It was so easy for Pres BO and the Dems to blast Pres Bush and the Republicans about health care.
It was so easy to talk about health care in the abstract. (Yes we can!)
It's a lot more complicated to get something done, specially with Dems freaking out at adding US$ 1 trillion! As we posted, the Dems are starting to worry about carrying BO's deficits and unemployment in 2010!
" President Barack Obama may not have enough votes in the U.S. Senate to pass his effort to overhaul the nation’s health-care system, California Democrat Dianne Feinstein said. “I don’t know that he has the votes right now,” Feinstein said today on CNN’s “State of the Union” program.
“I think there’s a lot of concern in the Democratic caucus.”
Controlling costs of the new system is a “difficult subject.” Republican Senator Richard Lugar of Indiana said on the same program that the overhaul should be done slowly, and not this year, to ensure it doesn’t “threaten the basic structure of the economy.”"
Out of control costs? Where I did hear that before?
It gets better.
"And then last week, the Congressional Budget Office, the respected arbiter of what new government programs might cost, calculated that the Senate Finance Committee’s health reform bill would cost more than $1.6 trillion over 10 years.
That was determined to be a political no-go by Senate Democrats– a smart conclusion given the recent polling — and the committee moved on to a still evolving plan B."
This is 1993 all over again. All we need is for the Cowboys to win the Super Bowl and the Blue Jays win The World Series!
Back in '93, another Dem president with a Dem majority decided to push health care reform.
What happened?
The public read the bill.
They put substance over style.
In the end, the voters did not want Euro-type taxes in exchange for a public health care program.
By the way, what happened to the new Dem president and his big majority in 1993?
The Republicans took over the House and Senate.
What happened to Pres Clinton? He said that "the era of big government was over" in first State of the Union after losing Congress!
We agree that something must be done. What should we do?
First, let's check out some facts before making wholesale changes.
"Almost 39 percent of the uninsured are in five states -- Florida, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California, all of which are entry points for immigrants.
About 21 percent -- 9.7 million -- of the uninsured are not citizens.
Up to 14 million are eligible for existing government programs -- Medicare, Medicaid, SCHIP, veterans' benefits, etc. -- but have not enrolled.
And 9.1 million have household incomes of at least $75,000 and could purchase insurance.
Those last two cohorts are more than half of the 45.7 million.
Insuring the perhaps 20 million persons who are protractedly uninsured because they cannot afford insurance is conceptually simple:
Give them money -- (refundable) tax credits or debit cards (which have replaced food stamps) loaded with a particular value.
This would produce people who are more empowered than dependent.
Unfortunately, advocates of a government option consider that a defect. Which is why the simple idea of the dependency agenda cuts like a razor through the complexities of this debate."
Larry Elder goes after the myth of 45 million uninsured people:
"Nearly half of the 45 million fall in the category of my 26-year-old nephew.
He smokes cigarettes, dates, eats out, goes to movies and, like all young people, lives through his cell phone.
With a slight change in priorities, he could afford health insurance, the cost of which at his age and health starts at about $100 a month.
Take a look at a Reason Foundation video (http://reason.tv/video/show/560.html) of interviews with a bunch of non-health-insured 20-somethings."
We do not have a health care crisis.
We have a health care problem that could be addressed with minor reforms and the promotion of personal responsibility, i.e. buy your own policy!
What kind of reforms?
How about tort reform, a major part of health care costs.
What should we do about people who lose their employer based insurance or hit some hard times?
Give these people an insurance card and cover them.
As soon as they find a job, let them pay for their own private sector insurance.
Another reform?
We should move away from the employer based program and encourage people to buy their own plans.
Why? Because individual health insurance policies won't be impacted if you lose or change your job.
Yes, the system needs a few reforms.
Is BO-Care the answer? No. The answer is for every family to prioritize their budget and get an insurance policy!
How many unsustainable entitlements can we afford? We have Social Security and Medicare about to go broke! Where are we going to find trillions of dollars to pay for a fantasy called universal health care?
Let me keep my private health insurance! Let's encourage others to be responsible and buy their own private policies! Again, we should encourage personal responsibility rather than dependency on Democrats!
