Twas the Day Before Christmas

Twas the Day Before Christmas

Twas the day before Christmas, and all through the Senate
The Dems said they would pass health care and by God they meant it
The votes were bought one by one
If you don’t believe me just ask Senator Ben Nelson

Just days earlier they had a vote in the night
It wasn’t transparent, just doesn’t seem right
The vote was cast straight down party lines
We’re headed for trouble, there are all sorts of signs

The people had spoken, they raised quite a clatter
The senate vote shows that public opinion doesn’t matter
They think they’ll make history and have statues erected
But they forgot why they’re there, why they were elected

President Obama wants this done and he wants it done quick
Thinks he can give people something for nothing, must think he’s St. Nick
But unlike St. Nick he comes in my house uninvited
So don’t tell me I get too excited.

This legislation makes promises that it just can’t keep
As history has shown us, the cost will be steep
And so as he pressured them, one by one they came
It’s important that we call them each by name

Now Boxer! Now Durbin! Now Reid and Lieberman
On Baucus! On Dodd! On Feinstein and Franken
Get this bill done so I can sign it at last.
Hurry now! Hurry now! My popularity won’t last!

He will add more bureaucracy claiming he’ll lower the cost
Showing once again that common sense is lost
Government agencies are full of corruption and waste
So I ask you again sir, what is the haste?

Obama is not Santa, he is more like Robin Hood
But redistributing wealth will do more harm than good
Innovation and competition is what makes this country strong
Take away those incentives and we won’t last long

Let insurance companies compete, that will lower the cost
And that you should do so soon, before all is lost
Add tort reform too, that’s what we all need
Doctors should heal not have to worry how they’ll plead

You will tell us it’s a good bill, but you can’t make your case
No one likes this bill, not even your base
We can’t afford Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid
It is always the tax payers that you want to raid

If Obama was truly St Nick, he would look at my list
And then maybe, this opportunity wouldn’t be missed
There’s no doubt healthcare costs are out of control
But getting them down is not the government’s role

But still he insists, I will sign this bill though I didn’t read it
I can do whatever I want ‘cause I am that conceited
Let’s get this thing done, then we’ll have it made
Then we can move on and pass cap and trade

So as he jumped in his limo he shouted to Pelosi and Reid
Reconcile these bills and do it with speed
Obama waved goodbye although there weren’t many cheers
Because I heard him exclaim ‘I’ve still got three more years!’

"A billion dollars for your thoughts"

It used to be "A penny for your thoughts" but with inflation and all I figured I'd update the cliche. I chose a billion dollars since that's the kind of numbers our government throws around now; and a trillion is right around the corner!

You know the latest $900 billion dollar health care bill the Senate just passed? Estimates of the unfunded liabilities of this bill will exceed $9.2 trillion!!

Nonsense you say. Well this estimate is based on similar, under funded government programs that now have historical data. Lets start with Medicaid. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimated that the first year of the program would cost $238 million. It actually topped $1 billion. The program now cost 37 times more (adjusted for inflation) then when it started. The current cost for Medicaid is $251 billion!!

Maybe that's an anomaly you say. OK, let's look at Medicare. In 1965 Congress estimated that this program would cost $12 billion in 1990. It's actual cost was $90 billion. And, over a 20 year period, the number of Medicare beneficiaries rose by 37% but the program cost rose by 372% . This is not a good track record.

No one in Congress is looking at cost cutting. That would require free market solutions. Instead, in a blatant attempt to get re-elected, they continue the policy of promising people everything -cost be damned. Unfortunately for them this time we're not buying it. Poll after poll shows that the majority of Americans don't want any of these health care bills to pass. I know that's not what the administration will tell you. They don't look at facts that are inconvenient to their story. I'm guessing that the best way to get re-elected is to do what you constituents want, not what the president wants.

But maybe that's why I'm not in politics. Common sense apparently has no place in Washington.

Financial data obtained from US News and World Report.