GUEST COLUMNIST: Pelosi's health care plan would cost too much money, freedom

Amid all the serious problems contained in the Pelosi health care plan, two stand out. The two most fundamental dangers are the attack on our personal freedom and the damage to the financial strength of our nation.

President Barack Obama and Democrat leaders in Congress have totally misgauged the American people by trying to ram through a big government, European-style, health care system. Over the past year, Americans have watched this administration grow the size of government, restrict our freedoms and burden our children and grandchildren with unsustainable debt. And that’s before deciding to take over 16 percent of the American economy with their health care plan.

The Congressional Research Service recently concluded that “it is a novel issue whether Congress may use [the commerce] clause to require an individual to purchase a good or service.” In other words, it is constitutionally suspect whether Congress’ ability to regulate interstate commerce extends to mandating that almost every American carry health insurance.

The Pelosi plan for health care, however, goes far beyond the individual, or even the employer mandate. The plan uses the word “shall” 3,425 times. It creates a host of new czars and bureaucrats with breathtaking control over the availability of lifesaving drugs and devices. It establishes, expands, or extends 43 entitlement programs. It sets up 111 offices, bureaus, commissions, programs and bureaucracies, over and above the entitlement expansions.

As I have met with citizens and taxpayers at town hall meetings across the district, I hear from people who are worried about what all this government spending will do to our children and grandchildren. This concern also grows out of a love for freedom. We don’t want to burden them with a crippling debt that will limit their options in life. Nor do we want to limit the strength of our historically strong country in the face of the challenges of the 21st century.

Going into this debate on government-run health care we, as a country, are already on exceedingly thin financial ice. The annual budget deficit for the fiscal year that just ended is projected to exceed $1.4 trillion. This is more than three times the previous year’s record deficit and the highest ever in the history of our country. Our national debt is about $12 trillion, with no plan to pay back a penny of it. And our total future obligations, including unfunded entitlements, exceed $50 trillion.

Apart from being in the middle of a recession, how in the world we can seriously be considering $730 billion in new taxes is beyond me. Even more irresponsible, the Democrats’ plan is “paid for” largely by raiding Medicare, which itself is almost insolvent. This is fiscal insanity, and were Congress a publicly traded company, it would be facing huge civil and criminal penalties for shoddy bookkeeping.

Yes, we can all agree that our health care system, although superb in some ways, is not perfect. I support reasonable reforms that address the underlying causes of skyrocketing health care costs, such as tort reform, tax reform, and interstate competition. But we can do so with reasonable measures far short of upending one-sixth of our national economy.

I have left out of this discussion a host of other problems with Pelosi’s plan, such as the inevitability of rationing, the erosion of our vital pharmaceutical and medical device industries, public funding of abortion and the crowding out of the private insurance market. These are vital issues, but we shouldn’t have to look any further than the two concerns highlighted earlier — the loss of freedom and the damage to our country’s fiscal strength — to know why I oppose the plan with every fiber of my being and why all Americans should oppose it.

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Lamborn represents Colorado’s 5th District in the U.S. House of Representatives.