That’s the title of this hard-hitting Wall Street Journal editorial today. The backers of this abominable piece (at over 2,000 pages, “piece” doesn’t quite seem like the right word for it) of legislation keep chanting that we’ve got to pass it because it will lower costs. The editorial writers point out the absurdity of that claim and conclude, “But Democrats don’t care because their bill isn’t really about ‘lowering costs.’ It’s about putting Washington in charge of health insurance, at any cost.”

I wonder how any of the supporters of either the Reid or Pelosi bill would react if asked to put their jobs on the line. Would Senator Baucus resign if it should turn out that health insurance in fact becomes more expensive as a result of federal meddling?

Back in the 90s, economist Julian Simon got doomsayer Paul Ehrlich to take a bet on the prices of commodities. Ehrlich had been forecasting devastating price increases; Simon was pretty certain that they would fall, and challenged Ehrlich to put his money where his mouth was. Ehrlich lost and quietly paid up.

Do the Dems really believe that costs will decline? If so, why not promise to resign if they don’t?