Obama’s speech Monday on the Senate’s passage of health care “reform” was strikingly ironic.  On the one hand, Obama was praising the Senate for passing a grand new entitlement certain to increase government spending.  On the other, he was praising a woman from Colorado who had figured a way to save money at the VA hospital where she worked.  Her idea was to allow veterans to keep their leftover medicines after being discharged from the VA hospital. 

(Had I known about the contest, I might have submitted the winning idea:  Allow Americans to keep their leftover money after being taxed enough already.)

On second thought, I wouldn’t have won.  This administration is set on increasing the size and power of government—a group of people proven throughout time to be wasteful and inefficient.  And we’re supposed to believe this time it’s different.  No more business as usual.

There’s a reason business is usual.  From the dawn of government, bureaucrats have wasted money, been irresponsible and self-centered.  These traits are not the nature of government so much as they are the nature of man.  When given enough power, man can be counted on to abuse it.  When given enough money, governments can be counted on to waste it.  That’s why we have checks and balances.  That’s why the founders placed ultimate power in the hands of the governed.

All this Americans instinctively know.  We’ve watched government from both parties grow and waste and spend.  We don’t believe fairytales where altruistic leaders spend unlimited resources, where costs go down and value goes up.

Obama seems to think we do.  He and his team have pegged the American people as gullible and senseless.  It’s as if, after hoodwinking the American people and getting elected, Obama is convinced he can make us believe anything.

A few examples:

• Obama declared the 787 billion “stimulus” package was free of pork.  Never mind the 260 billion in “discretionary” spending funneled to local governments.  The Administration simply bought off special interests through a middleman.

• In the campaign Obama promised he would go through the budget “line by line” and eliminate wasteful spending.  The result? A $410 billion appropriations bill with 8570 earmarks.  8570 earmarks.

• Calling it “A New Era of Responsibility”, Obama succeeded in spending unprecedented amounts of money in his first year, tripling the budget deficit at $1.8 trillion.

• And on Monday Obama declared that increasing government involvement in health care will actually save us money. 

The first thing taught in Public Speaking 101 is to craft a speech with the audience in mind.  One does not give the same speech to a group of nuns as to a group of bikers; the message conveyed may be the same, but the rhetoric is entirely different. 

Assuming President Obama and his professional speechwriters know this principle, the way his messages are framed can tell us much about how Obama views his audience (us).  All the propaganda and distortion and cynicism add up to one thing:  This Administration has a low opinion of our intelligence.

Problem for Obama is we aren’t obtuse.  The polls show more people are seeing through the empty rhetoric and rejecting the siren call of the nanny state.  We know the nature of man and the history of government and this time, we see the difference between real reform and another government power grab.