Real leaders turn hard into possible

I have commented recently that Obama has not done all that much, although he talked a very compelling story when he ran for the presidency. We and he badly need to know if he has the leadership to lead on domestic policy.

The push to get his Obamacare program agreed on and passed now leaves the country with an enormously expensive health care program that we will have a very hard time managing to pay for. He may not even know the extent to which lobbyists control the health care industry.

To not step up and force Congress to find out why we are spending such shocking amounts of money on health care and not seem to care a whit about it makes us wonder does he have real awareness that we have a $14 trillion deficit that is absolutely our biggest problem?

Mr. Obama's committee composed of Democrats and Republicans hasn't yet gotten the Congress to pass what will be a compromise as to what we do about Obamacare. There are other issues to resolve, but health care spending is the toughest problem to handle because it is being fed by both the aging of the population and rising per-person demand for services.

Richer beneficiaries should pay more for their share of Medicare, while the generosity of the system should be kept in check by the independent panel set up under Obama's health reform to monitor services and payments. How much control the Congress can be made to exert remains to be seen.

The best way to restrain Medicaid would be to end the current system of matching state spending and replace this with block grants, which would give the state incentive to focus on cost control.

Real leaders turn the hard into the possible. Unless it change course, America is heading for a bust.

Chuck Barr Jr.

St. Charles