Certainly, Rahm Emmanuel appreciates this tenet. So why, then, did he allow his team to craft as its signature item an otherwise vague element known as the “public plan” option? Purportedly, the provision would force private health-care providers to compete with a more efficiently run delivery system not beholden to price fluctuations and available to all, regardless of their current health status. Gives you a warm, fuzzy feeling all over, doesn’t it? The error rate alone on Medicare payments hovers close to three percent. In real dollar terms, that’s over $10 billion every year. And somehow the White House now exp ects Americans to trust that they can competently keep health care affordable?

Sen. Grassley and his allies will have none of this new hybrid of voodoo economics, which brings us full circle in this new yet familiar vignette – Obama administration floats amorphous, costly proposal; the press fawns over its visionary approach; private market pans it; Republicans pile on. The only scene left to re-create is HHS Secretary Sebelius getting skewered by the Hill, which began last week with OMB’s Orzag.

Not to fear, President Obama has another sil ver bullet in the chamber and it’s called Health IT. Yes, even the local bicycle shop now keeps electronic files, and finally the government is about to come around to the notion. But arguing computerized medical records will slow costs is akin to saying automated kiosks at AMTRAK turned that industry around. It didn’t happen, because it doesn’t work that easily.

Just as it was a central theme last week during President Obama’s press conference, health care reform will continue to rise as the next major issue Americans want dealt with. It simply impacts too many facets of life - the budget, the economy, seniors, productivity, etc... I just hope the president’s team doesn’t take the same too-big-to-fail approach with the nation’s health system that it did with our banking system.

Truly the time has come where everyday Americans must begin to keep score of the many agenda items that this President is trying to initiate in this struggling economy that is headed fast towards a depression. We understand that our President inherited an economy that’s on the brink of financial collapse. We should be most concerned that this administration’s policies don’t make matters worse and extend this economic crisis for another 10 years. One needs to look no further than Japan to find a pattern between the policies and initiatives that this administration is pushing and what the Japanese initiated 10 years ago that still has their country trying desperately to move beyond their recession economy.