The Obama administration’s ruthlessness in driving through its healthcare so-called reforms has to be admired in its sheer boldness.

Now what?

Mark Steyn:

You can say, oh, well, the polls show most people opposed to it, but, if that mattered, the Dems wouldn’t be doing what they’re doing. Their bet is that it can’t be undone, and that over time, as I’ve been saying for years now, governmentalized health care not only changes the relationship of the citizen to the state but the very character of the people…

Alan Reynolds looks at the long-term numbers and is alarmed:

In fact, new spending is negligible for four years.  At that point the government would start luring sixteen million more people into Medicaid’s leaky gravy train, and start handing out subsidies to families earning up to $88,000.  Spending then jumps from $54 billion in 2014 to $216 billion in 2019.   That’s just the beginning…

Then there’s the prospect of a swarm of constitutional challenges in the courts.

As Greece shows, modern democracy has no real answer to leaders who irresponsibly run up huge liabilities now and send the bill to the fairly distant future.

But at least the Obamacare exercise has forced to the fore in the USA questions about the role and scope of government, and energised conservative and libertarian instincts against untrammelled collectivism.

Here in the UK? Not so good.