More on Obamacare [sigh]

Sorry to keep harping on Obamacare. You all must be as tired of this subject as I am. But it seems that we're in the homestretch, so we'll keep slogging on. William Jacobson reminds us that now is not the time for weakness. Updates and commentary:

Charles Krauthammer on Obama's god-awful healthcare plan:

What the president has done here is he tries to reconcile House and Senate. But he does it by throwing money at every difference. For example, the Nebraska kickback, which is federal giveaway on Medicaid that was only for Nebraska — every state now has it.

The union cutout, which was the unions being exempt from the tax on the Cadillac plans until 2018, everybody has it.

Higher subsidies for those who are forced into purchasing health insurance — all of this is going to cost. ...

The estimate in the White House is it is going to cost $200 billion. That is a vast underestimate. And it's added on to a Senate bill which is $850 billion which in and of itself is a huge underestimate — it only counts the second half of this decade. It's twice that.

In effect, what you have here is a $2 trillion expenditure at a time when the president is hypocritically calling for deficit reduction.

In other words, par for the course in this Age of Obama.

Mr. Krauthammer on the sham summit:

Look, Obama became president of the United States with a theatrical campaign in 2008. Charisma, rhetoric, that's what he does best. He then tried a year of governing. He didn't succeed very well. So he is returning to theater Thursday.

And I think it's going to help him. I think he's likely to come out ahead as he did when he met with the House Republicans in Baltimore.

His idea is you pivot off that with a bump you get, the confidence, the morale it infuses in your troops in the Senate and the House, and you go and you attempt reconciliation.

And now that the Democrats are reduced to seriously contemplating the nuclear option, they're spinning it as a perfectly acceptable practice for passing this life-changing legislation. They were not always so favorably disposed.

Perhaps the most frightening words ever written on reconciliation and healthcare reform are these: Biden Could Force Reconciliation Through the Senate. (Some background on reconciliation here.)

The president's behavior throughout this hard push for "reform" has caused Michael Gerson to question his judgment:

And the proposed form of this insistence -- enacting health reform through the quick, dirty shove of the reconciliation process -- would add coercion to arrogance.

Ruth Marcus calls it "audaciousness." And it makes her feel queasy.

But the House would have to pass the bill, too. Victor Davis Hanson sees it as a possibility. But by some accounts, the votes are not there. See Hot Air for Rep. Eric Cantor's head count and Rep. Bart Stupak's statement on the unresolved abortion problem.

John McCormack reports that Rep. Paul Ryan, not originally invited to the shmummit, will be attending:

The Democrats are probably salivating at the chance to contrast their plan with Ryan's plan, which they say would abolish Medicare. To which Republicans should say: bring it on.

Ryan can ably explain the differences between his plan and Obama's plan. Unlike Obamacare, Ryan's plan actually wouldn't cut benefits for anyone over the age of 55.

I agree, Ryan's presence can only be a positive. We'll see what happens tomorrow at Obama's party.


Linked at Michelle Malkin (buzzworthy)

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