New Obama Health Care Plan Resembles Old Obama Health Care Plan

When talking to Obama administration officials about health care, I think it is fair to read the officials their Miranda rights. That may be a little more subtle than Joe Wilson's "You lie!" commentary.

It was supposed to be a fait accomplis by Christmas 2009 but it's dragged on to the next decade. The Democrats tried to foist a Salvador Dali style social welfare and wealth redistribution plan on Americans, instead of necessary and fiscally responsible health care reform. Now, the congressional Democrats are making another push for ObamaCare.

Democrats refuse to throw out the entirety of the 2000 plus page health care plan and begin again with tort reform and cross-border insurances purchases, which Republicans want. After the colossal failure of the previous plan which rewarded Obama's political cronies - unions, the trial bar, Nebraska, and Big Pharma-the Democrats have announced they'll use reconciliation to shove a plan through. Reconciliation is what you do when you don't have the support, don't have the votes, and have nothing to lose.

If there are any remaining moderate Democrats in congress, they do have something to lose, even if President Obama doesn't. Massachusetts, for example. Or Virginia and New Jersey. Perhaps Nevada, and a few others. The president has said that he doesn't care if he is a one-term president-you will have Obamacare.

If it wasn't for the slimy methods employed, the favoritism toward Obama's pet interests, and the opaque fortress-mentality practice of secreting information Americans have a right to know, there might already have been some important progress toward reforming health care.

Campaigner Obama promised "transparency" which included C-Span television of the health care debate. President Obama and the ObamaCare Democrats had a different viewpoint and refused Brian Lamb's request to let C-Span cover the congressional health care debate.

Now that they're desperate, Obamacrats are calling for a bi-partisan "summit" which could provide cover for what is essentially a tone-deaf response and detachment from deeper and more vital American struggles. We have record unemployment, so let's talk "global warming" and a "cap and trade" bill. We have record foreclosures and a collapsed housing market, so let's see if we can capture the Olympic Summer Games in Chicago.

The Congressional Budget Office estimates that tort reform could save America $50 billion dollars. A paltry sum, according to administration thinking. Some Democrats mislead people into thinking that "tort reform" means that they would forfeit their right to file lawsuits in malpractice cases. That's an entirely false statement. "Tort reform" would apply to unlimited "pain and suffering" losses, a legal abstraction that functions as a government welfare program for anti-government lawyers who file lawsuits against deep-pocketed insurance companies. Damage awards are a separate matter, but "pain and suffering" cannot be measured. My suffering is worth untold billions, isn't yours?

The revised bill submitted by the administration contains a few palliatives. The union exclusion from taxation on "Cadillac" health care plans has been delayed for all workers. New taxes are also part of the revised ObamaCare program. The revision also raised the income threshold which defines "Cadillac" plans. New tax revenues would come from unearned income (pension, annuities, social security, etc.) for higher income households, and cuts would be made in the Medicare Advantage plans which are popular with many senior citizens. The new plan also cuts out the "Cornhusker Kickback," whereby Senator Ben Nelson promised to support the bill if the rest of us would pay for special Medicaid funding for his state of Nebraska.

Since the Obamacrats go to such great bowing and scraping lengths to make sure we are loved in Europe, I will employ a French proverb to end this rant. Plus 'ca change, plus c'est la meme chose.