It's Called, Pulling A Fast One
by James Glaser
October 5, 2009

For some reason the Democrats refused last week to allow you and me to see what their health care bill is going to look like before they vote on it. Also, they will not wait to find out any sort of estimate of the cost of their plan before voting. The push is on to pass a bill... any bill.

The really strange thing about this rush is the fact that the Democrats are keeping this health care bill from taking effect until 2013. So, they are going full speed ahead, in order to come to a full stop after passage of their plan. Why is that?

Well, if President Obama gets a second term, it will be decided in 2012. No use having a health care bill to talk about during the election.

If this Democrat health bill was for the good of the nation, it would be well thought out, and every American would have a chance to read and understand it and make comments on it before it was voted on. Also, we would all know what it is going to cost us, but that isn't the reason this bill will be passed.

The Democrats are trying to give President Obama a legislative victory. Obama and his party want to win at something, anything. The President wanted to close our prison in Cuba by January like he promised, but he and his party now know that isn't going to happen. Obama wanted to get the economy rolling again, but things are not going his way and with millions and millions of Americans out of work, he will be lucky if things look better in time for the next election in 2012.

Then there are Iraq and Afghanistan. Nobody in America or the world for that matter believes Barack Obama has any sort of plan to get our troops home or to end these two wars. Just like George Bush and the Republicans, Barack Obama and the Democrats have never put together an "exit plan."

So, the Democrats, in order to get some "win" under their belt are willing to vote for anything they can cobble together that will pass through Congress. Here is how Robert Parry, in a column posted on Commondreams.org sees it.

Democrats Ponder Health-Care Suicide

by Robert Parry

If Democrats enact something like the health-care bill emerging from the Senate Finance Committee, they may call it a legislative victory and it may keep the campaign donations flowing from the insurance industry, but the Democrats would surely infuriate millions of American voters.

Indeed, it seems like some Democrats, such as Sens. Max Baucus and Kent Conrad, have lost themselves so much in the inside-Washington reeds of legislating a convoluted compromise acceptable to the insurers, that they are inviting an angry backlash from average Americans.

The danger for Democrats is that this industry-friendly legislation would impose new burdens on citizens, including government fines for failing to sign up for a health-insurance plan, without guarantees that the coverage won't be almost as crappy and expensive as it is now. The bill rejects a public option that would put competitive pressure on private insurers.

Now you have to remember, Commondreams is a progressive site that backs most of the Democrat's ideas. Even they can see that this health care bill is not being written to help you or me, but solely to keep the Democrat Party in control of Congress and the White House.

Robert Parry goes on with:

The danger for Democrats is that this industry-friendly legislation would impose new burdens on citizens, including government fines for failing to sign up for a health-insurance plan, without guarantees that the coverage won't be almost as crappy and expensive as it is now. The bill rejects a public option that would put competitive pressure on private insurers.

Plus, key elements of the bill, like the so-called shopping "exchanges," aren't to take effect until 2013, meaning that Americans will have watched this messy process unfold for months and then be told that the current system, which has cruelly pushed millions of sick people into bankruptcy, will get four more years to bankrupt more Americans.

By contrast, Medicare, the single-payer health system for senior citizens, was signed into law on July 30, 1965, and took effect on July 1, 1966, less than a year later.

Robert Parry, and most thinking Americans, can see what the Democrats in Congress are trying to do. They are trying to pull a "fast one" on you and me. They are telling us that their bill will fix health care, but in truth, they are hoping it will fix the problems they are having with their leadership of America.

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