Obama does not address concerns about health care bill

Detroit News Editorial:

President Barack Obama is taking a no retreat approach to health care reform, offering a revised plan in advance of Thursday's bipartisan summit that fails to address the two main concerns of Republicans and a majority of Americans: the high cost and the broad expansion of government powers.

The White House is calling this a "jumping off point" for forging a compromise when Democrats and Republicans sit down before television cameras at the health care summit.

But in reality, it's a recasting of the existing Democratic health care plan at an even higher cost. If the president's intent is to staple onto it a couple of Republican ideas and call it a bipartisan bill, then he is betraying the spirit of the summit and, in all likelihood, will end up with a package that can't pass Congress.

The most objectionable element of the modified Obama proposal is that it increases the cost, to $950 billion over 10 years from $871 billion, in utter defiance of public concern about runaway government spending. It promises to raise the money from the same sources -- cuts in Medicare, which would jeopardize the viability of that already shaky program -- and confiscatory taxes on high income earners and the medical industry, which would stall economic growth and kill jobs.

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There is more, but this is a pretty good summary of the main objections to the plan. Obama's stubborn refusal to listen to the people objections to this plan will only increase voter anger.