the salt makers

"But what we have also seen in these last months is the same partisan spectacle that only hardens the disdain many Americans have toward their own government. Instead of honest debate, we have seen scare tactics..."

Finally, something we can agree on. Scare tactics are wrong and odious.

President Barack Obama demanded Congress act now on health reform, warning more Americans would die if Washington again does nothing to expand care and cut the costs of insurance.

Sigh...

A South Carolina Republican lawmaker shouted "You lie" at President Barack Obama as he addressed Congress on Wednesday. The congressman later apologized for his "lack of civility."

Alright, so that was inappropriate. But I saw Obama sneer in his direction as if to say "stop spreading your disinformation." What a friend google is...

In what he called the "first myth" being spread by critics of his proposal for a government-run health care system, Obama said they are wrong in claiming illegal immigrants will be covered: "That is not true. Illegal immigrants would not be covered. That idea has not even been on the table." Obama said.

Well, Mr. President, that idea must have been tucked under a stack of background briefing papers over there in the corner of the table because the Congressional Research Service (CRS) says this about H.R. 3200, the Obamacare bill approved just before the recess by the House Energy and Commerce Committee chaired by Rep. Henry Waxman, D-CA:
"Under H.R. 3200, a 'Health Insurance Exchange' would begin operation in 2013 and would offer private plans alongside a public option…H.R. 3200 does not contain any restrictions on noncitzens—whether legally or illegally present, or in the United States temporarily or permanently—participating in the Exchange."

Honestly, I thought the speech was pretty good, even if inappropriately partisan at times. However, I cannot for the life of me understand how he can continue to offer specifics on any health plan that he is allowing to be written by the same neanderthals who wrote the stimulus bill. He has no idea what's going to be in it, yet he's setting a price tag of $900 billion. Why is this insane? At its start, in 1966, Medicare cost $3 billion. The House Ways and Means Committee estimated that Medicare would cost only about $ 12 billion by 1990 (a figure that included an allowance for inflation). This was a supposedly "conservative" estimate. But in 1990 Medicare actually cost $107 billion. It wasn't easy passing Medicare, but no one remembers the initial promises and projections of the program and now it's become a sacred, bloated untouchable cow. The same will happen with the public option...and we'll all be worse off for it.