An Ulterior Motive for Obama's Healthcare Plan

In a previous blog post we discussed Obama's healthcare overhaul, including his plans on targeting the wealthy to pick up the tab. Texas GOP Vote explained that Obama is arranging to move healthcare into a new federally operated exchange. As if things weren't bad enough already, there's more to Obama's healthcare legislation than providing insurance to millions of Americans without coverage, according to a Boston Globe article:

Critics argue the provision is a thinly disguised effort to insert pork-barrel spending into a bill that has been widely portrayed to the public as dealing with expanding health coverage and cutting medical costs. A leading critic, Senator Mike Enzi, a Wyoming Republican, ridicules the local projects, asking: “How can Democrats justify the wasteful spending in this bill?’’

Hidden within the health bill "is a provision that could provide billions of dollars for walking paths, streetlights, jungle gyms, and even farmers’ markets." Right now, the government is planning on allocating $1.6 billion per year of the proposed health bill to spend on these projects.

...it can be difficult to quantify the benefits of a park or pathway, leading some critics to say such funding is an example how the healthcare legislation has spiraled out of control.

Enzi has said that instead of paying for pathways, it would be more effective to encourage lower insurance premiums for individuals who can prove they have taken steps to improve their health. He said that construction grants belong in other bills.

Why is Obama trying to slip other tax-funded initiatives into this federal healthcare bill? How will he pick and chose which local parks will get the funding? Can we really expect the federal government to fund a local Texas playground? Will Texas have to once again endure huge tax increases and still gain no benefits from another one of the Democrat's ill-guided bills?