and me. How much is $17 trillion? Who cares? It's all Monopoly money anyway – worthless and artificial. What difference does it make if our grandchildren are shackled by debt? The government will spend the money, regardless of reality.
Obamacare – no surprise here – results in more government control. It is literally a case of the government forcing consumers to buy a product they neither want nor need. Once upon a time, people could start businesses in America and run them as they saw fit. People can no longer do that. Instead, businesses must conform to insanely expensive one-size-fits-all health insurance requirements imposed by a group of people who have never run a business, never met a payroll and never had to worry about making a profit.
Obamacare results in less privacy. If anyone is foolish enough to input their medical history into the poorly written ACA website, hackers are able to steal the information almost immediately. To make things more exciting, the government plans to collect and aggregate confidential patient records for every one of us. Since the feds don't exactly have the best track record of keeping data confidential, how long before such data are stolen, hacked, or freely shared with whoever donates the most campaign contributions?
Obamacare isn't good enough for our elected officials, who are of course exempt from this wondrous system of health care they're forcing on the rest of us. Why? Because it stinks. Why should politicians be subject to what they're forcing us to swallow? They're too elite for that.
Obamacare decreases health coverage. This is one of the biggest outrages of all. Prior to the ACA, about 15 percent of Americans were without health coverage. But Robert Laszewski, president of Health Policy and Strategy Associates, predicts that 80 percent of the people in the individual market will lose their policy due to Obamacare regulations. We have not even seen the tip of the iceberg of this health insurance fiasco, because Obama keeps delaying (illegally) implementation for select groups until after the next election. Only the government could screw up so badly and claim it as success.

At the beginning of this column, I alluded to more idiocy and stupidly on behalf of the ACA. Wanna hear the latest?

It seems many companies are trying to keep from going bankrupt due to the massive increase in health insurance costs, so in order to do this they're reducing their workforce to get under the threshold of insurance requirements. Makes sense, right?

Wrong. The government professes to be horrified – gasp – at this development (remember, these are people who have never run a business), so their solution is – get this – to not permit it.

Yes, really. According to a Fox News article, "Obama officials made clear in a press briefing that firms would not be allowed to lay off workers to get into the preferred class of those businesses with 50 to 99 employees." [Emphasis added.]

So how will the government know WHY a business is releasing workers? Simple. "Firms will be required to certify to the IRS – under penalty of perjury – that Obamacare was not a motivating factor in their staffing decisions."

This is insane. To avoid Obamacare costs, "you must swear that you are not trying to avoid Obamacare costs." In other words, you must lie and yet be under penalty of perjury.

We're talking the IRS here, folks – arguably one of the scariest and most hated government entities in existence. This is the department, please note, that is guilty (caught with a smoking gun, in fact) of deliberately targeting nonprofit conservative groups, up to and including imposing new rules that essentially would prevent them from speaking about candidates or issues.

And yet businesses are now being asked by the government to lie (wink wink nod nod) about why they're letting employees go.

As one commenter noted, "This system of Obamacare was never designed to work. IMO, it was designed to fail and crash the system so our 'glorious Fuhrer' could install single-payer socialist insurance. Our president is evil and un-American in ways not seen yet. I don't understand how people cannot realize that [Obama] hates and despises [America]."

While the National Guard conducts drills against imaginary right-wing anti-government citizens, the obvious escapes us: It isn't the people who are out of control, it is our elected officials. The government is wildly, insanely out of control, and knows it. That's why it's terrified of ordinary citizens and doing whatever it can to limit legal our God-given rights (particularly firearms ownership) in order to control us.

From all this deranged activity, I can only conclude one thing: Elements within the United States government are making a serious and concerted effort to bring about America's downfall. To those of us Real Americans on the ground floor of life, it's like watching a slow-motion explosion and being powerless to either stop it or move out of harm's way.

The only way to stop it is to stand in its path, united. We must hang together or we will surely hang separately. How do we do this? Check out next week's column.

Media wishing to interview Patrice Lewis, please contact [email protected].