As the health care debate continues to boil in Congress, lawmakers desperate to force through this unprecedented legislation have tried to rush to passage. Getting something – anything – in place before the tide of public opposition makes its way to the voting booth is now the priority.

Yesterday, a federal panel decided that self-exams and some mammograms are no longer necessary for women in their forties and should only be administered every other year for those in their fifties and sixties. Despite being said to reduce cancer deaths by about 15% in women ages 39-59, the federal panel based their decision to change the guidelines because they concluded too much money was spent on “unnecessary tests.”

A few things we know for sure:

• Medicaid is quickly heading toward insolvency and threatening to bring many state budgets down with it.
• Current health care legislation in both the House and the Senate seek to expand the defunct Medicaid program to millions more by raising the eligibility levels by as much as 50% (150% of FPL in the House bill and the Senate HELP bill and 133% in the Senate Finance proposal)
• To finance the expanded coverage, proposals seek $500 billion in Medicare cuts to help pay for it.

The U.S. Government is spending money at an unprecedented rate. According to Louis Crandall, chief economist at Wrightson ICAP, it burns money at an average of over $100 billion per month. That's far more than government revenue and so the Treasury is forced to turn to the debt market. Fiscal year 2009 saw the government rack up an astounding $1.4 trillion in additional debt, while the Treasury Department is openly predicting $1.5 to $2.0 trillion in debt for fiscal year 2010, which started in October.

The free-market grassroots group Americans for Prosperity (AFP) is taking its nationwide Hot Air Tour to former Vice President Al Gore in Portland on Wednesday, November 18, to expose the extreme economic costs of cap-and trade-legislation to the American taxpayer.