The medical specialists most likely to benefit from the health care debate are optometrists as the Senate Finance Committee releases its 1502-page text and mental health professionals as a new poll shows a national mood swing from August rage against a public option to 57 percent of Americans in favor of it.
Max Baucus' masterwork can now be read as a sequel to the 839-page tome by the Health Education Labor and Pensions Committee, with which it will be merged into a doorstop of legislation to reconcile with the distillation of three House versions that Pelosi Publishers are touting as a discounted alternative.
Beyond the eye strain on Congress and its followers, the emotional toll is rising as the Wall Street Journal concedes that "a government-run health-insurance plan, once on life support in the Senate, is making a recovery among Democrats writing health-care legislation."
Now the best-selling author in the White House is charged with somehow melding these messy narratives into a coherent story of future American health care. Long past the audacity of hope spawned by dreams of bipartisanship, Barack Obama would do well to emulate John F. Kennedy, who took a speed-reading course in the Oval Office, and after digesting all this, suggest some simpler story lines.
In preparing for final publication, the President may want to recommend that Congress start by lifting a line from Dr. Spock's all-time best seller to tell Americans, "You know more than you think you do."
If they don't, look out for the bad reviews next November.
Well, BO is not JFK that's for sure. What happened to his promises of transparency and to air debates about legislation on C-Span? What happened to his red pen and going line by line through the budget and through any spending bills? What happened to his promises to treat Americans equally, as Americans, and not as Reps and Dems? Heck, what happened to ANY of his promises? He's a weasel.
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