With too little notice in the liberal press and too little public debate, President Obama last week put America on the fast track to socialized medicine with the goal of having legislation passed by Congress before the end of summer.

At issue is whether America will continue to have a largely free-market-oriented health-care system or a government-run system where politicians and bureaucrats in Washington, D.C., make the most fundamental decisions about how we enter life, how we leave it and how we are cared for when we are ill.

*** Special Offer ***

If Obama prevails, people who have so little respect for human life and private property that they approve of tax-funded abortion and tax-funded killing of human embryos will be empowered to decide who gets what tax-funded medical care and when.

Our health care will belong to the government just as surely as General Motors does.

Democratic Sen. Barbara Mikulski of Maryland attended a meeting Obama held last Tuesday with members of the Senate Finance and Health committees, which have oversight of the health care legislation Obama seeks. She emerged with a message from the Great Nationalizer himself.

"He wants the bill through the Senate and the House before the August recess so we can conference and have it done in September and signed in October," Mikulski told Congressional Quarterly Today. "He said we needed to be unflinching and unflagging."

That same day, Obama released a follow-up letter he sent to Sens. Max Baucus, D-Mont., and Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., chairmen of the two committees.

The Great Nationalizer made two crucial points in this letter: He urged creation of a government-run health insurance company and accepted the idea -- which he claimed to oppose during his presidential campaign -- that the federal government should require all Americans to buy health insurance.

"I strongly believe that Americans should have the choice of a public health insurance option operating alongside private plans," wrote Obama. "This will give them a better range of choices, make the health care market more competitive and keep insurance companies honest."

"I understand the committees are moving towards a principle of shared responsibility -- making every American responsible for having health insurance coverage, and asking that employers share in the cost," he said.

If Obama and congressional liberals have their way, two of the three elements of a fully socialized health care system will be locked into law before Thanksgiving. The government will own a health-insurance company, and the government will require you to buy health insurance. The only thing Obama and congressional liberals won't formally require -- this year -- is that you buy your government-mandated insurance from the government-owned company. Continued...