History Lesson On ObamaCare Thuggisms

Although I normally don't refer to Michelle Malkin's pieces, she does occasionally write something that qualifies as an "absolutely must-read." This is such a piece. She chronicles the Obama administration's history of thuggish behavior and threatening people over ObamaCare dissent. It started with the White House request to "flag" dissenters on the pending bills.
http://michellemalkin.com/2010/09/15/the-obamacare-inquisitions-a-brief-brutish-history/

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius is just the latest creepy keeper of the Obamacare enemies list. The White House has been keeping tabs on individual and corporate critics of the federal health care takeover for more than a year. It started with the health czar’s Internet Snitch Brigade. Remember?

Last August, the White House Office of Health Reform called on its ground troops to report on fellow citizens who talked smack about the Democratic plan. Team Obama issued an all-points bulletin on the taxpayer-funded White House website soliciting informant e-mails.

Then they attacked Anthem for proposed rate increases.

In February, the White House coordinated a demonization campaign against Anthem Blue Cross in California for raising rates. Obama singled out the company in a “60 Minutes” interview, and Sebelius sent a nasty-gram demanding that Anthem “justify” its rate hikes to the federal government. A private company trying to survive in the marketplace was forced to “explain” itself to federal bureaucrats and career politicians who have never run a business (successful or otherwise) in their lives. Sebelius went even further. She called on Anthem to provide public disclosure on how the rate increases would be spent — a mandate that no other private companies must follow.

Then they targeted private companies who were planning on raising the costs to their employees for health care based upon the ObamaCare law.

On Capitol Hill, Democratic chief inquisitor Henry Waxman trained his sights on executives from Deere, Caterpillar, Verizon and AT&T in a brass-knuckled effort to silence companies speaking out about the cost implications and financial burdens of Obamacare. He scheduled an April 21 show trial of corporate heads who dutifully reported writedowns related to the Obamacare mandates. Obama Commerce Secretary Gary Locke joined in on the witch-hunt, pummeling the companies on the White House blog and TV airwaves for their “premature” and “irresponsible” disclosures.

After the Democrats’ own congressional staff pointed out that the companies “acted properly and in accordance with accounting standards” in submitting filings that were required by law, Waxman called off the hounds.

And now, of course, we have Sebelius threatening health care companies if they DARE to raise premiums because of the effects of the ObamaCare law.

Undoubtedly, we have more such examples to come in the future. This administration seems more than willing to abuse the power of government to bludgeon policy critics into silent submission.

This group of people cannot be permitted to remain in power. Their vision of America is anathema to freedom and liberty.