Just shut up

The federal government has declared that from now on, water and other liquids will flow uphill. Anyone designing a pipeline or aqueduct who states the delivery end has to be lower than the point of origin because liquids flow downhill -- or, horror or horrors, declares that otherwise expensive pumps may be required -- will have their federal funding cut off.

That takes care of that!

The federal government has also declared that airplanes can easily pass through solid rock. Any aircraft designer or air traffic controller who states planes must fly above mountains because otherwise they'll crash into them will have their federal funding cut off.

See how simple these things are?

And federal Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius warned health insurance firms Thursday that -- because the federal government has declared the multibillion-dollar ObamaCare scheme won't cost anyone any money -- any insurance company that blames the measure for higher rates "may be excluded from new health insurance markets," thus costing them millions of potential customers, The Associated Press reported.

Our first two examples, above, aren't real. Unfortunately, the third one is.

This is your federal government under Barack Obama. Claim things that clearly cannot be true; then threaten to punish anyone who does the arithmetic, figures out it's a lie, and dares to say so out loud.

Fortunately, we still have a First Amendment, so no one (not even "greedy insurance companies") can actually be prosecuted for exercising freedom of speech. As in: Telling us why they have to raise our premiums.

And it's equally fortunate that -- because the sponsors and fans of ObamaCare swear up and down it's not "socialized medicine," it's not a "government takeover of the health care industry" -- medical insurance remains a wholly private industry, and Ms. Sebelius will thus have no power to decide from which firms Americans will remain free to buy their medical insurance.

Oh -- wait.

But if the secretary of Health and Human Services can punish insurance companies who tell truths she doesn't want told, by refusing to let them take part in a new nationwide health insurance scheme which she's going to run, could it be that those who tell us ObamaCare isn't a vastly expensive government takeover of one-sixth of the nation's economy are no more to be believed than those who claim water now flows uphill, and that airplanes can fly through solid rock?

If the federal government will only declare that children get all the nutrients they need just from drinking water, think of all the money the nation can save by cutting back on this frivolous expenditure called "food."

That is the way things work now, right? If "the secretary" bans people from saying something, then it's no longer true? And if the government says something is true, well ...

"This won't add to the deficit ..." "This is enormously popular ..." "The way to create new jobs is to raise taxes on the greedy rich ..."