The hubris of Democratic congressional leaders has been staggering, considering dwindling public support for health-care legislation that no longer seeks to "reform" the system but rather to completely transform it.
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi cheerfully dismissed Republican wins in New Jersey and Virginia governor races this week. She chooses to look at the bright side of life instead, pointing to an upstate New York congressional race where a Democrat who supports health-care reform managed to win in a complicated three-way race.
"From our perspective we won last night," Pelosi said the morning after Tuesday's elections.
Keep it up, Madam Speaker.
Consistently, polls show that a majority of Americans oppose health-care legislation that Democrats intend to impose on the public, and more significantly, the number of Americans who "strongly oppose" outnumber those who "strongly support" by a margin of 36 to 26 percent.
It's no wonder support has been plummeting, since the "Pelosi bill" is replete with taxes, penalties and fees and it includes sharp reductions in Medicare and higher Medicaid burdens for states, all of it being advanced in the midst of the country's most severe recession in decades. It only takes simple intuition to know that a 1,900-page bill that is most recently projected to cost $1.2 trillion over the next 10 years will involve a vastly expanded bureaucracy with a "public option" provision for an incremental takeover of the private health insurance sector.
Yet, Speaker Pelosi presses on for a floor vote, possibly by the end of this week. Why the hurry? Because every day reveals new surprises, such as this nugget for trial lawyers on page 1,431 in the bill: "Medical Liability Alternatives establishes an incentive program for states to adopt and implement alternatives to medical liability litigation" ... But "a state is not eligible for the incentive payments if that state puts a law on the books that limits attorneys fees or imposes caps on damages."
The Wall Street Journal summed it up nicely, branding Pelosi's legislation "The Worst Bill Ever."
Original goals of controlling costs and improving health care have been left in the dust for a bald-faced power grab, creating a vast new entitlement that would be a permanent game-changer in the relationship between citizens and the federal government. Never mind the economy or what most Americans want. The goal is to create an expanding class of Americans who depend on Democrats and the federal government for health care.
It's as simple as that.
Rep. Denny Rehberg will not vote for this monstrosity, and we suspect the reason is because he has been listening to his constituents. We just hope that the rest of Congress does the same.
