David Harsanyi: Washington 'Shall' Control Your Healthcare

"In the new world, your insurance choices will be tethered to decisions made by people with Orwellian titles ('1984' was only 268 pages!) like the 'Health Choices Commissioner' or 'Inspector General for the Health Choices Administration.'

"You will, of course, need to be plastered to buy Pelosi's fantastical proposition that 450,000 words of new regulations, rules, mandates, penalties, price controls, taxes and bureaucracy will have the transformative power to 'provide affordable, quality health care for all Americans and reduce the growth in health care spending . . . .'

"It's going to take some time to deconstruct this lengthy masterpiece, but as you flip through the pages of the House bill, you will notice the word 'regulation' appears 181 times. 'Tax' is there 214 times. 'Fees,' 103 times. As we all know, nothing says 'affordability' like higher taxes and fees.

"The word 'shall' - as in 'must' or 'required to' - appears over 3,000 times. The word, alas, is never preceded by the patriotic phrase 'mind our own freaking business.' Not once.

"To vote for the bill, a legislator must believe a $1 trillion price tag is 'revenue neutral,' or that it alleviates any of the pain higher costs bring to the average American. This would require alcohol."