“Curiouser and curiouser!' cried Alice (she was so much surprised, that for the moment she quite forgot how to speak good English); `now I'm opening out like the largest telescope that ever was! Good-bye, feet!' (for when she looked down at her feet, they seemed to be almost out of sight, they were getting so far off). `Oh, my poor little feet, I wonder who will put on your shoes and stockings for you now, dears? I'm sure I shan't be able! I shall be a great deal too far off to trouble myself about you: you must manage the best way you can; --but I must be kind to them,' thought Alice, `or perhaps they won't walk the way I want to go! Let me see: I'll give them a new pair of boots every Christmas.”

And so goes the discussion of our president’s healthcare initiative.  Like Alice, I am amazed how quickly changes are coming and equally amused by the “feigned” surprise of Democrats as to the cost of their foolhardy plan!  Since announcing PAYGO didn’t apply to his healthcare initiative, the CBO stated that the current Congressional proposal will only cover 1/3^rd of the uninsured and will cost at least $1 trillion dollars!  Even John McCain gets this one as he exclaimed on the floor of the Senate, "You do the math," McCain said.  "It comes up to $3 trillion.  And so far, we have no proposal for having to pay for it."

An understatement to be sure and now even Democrats are getting the message.  With Obama’s approval rating dropping like a rock, Gallup reporting a 57% approval rating and Rasmussen reporting a -2 Approval Index - the first time Obama has gone into negative territory, there is real concern in Wonderland. 

With the meeting of Brazil, Russia, India and China (BRIC) discussing moving off the US dollar as the reserve currency and this administration’s continued spending spree, it appears the world and even the Democrats are wondering how they will ever be able to “put their shoes on their feet” as deficits and foolhardy spending continues.  In five short months, the hubris of this administration should demonsrate that you cannot trust liberal ideology when it comes to spending your money.  While a number of the Democrat leadership seem to be figuring out that these initiatives are putting our economy and country in peril, eclipsing anything that the financial crisis of 2008~2009 created, there is still a view in this administration that if you keep saying it long enough people will believe you.

This is why we have seen the Rahm Emanuel “never waste a good crisis” strategy beginning to wear thin.  Americans are simply not a bunch of rubes without the ability to think and consider outcomes.  The government has done its very best to educate the masses and create a class of “illiterati” that will ensure their power.  However, as events in Iran have shown, even the government can’t overcome the technologies that unleash the minds and opinions of the people.  This fact is beginning to take its toll on this administration’s efforts and with 2010 on the horizon the Democrats don’t want to see a major loss in their position. 

However, it may already be too late.  The spending has been committed, the budget approved and the arguments made by this president.  And healthcare reform is now becoming the albatross around the necks of this deficit spending congress and will sink them should they pursue this folly.  That is not to say that some reasoned attempt to improve the private system and rein in costs of Medicare and Medicaid should not be the goal of this reform.  Simply stated, there is no more money to be spent and no more money should be printed to try and cover this astronomical entitlement.  While Alice in Wonderland could eat another cookie to get smaller, the Legislators in Washington have no magic.  They only know how to keep growing and growing until they not only lose sight of their “feet” but of everything that responsible government should mean in the 21^st century reality of budget deficits and limited resources!

So, as you think about the dialogue around the reform envisioned in the Obama/Kennedy/Dodd healthcare bill, you better ask yourself what in the health is going on?  And just remember, it’s going to get “curiouser and curiouser” unless we stop Washington and this administration.  They may continue to live and work in Wonderland, but the rest of us exist in the real world!