Forget Iraq, Afghanistan, Pah-kee-stahn, Iran, North Korea, Venezu… actually, let’s save time and say “forget foreign policy.” I’m not in the mood to pretend Nobel Laureate Obama has much capacity to shock me when it comes to his dealings with other countries. Why feign disappointment when anyone paying attention knows the progressive position on any foreign policy initiative is, “What can America stop doing wrong so you’ll leave us alone?”

The main concern for President Obama – and maybe an equally troubling issue for Americans – is his dedication to Health Care Reform. President Obama is so serious about increasing the government’s role in health care that he doesn’t have time for opposition, and doesn’t really need anyone in Congress (let alone the public!) to read whatever bill Pelosi and Reid can ram through. From a Wall Street Journal opinion piece:

Washington spent the week waiting for the Congressional Budget Office to roll in with its new cost estimates of the Senate health-care bill, and what a carnival. Behold: a new $829 billion entitlement that will subsidize insurance for tens of millions of people and reduce deficits by $81 billion at the same time. In the next tent, see the mermaid and a two-headed cow.

The political and media classes are proving they’ll believe anything, as they are now pronouncing that this never-before-seen miracle is a “green light” for ObamaCare. (What isn’t these days?) The irony is that the CBO’s guesstimate exposes the fraudulence and fiscal sleight-of-hand underlying this whole exercise. Anyone who reads beyond the top-line numbers will find that the bill creates massive new spending commitments that will inevitably explode over time, and that this is “paid for” with huge tax increases plus phantom spending cuts that will never happen in practice.

Democrats, remember when you’re deriding conservatives for “opposing change” that, while some of us may be doing no more than that, Americans are going to have to pay for this. You’ll never find a majority of people who trust D.C. to do anything that resembles efficiently managing the health care of 300,000,000 people… which is why the White House and Congress will hide behind the latest CBO numbers and work out the details in the Obama-style ‘transparency’ of closed meetings.

I’m reminded of one of many Mark Steyn quotes I love:

More to the point, the only reason why Belgium has gotten away with being Belgium and Sweden Sweden and Germany Germany this long is because America’s America. The soft comfortable cocoon in which western Europe has dozed this last half-century is girded by cold hard American power. What happens when the last serious western nation votes for the same soothing beguiling siren song as its enervated allies?

Emphasis mine. We’re responsible for Obama, Pelosi, and Reid holding the power they have today, and before too long we’re going to find out what that costs.

Today’s AP story on health insurance has one of the best opening sentences I’ve read in a looong time:

House Democrats on Tuesday rolled out a far-reaching $1.5 trillion plan that for the first time would make health care a right and a responsibility for all Americans, with Medical providers, employers and the wealthiest picking up most of the tab.

When I say “best,” I mean “worst,” because words can mean anything you want them to mean. This is a fact I learned from the Associated Press, just now!

House Democrats want to “make health care a right and a responsibility for all Americans.” No, not a ‘responsibility’ like it is now, with you responsible for determining your health insurance needs. That type of responsibility is utter crap. House Democrats mean the kind of responsibility where the federal government decides what you need and who’s going to pay for it, with fees and taxes for the convenience — and penalties for disobedience.

And before even coughing up a period, the AP story mostly contradicts itself, saying that “Medical providers, employers and the wealthiest” will cover the majority of the costs. Of course they will! Can’t expect poor people to pay for their own… anything. Here we get closer to the point: some Americans have responsibilities, while other Americans simply are responsibilities.

Not to mention that what Democrats are suggesting is “a far-reaching $1.5 trillion plan.” Well, by all means, if it’s far-reaching, giddy-up! After all, what’s another $1.5 trillion among friends?

Standing before a banner that read “Quality Affordable Care for the Middle Class,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., called the moment “historic and transformative.” The bill would provide “stability and peace of mind” by braking costs and guaranteeing coverage, she said.

This plan, like the AP’s coverage of it, is amazing. “Affordable care” will result in a doubling of our exploding deficits. Heaping more taxes on the economy’s producers to insure the poor equals “responsibility.”A bill based on the horrendous failure of Medicare will yield “stability.”

…backers of a public plan – including Obama – say it would provide healthy competition for the insurance industry.

Ah, nearly forgot: “healthy competition” is what you get when you take an industry and add a competitor whose costs are determined arbitrarily, enforced by the federal government, and covered by hundreds of billions in Treasury debt.

“We are going to accomplish what many people felt wouldn’t happen in our lifetime,” said House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Henry Waxman, D-Calif., one of the main sponsors.

Really… so, in whose lifetime did many people feel Congress would accomplish the permanent ruination of republican government in the United States?

[Update: Fixed a typo - made it clear to the last sentence! Then misspelled a stupid word.]