With the death of two even worse ideas — a government-run "public option" and a proposed Medicare expansion — President Obama was right yesterday when he said that "we are on the precipice" of something that would "touch the lives of nearly every American." We are indeed on the precipice. For after nearly a year's worth of debate, Obamacare has now been boiled down to its essence: a mandate that Americans pay trillions of dollars, funneled through Washington, to private insurers.

12/16 11:03 AM