Thomas Sowell has a piece up on RealClearPolitics today. Sowell takes a look at the cynicism of passing bad health care legislation simply to say you have passed “any” health care legislation.

Supporters of government health insurance call its passage “historic.” Past attempts to pass such legislation– going back for decades– failed repeatedly. But now both houses of Congress have passed government health care legislation and it is just a question of reconciling their respective bills and presenting President Obama with a political “victory.”

In short, this is not about improving the health of the American people. It is about passing something– anything– to keep the Obama administration from ending up with egg on its face by being unable to pass a bill, after so much hype and hoopla. Politically, looking impotent is a formula for disaster at election time. Far better to pass even bad legislation that will not actually go into effect until after the 2012 presidential election, so that the public will not know whether it makes medical care better or worse until it is too late for the voters to hold the administration accountable.

The utter cynicism of this has been apparent from the outset, in the rush to pass a health care bill in a hurry, in order to meet wholly arbitrary, self-imposed deadlines. First it was supposed to be passed before the August 2009 Congressional recess. Then it was supposed to be passed before Labor Day. When that didn’t happen, it was supposed to be rushed to passage before Christmas.

Sowell rightly points out that while the costs of this folly will be felt immediately, any possible benefit (though more likely the chaos of actual implementation) was held off until after the elections of 2012. Punting responsibility down the road while frontloading costs is the worst kind of arrogance.

This commentary by Michael S. Rulle Jr. originally appeared on Breitbart’s “Big Hollywood” blog
—————————————————
Polish American Walt Kowalski, played to anti-hero perfection by Clint Eastwood in Gran Torino, stands against corruption and lawlessness and wins. But not before sacrificing his life. Kowalski is a Korean War veteran and retired auto worker living outside of [...]

Today, Representative Thaddeus McCotter stood on the House floor and gave the following statement regarding his NO vote on the proposed Cap and Tax bill. Rep. McCotter said, “Today we consider a bill that claims that government can control the weather by raising your taxes, taking your job and dictating your life. In my state of Michigan, with a 15% unemployment rate, we know we cannot afford this cap and tax bill. Others, however, disagree.”

U.S. House Democratic leaders are scrambling to secure the votes for quick passage of a carbon cap-and-trade law, arguing that aggressively attacking greenhouses gases will save the planet and restore America’s standing in the international community.

But some of their more moderate colleagues are balking and for good cause.