Capitulation is not Progress

Brad Little is a good man. He loves his family and many of his corps values I share. He is Pro-Life and Pro-Gun. But he is not a conservative. He is Pro Big Government. He is a Mitt Romney opportunist, but like many RINOs in our State he is afraid to take off the camouflage of conservativism that will reveal his true beliefs. He is beholding to special interest lobbyists like The Idaho Association of Commerce and Industry (IACI), The Idaho Hospital and Idaho Medical Associations (IHA) (IMA) —now that over 50% of doctors in Idaho are employed or have professional associations with large hospital networks these organizations have morphed into a single Leviathan whose tentacles reached into every corner of Idaho life during the pandemic.

They represent the special interests of their members and not individual Idaho citizens or patients. Just review Brad’s campaign contributors on the Idaho Secretary of State Web site—Big Pharma, (IACI), (IHA), (IMA), and individual contributions by hospitals, executives that run those institutions and Board Members to see where the Governor’s—Scott Bedke is in the same boat in his run for Lt. Governor, bread is buttered and where loyalties lie. He is not a conservative but a pawn for special interests—I should have included the teacher’s unions also. The symbiotic cronyism between State agencies and all branches of government—we have the best executive branch, legislative branch, and even judicial branch of government that money can buy. Don’t believe it? Go to the Governor’s Cup this year and see who shows up on lobbyists’ tab!

David Ripley is a good man. He is a devout Christian who has courageously fought for Providential Principles including Right to Life principles. He is the Executive Director of Idaho Chooses Life, and that organization has just endorsed Brad Little for Governor. He along with Chuck Winder in the Senate, Scott Bedke in The House, and Governor Little’s staff helped pass HB 756 that “provides for patients’ rights should Idaho fall into Crises Standards of Care (CSC)…..guidelines and standards created by experts to ration health care.”. Also quoted in The Idaho Chooses Life web site are the words “One of the greatest features of this law is the creation of a Patient’s Ombudsman”—in the Governor’s Office!

This Bill—now a law, is a perfect example of how cronyism and collusion leads to corruption. Both Mr. Little and Mr. Ripley seem to believe that government is the solution to many problems. Problems that usually need to be handled by existing laws and regulations, or problems that could best be handled within a contract or by a local State Judge. In the end the position of “Ombudsman” will be challenged in court, by parties on both side of the patient—provider (used to be doctor—patient) relationship. The Ombudsmen in the Governor’s office provides cover for the collusion between large hospitals systems and government agencies, but most importantly takes the burden of paying for litigation between parties away from providers and into the Attorney General’s Office. So now patients will have to fight the AG at their expense and the Ombudsman gets a free pass by having legal fees paid by taxpayers. Again, in the end these cases will have to be adjudicated in a local court by a local judge. Think about the Ombudsmen in Boise being called at 2 AM from Boundary County about a case that involves a Living Will or Advanced Directives and Patients’ Rights. It will be adjudicated by a local judge in Boundary County and the State-hospital system will be in a better position vs patient and family.

We should all remember that in Hitler’s Germany and Stalin’s Russia; Mao’s China and Pol Pot’s Cambodia; Castro’s Cuba and Chávez and Mandora’s Venezuela, all colluded with physician groups under the color of Law to murder hundreds of millions of innocent people. That is not to mention how “Public Health Experts” designed experiments on unknowing human beings, that resulted in the deaths of thousands more—many in our own country—remember the Tuskegee experiments of unknowing and unwilling prisoners? Nuremberg and The Helsinki Accords were attempts to address the issues of the legalized violation of patient’s and citizen’s “Right’s to Life”, personhood and “free will”. The Ombudsman in The Governor’s Office is an example of an organization’s complete political capitulation to The State. The end never, never justifies the means, when “Providential” Biblical truths are in play. Pro Life, pro property rights, Pro Gun and individual protection issues are examples of such issues. Most political issues lend themselves to a more “prudential” approach”—taxes, immigration, and school choice—though I must admit Critical Race Theory (CRT) is in my mind a providential issue. Was the Ombudsman’s position in the Governor’s Office a condition for endorsement and sponsorship of HB 756? Did the Governor’s Office along with Senator Winder and Speaker Bedke not only help facilitate passage of the Bill, but maybe they “colluded” with various special interests to help write the Bill— (IMA and IHA) for example?

I was all for supporting Mr. Ripley’s Bill until I saw and then investigated the conditions put upon the sponsors of the legislation. Remove the Ombudsman portion of the Bill ASAP. Otherwise, it is a big step backwards for patient’s and citizens’ rights.

The late Adli Stevenson once said “There comes a time when we are called to rise above principle”. For conservatives when “Providential Truths” are involved this is impossible. For Mitt Romney RINOs the process is always more important than principal. Without a moral predicate underlying government process, corruption is always the result. That is what we are seeing today in Idaho government and in many Idaho Republicans. People like Brad Little, Scott Bedke, and Chuck Winder have been involved in corrupt processes that have infected our state government for so long that they fail to see the ‘LOG IN THEIR OWN EYES”. Mr. Ripley joining forces with them only exposes himself and his organization to their corruptness.

Mr. Ripley in my most humble opinion sold his soul to the devil—government bureaucracy. I have seen large hospital systems, doctor’s organizations, insurance carriers, and large businesses suck the spirit out of their organizations and their employees, and their patients for CAPITULATING in the name of progress. It never works out. In medicine the promise of “access, quality and cost”—is your health care better today, less expensive, and easier to access than it was ten years ago? Health Care as a portion of GDP has gone up from 16%-20%. The number of uninsured in our country—not counting illegal immigrants has gone down from 50 million to 30 million people at a cost of $8trillion, while people paying for their own insurance and employers have seen premiums co-pays and deductible’s go up at 4% per year.

Whenever government gets involved in private transactions—especially the executive branch, things never workout. The Ombudsman is not what Mr. Ripley thinks it is. It is exactly what the corporatist corrupt politicians know it to be. In the end patients and people will suffer.

Capitulation is not progress!