Before this weekend’s vote on the Senate $2.5 trillion health bill, Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, offered an impassioned plea for senators to stand with the American people by saying no to a Washington takeover of Americans’ health care system.
But to no avail.
Here are his numbers. These numbers are facts. They are indisputable, no matter whether you’re Liberal or Conservative.
- 0 – the number of provisions prohibiting the rationing of health care.
- 0 – the number of government-run entitlement programs that are financially sound over the long-term.
- 10.2% – our national unemployment rate, the highest in 26 years.
- 70 – total number of government programs authorized by the bill.
- 1,697 – times the Secretary of Health and Human Services is given authority to determine or define provisions in this bill.
- 2,074 – total pages in this bill.
- 2010 – the year Americans start paying higher taxes to pay for this bill.
- 2014 – the year when this bill actually starts most of the major provisions of this bill.
- $6.8 million – cost to taxpayers per word.
- $8 billion – the total amount of new taxes on Americans who do not buy Washington-defined health care.
- $465 billion – Cuts in Medicare at a time when it faces a $38 trillion unfunded liability to finance more government spending.
- $494 billion – total amount of new taxes in this bill.
- $2.5 trillion – the real cost of the bill.
- $12 trillion – our total national debt.
Said Hatch:
I don’t want the government telling me what kind of insurance I need to have. I don’t want the government telling me what services I can receive when I need them. I don’t want them taking an ever greater part of my income to help finance government programs such as the ‘public option’ and the army of government employees it will take to administer such a program. I do not want more government. I want less. A lot less.
health bill, Orrin Hatch, health care
