Obama's back in his house.

I can't believe that Obama flew 1000 miles just to talk about how Northern Iowa ruined his NCAA bracket and then essentially lead a pep rally. He only spoke for about 25 minutes with about 10 of those minutes talking about how nice it was to be back in Iowa, removing his jacket, thanking various "dignitaries" (UI president, UNI president, Governor, IC mayor), and talking about basketball. Then, instead of feeding us some meat and potatoes, he spoon fed us mashed peas. His speech rang with phrases like, "It all started here," "Yes, we did," and so forth. The man who complains bitterly about partisanship then proceeded to widen the gap between the parties by literally daring anybody to run on a platform decrying health care reform. He compared what he is doing with healthcare with what LBJ did with Medicare, essentially saying, "See, the world didn't end when Medicare passed liked it's detractors said and the same will be true with healthcare reform." What he is glossing over is that Medicare doesn't work very well. In actuality, programs like Medicaid and Medicare are one of the reasons that we need healthcare reform. When physicians and hospitals can only recoup a small percentage of their fees from those programs, the real costs of those services and products are passed on to the rest of us, making overall healthcare costs rise on a yearly basis.

Recently, a poll was conducted among private physicians regarding their plans if healthcare reforms became law. 50% of them said they either would retire or consider retiring. In reality, I doubt that many would quit but if even 10% of them quit, we would be in a real bind.

In President Obama's rush to build a legacy, he has signed a very flawed piece of legislation into law. I do give him props for doing what he said he was going to do. Few presidents do that.

One of the things that makes me the angriest is that he is now going to be spending the next few weeks or more touring the country giving the same talk, spending our tax money to do so, in an effort to turn the tide of public opinion so that this year's election won't yield a sea of red in congress.

I believe that our healthcare system does need some help. Costs are skyrocketing out of control and the money being put into the system often ends up in the wrong pockets. Reforms need to center around tort reform and preventative medicine. Obama and his dogs have put the coon up the wrong tree.