It's all supposed to be voluntary, those "home visits"
that are tucked into the mammoth Obamacare bill. If you have a strong stomach,
and a stronger bottom, you can find home visitation on pages 568-595. That's
Section 2951 of H.R. 3590, the Senate bill that Harry Reid brought down the
chimney on Christmas Eve.
All voluntary, they say, but once you "volunteer" to have the oh-so-helpful
folks from Social Services come in to help with your newborns, or with a number
of other specified issues, will you ever be able to get rid of them?
The bill provides for federal funding and supervision for this
vast expansion of government intrusion into family life. This is the Nanny State
on steroids.
Is your family being "targeted" for such home visitations? Let's see if you
fit into one of these very broad categories:
- Families where Mom is not yet 21. (No mention here whether she is married or
not.)
- Families where someone is a tobacco user. (Does this include the White
House? Watch out, Sasha and Malia! Does Grandpa, whom you love and have taken
in, enjoy his after-dinner pipe?)
- Families where children have low student achievement, developmental delays,
or disabilities.
As if that list were not wide-ranging enough, here's the net that can
encompass tens of millions:
- Families with individuals who are serving or formerly served in the
armed forces, including such families that have members of the armed forces who
have had multiple deployments outside the United States. [Emphasis
added.]
So while Johnny gets his gun, the government steps in to "help" his family
at home. Ronald Reagan used to say the most frightening words in the English
language were these: I'm from the government, and I'm here to help.
Who will sit atop the federal pyramid that runs this vast new invasion of
family privacy? Why, it will be Sec. of Health and Human Services Kathleen
Sebelius, of course. She was the most pro-abortion governor in American history
when President Obama tapped her for his cabinet.
Do you spank your children? You should know that HHS bureaucrats think you
are an abuser.
Do you support the Second Amendment? How would you like HHS bureaucrats
asking your children if you maintain firearms in the home for family protection?
Do you home-school your kids? Take care. Members of Congress who have tried
to abolish home-schooling are big backers of this health care bill. Do you
wonder why?
There are abundant reasons to oppose this health care bill. Conservative
leader Gary Bauer cites the colorful words of Oklahoma Democratic
Congressman Dan Boren. Mr. Boren is one of the bluest of Blue Dogs. He
says: "They can break my arms. They can do whatever they want to. They'll never
get my vote -- ever. They'll have to walk across my dead body if they want my
vote on this issue." Boren spoke for many concerned Democrats when he said,
"there is no chance I am voting for this bill because it raises taxes on
businesses, creates job-killing mandates, grows the size of government, and cuts
services to seniors."
All of this is true. But the White House is pulling out all the stops. One
of their senior advisers told CNN's Gloria Borger what President
Obama's people are telling wavering Democrats on Capitol Hill:
BORGER: Right. This isn't going to be subtle at all today. I think this is
it. I was speaking with one senior White House adviser just before I came on the
air, and he said, think of it this way. This is the last helicopter out of
Saigon, OK?
Could anything be more bizarre? A senior member of the administration is
comparing the president's signature measure in Congress to the forced evacuation
of the U.S. Embassy in South Vietnam in 1975.
Older Americans remember the shame and heartbreak of seeing thousands of
America's allies desperately clinging to U.S. Army helicopters as the North
Vietnamese army closed in on South Vietnam's capital city.
We don't want to re-fight the Vietnam War, but it should not go without
notice that the Democrats also controlled Capitol Hill back in 1975. The
Democrats, led by Sen. Ted Kennedy and Minnesota Congressman Don Fraser, had cut
off all the promised U.S. funding for the South Vietnamese armed forces
that were trying to stave off a brutal Communist takeover of their country. And
we're told that we have to pass Obamacare as a tribute to Ted!
Is this the kind of hope and change Mr. Obama's top advisers now want us to
embrace? Are his own people thinking of this last-minute push as a debacle?
Helicopters in Saigon. What a confused and confusing mess this is!
One thing is clear: For life and liberty, we must defeat ObamaCare. Call
your U.S. senators and representatives now (202.224.3121). Tell them to vote NO
on Obamacare.
Ken Blackwell is a senior fellow at the Family
Research Council. He serves on the board of directors of the Club for Growth,
National Taxpayers Union, and National Rifle
Association.
