You Decide

"I'm rather annoyed this morning.

Last night I was sent the following link:  http://www.republicanassemblies.org/outrage-healthcare-propaganda-on-congressional-switchboard/

with the claim that "NFRA called the Congressional switchboard."

The number dialed was an 800 number.

The problem? 

Congress doesn't maintain an 800 number!

Is the message as described and taped?  Yep.  Guess what - that 800 number is owned by an organization called "Families USA."  Who are they?  Hell if I know, but they're a DC-based "organization" that is obviously involved in the Health Care crusade on the Democrat side of the table.

For those who are unaware, "800" numbers are not really "free."  The owner pays.

Does it matter?  Nope.  The real Congressional switchboard, 202-224-3121, is answered by a live person with no "recording" first: "US Congress how can I help you?"

How do I know this is the real number?  Because I've called it dozens of times over the last year and a half when I wanted to reach a specific Congressional office and didn't have the phone number handy, hollering about this or that connected to the financial meltdown, and because it is printed at the bottom of the http://www.house.gov, the official web site of the United States House of Representatives.

This sort of "in-your-face lying" must STOP.

To the Republicans and their "affiliated" organizations such as NFRA: I have a health care reform plan that will actually work, and I don't want credit for it - just do it, <snip>it. 

(By the way, I have had a conversation with the NFRA - they admit this was an error and are "correcting it.")

There has been zero interest or thought from Congress on a plan that will actually increase competition and hold down costs.  That's because both sides of the aisle are working from the scripts handed to them by their campaign contributors from both the AMA and "Big Pharma", neither of which want real competition and both of which are hell-bent and determined to screw you to Mars with various cross-subsidization schemes, scams and outright rip-offs.

America pays for the development of every new technology that has come down the medical pipe in the last 20 years.  All of them.  We pay, the rest of the world gets to use for "free."  Then the drug companies get laws passed banning "re-importation" so that the free market is prevented from doing what it's supposed to do - arbitrage the sort of price-fixing that is found in places like Canada so costs come down here.

But no!  These companies sell a drug in the US for $20/pill and $2/pill across the border, then get a law passed to prevent anyone from buying at the $2 price and selling here for $3, applying a free market discipline to the sort of discriminatory conduct that every single medical device and drug maker relies on to gouge people.

You can argue that "we wouldn't have those drugs otherwise." 

Is that a sound argument? 

Perhaps, but that's for the market to decide.

The drug companies are free to charge Canadians $2 for a pill they charge $20 for here.  But the doctrine of a "true sale" says that once a Canadian buys that pill for $2 they should be free to sell it to anyone they want, for any amount of money they want, no matter where they live.

"True Sale" is a capitalist, free market doctrine.  Once I buy a thing its MINE. 

Would you tolerate a car company telling you that you can't sell your Chevy for less than you paid for it, thereby destroying its value to anyone but you?  Of course not.  How about your pair of shoes?  Can't be resold or given away.  Your boat?  Your house?

No, no, no and no.

The drug companies and other health-care-related organizations, including the AMA who rations the number of doctors that can be "licensed" to guarantee scarcity (and thus prop up the price), the device and drug makers (who intentionally obstruct free-market principles by getting laws passed that in any other field would be deemed an illegal restraint of trade and contrary to the doctrine of sale) and the trial lawyers (who want to claim that we can call something "practicing" medicine yet use a strict liability standard for resolving bad outcomes) are all pushing "answers" that are intended to screw you, the common American, while benefiting only their constituencies, using the threat of YOUR DEATH if they don't get their way.

Don't fall for it, and definitely don't fall for the Republican TRASH that is publishing and promoting an outrageous lie in an attempt to derail an honest debate on the issues."