Most people can't wrap their minds around numbers as large as one trillion.  Let me try to put S1,000,000,000,000.00 into perspective.  For one trillion dollars you can pay the health insurance premiums of the 48 million currently uninsured and their extended families for 20 years.  And I mean really good insurance.  The government in its infinite wisdom bailed out Chrsyler, GM, Sallie Mae, Freddie Mac, Aig, etc.  Government created the financial crisis. Government has not corrected the problem.  Do not trust the government to fix anything.  The government wants to keep you afraid. Make no mistake, had the government done nothing the recession would have been shorter and less severe.  Now we have mountains of debt and no way to pay it. other than taxes levied either directly or indirectly.

Your life(literally)depends on this.  If not now, when you get older. 

In a televised evening news conference, Obama said the biggest driving force behind the federal deficit was skyrocketing healthcare costs for the government's Medicare program of healthcare for the elderly and Medicaid for the poor.

Did you get that...........the govenment's Medicare(covering 45 million people) and Medicaid (covering around 40 million people) programs are.........skyrocketing in costs!!  And Obama wants you to think that when the government also covers 300+ million other citizens, cost per citizen is going to decline.  

Excuse me, either Obama thinks we are completely dumb or very naive.  Please call, write, or email your Senators and Representative and let them know you do not want any "Government Option" in any Helth Reform Bill.  If it does include any "Govenment Option" you will do everything in your power to defeat them in the next election.

Believe me, they do want to get re-elected!

VMac, could you provide any proof that if the government had not acted the recession would have been shorter and deeper, other than their opinion? Moreover, the initial reactions, which were far less focused and effective, but more expensive in the long term, were taken by a supposedly fiscally conservative administration.

Other than economists who are ideologically opposed to the stimulus, the vast majority of economic experts and business leaders in this country are confident that federal discretionary spending has helped avert a much deeper and longer downturn. We need less ideology and more pragmatic thinking. Anti-stimulus economists are calling for tax cuts, which would leave the nation if far worse straits in the short-term while offering no long-term benefits based on the economic history of the past 30 years.

Jparham, your argument is incorrect. President Obama is calling for a public-private insurance system, not the conversion of all Americans to a Medicaid/Medicare coverage regime.

Sorry godsdog,  public-private insurance system is just a step away from public insurance or Medicaid/Medicare for all.

Let reform be like that of the Senators.........all the plans they can choose from are from private insurance companies.  You know, those companies  that Obama criticised Wednesday night for making a profit!!!

jparham -- public-private insurance is what the Senators have. At least get your terminology right. If you don't think that medical bills that are "discounted" by 90 percent for "in-system" docs are making the system inefficient, who is at fault? Obama's idea of creating a central price administration would cut that mark-up out and leave bills easy to understand and not subject to backroom discounting.

If the health care industry currently accounts for 1/6th of our economic activity, about $7.5 trillion a year, $1 trillion is not an outlandish amount to spend to fix it.