Senator Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.), the main architect of the President's health care reform, can now count the Chamber of Commerce, the Washington Post, and the White House among his bill's latest critics. Even the administration, which tapped Kennedy to lead the overhaul, is backing away from the proposal that it helped conceive. After the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released an unflattering picture of the bill's cost, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs couldn't backpedal fast enough. "This is not the administration's bill," he tried to explain.The President may sidestep his involvement in the legislation, but he cannot distance himself from the expensive reality of a government takeover of health care--a goal that could cost well over $1 trillion in the next decade. He claims the government can cut billions from Medicare and Medicaid to pay for the initiative, but the only way the President could possibly save money is to limit benefits, that is, by rationing health care.
According to the CBO, liberals are lowballing the price of Kennedy's plan. As the Cato Institute points out, when Medicare was launched in 1965, Part A (coverage for seniors) was projected to cost $9 billion. By 1990, it had cost $67 billion. "It's hard to know whether President Obama's health care 'reform' is naive, hypocritical or simply dishonest. Probably all three," writes Newsweek and Washington Post columnist Robert Samuelson. "The president keeps saying it's imperative to control runaway health spending. He's right. The trouble is that what's being promoted as health care 'reform' almost certainly won't suppress spending and, quite probably, will do the opposite."
(Family Research Council's Washington Update, June 17)
By all means, let your political representatives know your opinions about government-run heath care. Use the material above and perhaps a few lines from the Samuelson article mentioned (I've provided the link for you above) and let's kick this thing back in the can. For contact info on your Senators, Congressman and the President, go here.
