One of the factors generating disgust and driving people away from the political process is excessive spin control, the art of telling the public one thing while initiating feints and doing something else.

The current health care bill features an excise tax on so-called Cadillac health plans, conveying the instant impression of a rich guy out for a spin, living the life of luxury.  The idea is that this is the guy who will provide a break for Joe Six Pack based on the excise tax that will generate funds that in turn will assist the middle class.

According to Bob Herbert's reading of what is happening, revealed in his December 29 New York Times column, the tax will "kick in" on plans exceeding $23,000 annually for family coverage and $8,500 for individuals, beginning in 2013.

Now here is the story on what is considered wealth and how it will play out:

Since national health care is so inextricably linked to the public policy beliefs of Senator Edward Kennedy it is essential to recognize the linchpin on which its foundation rested.

When his brother President John Kennedy championed a Medicare proposal that would ultimately become law under his successor President Lyndon  Johnson its foundation rested on public policy.  Such had been the case earlier extending back to the Bull Moose Party platform of Theodore Roosevelt and comparable subsequent proposals by Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Harry Truman.

Cost containment is the engine driving the historic proposal.  Its four presidential proponents along with Senator Kennedy recognized the need to hold down costs in the private sector in order for such a proposal to succeed.  For instance, I read just this week a figure that, since 2002, the profits of health insurers burgeoned more than 400 percent.

It is with this reality in mind that it was disconcerting to learn about an agreement that President Obama allegedly reached with the same pharmaceutical giants that have driven prescription drug costs up to record levels.  

Bob Herbert had a column in the New York Times September 25 that by all rights deserved strong mainstream media attention based on the importance of its subject matter.

The Don Imus and Bill O'Reilly controversies pale into comparative insignificance next to what Republicans are doing to African Americans seeking the basic right of congressional representation in the seat of the nation's federal government, Washington, D.C.

Despite all the bold talk by leading Republican Party operatives that the party seeks to reach out to everyone including minorities, this claim has once more been reduced to hypocritical posturing due to the point Herbert made that is receiving so little comment within the mainstream media.  

African Americans have been rebuffed by Republicans in an attempt to secure voting rights in Congress through the creation of a congressional seat in Washington, D.C.  The Republican race card is alive and regrettably doing all too well.