MATTHEWS: A recipe already doomed for disaster

"How did Mr. Obama come up with those figures? Is he inflating those numbers (rather than his tires)?" Mr. Obama is pulling these numbers out of the air, but he realizes numbers impress and show the American public how very smart he is...he markets all of his ideas very well, albeit erroneously. Look for more of this fabrication as Kennedy touts the almost-broke-after-only-2-years Massachusetts Care. Last I heard Teddy said, my plan will cost $110 billion per year, but we must do it anyway! It's a crisis! (translation: no one, not the Congress and certainly not the American people, must be given time to vet my bill!) Kennedy is counting on the "do it for Teddy approach". And, to hell with the consequences... There are ways to alleviate the pressure on the uninsured immediately but those methods have been repeatedly rejected by the Democrats because they give more power to the American people. The expansion of the availability of Medical Savings Accounts, portability, and the reversal of federal and state mandates as to what must be included in every insurance plan. These mandates leave Americans with very expensive plans which include every possible medical condition deemed necessary by bureaucrats whether they want them, or not. Some people simply desire catastrophic care & preventative care, but that simple coverage is not an option. Once again the government is the problem and if the American public does not realize it by now, they will when their cumulative taxes are 65% across the board.

Are the editors of the Washington Times worried that when the new administration comes in January that all their editorial contributors will become meaningless. With a new administration new lobbyists come to town. All/most of the conservative lobbyists will have to find real jobs for the next 4 years. They won't have time or money or insider information to write articles such as this. API in Texas will see its funding dry up real quick. Making the times irrelevant

acoll1: I am noticing a concentrated effort by the regressive, failed socialists, i.e. liberals, in this country to silence Conservatives. How Mickie Mouse!!! We're not going away! And, your socialist agenda has failed every time it has been tried anywhere, any period in history. No wonder you want to silence us, you have no legs to stand on...

Oh, yeah, I am noticing this tactic of trying to convince Conservatives they are irrelevant especially when discussing the worldwide failure of nationalized health care...BTW now being promoted by Teddy and Co. Seriously, do you think this can possibly silence us! It's hysterical!

It's more of the say anything, do anything to get me elected scenario. No worries - the fawning media will definitely not question the One about His calculations. Hawaii tried Universal Health Care. And, put it to death shortly thereafter, BECAUSE IT DIDN'T WORK! It is true; we can cut health insurance costs by giving consumers, not bureaucrats, more control over their health care dollars. And, the application of social marketing to lifestyle choices may not be a bad idea, also. It is widely known that private companies pay millions of dollars for marketing their products. There's probably a pretty good reason they are willing to pay that much money.

Congress and Clinton did the same thing with Defense Management Review Decisions back in the 1990's. Guess what, costs didn't go down. It is a political financial shell game, integrated into a social welfare entitlement system that can hide billions (just look at Social Security), with a relative consensus based measure of effectiveness, i.e. feel good media. Once it is implemented, everyone is indentured to it and noone looks at the original premise. Clinton did it when he put 100,000 new law enforcement officers "on the street", 60% of them were laptop computers. Wake up people, the Spinmeisters are back in town.

I'd love some "news" to ask CAHI, a "council" made up of insurance companies and professionals and AHIP, the insurance industry lobbyists why solutions to the health insurance "crisis" never address that with all the alleged "savings" promoted and sold to the US consumer by by doctors and insurers by cutting coverage, raising deductibles and co-pays while charging consumers MORE and by doctors using physician assistants instead of MD's and other non doctor personnel that none of these savings are passed on to the consumer but instead are used to raise the bottom line for doctors and insurers? Of course, technology will save money FOR INSURERS AND DOCTORS if used correctly but until there is an absolute, inflexible requirement that each and every time a consumer trades privacy or coverage for "savings" that those savings be passed onto the consumer based on the "estimated" savings to the insurer or doctor, it seems that we will keep bankrolling the insurance companies and doctors and keep receiving less and less.