You’ve got yourself some real troll bait here. And you’re also absolutely right. We are not obliged to play according to the Democrats’ rules and restrict our discussion to the most literal sense of what is actually in the bill. We are quite free to explore the philosophical presuppositions of its authors and supporters and to examine the inexorable logic of putting in place one type of system as opposed to the other. The kinds of agencies established and empowered by a particular law is always far more important than the specific things that law explicitly authorizes them to do–once in power, they will find many other things to do. And once a system is in place, it will generate crises that its advocates will then call upon us to address by reforming the system–no one will then be able to say, “but you originally promised you wouldn’t do that…” The Left wants to get away with banal rationales like “cost cotting,” which are not only false but miss the basic point. The winning strategy for conservatives is always to turn these battles into battles of ideas rather than quibbling over the fine points of page 536 of the bill. The Left will look increasingly ridiculous for calling us “liars” because we don’t consent to their interpretation of this or that clause.
The only thing to keep in mind is that the philosophical cause we defend would ultimately lead us to support reforms that would get our champions shouted down in town hall meetings as well, like ultimately doing away with untenable entitlements like Medicare. That’s no reason not to oppose Obamacare with all the vigor at our disposal, but it is a reason to be sober about the responsibilities we will need to take on if we wish to govern.
