Record of Squelching Dissent

By Michelle Malkin
NYPost.com

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius is just the latest keeper of the ObamaCare enemies list. Last week, she warned that insurers who dare to pass along to consumers the cost of new federal mandates would face "zero tolerance" from the administration.

But the White House has been keeping tabs on critics of ObamaCare for more than a year. It started with the health czar's Internet Snitch Brigade: 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. The White House Web site solicited informant e-mails:

"There is a lot of disinformation about health-insurance reform out there, spanning from control of personal finances to end of life care. These rumors often travel just below the surface via chain emails or through casual conversation. . . . If you get an email or see something on the web about health-insurance reform that seems fishy, send it to flag@whitehouse.gov."

Linda Douglass, then the spokeswoman for the health czar's office, appeared in an accompanying video singling out conservative Web powerhouse Matt Drudge. Why? Because his site featured a video compilation of President Obama and other Democrats -- in their own words -- exposing the "public option" as a Trojan Horse for government-run health care and the elimination of private industry.

The Obama dog whistle rang out loud and clear: Report online dissidents immediately.

Calling on the White House to cease and desist, GOP Sen. John Cornyn pointed out that "these actions taken by your White House staff raise the specter of a data collection program . . . I can only imagine the level of justifiable outrage had your predecessor asked Americans to forward e-mails critical of his policies to the White House."

The flagging operation was shut down, but federal disclosure exemptions protect the Obama administration from disclosing what was collected, who was targeted and what was done with the "fishy" database information.

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.

On Capitol Hill, Democratic chief inquisitor Henry Waxman trained his sights on executives from Deere, Caterpillar, Verizon and AT&T in an 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. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke joined in, pummeling the companies on the White House blog and TV 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. But it was a temporary reprieve. Sebelius' threat last week will be far from this desperate administration's last.

As health costs skyrocket, doctors abandon the profession, hospitals lay off workers and private insurers shut down, the only way to quell the ObamaCare backlash will be through an even more thuggish campaign to demonize, marginalize and silence nationwide dissent.

malkinblog@gmail.com