If there were a Death Panel empowered by legislative fiat to determine the political viability of legislative agendas in Washington, D.C., it would declare ObamaCare all but dead, not worth any further time and expense incurred by the American people. “Do Not Resuscitate,” the tribunal would vote, citing the best comparative effectiveness research in its non-negotiable determination.
Unfortunately, that merciful committee does not exist, so we have been subjected to yet another clarifying speech from President Obama on his proposed hostile government takeover of our health care. In just a few weeks, we have gone from “health care reform” to “insurance reform,” and now “health security.” Is it just me, or does this White House simply repackage the very same bad ideas with more carefully chosen new words, confusing rhetorical elegance for good policy? Ok, maybe less rhetorically elegant than once believed.

Regardless, the timing of last night’s hastily arranged speech before a joint session of Congress was weird. Such special sessions are themselves weird, exceedingly rare forums usually reserved for dramatic effect, like when Presidents declare war. The glaring exception, it seems, was Bill Clinton’s ill-fated, pen-wagging veto threat to Congress if they failed to pass his (Hillary’s) health care plan. So why did Obama do it? Why now? According to USA Today before his speech, “the ever more noisy opposition to his health care objectives has had one result: It prompted Obama’s decision to address a joint session of Congress on Wednesday in an effort to regain momentum on the issue.”
So the President wants to have another argument with the voters. He already has ridiculed publicly citizens who have the audacity to disagree, like the lady who asked him to keep government out of her Medicare. (Maybe she was referring to his proposed $500 billion in cuts from a system that is already $46 trillion in the red, to fund another government-run health care system for new populations?)
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