Health Care Repair Or Unfair?

Wednesday’s NYT reports in a front page story about Sen. Obama claim that his health care plan would “bring down premiums by $2,500 for the typical family.”  The story reports:

Whether Mr. Obama can deliver is a matter of considerable dispute among health analysts and economists. While there is consensus that the American health care system is bloated with waste, eliminating enough to save $2,500 per family would require simultaneous and synergistic solutions to a host of problems that have proved intractable for decades.

Even if the next president and Congress can muster the political will, analysts question whether significant savings would materialize in as little as four years, or even in 10. But as Mr. Obama confronts an electorate that is deeply unsettled by escalating health costs, he is offering a precise “chicken in every pot” guarantee based on numbers that are largely unknowable. Furthermore, it is not completely clear what he is promising.

In other words, BO is full of BS.  This is the polite way the NYT’s deals with Democrats when even the Times can’t cover their butts.

The article also gives away the truth about “free” health care “reform.”  Towards the end, the reporter sums up the views of “a number of health policy experts,” who hold that “(r)educing health care costs . . . means taking money from someone’s pocket and rationing care that Americans have come to expect . . .”  This is the story that few understand; governmentally expanded health care will hurt those who are already insured and those who are voluntarily uninsured.

I would also like to note that a Rand study claims Sen. Obama’s $2500 savings, which isn’t likely to happen at all, would not be seen for 15 years.  That would be five years longer than the Democrats claim is too long to wait for oil from new domestic drilling.

I’ll end with a prediction if this is enacted: when this government intervention in the economy fails, and it will, the market will somehow be to blame.  And the only answer, of course: even more government intervention in health care!

The Idiot Bush? The Senile McCain?

“Well let me be absolutely clear. Israel is a strong friend of Israel’s.”

– Sen. Barack Obama at a press conference in Jordan.

Yes, we all make mistakes, especially when speaking in public.  I’m just judging The One with the same standards applied to President Bush and Sen. McCain.  I bet Anderson Cooper does not open his show tonight by stating a verbal gaffe was possibly a “game changer.”

Pressed To Drill

President Bush lifted the off-shore drilling ban instituted by his father last week, although exploration is still blocked by a congressional ban.   This act, which put pressure on Congress to let the ban expire, led to a significant two day drop off in the price of oil per barrel.  As support for a major loosening of drilling bans increases throughout the country and in Congress, the price of oil continues to drop and the stock market is responding positively.  If the House and Senate were to immediately open ANWR and drop restrictions on the outer continental shelf, oil prices would plunge dramatically, nearly instantaneously.  The increasing possibility of the U.S. getting serious about drilling has lead to an over $20 decrease in the price of crude in the last week, belying the Democrat talking point that increased domestic exploration would not lower prices for ten years.   An immediate and significant drop in oil would mean not just the obvious smaller tabs at the pumps, but would also lead to a remarkable lessening of inflation fears, lower producer and consumer costs, and a much more robust Wall Street, including pensions and 401(k)s.  Which leads to the question: Are the Democrats just beholden to the radical environmentalists, or purposely pursuing policies to damage the economy until after the inauguration of President Obama?