In their pledge of openness and transparency in government the House of Representatives takes some pride in putting the health care bill online for 72 hours before voting on it.  Sounds like a good step, no?  Well… that is until you to the math.  If the bill they are voting on is 2,500 pages long you would only have 1.7 minutes to read each page provided you did not eat, sleep, rest your eyes, use the restroom for three straight days!

We have Nancy Pelosi’s famous cry for support, “we have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it”.  Turn one-sixth of the economy over to the government, first, then find out what’s behind door number 1, door number 2, or door number 3.  If you remember from that game show, what was behind one of the doors was a real stinker.  The problem here is we got all three doors.

AT&T reports that they are writing off $1 billion to pay for compliance with the new health care bill.  Guess where they are going to get that $1 billion?  That’s right watch your phone bill.  You are going to be paying for this health care monster in places you never imagined.  Caterpillar announced they were writing off $100 million, John Deere $150 million, and AK Steel $31 million.  So look for more expensive roads, farm equipment (food), and more expensive cars.  This is from companies that have figured this out in less than a week.  It will take time for thousands of other companies to tally up the cost.

Henry Waxman to the Rescue

But don’t worry folks, Congressman Henry Waxman is riding to the rescue:

Representative Henry A. Waxman, Democrat of California and chairman of the Committee on Energy and Commerce, said he would hold a hearing next month to investigate the effects of the law on big companies. He asked the chief executives of Caterpillar, Deere & Company and Verizon for financial data to document the projected impact of the law on their companies, and he asked them to explain their accounting methods.

“The new law is designed to expand coverage and bring down costs,” Mr. Waxman said, adding that he would be concerned if it drove up costs.

I’m sorry to have to say this, but he has to be the dumbest man in the House of Representatives.  Members of the House are supposed to REPRESENT  the people.  The people have been screaming their opposition to this for months.  Obama dared his opposition to campaign on repealing his prized piece of…er, work.  Here’s news for you Mr. President, according to a Rasmussen poll 55% of Americans favor repealing this monstrosity.

But let me get back to Mr. Waxman, who is surprised that health care costs could actually increase.  Listen to the American people:

Most voters still believe cost is the biggest problem with health care in America today, but most also think passage of the health care plan proposed by President Obama and congressional Democrats will drive costs even higher.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 54% rate cost as the biggest problem, a finding that has been consistent for months.

If Mr. Waxman got his head out of the sand or wherever else he conveniently parks it, and out into the fresh air, he might have realized that he is among the very few who actually believe this was going to lower costs, because there is nothing in this bill that addresses costs.  It’s all about tweaking reimbursements to health care providers, which will accomplish nothing but drive doctors and other providers out of business, ration health, and expand government control.  Oh, but wait, that is the Democrats plan.

The Silver Lining

But there is a silver lining.  Communist dictator Fidel Castro loves it! 

Cuban revolutionary leader Fidel Castro on Thursday declared passage of American health care reform “a miracle” and a major victory for Obama’s presidency

Bill O’Reilly, do you still think President Obama is not  a socialist?

The Obama Administration probably wishes they didn’t spend $18 million to build a website that is making a mockery of their vaunted stimulus package that if not passed might result in an economic calamity from which we might never recover.  Well, here is a random sampling of six beneficiaries of stimulus money:

• Maine — Fish River Rural Health: $491,222. Jobs created — zero
• New Jersey — Southern Regional High School Board of Education: $119,622. Jobs created — zero
• Michigan — West Branch Rose City Area School District: $879,258. Jobs created — zero
• Georgia — Georgia Crisis Family Center: $16,425.  Jobs created — zero
• Minnesota — Regents of the University of Minnesota: $294,200.  Jobs created — zero
• Texas — Port Aransas Independent School District: $143,241. Jobs created — zero

Enough already, I think you get the picture.  Lest you think my sampling was biased you  can play along.  Go to the website, pick a dot at random and see for yourself.  The media seem to be starting to wake up and do their job.  ABC News reported on data from non-existent Congressional Districts.  The New York Times reported on a $1,000 grant that created 50 jobs and upon further investigation found out the $1,000 went to purchase a lawn mower.  But don’t worry, President Obama put that pit bull Joe Biden in charge of making sure the money was spent carefully.  President Obama: \”Nobody Messes with Joe\”  Joe Biden, call your office.

We are on an express train to financial ruin.  This is not just a financial problem but a national security problem as well.  We won the Cold War, not with weapons, but with our economy.  President Reagan ramped up our military and the teetering Soviet economy could not keep up and communism collapsed.  China is becoming more capitalist every day as we chase the ghost of Karl Marx.  I ask a simple question, “Do you trust this administration to spend your tax dollars wisely?”  Do you believe any administration, Republican, Democrat, Independent, can effectively manage the federal government as it exists today? 

A phrase we often heard in the midst of the financial crisis as justification for bailouts was “too big to fail.”  One response to that was “make them smaller.”  If the federal government is too big to manage and is growing without bound, then we, who are the government of the people, must make the government smaller.  It is a fundamental truth of government that programs once started do not end, they just find other things to do.  Here is a case in point.

When I worked for one of the phone company spin offs after the break up of AT&T, I came across a regulatory agency called the Rural Electrification Administration.  Strange I thought, most of America has electricity, and I am not working for the electric company.  It turns out, that agency was created to help bring electricity to rural America.  Okay, that sounds like a good idea.  However, once its mission was completed, instead of going out of business, it found a new mission: bringing phone service to rural America, and it will go on and on.  One of the key problems is how the mission is defined.  In this example, as long as one farm doesn’t have electricity, the agency will still have a reason to exist.  As long as a log cabin in the woods doesn’t have a phone land line, the agency must soldier on.  As any economist will tell you, the cost of serving each additional rural property, will eventually skyrocket.

If we were to take these functions and drive them down to the state and local level, eventually someone will stand up and say, “We’re done,  it’s not worth the increase in taxes to prolong the life of this agency.”  But ensconced in Washington, it costs more to fight it than let it go on.  But we have reached a tipping point where if we don’t cut the beast down to size, the beast will have us for dinner.  Chinese anyone?