The Costs of the Healthcare Jam-down

Have the Democrats really stopped to think what they are doing with this health care jam-down?

The so-called Baucus bill (which is not a bill but "conceptual language") was clearly written to game the CBO scoring system. In other words, it was written to make it seem that the government takeover of health care would cost under a trillion dollars over ten years.

But it won't. We know it won't.

The excellent Michael Barone has a telling article about this, and about the special deals that Senators Reid (D-NV) and Schumer (D-NY) have written into the bill to help their states.

Lyndon Johnson reportedly ignored the advice of his economists back in 1965 when he was costing out Medicare. He just lied about the estimated costs and got his Medicare passed.

Maybe Democrats think that they can get away with it again.

But I think they are fooling themselves. I think that if they pass this bill they will reap a generation of rage. I think that this bill gets us to the Tipping Point on government spending. I think it will power up a new generation of conservative activism which will truly redeem President Reagan's boast that "you ain't seen nothin' yet." Here's why.

• Government health care stops the market from seeking out new procedures and new economies. It maintains health care as expensive, cartelized crony capitalism.
• Government health care reverses the reward for prudence. It rewards people who don't take care of themselves and their families.
• Government health care will turn into rationing. It has to, because there is an almost unlimited demand for free or subsidized health care.
• Government health care will force Americans to fight each other. That's what happens in education, according to Andrew Coulson in Market Education. Government always selects one way to do everything. That means that people that want another way have to fight.
• Government health care puts politicians at the center of power and society. It means that politics will decide issues rather than economics or compassion or caring. The only thing that matters is whether you can scare or bribe a politician.

Guess what. People don't like that stuff. And conservatives are going to have an open line to moderate women. We are going to be able to say: Democrats don't care about you and your family. They just care about power and about special interests.

Liberals and Democrats better understand what they are doing here. They are visiting a monstrous injustice on the American people and they will pay dearly for their arrogance and their pride.

Well, it's about time.