September 20, 2010 10:20AM # President Obama’s Speech Czar By [Michael F. Cannon](https://www.cato.org/people/michael-f-cannon) --- SHARE President Obama’s Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius is still [threatening](https://www.cato.org/obamacares-threat-to-free-speech/) [to](https://www.cato.org/sebelius-prior-restraint-on-speech/) [bankrupt](https://www.cato.org/secretary-sebelius-slips-on-the-brass-knuckles/) insurance companies who tell their customers that [ObamaCare](https://www.cato.org/pubs/wtpapers/BadMedicineWP.pdf)’s mandates will increase premiums by more than 2 percent, even though her department’s projections show that, starting this week, just one of the law’s new mandates will increase some premiums by [nearly 7 percent](http://edocket.access.gpo.gov/2010/2010-15278.htm). ![Media Name: free_Speech.jpg](/sites/cato.org/files/styles/pubs_2x/public/wp-content/uploads/free_Speech.jpg?itok=uF1F-gER) In a CBS News [story](http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/09/17/eveningnews/main6877315.shtml) last week, Sebelius tried to defend those indefensible threats: > But don’t the insurance companies have a right to make their own analyses and claims to their customers? > > > “Absolutely, they have a right to communicate with their customers,” replied HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius. “We just want to make sure that communication is as accurate as possible.” The government can and should police fraud — but that’s not what Sebelius is doing. She is suppressing legitimate differences of opinion in the pursuit of political gain. What if the government had said, “Absolutely, CBS News has a right to communicate with its customers — we just want to make sure that communication is as accurate as possible”? Should the government be able to put CBS News out of business if it decides those communications are not as accurate as possible? How about the National Rifle Association? Should the next Republican administration be able to put the Center for American Progress, the SEIU, or *The New York Times* out of business if it decides their communications are not as accurate as possible? You don’t have to oppose ObamaCare to see the danger here. ##### Related Tags [Government and Politics](https://www.cato.org/government-politics), [Health Care](https://www.cato.org/health-care) [![Creative Commons License](/build/cato_2020/images/creative-commons.svg)](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/) This work is licensed under a [Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/).