By Douglas V. Gibbs
President Obama is planning to propose today giving the federal government new power to block excessive rate increases by health insurance companies, as he works to roll out what he, and the Democrat's consider to be, comprehensive legislation to revamp the nation's health care system.
When considering the text of the U.S. Constitution one must recognize the limiting principles of the law of the land, and that nowhere in the text of the U.S. Constitution is the authority given to the federal government for taking control over any industry by any means, including price controls, as is being suggested by this administration over the health insurance industry.
While I recognize the problems of the insurance industry, and I am not too thrilled about their rate increases at a time when insurance is difficult to afford by most families, mandating limits on the prices or rates by the federal government is not only unconstitutional, but also a fascist move by the federal government.
To understand fascism, one must understand the definition of the political ideology.
Fascism is a brand of socialism that deceptively calls itself the opposite of communism. The claim of being the flip side of communism is what has some leftists claiming that fascism is a right wing ideology. However, no matter how you slice it, fascism is an increase of government control over the economic system, and the private sector, and is therefore socialist in nature, making it a left of center ideology.
Fascism uses a totalitarian approach to economic and political systems by bundling the systems together under the control of the government. While industries are deceptively convinced they are continuing to be allowed to remain essentially a part of the private sector, the control of the industries by the government is still socialistic in nature through the use of an all-absorbing authoritarianism.
Fascism teaches that all actions should be done for the greater good, which is ultimately considered by the ruling party as being for the good of the state. The rights of the individual is rejected, and the freedoms that are associated with a free market are crushed. The policies of the government is of business and government working together under a system of "corporatism," which is anything but a free market based on the principles of liberty, and individualism.
Since in a fascist system the state is more important than the individual, the state uses their authoritarian powers to centralize economic planning, and dictate to the private industry how to run their businesses through wage controls, price controls, and other control mechanisms.
Fascist regimes use a "scapegoat" to push their agendas, such as "fat cat bankers", "obscene profits," or members of the opposition ideology such as is the case with today's liberalism who does all it can to demonize, and discredit, any member of the conservative belief system, while failing to actually enter in the arena of debate over ideas, and historical examples of failed systems which used liberal philosophies.
Fascism eventually leads to rampant cronyism and corruption, as the government suppresses all speculation by banks and stock exchanges, and takes control of the private sector, while suppressing individualism, by confiscating what the government considers unproductive income, and by taxing heavily private wealth.
The New Deal by Franklin Delano Roosevelt had strong elements of fascism intertwined in the socialist experiment of the 1930s. The National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA) of 1933 was very similar to actions being carried out by the fascist dictator Benito Mussolini in Italy and by the Nazis in Adolf Hitler's Germany, in fact. Obama's attempt to control the salaries and prices of a number of industries, including the health care insurance industry, is an attempt to bring to America the substance of Mussolini’s corporativism, of which the Democrats believe Roosevelt failed to complete. This makes Obama's attempt to place price controls on the insurance industry a sign of fascism being introduced to America's private industrial system.
Mussolini attempted to organize trades, industrial groups, and professional groups into a state supervised trade association that operated under state supervision so that the government could plan production, quality, prices, distribution, labor standards, etc. As Roosevelt's New Deal tried to force the American industry, manufacturing, and retail business into cartels possessing the power to set prices and wages, and to dictate the levels of production, so is Obama's attempt to take control of the auto industry, banking system, energy usage, and health insurance companies.
For those that still wish to wrongly claim that fascism is a right of center ideology, remember that conservatism calls for limited government, individualism, democratic debate, and capitalism. Its appeal is liberty and leaving citizens alone. Hardly traits synonymous with fascism.
-- Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary
Obama to call for limits on health insurance rates - USA Today
Fascism's Legacy: Liberalism - Daniel Pipes
Liberal Fascism: The Secret History of the American Left, From Mussolini to the Politics of Meaning by Jonah Goldberg
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