Back in town. Now onto the spending bill, which Rush Limbaugh accurately derides as “Porkulus,” will go to conference to work out the details of where to set the deck chairs on this Titanic. While this is Obama, Pelosi, and Reid’s to own, you can add the R’s who gave the bill the push over the 60 vote mark. They should be defeated at the next election. I hope Michael Steele and the GOP mark Arlen Specter, Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe for tough primary competition when they’re up for reelection.
As reported in an opinion piece here, the porkulus has a nationalized health care trojan horse inserted into it.

Senators should read these provisions and vote against them because they are dangerous to your health. (Page numbers refer to H.R. 1 EH, pdf version).

The bill’s health rules will affect “every individual in the United States” (445, 454, 479). Your medical treatments will be tracked electronically by a federal system. Having electronic medical records at your fingertips, easily transferred to a hospital, is beneficial. It will help avoid duplicate tests and errors.

But the bill goes further. One new bureaucracy, the National Coordinator of Health Information Technology, will monitor treatments to make sure your doctor is doing what the federal government deems appropriate and cost effective. The goal is to reduce costs and “guide” your doctor’s decisions (442, 446). These provisions in the stimulus bill are virtually identical to what Daschle prescribed in his 2008 book, “Critical: What We Can Do About the Health-Care Crisis.” According to Daschle, doctors have to give up autonomy and “learn to operate less like solo practitioners.”