Doctors

Among the president's 23 “executive actions” designed to do something about gun violence was this:

Clarify that the Affordable Care Act does not prohibit doctors asking their patients about guns in their homes.

It isn't clear what, exactly, this is meant to accomplish. Are the doctors supposed to counsel the patient who answers, "Yeah, Doc. Couple of AKs and a Glock," with information about, say, trigger locks.  Or will doctors eventually be required to pass the information along to some government agency.  The one, perhaps, that has dropped by the office to investigate the good doctor's Medicare billing practices.  

One wonders why the president should want to enlist physicians in his gun control effort in the first place since he evidently holds them in minimal regard. Back when he was pushing for the passage of Obamacare, he called out doctors for doing unnecessarily procedures – tonsillectomies, specifically – to pump up their bottom lines.  

But, then, the president has a way of demonizing any political opposition, questioning its motives, and eventually accusing it of doing it for the money. Consider this from his op-ed urging citizens to press Congress on gun control:

“Already we're seeing pundits, politicians, and special interest lobbyists warning of a tyrannical, all-out assault on liberty -- not because it's true, but because it gins up fear, or higher ratings, or more revenue for themselves.”

Yes.  Of course.   And one feels compassion for the president upon whom falls the heavy responsibility of governing a nation so many of whose citizens are such low, bottom-feeding scoundrels.

The Science on Women and Science
edited by
Christina Hoff Sommers
AEI, 200 pp., $20