Fiasco: Healthcare Showdown Underway in the House UPDATE: Bill passes 220-215; 39 Dems vote No, 1 GOPer votes Yes

Debate opened today in the House of Representatives on the Democrats' proposed healthcare reform bill with the intention of voting on the 2,000 page proposal sometime Sunday - or later. Who knows? After all, the Democrats are in charge of this so, ya know, whenever.

The House version under consideration currently contains mandates that everyone buy insurance with stiff penalties if you don't. Those Americans not willing to comply with the government's mandates on health insurance will be made to pay up to $250,000 in fines or face as much as five years in prison, which is precisely the kind of gentle nudging one expects from liberals hell-bent on seeing their Utopian society come to fruition on the backs of their fellow citizens. Congressman Dave Camp, the ranking Republican on the House Ways and Means Committee fills us in on some important details:

Today, Ranking Member of the House Ways and Means Committee Dave Camp (R-MI) released a letter from the non-partisan Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) confirming that the failure to comply with the individual mandate to buy health insurance contained in the Pelosi health care bill (H.R. 3962, as amended) could land people in jail. The JCT letter makes clear that Americans who do not maintain “acceptable health insurance coverage” and who choose not to pay the bill’s new individual mandate tax (generally 2.5% of income), are subject to numerous civil and criminal penalties, including criminal fines of up to $250,000 and imprisonment of up to five years.

In response to the JCT letter, Camp said: “This is the ultimate example of the Democrats’ command-and-control style of governing – buy what we tell you or go to jail. It is outrageous and it should be stopped immediately.”

With a price tag of a nice and tidy 2.6 trillion dollars according to the Heritage Foundation, one might wonder how we're going to pay for all of that. But don't worry! If we do our patriotic duty and pay more taxes then we can well cover the cost of our socialized healthcare debacle. I mean, hey, it works in Canada, right? I mean, er...nevermind:

After more than a decade of public healthcare with mandatory coverage, so many Canadian doctors have left the practice and so many young people have entered other fields that Canada ranks 26th of 28 developed nations in its ratio of physicians to population. Once, Canada ranked among the leaders in the number of physicians, but that was before government healthcare drove doctors out of the practice in droves.

The fundamental fact is that we cannot cover 36 million new patients without more doctors and nurses, much less with the declining census of medical professionals the Canadian experience points to. A recent survey of doctors by the Pew Institute found that 45 percent of all practicing doctors would consider retiring or closing their practices if the Obama healthcare bill passes. This scarcity of medical personnel heightens the likelihood of draconian rationing, lengthy waiting lists and lower-quality medical care for all of us, particularly for the elderly.

But, honestly, why should grandma undergo a necessary life saving surgery when she can just take a pain pill and die quietly at home? I mean, right? I guess that's Democats' idea of "cost saving measures". Not that there's anything wrong with a good vicodin from time to time, but I'd hardly call this sort of healthcare "rational".

But there is reason to be hopefull, my dear Tusk readers. As of this post, fully 35 Democrats oppose this legislation, according to Congressman Eric Cantor of Virginia. Although that is short of the 41 Democrat "no's" needed to defeat it, it is still a good start. And remember, the bill still has to pass the Senate, where Tom Coburn of Oklahoma may force a reading of the full bill that could literally take months to complete. As Hot Air points out, the bill could quite literally filibuster itself.

And this is what it boils down to ladies and gentlemen; the democrats' manic obsession with controlling the most essential and personal aspects of your life. If you fail to comply with their clumsily mapped out formula of the "good life" then you are subject to massive fines or even jail time. This is the essence of freedom under their regime. It is a system in which the most basic and fundamental liberties are stripped from the citizen, wrapped in a nice little bow and handed to the government. If you think stopping them from taking it is hard now, wait until you see how hard it will be to get that freedom back once (if) we lose it.

I've said it once, and I will say it again: Vote Republican, and everything will be ok.