Free markets get little respect from Obama but are killing major planks of his big government platform

Despite the best efforts of the silk stocking radicals who have laid siege to Washington, the market system is stubbornly working its will and is now on the verge of burying two of the Obama administration's most valued objectives.

A government run health care insurer, designed to compete with existing private insurers, has been dropped. The rest of the health care agenda is largely window dressing, which will not discourage the White House from claiming a monumental victory when it is enacted.

What was important was the attempt to place the U.S. government at the table where health care issues are decided, a place that would have allowed government bureaucrats to enlarge again and again their role in health care.

The architect of Russian communism, Vladimir Lenin, regarded control of health care as vital, saying, "Medicine is the keystone of the socialist arch."

For the White House, Canada became a major problem because Americans have been reading and hearing for years about the long waits and bureaucratic procedures that patients encounter. Many seriously ill Canadians come to the United States for treatment at their own expense.

In recent months, opponents have exploited Canada Care's history, as well as recent revelations, in an effective campaign against socialized medicine. American voters, seldom fans of big government, became more and more outspoken in opposition to the Obama plan.

As if on cue, the incoming president of the Canadian Medical Association said Monday that Canada's health care system is sick and doctors need to develop a plan to cure it.

Dr. Anne Doig said patients are getting less than optimal care and she adds that physicians from across the country - who will gather in Saskatoon on Sunday for their annual meeting - recognize that changes must be made.

"We all agree that the system is imploding, we all agree that things are more precarious than perhaps Canadians realize," Doing said in an interview with The Canadian Press.

Because of Canada Care's obvious liabilities, more than half of Americans say they would prefer no health reform at all to a reform that places government at the table, according to polls.

The free market has spoken. Obama has dropped the government option.

The other top-priority issue, global warming, remains on the table, but is, at best, on life support.

The House passed a cap and trade bill, effectively a tax on energy, before the August recess, but the Senate did not.

Shortly thereafter, China and India essentially blew off suggestions that they join the global warming hysteria and enact controls on carbon emissions.

China and India are developing rapidly and are heavily reliant on international trade. Handicapping their exporters with energy taxes would slow their development. They are tailoring their laws to suit international markets, not international elites or global warming careerists.

In doing so, China and India have checkmated the Obama administration. If the White House resumes its push for cap and trade, and pushes s bill through the Senate, it will be forcing American exporters to raise prices, damaging their ability to compete in international markets.

The recession would deepen. More workers would be unemployed.

Even if the vaunted $787 billion stimulus were to begin to work, cap and trade likely would halt any improvement.

Then, the Bush recession would be wholly owned by the White House.

Cap and trade is, for all practical purposes, dead.