Excellent Sarah Palin Op-Ed on Health Care

It's a shame she is not giving the rebuttal to Obama's speech tonight!

Sarah Palin is proving that she doesn't have to be a sitting governor to be relevant in the current policy debate over health care. By bringing high level attention to the matter of death panels and health care rationing she forced the "news" media to cover a story they might otherwise ignore.

She's done it again with this reply to Obama's op-ed in health care.

I know you will want to read the whole thing, but here's a teaser:

Common sense tells us that the government's attempts to solve large problems more often create new ones. Common sense also tells us that a top-down, one-size-fits-all plan will not improve the workings of a nationwide health-care system that accounts for one-sixth of our economy. And common sense tells us to be skeptical when President Obama promises that the Democrats' proposals "will provide more stability and security to every American."

With all due respect, Americans are used to this kind of sweeping promise from Washington. And we know from long experience that it's a promise Washington can't keep.

Let's talk about specifics. In his Times op-ed, the president argues that the Democrats' proposals "will finally bring skyrocketing health-care costs under control" by "cutting . . . waste and inefficiency in federal health programs like Medicare and Medicaid and in unwarranted subsidies to insurance companies . . . ."

First, ask yourself whether the government that brought us such "waste and inefficiency" and "unwarranted subsidies" in the first place can be believed when it says that this time it will get things right. The nonpartistan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) doesn't think so: Its director, Douglas Elmendorf, told the Senate Budget Committee in July that "in the legislation that has been reported we do not see the sort of fundamental changes that would be necessary to reduce the trajectory of federal health spending by a significant amount."

With each article former Gov. Palin is rapidly rebuilding her reputation (which suffered from one of the worst smear campaigns by Democrats in history) for common sense and sound judgement that so many of us recognized from her first introduction onto the national stage at the GOP convention last year.

Whether that means she will have rebuilt her reputation sufficiently to run for president in 2012 remains to be seen. But I look forward to her becoming a growing presence in future policy debates over the coming years. She's already suffered the worst of what Dems can throw at her and has no place to go but up!