For the years the Republicans controlled the White House, Congressman Henry Waxman (D-California) was an ardent supporter of a single payer national health insurance system.

Then when the Democrats took the White House earlier this year, Waxman took his name off as co-sponsor of HR 676, the single payer bill in the House.

Why?

Because the Democrats – Waxman and Obama included – are the party of deception.

The Republicans will tell you straight up — single payer is socialism.

We’re for big business.

That’s why we’re against single payer.

The Democrats will tell you what you want to hear — we’re for single payer.

Until we take power.

Then we are against single payer.

The reality is that there is only one solution to the health care crisis – get the insurance companies out of the business of health care.

The Democrats are engaged in what Dr. Marcia Angell – former editor of the New England Journal of Medicine – calls “the futility of piecemeal tinkering.”

Angell and a majority of doctors in the United State believe that only a major overhaul will get the job done.

And Waxman, Obama and the Democrats are not up to the challenge.

“I don’t think we can pass anything that is such a major overhaul of the health care system,” Waxman said yesterday when asked why he took his name off of HR 676. “We are building on the employer based system rather than eliminating it.”

Won’t work.

The mixed public/private system won’t work because, as the Congressional Budget Office pointed out last month – it will cost more than $1 trillion over ten years and still leave 37 million Americans without coverage.

We asked Waxman about this.

And Waxman gave a typically deceptive answer.

“The public option isn’t intended to cover everybody,” Waxman said. “Everybody will have a choice of either a public or a private insurance plan.”

Notice – the public option isn’t intended to cover everyone, Waxman says.

True enough.

But we were asking about the public/private system – which the Congressional Budget Office says will leave 37 million Americans uninsured.

Obama and Waxman say that the public/private option will cover everyone.

Because it mandates that everyone be covered.

But CBO says it won’t.

President Obama and Waxman are alike.

When they are out of power, they promise single payer.

When they are in power, they bow down before the altar of the health insurance industry and take single payer off the table.