Vladimir Lenin said “socialized medicine is the keystone to the arch of the socialist state.” Once the state has control over your health, it can control everything else. Think that cannot happen here in the United States? Even our country's founders realized there are no guarantees. After the Constitutional Convention, Benjamin Franklin was asked, "What have you got?" and replied, "A republic if you can keep it."
Our country was founded as a republic; so says our Declaration of Independence and Constitution. The word "democracy" is not mentioned in these documents. The founders were wise students of history; they rejected the oppressive rule of a monarchy or oligarchy (rule by a small group), and rejected the mob rule and fleeting nature of a democracy. Thomas Jefferson said, "The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not." Recognizing that power corrupts, Thomas Jefferson also said, "...in questions of power then, let no more be heard of confidence in man, but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the constitution..."
A Republic is representative government ruled by law (the Constitution). The guiding philosophy of our founders was that government's role should be limited: to secure our G-d given rights (life, liberty and pursuit of happiness) from encroachment by other people, nations and especially by government itself. Even the "Bill of Rights" further limits government by expanding on what government "shall not" do; the tenth amendment says, "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people." In other words, the federal government is denied any powers not explicitly given to it.
Just as we study the philosophy of our founders to help us understand the Constitutional republic that they created, we should examine the philosophy behind the overhaul of the health care system, one-sixth of the U.S. economy, to help us understand where we are potentially heading.
First, Obama's philosophy regarding the Constitution. A fair question, considering that he swore to preserve, protect and defend it. Watch Obama in his own words: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gqyY6ax3hc0 . In this video, Obama complains that our Constitution is a "charter of negative liberties and doesn't say what the states and federal government should do on your behalf." Obama then goes on to lament that our Constitution does not provide a basis for redistribution of wealth. Despite being a "constitutional law professor", Obama rejects (in his own words and actions) the core philosophy of our nation's founders, embedded in our founding documents.
Second, Obama's philosophy about health care. Obama, in his own words ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fpAyan1fXCE ), is a proponent of a single-payer system, but as he recently told Brett Baier "we're not transforming one-sixth of the economy all in one fell swoop". Not in "one fell swoop" but over time, as he said previously that it may take decades before we get there. Obama's goal was to fundamentally transform this country; he said so in his own words before his election, "We are five days from fundamentally transforming the United States of America." ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KrefKCaV8m4 )
What are the fundamentals upon which this country was built? A political system of Constitutional Republic, and an economic system of free-market capitalism. Political and economic systems are closely connected. As government controls increase (via taxation and regulation, if not outright ownership), power is further concentrated in the hands of a few. The common characteristic of Communism, socialism and fascism is rule by a few (the leader or dictator, and his group of advisers); the only difference is how much the government owns and controls. Given the expansions of our government into banking, financial institutions, automobile companies and health care, and our political leaders' disregard for the Constitution ( http://www.usnews.com/debate-club/should-the-supreme-court-overturn-obamas-healthcare-law/the-individual-mandate-is-unconstitutional-and-corrupt ) and the will of the people, our country has strayed far from its roots. This did not start with Obama, but I believe he has drawn considerably more attention than earlier leftists who put us on this path, because of the openly Marxist views expressed by Obama and so many of the people he has surrounded himself with (e.g. Rev. Wright, Van Jones, Anita Dunn, Mark Lloyd, Cass Sunnstein, Carol Browner -- it doesn't take a Sherlock Holmes to find out where they stand; search on google and youtube.com), and his blatant attempts to fundamentally transform this country (whereas other leftists were more successful at hiding their true motives, cloaking them in terms such as "democracy" and "progress").
You might say that we are not yet an oligarchy, but what path are we on? Are we moving in the direction of oligarchy, or back to a republic? There is hope for a return to the fundamentals that made this country strong, in the Tea Party movement's efforts to stop the radical transformation, and President Trump’s pledge to “repeal and replace Obamacare”.
