Obama’s “Government Option”—Alligator or Anaconda?

President Obama’s candid admission that he was “not familiar” with a central provision of a major bill being marked up by his closest allies in Congress is truly amazing. If not exactly the alligator Congressman Pence was describing in referring to “government options,” this section could be described as an anaconda. It might not immediately eat up its competitors, but it would squeeze the life out of them by excessive regulations they cannot afford to put in place and survive. Only after squeezing the private insurers to death does this Section 102 anaconda swallow them up. Under this provision, your “private insurer” would remain as private as GM and AIG are today.

Some things just don’t work in politics. If you’re in the middle of an intense presidential campaign and there’s an economic meltdown, beginning in the mortgage industry, it does not work to say you don’t know how many houses you own. My friend John McCain found that out to his sorrow.

To say you’re “not familiar” with a major legislative provision of your own Administration’s Number One priority is infinitely worse. It seems to indicate a troubling approach to transforming one of the most expensive and essential elements of American life: The way we, and those we love, get medical care.

The President is blessed by an almost supernatural calm. His disposition gives assurance in any crisis. Yet in this case, his calm is like that of Capt. Edward Smith of the White Star Line. Captain Smith was completely unflappable as his great ship sped across the silent seas. He was totally confident that he could speedily bypass any threat from an iceberg on that moonless night in April, 1912. Mr. Obama’s government takeover of health care may be headed for a collision more shattering even than that of the Titanic.

The wise word to the President is the same as those to Capt. Smith: SLOW DOWN. Proceed with caution. And take the time to understand your own plan, one you are pressing upon the American people with an intensity and insistency we’ve rarely seen in recent history.