Occasionally circumstances force me to eat lunch in the swamp. This time I was in Fairfax County, Virginia, formerly a reliably conservative county that has lately been invaded by swamp employees, swamp contractors, swamp lobbyists, and other refugees from Washington, D.C.
The county is now reliably Democrat and gave Hillary a 68 to 32 percent victory last November. Call it a pilot project for the entire country after illegals get amnesty.
During lunch I couldn’t help but overhear the conversation between a man and a woman I assumed were business associates. Most of it was background noise, "Grumble, grumble, TRUMP, mumble, mumble, TRUMP, Hitler, Hitler, TRUMP" and so on.
Then a comment concerning Obamacare "repeal" almost caused me to choke on my curry, "Healthcare is one-sixth of the entire economy and they are crafting a bill in total secrecy!" one complained.
There is precedent. Democrats wrote the entire Obamacare takeover without any input from Republicans and then forced it through the Senate by a single vote before Scott Brown — elected specifically to defeat the bill — could take his seat and vote against it.
What struck me though was not the fact two sides could play the secrecy game. It was the realization those two diners knew healthcare encompassed a sixth of the economy and yet neither was asking the obvious question: What makes Congress think it can run that huge portion of the economy better than the market?
Both implicitly accepted that an organization filled with people like John McCain, Mitch McConnell, Chuck Schumer, Maxine Waters and other swamp lifers is qualified to manage healthcare. There’s not so much as an EMT certificate or economics degree among the lot of them. You’d have a better chance of success asking an Uber driver to pilot an Airbus.
It’s obvious the couple was familiar with some of the dots, but was unable to connect enough to form a coherent pattern.
The evidence is there for those who will look. The federal government has a healthcare pilot program. The experiment features the best elements of Bernie World: single-payer healthcare with total federal control from patient to practitioner.
It’s called the Veterans Administration. The feds had 205 years to work out the kinks in a healthcare system that serves only a small portion of the U.S. populace. The result is a third-world healthcare system at three times the cost.
It’s non-profit and non-compos. Over 100 veterans died on a waiting list at the Los Angeles VA hospital. In its two-century shakedown cruise the VA has adopted all the features of failed government healthcare in progressive nations: rationing, indifference, and no other medical options unless you’re rich.
The VA is TSA with a scalpel.
And speaking of scalpels, a Scripps Howard investigation discovered a Cincinnati VA hospital operating room was using surgical instruments contaminated "with blood and bone debris from previous surgeries."
Incompetence permeates the VA like the odor of burned popcorn in a break room microwave. The Associated General Contractors of America issued a statement asking some part of the federal government that still pays attention to prohibit the VA from even overseeing the construction of buildings.
This plea came after the VA started hospital construction in Orlando, Florida, before a site for the building had been finalized. Three years and three sites later the cost is up $350 million and it’s still not finished.
The one area at the VA that functions at peak efficiency is insulating unionized employees from the consequences of their incompetence and malfeasance. The Washington Examiner reports the VA has 346 "workers" that do nothing but union business on the taxpayer dime.
This is probably why after patients died on a waiting list and medical records were falsified to cover it up (the only type of doctoring the VA is good at) former House Speaker John Boehner claimed only two senior officials were fired.
Shortly thereafter Secretary of Veterans Affairs Robert A. McDonald entered the realm of PR legend when he told reporters Disneyland doesn’t measure wait time for its customers, so why should the VA?
(For complete coverage of the various VA outrages click here and here and here and here.)
Our current situation is similar to the horror movie audience that’s thinking, "Don’t go in the basement!" Yet the Republican Congress’ idea of reforming Obamacare is going halfway down the stairs and waiting until a future Democrat majority can kick the country the rest of the way down.
Veterans know the VA is a failed program and are trying to escape total federal healthcare control and try the private sector. While people who would fight the reinstitution of the draft are simultaneously trying to force everyone else into a VA-for-all healthcare debacle.
Michael R. Shannon is a commentator, researcher for the League of American Voters, and an award-winning political and advertising consultant with nationwide and international experience. He is author of "Conservative Christian’s Guidebook for Living in Secular Times (Now with added humor!)." Read more of Michael Shannon's reports — Go Here Now.