How long will the American people tolerate the elitism of Democrats in Congress?

The public-be-hanged attitude of imperial Senate Democrats knows no bounds. The Senate Finance Committee won't even let other members of Congress see the text of a sweeping health care proposal.

Sen. Johnny Isakson of Marietta took to the floor of the Senate yesterday to rake the Democrats over the coals for making it difficult - impossible, actually - for the public to judge the merits of the bill by refusing to make the text available to members of Congress and the public.

Isakson called for starting over on the legislation, certainly a sensible idea and, of course, one that's going nowhere with the Democrats in control of the show.

The good news is that liberal Democrats tried twice and failed twice to gain Finance Committee approval yesterday for a federal government insurance option program, one of the most unpopular proposals made by President Obama and fellow Democrats. Instead, the proposal calls for creation of nonprofit health care cooperatives.

The bad news is that the bill - as outlined by committee chairman Max Baucus of Montana recently - still represents overkill by the government and contains loads of bad provisions.

For starters, the cost supposedly would be a mere $856 billion over 10 years. Yet it would not add to the federal deficit, according to Sen. Baucus. You have his word on that.

To pay for the plan, there would be upwards of $500 billion in cuts for Medicare and new taxes or "fees" totaling nearly $350 billion, including $6 billion from insurers, $4 billion from manufacturers of medical devices and smaller amounts from drug companies and clinical labs.

The bill would require individuals to get health coverage or pay a penalty of up to $950 a year based on income. The fine could be as high as $3,800 a year for a family. Insurance coverage would be mandated for every American by 2013.

There are some provisions that should be part of a genuine health care reform plan, including a prohibition on insurers dropping sick policyholders so long as they pay premiums. Also pre-existing conditions would have to be covered. Tax credits would be given to low- and middle-income families to help buy insurance.

As for the Republican mantra of curbing malpractice insurance costs, the bill would merely encourage the states "to develop and test alternatives to the current civil litigation system." Seriously.

This bad bill would, as Isakson has said, impose a massive financial burden on Georgia and other states for the proposed expansion of Medicaid to cover everyone with income up to 133 percent of the federal poverty level.

Americans are not buying this pig in a poke. A Rasmussen poll yesterday showed 56 percent opposed to the Dem plan versus 41 percent favoring it. Isakson got it right:

"We need to go back to the drawing board and have a bill we can read and a bill we can afford."

dmckee9613@aol.com