What Government Health Insurance reform amounts to

John Cassidy,  New Yorker --

"it's important to be clear about what the reform amounts to."

"The U.S. government is making a costly and open-ended commitment"

"Let's not pretend that it isn't a big deal, or that it will be self-financing, or that it will work out exactly as planned. It won't. What is really unfolding, I suspect, is the scenario that many conservatives feared. The Obama Administration  is creating a new entitlement program, which, once established, will be virtually impossible to rescind."

ObamaCare serves the twin goals of "making the United States a more equitable country and furthering the Democrats' political calculus." The purpose is to further "redistribute income" by putting "health care further under government control", and in the process making the "middle class more dependent on government". As the party of government, "Democrats will benefit over the long run".

"Putting on my amateur historian's cap, I might even claim that some subterfuge is historically necessary to get great reforms enacted."