Obamacare passes and moves to law

We can argue about whether it will be possible to repeal the government takeover of healthcare next year, or in 2013 ... but for now Obamacare is going to be law. How did we get here?

• There is a portion of Americans that cannot purchase private health insurance. Some have let Cobra policies elapse after long periods of unemployment. Others simply cannot afford any kind of insurance.
• For those that do have employer insurance or government policies the premiums are going up at a rate 3 times the rate of inflation. It was easy to complain that mean greedy insurance companies were piling on the profits, but the truth is claims were increasing faster than inflation as well. The cost of medical care is out of control.
  
• Democrats made a commitment in voting for the inexperienced Obama that they would force through a government option, their way of trying to penalize the insurance companies and in theory force competition. It's not a real competition, because when government gets involved costs will still increase as competitors are driven out of the business.
  
• Republicans proposed lackluster ideas like interstate competition, but couldn't really ever get the public's ear on healthcare, the Democrats did a great job painting Republicans as trying to protect the health care insurance corporations.
• Then came Tea Party August, when the Democrats couldnt' get the bill passed before the August recess and had to go home and face angry constituents who didn't want a government takeover of healthcare.
  
• The House and Senate passed separate bills eventually, packed with extra money for politicians who were afraid of their voters, and needed some earmark cover. Normally this would require a conference committee to hammer out a bill both sides could vote for. But Democrats couldn't handle the transparency any longer.
• They chose to vote for the Senate bill, letting President Obama sign a bill immediately. And then vote for a reconciliation bill, pretending they were just hammering out small details like typos, and send to the Senate hoping the Senate will just pass since the President already signed the base bill into law.
  
• Government takeover of healthcare is underway, it cannot be turned back or repealed for some time to come. It will take a Republican House, a Republican Senate ... and even then the President can veto until he's removed in 2012.