As Congress returns from its July 4th vacation, one of the key issues they will take up is Obamacare, legislation to implement President Obama’s radical overhaul of our health care system, currently the best in the world. This issue is so important, the Rob Curnock for Congress campaign will devote a little time every day that remains in July to increasing our awareness of what is being debated, where the potential problems are, and what we can do together to stop it from happening.

Why the emphasis on this issue? After all, Obama and the Democrats in Congress have done plenty already in the past 6 months to warrant such careful attention. In fact, there are many things going on right now that we will also be watching closely and covering in our news area. On health care, our pledge is to update our Twitter feed at least once per day with a link to useful information for Central Texans about the ongoing issues. Even if you don’t use Twitter, come check our page to stay up to speed on health care.

This issue is similar to so many other proposals and mistakes we have already seen since January.

• Like the stimulus, it promises to be very expensive and yield dubious returns.
• Like the auto union bailouts, it will put good companies at a disadvantage by interfering in private industry.
• Like cap and trade, it promises to be very expensive and yield dubious returns (seems like we’ve covered that one already).
• Like most major legislation to come before Congress this session, it’s being kept close to the vest, as Democrats aren’t even releasing Congressional Budget numbers to the public to help us understand their proposal.
• Unlike Sonia Sotomayor, health care legislation will not discriminate between white males and wise Latina women; it will affect us all.

But the health care issue trumps them all at this point for 3 main reasons.

One, health care is so important to our country, to men and women, children and elderly, Texans and New Yorkers, businessmen and farmers and teachers. It’s scary to think that the same people who have been running Medicare for the last 40 years, where costs have increased far faster than private health care, will become stewards of our health care. It’s in the nature of the Obama Administration and their Democrat friends in Congress to want government to be seen as the answer to everyone’s problems. And now they will be playing that game with health care.

Two, health care represents a massive portion of our national economy. Today that number is around 17% of our gross domestic product, and some estimates say it will rise to 20% in the next 10 years. As the government’s track record shows, the more involved they get, the faster costs increase, and our debt increases with it.

Three, the central feature of government-run health care, the so-called “public option” for a government insurance program, is that it will quickly crush any competing insurance options out there. We are told that we will not be forced to drop our current coverage, but the very purpose of the government-run option is to use the muscle of the federal government to convince doctors and hospitals to take less money for their services, and do it with the backing of our tax dollars. Private insurance can’t compete with that on such a large scale.

We have to act now to keep Congress and President Obama from making a mess of health care as they have so many other things so far. Tax policies or out-of-control spending are things that can be corrected in 2011 when we return a Republican majority to the House. Creating a new national health care entitlement, and crushing any real private insurance options, will be very hard to fix once it is broken.