So when it comes to healthcare reform Joe Sestak is just like every other liberal Democrat in Congress.

He is pushing for a "public option" which is specifically designed to strangle the private health insurance market and will within a decade, maybe less. There is no way private health insurance companies will be able to compete with a government enterprise that will command what prices will be and what will be offered in the way of coverage. Instead of health care rationed by the somewhat free marketplace it will be rationed by government, politicians and the government-controlled health panels. It's delivery will become less efficient, less effective and probably more expensive.

Government will command what businesses will pay in the way of taxes to cover the additional 47 million people, including illegal aliens, that Democrats say must have health insurance. And the downward pressure this will put on wages and jobs? Nevermind.

No tort reform for Joe or other Democrats who see nothing wrong with the jackpot medical malpractice award system currently at work. It's a system that doesn't improve medical outcomes or get truly lousy doctors out of business. Neither does it fairly compensate most victims of bad doctoring. It specifically rewards lawyers and that's fine with the party of lawyers.

I wrote yesterday that Joe could distinguish himself from Arlen Specter on that tort issue in particular but he chooses not to. He is following the Democrat herd and its leader, Nancy Pelosi. It looks more and more like Ed Rendell is right. Joe's not offering voters anything different that what Specter is offering, except his constant reminders that he once served in the military, where he got excellent healthcare.

You don't want to join up? Tough. If the Democrats have anything to say about it, you'll be conscripted soon. And remember, loose lips sink ships. Keep your criticisms to yourself.

UPDATE: Who said this:

I happen to be a proponent of a single-payer universal health care program. I see no reason why the United States of America, the wealthiest country in the history of the world, spending 14 percent of its Gross National Product on health care cannot provide basic health insurance to everybody. And that's what Jim is talking about when he says everybody in, nobody out. A single payer health care plan, a universal health care plan. And that's what I'd like to see. But as all of you know, we may not get there immediately. Because first we have to take back the White House, we have to take back the Senate, and we have to take back the House.

Yes, it was Barack Obama in 2003. Now the Democrats have the House, Senate and the White House. And America is on track to have - not just a "public option," but a single-payer, government-controlled healthcare system of the sort Canadians and Europeans have with all the inefficiency and rationing they enjoy.