By DEROY MURDOCK, Scripps Howard News Service

As the Senate weighs a 2,074-page healthcare "reform" bill, supporters of a government option for medical coverage consider this the finest federal initiative since the Emancipation Proclamation. Yet today's headlines show government severely bungling its current healthcare duties.

Re-canvassed votes in upstate New York's 23rd Congressional District foreshadow the second coming of third-party candidate Doug Hoffman. As the Syracuse Post-Standard reported Thursday morning, Conservative nominee Hoffman's 5,335-vote deficit behind Democrat Bill Owens has shrunk to just 3,026 after Election Night tabulation errors were corrected.

SAN FRANCISCO - H.R. 3692, the monstrous healthcare reform bill that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D Calif., unleashed last week, comprises 1,990 pages of dense, nearly impenetrable prose. This legislation is precisely 10 sheets shy of four reams of paper.

ObamaCare promises to make medicine cheaper by making it costlier. Case in point: The Senate Finance Committee proposes a brand-new tax on medical devices.

New research predicts that ObamaCare will swell America's Medicaid population by nearly 16 million individuals. This proposed legislation would welcome nearly one in five Americans into government-run medical welfare.

As healthcare reform lurches forward in Washington, proposed legislation would chop nearly half a trillion dollars from Medicare. This is yet another example of greedy, cold-hearted, racist Republicans slicing Medicare so they can laugh as Granny shivers on a subway grate and nibbles her cat food with a broken fork.

In one of today's richest ironies, America's fiscal health -- such as it is -- hinges on the generosity of the Chinese Communist Party. Annoying Beijing's mandarins could prompt them to skip our Treasury auctions.

As Americans debate bailouts, Washington's assembly-line-to-junkyard automotive largesse, and its proposed annexation of our health clinics and surgical theaters, conversations on this island recently were as refreshing as the trade winds. Words like growth, opportunity, and wealth expansion -- nearly taboo in America -- were not just uttered, but celebrated.

As the healthcare reform debate roars on, Uncle Sam resembles a restless college senior who is flunking economics, finance, and management. Despite a report card full of Fs, he suddenly announces: "I want to go to medical school!"

The raging national debate over ObamaCare revolves largely around spending. Should Washington plunge itself $1.1 trillion deeper into medicine? While this conversation dominates the headlines, Americans also should consider how tax cuts could improve the delivery and payment of health care.