Chuck Muth: ObamaCare moves forward, but not a done deal yet

In a Nevada Appeal op/ed this week, Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) proclaimed that his Senate version of health care reform "will save lives, save money and save Medicare." Conservatives, however, say Sen. Reid's government health care plan will kill people, bankrupt the country and destroy Medicare.

Who ya gonna believe?

"Washington liberals are on the brink of making our health care system worse, not better, and putting you, your family and your friends at risk," Rep. John Shadegg (R-Ariz.) wrote last week. "Their legislation will increase your premiums and raise your taxes."

Adds the Wall Street Journal: "A Senate Finance Committee minority staff report finds that by 2019 more than 42 million individuals and families will on average see their taxes go up because of the Senate bill."

And that doesn't include the health care premium increases you're gonna get socked with. Even Congress' only self-proclaimed Socialist admits it.

"Can I sit up here or stand here with a straight face and say ... that if you're an ordinary person who has employer-based health care that your premiums are not going to go up in the next eight years based on what's in this bill?" Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said last week. "I can't say that. It's just not accurate."

And yet, Harry Reid will fight to the death (panel) to shove this bill up Nevada's collective wazoo and has pulled out all the stops, including legal "bribery" with our tax dollars, to do so.

But perhaps the worst thing about this new government health care scheme is the plain, undeniable fact that it will result in health care rationing which will ultimately result in unnecessary deaths.

"My 25 years as a practicing physician have shown me what happens when government attempts to practice medicine," Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) wrote this week. "Doctors respond to government coercion instead of patient cues, and patients die prematurely."

So this really is a life or death fight ... literally.

Indeed, Wall Street Journal columnist Dan Henninger wrote last week: "This is probably the final death struggle for universal health care" and "anyone remotely opposed to this idea had better step forward."

If you haven't joined this fight yet, it's not too late. Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi still have to reach a compromise between their two versions of ObamaCare.

So call, write, fax and e-mail Sen. Reid ASAP. Because frankly, your public opposition is now all that stands between us and a DMV-like health care bureaucracy which will raise your taxes ... raise your premiums ... drive down the quality of your health care ... and usher in health care rationing.

We defeated HillaryCare in 1993, and we can defeat ObamaCare in 2010. The fight can be won. The fight must be won. Let's win it ... for the children. Merry Christmas!

• Chuck Muth is president of Citizen Outreach, a non-profit public policy grassroots advocacy organization. He may be reached at chuck@citizen

outreach.com.