Monday, February 22, 2010

Quick skinny on Prez proposal: ideology, intrusion and inflation

This morning President Obama unveiled his health overhaul proposal, which looks a heck of a lot like the Senate-passed bill--only more expensive and Government-intrusive, if that's imaginable.
You can read the White House spin summary here. Here are some initial news reports:
  • FOX News: "Language on abortion funding restrictions remain part of the bill, but more stringent language that passed the House on the urging of Democratic Rep. Bart Stupak did not make the cut."
  • Washington Post: "But the decision is not likely to sit well with Republicans, who have concluded that most Americans do not want radical changes to their health care. Instead, the GOP has been pushing a series of modest changes they say could bring down costs and improve coverage, including tort reform and new freedoms for insurance companies to sell their policies across state lines. Obama's health plan does not include those Republican proposals..."
  • National Journal:  "The president's proposal would add about $75 billion to the cost of the Senate-passed bill, say White House officials..."
  • National Review: "To fund these increases, the bill increases the Medicare payroll tax, applies it to unearned income such as capital gains, and expands cuts to Medicare Advantage."
  • Politico: "Pfeiffer said the White House has not determined whether to move ahead with health care reform through reconciliation, which would allow the Senate to pass a bill with a simple majority rather than a 60-vote threshold."
  • Town Hall: "Overall proposal is a net tax hike of $629 billion over 10 years."
  • Salon: "The legislation would create a Health Insurance Rate Authority,  which would oversee rate hikes by insurers. There's not much detail yet about how this would work, but it appears that the idea is to give the Health and Human Services secretary authority to block any particularly large increases in premiums."
So the President offers yet more of the same old rejected ideology, intrusion and inflation, and with a new anti-free market power grab thrown in. With polls and elections all pointing to trashing the radical overhaul approach, it remains unclear what part of "No" the White House can't understand from the American people.

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