How to stop the health care bill

“We've affirmed that the ability to live a healthy life in this great country is a right, not a privilege.”

With those words, Sen. Harry Reid celebrated the passage of a landmark health care reform bill by the US Senate just before Christmas. Depending on how you feel about big government and its ability to actually “fix” something as big and complex as the health care industry, that statement either gives you a good warm feeling down deep inside or it sends chills down your spine.

I’m in the chilled-spine camp, myself. Based on its track record with the soon-to-be-bankrupt Social Security program, the sooner-to-be-bankrupt Medicare program, and the “reforms” it mandated for the mortgage industry that contributed to the great financial meltdown of the last few years, I think there is reason to doubt that increased government involvement in the health care industry is going to be a good thing for us in the long run.

And if something isn’t done soon, it may be too late to stop this runaway train. But what can we do? After hearing about how some on-the-fence senators (I’m looking at you, Ben Nelson) were basically bribed into voting for this bill, I’m about ready to consider all-out revolution.

But I’m afraid that idea is a non-starter. I seriously doubt that there are many Americans who care enough about what their government is doing to take to the streets and toss rocks at well-armed federal troops like the protesters in Iran are doing.

Perhaps we need to concentrate on a more subtle way to throw a roadblock in front of the left wing juggernaut that currently holds the fate of our nation in its grip. Sometimes it is wise to consult the history books in such a situation and see what the past can teach us.

Let’s go back to 1992, when liberals were cheering the election of a young Democratic governor from Arkansas and his frighteningly serious wife to the highest office in the land. High on the list of priorities for the new president was – you guessed it – health care reform. President Clinton put the first lady to work on a radical plan to remake the health care system into something that the government could control and manipulate until everyone had the same (bad) level of care, regardless of how much they were able to pay.

Maybe the plan would have succeeded, eventually, but President Clinton had a real knack for doing stupid things that put him in a bad light and weakened his credibility. As a result, he was able to accomplish very little in his eight years in office. Thank goodness!

And I don’t think it is a coincidence that the nation enjoyed a good deal of peace and prosperity during that time of near-inactivity by the federal government. I don’t think it is unreasonable to suggest that we all owe a debt of gratitude to Monica Lewinsky for the good times we enjoyed in the 1990s.

So far, President Obama has steered clear of the kind of personal failings that hobbled Bill Clinton’s liberal aspirations. And I think that is what needs to change. The government is working to well for our own good. What we really need is a Monica Lewinsky for the new millennium.

Somewhere deep in a super-secret location (probably Dick Cheney’s basement) where high -ranking conservatives hatch “if all else fails” type of plans for saving the country from liberals, they need to consider recruiting some young, attractive, conservative females to apply for jobs at the White House and get close to the president. And I mean really, really close.

It is a lot to ask of any young woman, but once the scandal breaks the country will be safe from the specter of an active government until 2012, at least. And then we can all relax as President Palin breezes her way to an easy victory and…okay, maybe I need to think about this a little bit more.