Remind me again about the Politifact “biggest lie” of 2010.  Or better yet, remind Rep. John Conyers, who tells CNS News that ObamaCare was a necessary step in the eventual government takeover of American health care:

Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.), the ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee, told CNSNews.com today that the health-care law that President Barack Obama signed last March is a “platform” for building a single-payer health care system in the United States.

During a newsmakers program at the National Press Club on Monday, Conyers said that after discussing the issue with Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D.-Ohio) he voted for the health-care law because he saw it as a necessary “platform” for building toward a single-payer health-care system in the United States. …

When asked if he thinks President Obama’s health-care law will lead to a single-payer health-care system in the U.S., Conyers said: “Well it’s a platform. I don’t think they flow smoothly but without that, if we didn’t have this then health care, universal health care would be an even more difficult legislative objective,” he said.

The economics of ObamaCare are already a disaster, especially after the “doc fix” passed afterward by Democrats that changed the pricing basics in their ObamaCare projections.  As similar efforts in Maine and Massachusetts have shown, the kinds of mandates required by the bill will make insurance costs skyrocket, and will eventually force insurers out of the market.  The government will already control the parameters of insurance offerings through the mandated “exchanges” for individual consumers, but those choices will rapidly disappear.  Employers will dump insurance in the long run as more costly than paying the fines for lack of participation, which will be more predictable in the shorter term.  That will leave consumers either paying directly for all care, without the ability to choose catastrophic insurance coverage, which will be forbidden under the terms of ObamaCare …. except for those getting waivers from HHS.

As we have said all along, the entire structure is designed for failure.  It’s a Trojan horse for an eventual government takeover of health care in the vacuum of a collapse in health insurance, forced into failure through government regulation.  Conyers simply confirms this long-term strategy.

Speaking of which, Senator Al Franken says that the charge that Net Neutrality amounts to a government takeover of the Internet is just as silly as claiming ObamaCare to be a government takeover of health care.  And just to prove how Net Neutrality doesn’t amount to a government takeover, Franken wants government to respond to violations of Net Neutrality rules with criminal prosecution:

Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) plans to introduce a bill that would make net neutrality violations a crime.

The Justice Department cannot take enforcement actions against cable and phone companies who block websites, according to experts and congressional Democrats.

Franken said in a speech at the South by Southwest conference on Monday that he is planning legislation that would amend antitrust laws to “call violations of net neutrality out for what they are: anti-competitive actions by powerful media conglomerates that represent violations of our anti-trust laws.”

Huh?  Internet companies act in a competitive market; they have to compete for consumers, albeit in some cases in restricted markets.  Wireless carriers, however, have a robustly competitive environment, and even the wired industry usually has two or three options for consumers in most cases.  If one carrier starts blocking websites, consumers will vote with their feet and go to the provider who doesn’t restrict access to them.

It’s amazing to see how Franken can argue that Net Neutrality laws don’t mean a government takeover of the Internet and then demand that people who don’t play along get prosecuted for it.