The Bureaucracy Wins a Major Round
IT IS DONE
SEE http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8579322.stm
219 yes -212 no
SUNDAY, 8:05 PM, PACIFIC.
PELOSI, REID AND OBAMA HAVE SUCCEEDED.
The advance of bureaucratic control over the American health care system continues on its march to totality with today's House vote, to be followed by a Senate one later in the week.
The costs of this political and policy watershed, fiscal and more, are yet to be paid - or even accurately counted.
See---
http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NWI3MGNjMjVlMmJmYjEwNzdlYTYzZWYwNDlmNWIxNzg= .
Whether any of the non-bureaucratic solutions, proposed but never seriously considered, will now have a chance depends on the outcome of the November elections and the willingness of the current president to accommodate changes in the latest legislation just driven through against the headwinds of popular opinion.
See the summary of the legislation in the WSJ at ---
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703775504575135440191025592.html?mod=rss_whats_news_us&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+wsj/xml/rss/3_7011+(WSJ.com:+What's+News+US)&utm_content=Google+International
I've gone on and on abut this issue for the better part of a year, starting with an analysis and set of modest reform proposals. See ---
http://www.jaygaskill.com/HeathCareTrainWreck.htm
It appears that the 80% or so of Americans who have been reasonably happy with their current health care situation will now be required to make certain 'sacrifices' in order to bring additional care to some of the remaining 20%. In the meantime, the fragile economic recovery will be burdened with additional costs and taxes.
The complexity and scope of thise new legislation, and many its serious flaws, guarantee that the nation will be occupied with reforming the reform for the next several years, maybe for decades.
Yes, elections have consequences.
So do unpaid public debts.
Well before the 2012 presidential election, the discussions will turn to which entitlements must be trimmed to pay for the latest one. In due course - given the catastrophic scale of federal borrowing - the discussion will devolve to whether any of the current entitlements can continue to be funded at all.
But that is a discussion for another day among other political leaders. Before today's event, I thought the democrats would almost certainly hold onto the Senate in November while facing the realistic possibility of losing the House. At this juncture, it appears that the democrats will almost certainly lose the House and that a loss of the Senate is now realistically possible.
JBG
http://jaygaskill.com/blog2/ .
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