Normally, I’d be writing a “Merry Christmas”-type of blog today, but even though I’ve got Christmas tree lights twinkling and a couple of kids drawing pictures for Santa Clause, I’m frankly depressed reading the news this morning. The Senate will pass the atrocious health care bill today. We’ve written a lot about just how bad the content of this bill is (see here and here), but the process has been particularly nauseating these last weeks.
While some blindly loyal lovers of big government call it the “greatest achievement” of our time, there is something truly sad about how our Republic has been corrupted to the point that blatant bribery and vote-buying isn’t even something that has to be done on the sly. Our Representatives proudly proclaim that they are offering graft to states with Members who held their vote out.
Meanwhile, the comatose media parrots statements by the President that are obviously and absolutely not true, without the least bit of skepticism or analysis. Matt Welch at Reason demolishes the President’s claim that “every single criteria for reform I put forward is in this bill.” He starts with the obvious, the President had promised an open, transparent process of negotiations-and instead we had Majority Leader Reid refusing to show even his own leadership drafts of the bill until hours before critical votes. Welch notes other un-kept promises (drug re-importation and the creation of a public option, which the President insists he didn’t campaign on yet Welch found on his campaign website). And Welch could have gone on, including the many tax increases contained in this bill that will squarely hit the middle class despite the President’s pledge that those making under $200k wouldn’t experience tax increases of any kind.
It’s the season of hope, and of course we can still hope that Members come to their sense over the holidays and return to scrap the current frighteningly destructive proposals and start anew with legislation that would actually make the health care market place more competitive and help control health care costs. And now, I’ll get back to baking cookies for Santa Clause….