Why Obama Is Bombing On Healthcare

Holman W. Jenkins of the WSJ says it’s because people were not fooled by the b.s.:

President Barack Obama made a “public option” his centerpiece not because it’s the answer to what’s broken in the U.S. system, but because it’s a halfway house to a single-payer setup that liberal Democrats have always wanted. Team Obama also knew the public is concerned about rising costs, so they jammed together a hooey-filled argument that the public option was somehow the solution to rising costs.

Obama repeatedly tried to convince the American people that he wasn’t interested in government run health care, only “competition”, and driving down costs. But he and the Dems were on record espousing their support for a single payer health care system, and were caught on tape saying so. Those videos were posted on YouTube for everyone to see:

Jenkins concludes:

Mr. Obama’s health-care thinking always lacked the bite of real “reform.” He never claimed he was a wonk. He claimed he was a political mobilizer. He meant it.

He might have honestly sold the Democratic dream of a single-payer system, forthrightly explaining how resources would be allocated. He might have spoken of putting the price tags back on health care so consumers could decide instead. He did neither—and has botched an opportunity for real progress.

Ironically, as I write this, Obama is on t.v. giving yet another speech to the Natl. Institute of Health, characterizing ObamaCare as real progress.