President Obama has once again made a return to the one thing that he knows best… the campaign trail, in his efforts to sell Americans on a public health care “option.”  His most recent campaign stop was a “town hall” style meeting in Green Bay, WI.  – land of cheese, The Packers and Snake Oil sales if Obama has his way.

When the Hall Monitor-in-Chief wasn’t handing out truancy pardons for school kids, he was nobly perched on his soap box peddling his wares like the snake oil salesmen of yore.  But what is a Snake Oil salesman without a good heckler to call the product what it is?  Since the town hall was filled with friendly ears already punch drunk on the Obamunism Kool-Aide, we will just have to settle with an after the fact heckle.

In remarks prepared for a town meeting here at Southwest High School, the president said he believes “strongly” that health care reform should include “a public insurance option.”

“If the private insurance companies have to compete with a public option, it will keep them honest and help keep prices down,” Obama said.

It is only natural that Obama believes in the “public option.”  It is, after all, the only way that the Czar of Czars can gain meaningful control over health care.  Don’t be fooled by the salesman’s pitch… It is about control.  If it were about competition the plan would open up the health care borders so that companies in other states could actually compete.  But that isn’t the goal.

Providing Americans with affordable health insurance, Obama said, is “both a moral imperative and an economic imperative.”

The key words are “providing” and “affordable”.  “Providing” puts the lie to the sales pitch – by telegraphing the intent that Obama denies, but we on the right have remained affirmed of — this is backdoor nationalization.  The second key word is “affordable.”  How, on Earth, is a plan that is currently estimated to cost $1.2 trillion affordable?  Trillion and affordable should never be uttered in the same sentence.  Not to mention the escalation of cost as people are enrolled in the system.  And who is going to pay for it?  We are – the 50% of Americans that pay taxes.

“So, to those who criticize our efforts, I ask, ‘What is the alternative?’ ” Obama said. “ ‘What else do we say to all those families who now spend more on health care than housing or food? What do we tell those businesses that are choosing between closing their doors and letting their workers go?’ ”

We certainly don’t sell them a bottle of Snake Oil, call it a cure-all tonic, and send them on their way.  Which, to be clear, is precisely what Obama is trying to do.  What we should do is allow the insurance providers to broaden their business base, compete against each other, and get the trial lawyers out of the way.  Those few simple steps would cause the cost of health care and insurance to plummet.  Which would mean no need for Laudanum laced Olive Oil…

“I believe we tell them that after decades of inaction, we have finally decided to fix what is broken about health care in America,” the president concluded.

If the health care troubles are to be “fixed” it won’t be through federal mandates or socialized medicine.  It will be through the free market… Otherwise, it isn’t a fix so much as another problem.  Kind of like stubbing your toe, and then punching a wall – your toe still hurts like hell, but the busted knuckles take your mind off of the toe.  In the end, your still left with a banged up toe and bloody knuckles.

….Oh wait.  The Obama cure-all tonic can cure that too, right?

“There are things that can be done that – Republican, Democrat, liberal, conservative – we all know need to happen. The challenge is going to revolve around how do we deal with the 20 percent of the stuff where people disagree?” Obama said. “This whole issue of the public plan is a good example, by the way. I mean, right now, a number of my Republican friends have said, ‘We can’t support anything with a public option.’ It’s not clear that it’s based on any evidence, as much as it is their thinking, their fear that somehow, once you have a public plan, that government will take over the entire health-care system.”

Classic sales technique.  Dismiss your competitors’ arguments as irrational fears.  It’s a tried and true tactic… It has worked for Door-to-Door, Used Car and infomercial salesmen across the country for decades.  Unfortunately, in the end the buyer is still stuck with a lemon, or in this case a cocktail of Laudanum and Olive Oil, and nothing to show for it – except for those easy payments of just 99.99 *per week for life.  Don’t let the sales pitch fool you.  If there is ever a public option… it will inevitably be the only “option.”

“We’ve got to admit that the free market has not worked perfectly when it comes to health care,” Obama added. “That’s why I’ve said that I think a public option would make sense.

The free market ALWAYS works, when it is the free market.  But when regulation prevents the existence of free market conditions… then it naturally doesn’t work perfectly.  A public option is the anti-thesis of free market principle.  It only makes sense to implement the public option if the destruction of the free market is the goal.

And he cited the cost of Medicare and Medicaid as the “biggest threat” to the federal budget.

Indeed, the medical entitlements are the biggest threat to the budget… so remind us all again why it makes sense to employ a far grander scale version of them for everyone?  Forgive the ignorance, but the logic behind that argument escapes me.

“If you’re worried about spending and you’re worried about deficits,” he said, “you need to be worried about the cost of health care.”

And he hit on federal spending, repeating his administration’s line that his health care bill will not add to the deficit over 10 years.

We are all collectively worried about deficits and health care costs.  It is ironic that the President, who mentions them, doesn’t seem to be worried at all.  In fact he blatantly lies about them.  Stating that his health care plan – which has yet to be completely crafted – will not add to the deficit, when he has already stated that it will cost $1.2 trillion plus, is an outright lie.  Where is that money coming from?  How will it NOT add to the deficit?  There simply isn’t enough money to pay for it… not even if the government enacts all of the new and additional taxes that they’ve discussed.

“In all these reforms, our goal is simple: the highest-quality health care at the lowest possible cost,” Obama said. “We want to fix what’s broken, build on what works.”

Guffaw!  Ask Canada, the UK, Europe, Russia, etc about quality and cost.  If Obama were being honest, he would admit that cost is not really an object.  Because with his plan, he can make the co-pays (if there are any) as low as he wants thus fooling the consumer with “low” upfront cost and gouging him on the back end.  Because the taxpayers are footing the rest of the bill.  And the bill will come due.

As for fixing what is broken and building on what works.  If that was the goal then the markets would be opened up, not closed off.  But then, that would remove any need for the Obama brand Snake Oil.

Of course, if we’re not buying the snake oil then perhaps Obama can team up with Kennedy on his cross country road trip to drum up support for what I call the Chappaquiddick Health-Care Plan. And If Ted’s driving, I’ll buy the Whiskey Sours. Just sayin’…