Why the health care rush?

The editorial department of the Wall Street Journal is wondering, quite rhetorically, as to why there is such a rush for the Democrats to ram universal health care through Congress.

My take? As I explained last week, just as with the odious stimulus bill, whatever the Dems come up with regarding health care will at first glance appear to be an exquisite beauty, but once people closely examine it, they'll discover that it's a rotten pumpkin.

And an expensive one, too.

But the stimulus bill is already law.

From the Journal:

If sharks stop swimming, they sink and drown. President Obama seems to view his health-care program the same way. "If we don't get it done this year," he said in a recent pep talk to supporters, "we're not going to get it done." Well, why? If laying "a new foundation" for 18% of the economy really is as important as the President claims it is, then surely it could withstand more than fleeting inspection.

Instead, Democrats are trying to rush the largest entitlement expansion since LBJ into law with a truncated debate and as little public scrutiny as possible. At this point all they've released are the vaguest "policy options," not concrete specifics. Yet the Senate plans to begin marking up legislation next week, maybe hold a hearing or two, then have something to the floor by the end of the month, votes by the August recess and a bill to the Oval Office by Thanksgiving. On the seventh day, they will rest. Mr. Obama had 24 Senate Democrats over for a White House chat yesterday to drive the calendar ahead.

It's not hard to see why Democrats are trying to hew to this full-speed-ahead timetable. Their health overhaul will run up a 13-figure price tag at a time when spending and deficits are already at epic levels and hook up the middle class to an intravenous drip of government health subsidies for generations to come. These are not realities that Democrats want the American people to mull over for very long.

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The reality is that Democrats are contemplating the most sweeping restructuring of the health markets since Medicare in 1965, and they don't want to let the details slow them down. Or to be more precise, they don't want to let the details let others slow them down. Better to grab what they will portray as a major domestic achievement while President Obama is at the height of his popularity and before anyone understands what it will mean in practice. The consequences and the cost can be explained later.

Here are a couple of themes I've noticed from the five-month old--but it seems much longer--Barack Obama administration: A careless expansion of government and the need to enact legislation into law before citizens can figure it all out.

Remember: A hurry-up offense was utilized to get the stimulus stinker passed. We needn't repeat history here.

If Obamacare becomes law, we'll be stuck with it until we die. No country has ever shed socialized medicine.

And most likely our deaths will occur in a hospital waiting room, while awaiting rationed health care.

Where will that hurry-up offense be then?

Technorati tags: health care news health universal health care health care reform Democrats Obama Barack Obama politics