Let’s cut the president some slack on his broken campaign promises. So, he’s not allowing five days public comment before signing bills; there are new taxes on people making under $250,000 a year; lobbyists still rule Washington, D.C.; the planet is not yet healed.

But let’s not nitpick, because there is one promise the president is keeping: “Starting today, we must pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off and begin again the work of remaking America (1/20/09).”

Here is the one thing: The president really is remaking America; he’s just making it a whole lot crappier — kind of a hybrid between France and Venezuela.

Exhibit A: The president’s national health care plan.

Nancy Pelosi is proposing to pay for the $1.5 trillion plan by — wait for it — taxing the rich. Anyone making over a $1 million a year will be paying for our government-run health care. Because those darn millionaires, what have they ever done for society besides hoard money?

Like Donald Trump: He’ll do anything to get his name on another tower — like hire hundreds and hundreds of construction workers for months at a time. He’s so selfish.

John Huntsman is another one of those evil rich guys. He’s probably sitting in one of his dozen mansions right now. If he’s not there, try him at the Huntsman Cancer Institute, which he created with his own money.

The surcharges and taxes on the rich will only cover about $544 billion of the estimated $1.5 trillion the health care plan will cost America. That pretty much still leaves a “1” before the “point.”

Why does Pelosi really want to soak the rich? Here’s what she said: “So it’s a millionaires tax... when someone hears ‘2’ (hundred thousand), they think ‘Oh, I could be there.’ So I want to remove all doubt ... You think ‘My God, that’s not me.”

It’s not about actually fixing anything; it’s about them convincing you to give the shaft to someone else for the power and control of socialism.

Let’s go back to that “1” before the “point”: There’s still about $1 trillion (about two-thirds of the entire bill) the administration needs to come up with in order to pay for this thing. President Obama says it will come from “savings.”

Government and savings? Yeah, right.

One big problem with this little “savings” scheme is that while the feds are “saving,” the states get a raw deal. They stand to pick up the tab for any increase in Medicaid eligibility levels, benefits or payments to doctors.

Guess who can’t print money to bail themselves out? The states.

Governors are beginning to stand up — both Republicans and Democrats — against this bill. Governor Phil Bredesen, a Tennessee Democrat, said he feared Congress was about to pass “the mother of all unfunded mandates.”

Massachusetts already made the government health care mistake; why do we want to repeat it? The original budget for Romney’s “Commonwealth Care” was $472 million. How did that work out for the people of Massachusetts? They ended up spending $628 million — $156 million over budget, only 33 percent over the estimates.

Oops — our bad on that one!

But it should work out well on a national scale; it’s only 200 times the size. So, let’s take Nancy Pelosi’s “soak the rich” idea: If Massachusetts took every dime of Ted Kennedy’s estimated $47.62 million net worth, the state would still be screwed.

Which, incidentally, is what America will be if this ridiculous health care bill is passed.

Dave Edinger

Peachtree City, Ga.

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