If you don’t like the idea of government-run health care, then sit down and shut up. 

Barack Obama’s Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), prompted by Senator Max Baucus, actually imposed a gag order on private health insurance companies. Why? Because one of those insurance companies, Humana Inc., made the mistake of warning the American people that ObamaCare could result in drastic cuts to Medicare Advantage. 

In defending the egregious and draconian effort to muzzle their dissenters, Baucus barked: “does the first amendment include lies?” But who’s doing the lying? 

According to the New York Post, Baucus’ ObamaCare 6.0 plan does indeed call for funds to be cut “from Medicare Advantage – a program that offers more choice than traditional Medicare – to help pay for the overall ObamaCare tab.” 

And former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich told Fox News’ Greta Van Susteren “that Medicare Advantage senior citizens would lose over 50 percent of their added value on Medicare under the Baucus plan.” 

Here’s what happened: Humana sent a letter to seniors, which read: “[I]f the proposed funding cut levels [in the current health care legislation] become law, millions of seniors and disabled individuals could lose many of the important benefits and services that make Medicare Advantage health plans so valuable.” 

Baucus and the Obama Administration cried foul and the HHS Centers for Medicare and Medicaid threatened to launch an “investigation” and demanded Humana cease from communicating the truth to their clients about ObamaCare.

“As we continue our research into this issue, we are instructing you to immediately discontinue all such mailings to beneficiaries and to remove any related materials directed to Medicare enrollees from your Web sites.” 

In other words, Baucus and the Obama Administration are so desperate to pass their government takeover of health care that they’ve resorted to silencing the truth-tellers through gag orders and intimidation. 

Don’t these egregious slaps at the First Amendment simply illustrate why it is fruitless for Republicans to continue their so-called negotiations over ObamaCare? 

Don’t they give us another pressing reason to demand that they scrap ObamaCare totally?