The Dems' Healthcare Plan Can't Be Done--Not Because of Politics, But Economics
By Peter Roff, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
Just days before President Obama is scheduled to address the nation in a televised attempt to restart his healthcare reform initiative, congressional Democratic leaders seem to have painted themselves into a corner on the very same issue.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., continues to push for the so-called "public option," arguing as late as last week that it had to be included in any legislative vehicle the House would produce. "There's no way I can pass a bill in the House of Representatives without a public option," she said at one recent press conference back in her San Francisco, Calif., district.
Backing her up on this is House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., who agrees that any healthcare reform that is going to pass the Congress has to include the public option.
Hoyer said last week that House leaders are considering changes to their plan that, according to Bloomberg, include "raising the threshold for a proposed surtax on the wealthy to those earning at least $500,000 a year from $350,000. And, he added at the time, his support for public option was balanced against his plans "for passing a bill."
"We believe the public option is a necessary, useful and very important aspect of this, but you know we'll have to see because there are many important aspects of the bill," he said. But he also said, speaking earlier this week at a town hall meeting that was broadcast on C-SPAN radio, that any healthcare bill the Democrats would pass would "pay for itself" and would not include any tax increase.
So Pelosi says the bill has to have public option. Hoyer now says it can't raise taxes and has to be revenue neutral. Public option, revenue neutral and no tax increase? It can't be done. Not as a matter of politics but as a matter of economics. The money just isn't there, especially in light of the fact that Obama, Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., have, in just over six months, run up almost as much public debt as George W. Bush managed to do in his entire eight years in office.
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Tags: economics | healthcare
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Reader Comments
Roff is correct.
All doctors and nurses are now fully employed.
According to Obama, many more people will need healthcare.
Who will provide it?
How can you reconcile more patients without increasing the number of doctors?
Even if you follow liberal's approach and force doctors/nurses/hospitals to charge less, they still won't be able to service all the extra patients, no matter how little they get paid, no matter how well everyone is insured.
The only approach I heard is to give less care to those who have it now; for example, less tests, less defensive medicine. They call it waste. Not for me: I want all the tests my doctor thinks I need.
Seems no one can answer the above, and thus they ignore it.
Universal Health Cares' Tough Decision
Over and over we hear of the number of top industrialized nations who have succesfully implemented universal health care. What is being neglected is that the systems that work provide health care for their own citizens, not everyone who sneeks into a country for free medical care. Sorry Dems but I have to dis-agree with you on this one. We as a country can't afford it!Although your heart is in the right place you still have not stated how you are going to cover the cost for millions of illegal aliens in this country. Nations that have universal health care do so by saying NO to anyone but their own citizens.
Leaderless in the House
The Democrats have a good many smart people in congress, so how in the world is it that Nancy Pelosi is the best they could come up with for Speaker?
She is absolutely dreadful: not only lacking basic powers of analysis and critical thinking, but completely disconnected from reality. She blithers on about this public option as if the nation is flush with cash and will remain so for decades to come.
Earth to Nancy: you and the rest of the legislative branch of government have put America in a cavernous pit of debt and you want to keep digging it ever deeper. Stop!
Forget this fatuous public option. The nation cannot afford more of your reckless extravagance!
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