Ill-conceived plan

Say what?

President Obama earlier this week was seen railing against the huge federal deficit, saying it is unsustainable and that interest rates will be driven upward if foreign countries stop buying our debt -- something China already is strongly considering.

“We can’t keep on just borrowing from China,” Obama said at a town-hall meeting in Rio Rancho, New Mexico, outside Albuquerque. “We have to pay interest on that debt, and that means we are mortgaging our children’s future with more and more debt.”

What? Has the president suddenly come to his senses and become an advocate of fiscal responsibility, after following the lead of his predecessor, George W. Bush, and driving the deficit to mind-boggling levels that will only grow larger in the near future?

Don't get all giddy with joy. The president was not repenting of his free-spending practices, but instead using one of his favorite tricks -- saying something that sounds good to everyone, then using it as a springboard to launch one of his socialist programs or to expand his powers through increased government. This time, he was using his rhetoric to support his upcoming health care reform.

“Most of what is driving us into debt is health care, so we have to drive down costs,” he said.

So he plans to install a health care program like ones that exist in European countries, like Sweden. It will consolidate the health-care insurance industry under just a few of the bigger insurance companies, like Blue Cross and United Health, at the expense of smaller insurers. Individuals will have fewer choices and, unable to afford policies that cover the costliest procedures and care, droves will find themselves on the federal program, which will pay less for procedures, thereby denying the most expensive care to the masses. Only the rich will be taken care of in this kind of program as they will be able to afford it.

Every citizen deserves health care, but insure the uninsured and leave the rest of us alone. We shouldn't let Obama distract us with rhetoric while he drags down the entire U.S. health care system to a level where the government decides who gets the procedures they need or who lives and who dies.