George Will has a good column this week pointing out why no one believes Barack Obama. The man chronically says two things that contradict each other. One of those is on medicare and “waste, fraud, and abuse.”

Will writes:

He says Medicare is an exemplary program that validates government’s prowess at running health systems. But he also says Medicare is unsustainable and going broke, and that he will pay for much of his reforms by eliminating the hundreds of billions of dollars of waste and fraud in this paragon of a program, and in Medicaid.

Precisely. In fact, last Wednesday night, Barack Obama, in his address to Congress, said

[W]e’ve estimated that most of this plan can be paid for by finding savings within the existing health care system, a system that is currently full of waste and abuse. . . . The only thing this plan would eliminate is the hundreds of billions of dollars in waste and fraud . . . . Reducing the waste and inefficiency in Medicare and Medicaid will pay for most of this plan.

Get the point? According the Barack Obama, most of his health care plan will be paid for by “reducing waste and inefficiency in Medicare and Medicaid” and getting rid of the fraud and abuse.

Who has he chosen as his health policy czar to make sure the waste, fraud, and abuse gets stamped out? Nancy-Ann DeParle.

And why do I call her a non sequitur appointee? Well, a non sequitur is a logical fallacy and that’s what this appointment is. Why the hell would you appoint as your healty policy czar who will focus on rooting out Medicare’s waste, fraud, and abuse the woman who ran Medicare for Bill Clinton and utterly and completely failed to root out waste, fraud, and abuse?

That’s right — Nancy-Ann DeParle was in charge of Medicare during the Clinton Administration and left office having little to show for ridding the system of waste, fraud, and abuse.

But if you think that’s the real story here, this just keeps getting better and better. Let’s dig in, shall we!

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During the Clinton years, Newt Gingrich and Ken Starr were household names vilified as Republican Torquemadas. During the Bush years, the Democrats turned the Republicans into the party of Trent Lott, Tom DeLay, Karl Rove, Dick Cheney, and Mark Foley. It was this type of politics that candidate Barack Obama campaigned to end. In fact, Obama was often quoted saying we need to get away from ideology and work together. But that must have been the teleprompters talking. Not yet into his first hundred days in office, Barack Obama and his political advisors have proven themselves to be a most ideologically liberal administration practicing the politics of personal destruction against anyone who dares to challenge them — even their own. They would have us believe they are defending the country from Rush Limbaugh, Congressman Eric Cantor, and a relatively unknown private citizen named Rick Scott.

Sustained attacks on character as proxies for assaults on policy are a consistent left-wing construct. Conservatives have lately pointed out these attacks are derived from Rules for Radicals, the book written by leftist agitator Saul Alinsky, of whom both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are students. Alinsky wrote “the greatest enemy of individual freedom is the individual himself” and encouraged radicals to “go after people and not institutions; people hurt faster than institutions. (This is cruel, but very effective. Direct, personalized criticism and ridicule works.)”

That Barack Obama would participate in attacks against Rush Limbaugh and Eric Cantor shows how much a student of the left he is. In less than one hundred days, Barack Obama has proven himself to be the most ideological President in American history — far more ideological than his predecessor who dabbled in liberal pablum like “No Child Left Behind” and the prescription drug benefit. Obama has yet to propose and pursue any policy that is not a bedrock leftist idea. Use of the word “and” is necessary because Obama tends to propose some moderate policies, but he only pushes for those on the left.

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A good ad from Rick Scott’s gang:

Do bear in mind that Tom Daschle, who has returned to lobbying for a living, is still guiding “anti-lobbyist” President Barack Obama on health care “reform” even though his tax evasion lost him the spot of HHS chief and White House health care czar. Do also bear in mind that Daschle wrote in his book that Britain’s national health service is a system America should aspire to.

Then do the math.

In the battle over healthcare reform, one man has become a thorn in the side of the left and the left’s reaction to his talking points is an interesting story in how the left fights.

Rick Scott, the former CEO of Columbia/HCA, has started a group called Conservatives for Patients’ Rights (”CPR”). In a new ad campaign, CPR is doing what we all should be doing — highlighting the stories of patients stuck in Canada’s and Great Britain’s healthcare systems.

The ads are powerful. Here is a sample:

Katie Brickell was told by Britain’s NHS at age 19 that the government wouldn’t pay for a pap smear until age 20, she waited. A year later, the government decided they needed to save more money and moved the minimum eligibility age to 25 years. At age 23, she was diagnosed with cervical cancer and has been told the disease is not treatable.

In 2005, Kate Spall’s mother was diagnosed with renal cancer. She was forced to wait two months for surgery that might have saved her life. But by the time her name was called on the waiting list, the cancer had spread to her kidneys and she later died.

After waiting for the government to treat her kidney cancer, Angela French’s family convinced her to see a private doctor, which she paid for out of her own pocket. The doctor told her the situation was urgent and operated on her immediately. But when Angela tried to get the government to pay for lifesaving cancer drugs, she found out that patients in her geographic area were not eligible for the medication, even though patients in other parts of the country were covered. As of the filming of the ad, Angela was still waiting on government approval so she could receive the medicine.

We know, because Senator Jay Rockefeller, among others, has already told us that government, in Obama’s healthcare system, will make cost/benefit analyses and some people may not get treatment they want. In other words, the same criticisms the left has hurled at HMO’s for years will now be done by Uncle Sam.

We also know that Obama’s healthcare options are bad for Americans because it will take away freedom to choose our own coverage and costs.

So how has the left responded to the points Rick Scott has made? They haven’t. Instead, they have attacked him directly.

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This is great. It was only a matter of time before someone linked the AIG mess to healthcare. The ad, by Conservatives Patients Rights Action Fund puts in context what a Congressional healthcare overhaul would mean:

Just how dangerous are these ads? The left has decided to totally ignore the message and focus on savaging Rick Scott, the head of the organization. They are deeply fearful of the message and want to distract from it by going after Scott.
According to a poll conducted by CPR, 60% of Americans believe “Congress should not pass the President’s healthcare budget without having specific details of the President’s healthcare plan and how the money will be spent.”

If it’s like the stimulus plan, though, Congress will never show us the plan until the plan is passed.