Sticking to the middle

Fourth-graders are not progressing in their capacity to perform rudimentary arithmetic, mirroring a malady that long has afflicted Democrats. The results for schoolkids came in Wednesday from federally funded achievement tests, and for Democrats a day earlier with the passage of a Senate Finance Committee health care bill to the sound of triumphant cries among the vacuous left.

President Barack Obama has trumpeted reform as needed for the sake of the middle class, a group leftists adore and pursue in the fashion of the beautiful but deranged Alex Forrest stalking her married paramour in “Fatal Attraction.” It works like this: “I love you. Now I must kill you.”

This time, Obama played the role of seducer, going prime-time to sell health care reform as a means to relieve the middle class of the burden of exorbitant cost. The legislation passed Tuesday bearing the imprimatur of Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., and the approval of Obama is the killer, a form of Glenn Close rising from the bathtub clutching a knife aimed at the chest of the cherished middle class.

A study commissioned by the insurance industry says the Baucus bill – a Baucus feast of bad ideas – would cost families an average of $4,000 more annually for health insurance within 10 years. Democrats demonize the insurance industry, but what about the Congressional Budget Office? Former CBO Director Douglas Holtz-Eakin writes in the Wall Street Journal that “the bill would impose nearly $400 billion in new taxes and fees. Nearly 90% of that burden will be shouldered by those making $200,000 or less.”

Not to worry, the left sniffs. Under the bill, the feds would subsidize coverage for families whose incomes stretch to up to 400 percent of the poverty level, or $88,200 for a family of four. Except that people who get insurance through their employers get no subsidies. Oops. The dear old CBO says only 17 million people would get the federal help. As for most of the rest of the country? Sign here for higher premiums. Isn’t reform great?

Here’s a little something else for middle-class stiffs. Forget the weary climb up corporate ladders; it won’t be worth the bother. Guess what happens to a family of four raising its income from $54,000 to $66,000 annually? “[T]heir cost of insurance rises by $2,800 ... a marginal tax rate of 23%,” according to Holtz-Eakin Terrific. Hey, Mad Max: A little to the left with the dagger, so when it penetrates the chest cavity it slashes straight into the middle of the heart. Bull’s-eye!

By the way, while their health care bills soar, taxpayers can be comforted knowing they’re helping subsidize others’ health care. Remember? Subsidies are not a gift from Father Fed but hard-earned money pulled from the pockets of the people. The government gives by taking.

If this is a demonstration of leftists’ affection for the middle class, their love is proved again to be a foul, dirty thing that destroys that which it claims to cherish. Even a gradeschooler can see this reform adds up only to raw, bloody pain.