WASHINGTON – In a tight vote, the House passed its sweeping health bill late Saturday, marking the biggest victory yet for Democrats in their drive to create near-universal health insurance.
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Its passage moves Congress closer to the biggest expansion of the social safety net since the Medicare insurance program for the elderly was created in 1965. The measure spends $1.01 trillion over a decade to provide health insurance to an additional 36 million Americans and creates a new public insurance plan to compete with private insurers by 2013. It requires most Americans to carry insurance, creates a new exchange where they can shop for it and gives the lowest earners tax credits to help them pay for it.A little over one trillion dollars, depending on who you believe*! The prudent among us have to ask: where the HELL is that money coming from? I suppose "prudent" would disqualify all but 39 Democrats in the House, the remainder of which evidently don't understand what a massive increase in gub'mint debt means for the future of the nation and every single individual living in these United States or they don't care. The situation is appalling, in either case.
The astute may wonder why my rant focuses on "debt." What else could it possibly BE... considering we have about $107 trillion in unfunded Social Security and Medicare liabilities? But, Hell... I suppose another two or three trillion dollars ain't much to add... (/sarcasm)
So... the good news. I don't have a link for you, but I just now watched Senator Joe Lieberman on Fox News Sunday and he said... unequivocally... that he cannot and will not support the House bill as long as it contains a "public option" for the exact reason mentioned above: an unconscionable increase in the public debt. I might be wrong here, but I'm quite sure he said he would not allow a bill with a public option to come to a vote on the Senate floor. And that is good news, indeed. Let us pray.
* The Heritage Foundation thinks Pelosi's monstrosity will cost 2.6 trillion dollars.
Update, 1710 hrs: I heard Senator Lieberman correctly:
Good on ya, Joe.
It's been the week to be astonished and confused by the behavior of man and the lies people spin...
ReplyDeleteIsn't it wonderful we have to bank on Harry Reid's incompetence?
ReplyDeleteCynthia: Yeah... this was a week I'd like to forget.
ReplyDeleteGordon: That's an interesting but no less true take on things.
I do worry about the debt, but more so I worry that everytime the gub'mint sticks its hand into private business, we become more of a socialist country. With the gub'mint mucking up and shoring up businesss, capitalism will soon be a thing of the past.
ReplyDeleteI am completely against this government foray against the citizenry and our freedom of choice in healthcare.
ReplyDeleteOne note; Most of the provisions in these Health bills are not to be enacted (foisted on us) until 2013, way to go Congress; Punting to the next Administration! So let's say that all this nonsense is thrown at us... WE can vote out all the bums in the next election and it could be possible that Congress could repeal Socialism.
And monkeys may fly out Pelosi's butt.
Just doing my part to keep your readers from going crazy!
Lou: The debt is my biggest concern. We can and most likely WILL reverse all this intervention stuff, but debt is something else. My BIGGEST fear is inflation on a scale like we've never seen before (think Third World and Weimar Germany), and all the sticks seem to be lining up that way.
ReplyDeleteDarryl: Thanks, Bud! ;-)