Ho ho ho!

I’m too old to believe in Santa Claus, but I might change my mind. Congress is going to take $500 billion out of Medicare to help pay for its health care bill, but it is not going to reduce the Medicare benefits. Ho ho ho!

The politicians want to have 41 million more people covered by health insurance, with many of these people being subsidized by the government to pay the cost, but they won’t add anything to the national debt. Ho ho ho!

They are going to have this national plan that is going to be very good for us, but they refuse to require themselves and their staff to be covered by the same plan. Ho ho ho!

They are going to require all businesses having 50 or more employees to pay for health insurance. This, of course, will not increase the cost to employers. So what will employers do? Will they add more employees or even lay off more people? Good for business in a time of recession. Ho ho ho!

They are going to tax Cadillac plans, plans where the cost exceeds $8,000 per year for single coverage and $12,000 for families. If I remember correctly, there was going to be no more tax on anyone making less than $250,000. Ho ho ho!

There will be no cost or coverage for illegal immigrants or for women who want an abortion. Ho ho ho!

They say the plan will not exceed $870 billion over 10 years. They begin taxing for the benefit in the year 2010, but they don’t provide any benefits until 2014. My math is very fuzzy, but that seems to me that the plan will cost $870 billion for six years, not 10 and if we were to cover the first 10 years of benefits, the cost would be $1.45 trillion. There must be a Santa Claus somewhere. Ho ho ho!

This only covers a small part of the 2,000-page bill. There are many other provisions that will affect our lives and take away our freedoms. It does not cover all the new commissions and departments that will be created to ration and control our health care by the government, and we do know the federal government knows how to run successful business enterprises. Ho ho ho!

But there must be a Santa Claus. It’s called the printing press. All it has to do is print more dollars to put into your pocket. Of course, your dollars won’t buy as much. If a loaf of bread now costs $2. It won’t cost $2 in the future. It will cost $3, and this thing called “inflation” especially affects older people who are on fixed incomes and the unemployed.

Yes, Mr. Congressman, if this plan is so good, why don’t you require it for yourself? Ho ho ho!

Alan Arends

Albert Lea