Reactions to Obama Flipping Us The Finger

Since there are just too many better writers out there, and many of you are working too hard to take the time to find them, here's a round up of reactions to ObamaCare.

Roger Kimball at Roger's Rules talks about Obama as Tony Soprano.

He introduces Thomas Sowell's piece on Obama vs. Common Sense.

But he absolutely loves Shikia Dalmia's PutUp or Shut Up.

Obama swears that there will be no rationing. But he's going to cut costs. TigerHawk and Glenn Reynolds (Instapundit) talk about how ObamaCare will cut investments in medical innovation.

TigerHawk: As we have long predicted on this blog, the health care "reformers" propose to finance at least part of the "savings" or new benefits -- it is impossible to know which -- by decreasing the rate of return on medical technology. There are many ways in which this might be done, but the Senate Democrats are proposing to do so directly, by levying a "value added tax" on medical device companies according to their proportion of U.S. sales. This tax would be without regard to profitability, so it would amount to a capital tax on start-ups and a massive income tax surcharge on profitable companies, varying as net margins do.

Glenn Reynolds: The normal critique of socialized medicine is to point out that people have to wait a long time for these kinds of treatments in places like Britain. And that's certainly a valid critique. I'm sure my mom and daughter would still be waiting for their treatments, while my father and wife would probably be dead.

The key point, though, is that these treatments didn't just come out out of the blue. They were developed by drug companies and device makers who thought they had a good market for things that would make people feel better.

But under a national healthcare plan, the "market" will consist of whatever the bureaucrats are willing to buy. That means treatment for politically stylish diseases will get some money, but otherwise the main concern will be cost-control. More treatments, to bureaucrats, mean more costs.

Obama Care. Flipping you the finger while you wait to die.

cross posted at RedState