Obama's Health Care 'Money Pit'

Electing a president is like buying a house, we want to know what we’re getting into before taking the plunge — conservative Texas rambler or meterosexual Chicago condo with a view? Is the house going to be practical in 1 year, 2 years — how long do we want to stay in this house anyway? God forbid, we move in and the house starts sucking up all of our money. When the checkbook balance is in the red, savings dried up and credit cards maxed-out… what do we do? If you are President Obama, you decide to splurge on a major renovation. Namely, a pricey soup-to-nuts overhaul of America’s health care system.

Recall Tom Hanks and Shelly Long in the 1986 comedy “The Money Pit?” A pair of newlyweds bite off way more than they can chew as they undertake a massive restoration of their dream home — which is really just a big lemon. They’re strapped for cash, but instead of buying an affordable starter house, they go for a dilapidated mansion. Bathtubs fall through floors, stairways collapse and what should be a blissful first year of marriage heads south in a flash. Sounds like what’s happening with Obama’s health reform!

Need more? Think about the knucklehead contractor the couple hire who soaks them for every penny while rushing through details with shoddy workmanship (ahem, Nancy Pelosi)… and the analogy goes on…

When President Reagan signed a stimulus plan for $750 billion in 1981, it successfully yanked the nation out of a deep recession. But it wasn’t just the money — Reagan’s unyielding optimism and deep tax cuts also did the trick. It would have been irresponsible, to say the very least, for Reagan to wallop the country with major health care reform. Those folks from the 80’s would have thought he was nuttier than Pee Wee Herman.

Obama wants to ram through ‘sweeping health care reform’ in a matter of weeks — calling for massive tax hikes, job crushing and business strangling fees and higher premiums in order to pay for it. In “The Money Pit,” Hanks buys the home for $200,000, only to discover it will cost over a million to fix. Well, we’ve gone and married Obama and now he’s picked out a hopelessly decrepit house for us to live — he’s just waiting to carry us over the threshold. Meantime, Congress counts the ways all of us will pay to get ‘er fixed up!

Of course, the rub on all this is that Americans aren’t in the market for a government makeover of the health care system. Sure, back in the go-go days of low unemployment and a bull market, it sounded like a good idea. Fixing health care polled well in 2008; naturally, Obama weaved it into his master brand of Change We Can Believe In . Just one problem: we don’t really believe in that change any longer. According to a recent Zogby poll for The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, 84 percent of Americans, are “very satisfied” or “satisfied” with the health care they currently receive. This was the year’s largest poll to examine American attitudes toward health care reform. Today, people are more concerned staying out of foreclosure, staying afloat and keeping a good job. In tight times, priorities must change. Extreme Makeover anyone? No way. Try Fear Factor.

So, 84 percent don’t think their health care plan needs to be fixed, and America faces one of the worst recessions in modern times. Obama’s mantra is unprecedented: if it ain’t broke, I’ll fix it anyway. What makes anyone think Obama or the Congress knows how to fix health care, anyhow? Some Congressional leaders around long enough to know, say he just dusted off Hillary’s old plan from the 90’s and scratched out her name. It’s like Tom Hanks’ penniless and pitiful character says in “The Money Pit,” “Just because they showed up to collect the money, is no guarantee that they’ll show up to do the work… and if they do… I can’t pay for it!”

Of course, comparing the health care debacle to a romantic comedy from the 1980’s is a lighthearted look at a tragic situation. Our ballooning national deficit is fast on the way of recalling another Tom Hanks title: “A League of Their Own” (“Big” would be too understated). This is serious business. It is Obama’s first major policy initiative and it is tanking, along with his poll numbers. I was sorry to hear one little girl recently cite a news story that had alarmed her: “My generation is going to have to pay for all of this,” she said with disappointment. Though she was far too young to vote, she had been swept up in Obamamania. Now she was getting buyer’s remorse.

The good news is that she, like many others, might learn a valuable lesson — when the honeymoon’s over, don’t ruin your life by jumping headfirst into The Money Pit.