Barack Obama’s entire presidency is now hopelessly tethered to the success of the cornerstone of his health care policy: the so-called “public option.” Without it, his administration will have failed inside of its first year pursuing a policy that most Americans find to be a monstrous growth of government into a sector that works well for the more than 280 million Americans who have health coverage.
Today, the Senate Finance Committee is expected to take up the controversial proposal, an amendment being put forward by Democrat Senators Chuck Schumer and Jay Rockefeller that would add the government-run insurance plan to the so-called Baucus bill. The plan is already a part of the House version, H.R. 3200.
This massive government-run system, as proposed in the House of Representatives, would put an additional 45 million people on the government health-care rolls. ALG estimates this will cost some $2.1 trillion over ten years.
And Barack Obama, whether he cares to admit it, has stuck his reputation out there to achieve this unseemly takeover of what will be by 2018 one-fifth of the nation’s economy. Recently, in Cincinnati, he said, “I continue to believe that a public option within the basket of insurance choices would help improve quality and bring down costs.”
Obama’s position is perfectly clear. And the only question is whether his party in Congress will stand by him in the face of incredible public opposition to the takeover.
According to Rasmussen Reports, a full 56 percent of voters oppose the plan, with only 41 percent in favor.
The fact is, the Democrat Party has been pursuing a national takeover of the health care for decades now. It is their top agenda item. And anything less, when they have 60 Senators and 256 Representatives, enough to command the national agenda, will be an overwhelming—and much-deserved—defeat for the freshman Administration and his increasingly hard left party.
