Morning Bell: The Pelosi-Obama-Reid Trillion Dollar Debt Plan

Conn Carroll /

Last Friday we warned you about some family planning provisions tucked away in the House stimulus bill.  Some conservative lawmakers then took up the issue on the Sunday shows, and the provisions quickly became a symbol of how completely unrelated to “economic stimulus” the House bill really is.  Being the savvy political operator he is, President Barack Obama has now instructed House Democrats to remove that one provision. But, like much of Obama’s presidency so far, this was a completely symbolic move.  The family planning provisions are just one small loophole inside of a massive new permanent expansion of socialized medicine. Don’t believe us? Here is how the New York Times reports (not editorializes, hard news reports) on the bill:

The stimulus bill working its way through Congress is not just a package of spending increases and tax cuts intended to jolt the nation out of recession. For Democrats, it is also a tool for rewriting the social contract with the poor, the uninsured and the unemployed, in ways they have long yearned to do.
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As Congress rushes to inject cash into a listless economy, it is setting aside many of the restraints that have checked new domestic spending for more than a decade.
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The economic stimulus bill prevents states from enforcing a means test. … Republicans said this proposal would take a big step toward federalizing Medicaid. For their part, Democrats said the changes took a major step toward their goal of coverage for all Americans.

This is why long time advocates for socialized medicine, like Ways and Means health subcommittee chair Pete Stark (D-CA), have been telling reporters not to expect any other health care legislation this year. This “stimulus” bill is the left’s major down payment for socialized medicine. By making everyone eligible, the bill makes government health care the default option for the unemployed. Coupled with their SCHIP legislation that makes three-fourths of all American children eligible for Medicaid, this stimulus bill is designed to maximize the pushing of Americans off their current private coverage and into government run health care.

The left’s power grab does not end with health care. As we noted last week, and the New York Times reports today, the bill will “profoundly change the federal government’s role in education, which has traditionally been the responsibility of state and local government.” The NYT continues: “The proposed emergency expenditures on nearly every realm of education … would amount to the largest increase in federal aid since Washington began to spend significantly on education after World War II.”

And we haven’t even got to the Christmas tree like wish list of other long sought after leftist spending priorities, which include: $1 billion for Amtrak, $2 billion for child-care subsidies; $50 million for the National Endowment of the Arts; $400 million for global warming research; $2.4 billion for clean coal; $650 million for even more digital TV conversion coupons; $600 million for new government cars; $7 billion for modernizing federal buildings; $150 million for the Smithsonian; and $54 billion for Economic Development Office and Small Business Administration programs that the OMB or GAO have already analyzed to be “ineffective.”

All of this deficit spending has a cost. And the Congressional Budget Office confirmed yesterday that the cost of servicing the mountains of new debt of all this government expansion pushes the total price tag of just the existing House spending plans (before a single cent of Senate waste is added) to over $1 trillion dollars. In a letter to Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) CBO director Doug Elmendorf writes: “CBO estimates that the government’s interest costs would increase by $0.7 billion in fiscal year 2009 and by a total of $347 billion over the 2009- 2019 period.” In other words, the Pelosi-Obama-Reid Debt Plan already weighs in at $1.172 trillion.

President Obama reportedly told Republicans yesterday, “I would love to not have to spend this money.” Every American is free to take Obama’s words at face value.  Or you could believe the President’s Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel. Commenting on the left’s governing plans this November, he said: “Never let a serious crisis go to waste. What I mean by that is it’s an opportunity to do things you couldn’t do before.” Exactly.

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