Health care vote

Despite the fact she voted against it in the House Education and Labor Committee back in July, Nevada Rep. Dina Titus announced last week she now supports the House version of the breathtaking government takeover of the health care industry. Debate in the lower chamber bogged down Saturday thanks to GOP objections, but a vote on the legislation was expected sometime over the weekend.

What changed for Rep. Titus?

House Resolution 3962 "takes important steps to make health insurance more affordable and accessible," the Nevada Democrat said in a statement about her decision.

The version the congresswoman opposed back in July -- saying the scheme would impose unacceptable financial hardships on Nevada small businesses -- would have applied a surtax to individuals making $280,000 or more and families making $350,000 or more, see. The latest version of the "reform" bill would increase those thresholds to $500,000 and $1 million, respectively.

"With a large number of small businesses in my suburban Southern Nevada district, it is critical that we do everything we can to strengthen their hand so they can be critical engines of growth in our community," Rep. Titus said Tuesday.

What? So it's all about a tax break for those earning between $280,000 and $500,000 per year?

Come on. The current health care bill -- just like the old one -- will vastly increase taxes on all but the welfare class, while imposing Draconian mandates on small businesses.

Instead of caving to pressure from Washington's liberal elite and the Pelosi arm twisters to "play ball," Rep. Titus should have held her ground. She had it right the first time. This bill is worse than the one she opposed previously -- it's denser, harder to read, more complex and more expensive, guaranteed to help bring on the nation's fiscal bankruptcy.

Brad Coker, managing director of Mason-Dixon Polling & Research, said last week that 49 percent of Nevadans oppose the current scheme, with 43 percent in favor. And that was back before the Democrats got their backsides handed to them in New Jersey and Virginia, last Tuesday.

"That could be a risky vote," Mr. Coker says of Rep. Titus' decision to support the takeover.

Give Rep. Titus credit for announcing her stand. But her support for this kind of statist takeover likely means that the only place the political science professor will be "playing ball" come 2011 is on the UNLV faculty softball team.