It's the Obama lie of the land: Health overhaul signed - and you let it happen.

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WASHINGTON — Claiming a historic triumph that could define his
presidency, a jubilant Barack Obama signed a massive, nearly $1 trillion
health care overhaul on Tuesday that will for the first time cement
insurance coverage as the right of every U.S. citizen and begin to
reshape the way virtually all Americans receive and pay for treatment.

After more than a year of hyperpartisan struggle — and numerous
near-death moments for the measure — Obama declared "a new season in
America" as he sealed a victory denied to a line of presidents
stretching back more than half a century. Democratic lawmakers cheered
him on, giving the White House signing ceremony a rally-like atmosphere
as they shouted and snapped photos with pocket cameras or cell phones.

Not everyone was cheering. The Democrats pushed the bill through
Congress without GOP support, and the Republicans said Tuesday that
those Democratic lawmakers would pay dearly in this November's
elections. Opinion polls show the public remains skeptical, too, and
Obama will fly to Iowa on Thursday for the first of a number of
appearances that will be more like a continuing sales job than a victory
lap.

Aside from the huge, real-life changes in store for many Americans, the
White House hopes the victory — even as a companion Senate "fix-it" bill
moves through the Senate — will revitalize an Obama presidency that has
been all but preoccupied with health care for his first year and three
months in office.

The reshaping of one-sixth of the U.S. economy, to be phased in over
several years, ranks among the biggest changes ever devised by
Washington. Indeed, that was a main complaint from Republicans who
characterize the measure as a costly, wrongheaded government power grab.
Obama and the Democrats portray it as literally a lifesaver for
countless Americans.

The core of the massive law is the extension of health care coverage to
32 million who now lack it, a goal to be achieved through a complex
cocktail of new mandates for individuals and employers, subsidies for
people who can't afford to buy coverage on their own, consumer-friendly
rules clamped on insurers, tax breaks, and marketplaces to shop for
health plans.

The law's most far-reaching changes don't kick until 2014, including a
requirement that most Americans carry health insurance — whether through
an employer, a government program or their own purchase — or pay a fine.
To make that a reality, tax credits to help cover the cost of premiums
will start flowing to middle-class families and Medicaid will be
expanded to cover more low-income people.

Among the new rules on insurance companies are banning lifetime dollar
limits on policies, coverage denials for pre-existing conditions, and
policy cancellations when someone gets sick. Insurers also will have to
allow parents to keep children on their plans up to age 26.

The changes are to be paid for with cuts in projected government payment
increases to hospitals, insurance companies and others under Medicare
and other health programs, an increase in the Medicare payroll tax for
some, fees on insurance companies, drug makers and medical device
manufacturers, a new excise tax on high-value insurance plans and a tax
on indoor tanning services.

For seniors, the plan the plan will gradually close the "doughnut hole"
prescription coverage gap and improve preventive care. But it also will
cut funding for popular private insurance plans offered through Medicare
Advantage. About one-quarter of seniors have signed up for such plans,
which generally offer lower out-of-pocket costs.

Democrats, led by Obama, celebrated a "new wind at our backs" from an
achievement accomplished after more than a year of high tension and deep
division — stretching back to shouted protests that interrupted
lawmakers' town hall meetings on the subject last summer. Obama signed
the measure less than two days after the cliffhanger final House vote in
a rare Sunday night session.

"Our presence here today is remarkable and improbable," Obama said, his
grin wider than any in recent memory. "With all the punditry, all of the
lobbying, all the game-playing that passes for governing in Washington,
it's been easy at times to doubt our ability to do such a big thing,
such a complicated thing."

At a second celebration later, he said, "After a century of striving,
after a year of debate, after a historic vote, health care reform is no
longer an unmet promise. It is the law of the land."

The president now faces the task of selling to the public a bill that
satisfies neither side of the political spectrum.

Liberals bemoan that a government-run plan to compete with private ones
was shed from the legislation during bitter negotiations. Conservatives
fear an expansion of government and costs they say will bankrupt the
country, despite an estimate from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget
Office that the law will cut federal budget deficits by an estimated
$143 billion over a decade.

Obama's explanatory hurdle is not an easy one, given the law's
multilayered provisions and timetables. A bumper-sticker slogan it is
not. But he must help protect the Democrats — particularly those from
conservative-leaning districts — who stand to suffer in the fall
elections from their votes.

Republicans face a challenge as well. Aware of traditional American
suspicions of government intrusion, they cast themselves throughout the
process as against major changes. They now must explain to voters
impatient for action in Washington why nothing was their best choice.

In a hint of the coming Republican line of argument, Sens. Judd Gregg,
R-N.H., and Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., said the new law would push the United
States to a "European-style" government.

More than a dozen Republican senators introduced legislation to repeal
the law that Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., said would "force taxpayer funding
of abortions, raise health costs, hike taxes, cut Medicare, raid Social
Security and put bureaucrats between patients and their doctors."

"Repeal and replace," Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.,
told reporters.

And attorneys general from 13 states acted on their opposition
immediately, filing suit to stop the overhaul just minutes after the
bill signing. Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum took the lead in
the lawsuit that contends the legislation is unconstitutional, joined by
colleagues from South Carolina, Nebraska, Texas, Michigan, Utah,
Pennsylvania, Alabama, South Dakota, Louisiana, Idaho, Washington and
Colorado. Other GOP attorneys general may join the lawsuit later or sue
separately.

Obama made clear that the Republican offensive will not go unanswered.
His larger, second event, held in a vast Interior Department auditorium,
had a more combative feel. He accused Republicans of telling "lies."

"Those fighting change are still out there, still making a lot of noise
about what this reform means," he said. "Look it up for yourself."

Starting with a Thursday trip to Iowa City, where as a presidential
candidate he announced his health care plan in May 2007, Obama intends
to emphasize the law's most immediate impacts, including the ability of
young adults to remain on their parents' health plans and a ban on
insurers denying coverage to sick children.

Even as the celebration proceeded in Washington, Congress labored to
complete the overhaul with a companion measure containing changes
demanded as a condition of House Democrats' approval. The Senate was
poised to consider that bill, with Democratic leaders hoping for its
completion by week's end.

"We are going to make a good law signed by the president even better,"
Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., declared on the Senate floor.


--
Nancy Pelosi, Democrat criminal, accessory before and after the fact, to
House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles B. Rangel of New York's
million dollar tax evasion. On February 25, 2010, the House ethics
committee has concluded that Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles
B. Rangel knowingly accepted Caribbean trips in violation of House rules
that forbid hidden financing by corporations. Democrat criminal Nancy
Pelosi is deliberately ignoring the million dollar tax evasion of
Democrat Charles Rangel.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi had to be forced to remove Charles B. Rangel
from the House Ways and Means Committee.


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