La, La, La

President Obama and the Congressional majority have decided to plod ahead with a health care proposal—legislation that won’t accomplish the “reform” that is required and will become a wildly expensive entitlement. Regardless of his claims, the President's plan will exacerbate an already dangerously high rate of spending and an even higher level of debt. The Democrats claim to know what’s best for the American public, even as 60 plus percent of the public (as measured by virtually every poll) say "no."

I’ve mentioned Congressman Paul Ryan (in an earlier post) as one of the few sane voices in a Congress that should go straight to spending rehab. He provides an example of our problems that even the President, the Speaker of the House, and the Senate Majority leader can understand:

Imagine your family's finances if you spent and borrowed like Washington: you'd owe $60 in credit-card loans for every $100 of income. Every month you'd pay back a little but borrow even more. In 10 years, you'd owe $87 for every $100 you made. At some point you'd hand off the debt to your kids. If they worked until 2035, they'd owe more than $180 for every $100 they earned. In 2050, your grandkids would owe more than $320. By 2080 they'd owe seven times their earnings. Of course, lenders would cut them off well before then, and your family would be ruined. But this is the path your government is on right now.

President Obama claimed that his primary domestic focus in 2010 would be “jobs, jobs, and jobs.” A grievously injured economy and a suffering people need that focus. But following a troubling pattern that has emerged in his first year in office, The Presdient's focus seems to be just words, words, and words. Two months into 2010 and his actions are again on ruinous and ill-conceived health care legislation. Let the debt be damned and the budget take care of itself.

If the President really wanted to address health care reform, he might serve us better by focusing on Medicare. Again Ryan comments:

Consider just one program: Medicare. Today, this program is short $38 trillion of what it promises to provide your parents, you, and your kids. In five years, the hole will grow to $52 trillion. Your family's share: $458,000. Medicaid will add trillions more in state and federal debt.

But the response of the President, most Democrats and some Republicans, is to squeeze their eyes shut like a cartoon character of a petulant child, put their hands over their ears, and scream, “La, la, la, I can’t hear you,” until the problem goes away.

It won’t go away.