On a day when Obama announced his selection of his drinking buddy Tom Daschle to head HHS, it was readily apparent that Obama plans to move forward with his own plan to bankrupt the country.

The trick to getting their plan to work — at least on paper — is that they have to get the young healthy people to enroll so that their premiums will go to help pay for the older, most sickly people. But because younger people are healthier, their general tendency is not to purchase health care coverage, especially given its high cost, in comparison to their meager wages.

What to do?

Ah ha! They’ll just make ‘em enroll. Mandated coverage. Pay us here or pay us there. Buy coverage or pay a fine.

But what about the other people who aren’t covered at all because — well, because they can’t afford it? Don’t they have to be enrolled to?

Of course they do.

But — but — they can’t afford the cost. But — but — it’s mandated.

Oh, well THAT makes a big difference.

How about good old government subsidies? Why wouldn’t that work?

Remember on the campaign trail when Obama was talking about spreading the wealth? THIS is a CLASSIC example.

Initial ballpark estimates put the cost of funding a subsidy program at $150 Billion. And the keyword is not billion, but initial — because everyone knows what happens to an initial Washington cost estimate. It doubles or triples before the ink is dry.

Because these subsidies would go to families at up to 400% of the poverty level, these estimates are already known to be extremely low.

As the WSJ explains in this article , eventually this option will be forced to add Medicare’s price controls as it tries to manage inevitable cost overruns. When that doesn’t work, Congress will be forced to deal with the problem by capping overall spending and rationing care through politics.

Mark it down. This is one campaign promise that has the potential to bankrupt the country