Negotiating the Red Herring

Good negotiators have long used a tool called the "Red Herring" to increase their odds of cutting the best deal for themselves. The device is used to confuse an opponent, waylay their fears, give them the impression you have surrendered something so they should as well; or all of the above.

The Red Herring in the current health care "reform" legislation being argued now in public venues is referred to as "the public option." Recall this is that part of the bill which states the government will create a federally funded and mandated health care insurance plan as an alternative to the private sector which has served us so well (there are actually people who feel this to be a superior alternative to the government giving vouchers or "health care stamps" to folks so they can buy private insurance...thus making use of an existing industry and saving hundreds of billions of dollars in the process.)

The reason for the "public option" and for a government run program of course has nothing to do with supplying health care to the needy among us. It has everything to do with a lust for power, and even the culture of Malthusian Economics with its focus on "scarcity" and eugenics for the sake of the "environment." Oh...the creation of that purposeful misconception however, is not a Red Herring...it's simply a lie!

A Red Herring is a negotiating point you intend to give up before you begin the negotiating. The second thing to strike me, after reading through the entire bill...as overly wordy as it was...was that there was no actual plan for a "public option." There are pages of platitudes...but nothing that would constitute an actual "business plan" to move it forward. That was the first sign to me that it was the Red Herring of the upcoming negotiation.

The first thing which struck me reading the bill; there was no need to spell out the public option! The remainder of the bill is designed very specifically to economically destroy the private health care industry which is the envy of the world. Once the hospitals are going bankrupt, the insurance companies have closed their doors, doctors are taking early retirement, and the nursing shortage becomes acute...the government can declare an "emergency"...much as they did with GM...and simply confiscate the segments of the industry piece-by-piece.

That will be the beginning of a new "public option"...or in this case an "only option."

This is a very smart way of sneaking past the public outrage...the citizens may feel they've won the negotiation, when in fact they have simply played into their opponent's hand. Like a bluff in Poker, abandoning the public option now will keep the players in the game so the government, with the winning hand, can take all. And don't kid yourself...they will.

There is only one problem however, but I'm sure the administration can talk around it. That 20% of the population who actually think government run industry is superior to private, are already screaming the president has failed them. Even the more radical leftists in Congress and the Senate are not understanding the ploy...of course how bright are radical leftists...they actually believe their own absurd hooey (I used to play poker with a bunch of socialists when in undergrad school...it was like taking candy from babies).

That means the Prez will have to either tough it out...and then please them in the end when the industry crashes...or he will have to speak to them and tell them how the plan is going to work. If he does that, however, someone in the media...probably at the Washington Post or Fox, as they are about the only honest media outlets remaining...is going to make those speeches known to all.

Then the public will know they've taken the Red Herring...and they won't like the taste of being lied to again. And the angrier we get...the harder it is for our employees...particularly those in Congress...to pretend they don't work for us.

So watch for the Red Herring...it will come...and when it does remember that this bill in its entirety needs to be scrapped. Actual health care coverage for those who need it and want it is available through simpler and cheaper options...and could be written and passed with everyone's concurrence if the power-mongers will simply step out of the way and let the people get it done.

The Professor