Chutzpah

Barack Obama sees the light:

But the long-term deficit and debt that we have accumulated is unsustainable. We can't keep on just borrowing from China, or borrowing from other countries -- (applause) -- because part of it is, we have to pay for -- we have to pay interest on that debt. And that means that we're mortgaging our children's future with more and more debt, but what's also true is that at some point they're just going to get tired of buying our debt. And when that happens, we will really have to raise interest rates to be able to borrow, and that will raise interest rates for everybody -- on your auto loan, on your mortgage, on -- so it will have a dampening effect on the economy.

And why is this happening?

Most of what's driving us into debt is health care. And so we've got to drive down costs.

In an ideal world we'd simply have the government run things:

If I were starting a system from scratch, then I think that the idea of moving towards a single-payer system could very well make sense. That's the kind of system that you have in most industrialized countries around the world.

So instead we're going to have to settle for a government-run insurance plan:

If you don't have health care or you're highly unsatisfied with your health care, then let's give you choices, let's give you options, including a public plan that you could enroll in and sign up for.

To summarize, Barack Obama has helped blow a hole in the deficit and is now citing that deficit as justification for a huge government expansion into the health care sector. All in the name of cost control. Because, you know, government intrusion into the economy is synonymous with savings and efficiency.