WHO ARE THESE PESTY PEOPLE? - AT 8:01 P.M. ET:  Now President Obama's health-care plan, already in serious trouble in Congress, is under assault from the governors:

BILOXI, Miss. — The nation’s governors, Democrats as well as Republicans, voiced deep concern Sunday about the shape of the health care bill emerging from Congress, fearing that the federal government is about to hand them expensive new Medicaid obligations without providing the money to pay for them.

The role of the states in a restructured health care system dominated the National Governors Association’s summer meeting here this weekend — with bipartisan animosity voiced against the Obama administration’s plan during a closed-door luncheon on Saturday and in a private meeting on Sunday afternoon with the secretary of health and human services, Kathleen Sebelius.“I think the governors would all agree that what we don’t want from the federal government is unfunded mandates,” said Gov. Jim Douglas of Vermont, a Republican who is the group’s incoming chairman. “We can’t have the Congress impose requirements that we are forced to absorb beyond our capacity to do so.”

COMMENT:  Does the word "disaster" come to mind?  The governors should have been consulted right from the start.  Obama basically turned the writing of the health bill over to the liberal Democrats in Congress, that great army of competence.  The result is a shambles, with the American people losing more confidence every day.

A bill still might pass, but someone should remind Washington that we expect more of Congress than we do of a high-school student government.  Of course, we're wrong on that.

July 19, 2009