Second push for near trillion dollar Health Care proposal
Posted By RichC on February 23, 2010
After American citizens were heard ‘loud and clear’ during the Obama administration’s attempt last year to ram though health care reform, the President and a ‘agenda-driven’ liberal congress are planning to give it another go. 
In a feeble attempt to cloak the “retooled $950 billion health care plan” and continual expansion of government as “bi-partisan,” President Obama has extended an invitation to Republicans to consult over his plan on Thursday. Personally I think it is just a rouse to find a couple votes, since if this were truly a bi-partisan approach, it would include ideas from both parties. From a cursory reading of the President’s proposal, I would have thought the administration would have shown that they heard the citizens … and might have included some fiscal restraint, or at minimum offered up convincing and palatable numbers of how they plan to pay for the massive changes. The plan does little to keep government small, accountable and out of an individual’s life; instead of being strictly in the oversight role and empowering competition through free markets for best prices/best quality, they regulate with bureaucrats, expand governments power over private industry and reduce a citizen’s liberty — along with increase taxes selectively based on their philosophy of social and economic justice.
Unfortunately, the President’s current proposal is just a redraft of what already caused so much uproar. The slick marketing and misleading answers to questions does little to instill confidence that “choice” will really be much of an option when a business providing better health care plans are “Cadillac taxed” and have to compete will companies providing the minimums — why pay those 40% taxes to buy a better plan … and when they don’t, who’ll pick up that 40% that was calculated into the cost of the new legislation?
If we’re talking real reform and bi-partisan reform, the where is the tort reform, the competition from insurance plans across the country or between states? Where is the evidence that government control over health care will save money and improve care for Americans?
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I knew my friend Steve Moore would be on TV this morning, so I set up the Tivo to record his appearance (above). As a respected economist and WSJ reporter, I appreciate his insight on these matters. Although h has a fiscally-conservative bias and isn’t confident government has proven it can spend wisely, he understands the economic side of the health care equation better than most and is worth listening to when it comes to fiscal sense.
My fear is that if Washington forces through the current proposal which is frighteningly similar to the 2000+ page bills we’ve already seen, Americans in the long run will pay dearly for socialization of health care in both dollars and quality of care.
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