Yesterday, President Obama did his best Knute Rockne imitation at a White House healthcare reform pep rally with Senate Democrats. The President said that we are on the "precipice" of achieving major comprehensive healthcare reform. Interesting choice of the word "precipice". Websters defines precipice as 1) "a very steep or overhanging place, and 2) a hazardous situation".
Given the combined 4,000 pages of legislative mumbo jumbo that the House and the Senate have cranked out, and the substantial differences between the two bills, the Democrats are indeed about to go careening down a steep overhanging place into a very hazardous situation. Every major poll has indicated that while the people want reform of the healthcare system, better than 50% do not favor the solution that Obama and company are offering.
It is clear the the Democrats are focused on passing anything so that they can declare victory. They don't care that the components of the bill are wrong, they will "fix" them later. Don't hold your breath. Senator Tom Harkin described the bill as a "starter house" that could be added on to later.
The statement that the President released after the meeting contains some really choice tidbits. It is frankly amazing to see the unmitigated gall exhibited by the President in some of his pronouncements. Here are a few samples, the emphasis is mine:
"And I just want to repeat this because there's so much misinformation about the cost issue here. You talk to every health care economist out there, and they will tell you that whatever the ideas are--whatever ideas exist in terms of bending the cost curve and starting to reduce costs for families, businesses and government, those elements are in the bill."
In the immortal words of Steve Martin, "Well excuuuuuuuuuuuse me!" All the health care economists agree? Who is President Pinocchio kidding? Is he totally oblivious to the debate that has been raging over the lack of cost controls in this bill? Even CBO in its analysis has expressed doubts about the long tern effect on costs. Neither of the bills address tort reform and malpractice, the viability of fee for service, or the establishment of a centralized records database; all major drivers of the relentless increases in medical costs.
Reducing costs for families, as in the fines that are going to be imposed on people who don't buy government approved plans, or the proposed taxes to be levied on so-called "Cadillac Plans"? (The unions are going ballistic over this because having traded wage increases for better benefits, they get ensnared).
Next lulu
"This plan will strengthen Medicare and extend the life of that program. And because it gets rid of waste and inefficiencies in our healthcare system, this will be the largest deficit reduction plan in over a decade."
The May 12, 2009 report of the Medicare Trustees is rather sobering. In 2008 Medicare started to pay out more than it took in, and absent tax increases or cost reductions, the part of the fund that pays for hospital costs will be exhausted by 2017. Given that state of the economy and Obama's campaign pledege not to raise taxes on anyone earning less that $250,000 a year, raising the Medicare component of the payroll tax is a non-starter. The current legislation targets a $500 billion reduction in Medicare expenses over the next ten years. If you believe that $500 billion is merely "waste and inefficiency, then you probably believe in Santa Claus, The Tooth Fairy and The Easter Bunny. By the way, what happened to fraud? Don't we want to eliminate that anymore?
Think about it; what new magical powers are going to accrue to the people who administer Medicare that will suddenly enable them to root out all of the waste and inefficiency that they have heretofore been unable to control? These reductions are going to come directly out of the hides of hospitals and physicians in the form of lower reimbursements, and they will negatively impact Medicare beneficiaries. Is it de facto rationing? Call it what you will, the net impact is the same.
And there's more. I really like this one becuase whenever the President says "Now let's be clear, or let me be clear", what usually follows is anything but clear.
"Now, let's be clear. The final bill won't include everything everybody wants. No bill can do that. But what I told my former colleagues today is that we simply cannot allow differences over individual elements of this plan to prevent us from meeting our responsibility to solve a longstanding and urgent problem for the American people."
Huh? What does the President think a plan is but the sum of its individual elements. Individual elements are things such as abortion coverage, fines on people who don't purchase coverage, new government bureaucracies to order us around. You bet people differ on these elements, and that's precisely why this bill is where it is, on a precipice.
And finally
"I am absolutelly confident that if the American people know what's in the bill, and if the Senate knows what's in the bill, that this is going to pass."
What do you mean, "if"? The American people are certainly not going to read 2,000 pages of junk, and I'd wager a fair number of senators have not and will not read the bill. Just last week when Senator Reid announced his new compomise, his second in command, Senator Durbin was unaware of what it was. But hey, why let trivial details like that actual words in a bill get in the way. The Presdent said that we'll never have the chance to do this again, so we most vote on a bill even though we don't know what's in it. Only in America.
I"ve said it before, and I'll say it again reconciling the mess in the House with the mess in the Senate is going to be a non stop laugh-a-thon.
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