OBAMA'S THREE CARD MONTE HEALTH SUMMIT GAME

Although his first year in office could be characterized as a mini-disaster, the Master of Disaster--Obama may have a guardian demon on his shoulder.  Thursday begins the big Three Card Monte game also known as the Health Care Summit. 

Joe Biden says that the summit "could be pure theater."  (Is this guy trying to undermine Obama?  Is he lowering expectations?  Is he setting up the scenario to blame Republicans for any lack of progress?)  In a USA Today article on the summit, Biden is quoted as saying, "This could end up not being good," Biden said during an exclusive interview with The (Wilmington, Del.) News Journal. "But I know of no other way than to just keep pushing, saying, 'Guys, OK, this is our idea. What's your idea?'" 

This aggressive stance is a ploy that implies that something must done be right now!  But most Americans don't want this kind of hasty reform. Add to this mix the looming fact Democrats are facing a shrinking window of opportunity to pass their radical leftist agenda.  They will press hard for passage of this Frankenstein piece of legislation before the November mid-term elections.

Here's the possible  Three Card Monte strategy of the Obama and the Democrats for pushing this unwanted legislation down the throats of the American public.  First, the Democrats will suppress or reject any major Republican ideas as being out of touch with what the American people "need."  Second, the Lame Stream Media will spin the Democrat actions by mirroring Biden's remark to Gannett reporter, Nicole Gaudiano that "there ain't no Republican program."   Third, the Lame Stream Media will keep hammering the old Democrat line that the Republican Party is the Party of No!  Amidst all of this misinformation, the weaknesses of the Obama plan will obscured.

The politically naïve Republicans are probably walking into a trap.  But that's the problem with thinking that your counterpart is ethical.  The late, legendary World Wrestling Entertainment wrestler, Eddie Guerrero used to say, "Lie, cheat, and steal."  That sums up the Democrat credo.  Even when it comes to transparency they just can't play it straight or honest.

Because of a continuing commitment to broadcast live Senate and House sessions, there might be NO LIVE CSPAN 1 or 2 coverage and viewers may have to rely upon CSPAN 3 coverage. But not everybody has cable.  According to one survey, only 51% of American households have cable TV.  CSPAN 3, which picks up the overflow from CSPAN 1 AND 2 is carried on very few cable or satellite outlets.  And what would be the Democrat's comment on all of this?

Clever guy that Obama, he could have done this summit on a Saturday or Sunday when transparency could be maximized.  And no, none of the alphabet "nooze" networks will do live coverage of the event, allowing Obama to do his weasely thing.  You can bet that the leftist lame stream media stooges will spin and distort the event to Obama's advantage.

However, the taped delay of the summit will be aired after the House and Senate adjourns and will be programmed opposite the Olympics.  Good luck getting an audience for either event.  My guess is that  more people will watch the Olympics than will watch six hours of political pablum.  FoxNews.com will be doing the job of CSPAN, PBS, and the alphabet networks by streaming live coverage of the White House summit in its entirety.  Too bad that there isn't better coverage of what might be the issue of the decade.  There are many flaws in the Obama "plan" and they need to be exposed.  John F. Cogan, Glenn Hubbard, and Daniel Kessler write in WSJ-Opinion Journal:

Its key elements—mandates, heavy-handed insurance regulation, and entitlement-based, middle-income subsidies—must go. None of them address health care's fundamental problem: high and rising costs. Instead, the various versions of health reform put forth by the president and his party are based on expanding health-insurance coverage. The inevitable consequence will be to exacerbate the cost problem. And the American public knows it...

...To reduce the growth of costs, individuals must take greater responsibility for their health care, and health insurers and health-care providers must face the competitive forces of the market. Three policy changes will go a long way to achieving these objectives: (1) eliminate the tax code's bias that favors health insurance over out-of-pocket spending; (2) remove state-government barriers to purchasing and providing health services; and (3) reform medical malpractice.

We estimate these three changes will reduce health-care costs by over $100 billion per year and permanently reduce the number of uninsured by up to 13 million.

As we all know, the Democrats are in the hip pocket of the trial lawyers so there will be no medical malpractice reform.  States will not easily give up their power to regulate insurance companies.  Anti-business Liberals  only use the tax code to wring every penny of revenue out of taxpayers.

Instead what we have are mid-20th century leftist intellectual Neanderthals using an 19th century ecomomic philosophy, socialism, to solve 21st century problems.  The net result will be that future generations will bitterly curse the self-centered power-mad Baby Boomers for stealing their futures.