From last night’s Fox News All-Stars.

On Sen. Baucus’s proposed compromise health-care bill:

It is astonishingly complex. It is also very intrusive in just about every area of existing medicine.
It’s got a lot of arbitrary provisions. I will give you just a couple of examples. It says in one provision that the 2010 scheduled reduction in reimbursement for doctors under Medicare is no longer at 21 percent reduction. It is a 0.5 percent increase – out of nowhere.
It imposes what it calls fees – but these are really taxes – on health insurers, drug companies, the providers of medical equipment and diagnostics, as a way for the government to help reduce the $1 trillion dollars it [health-care reform] would cost. It ends up reducing it by $100 billion.
But all that means is if you’re a diabetic, the cost will be passed on to the consumer but hidden in what you pay. You will be paying extra for your diagnostics, for your needles, for your drugs, and on your health insurance. So it’s hiding a lot of the costs.
I would only point out one thing — the numbers on those who support the [health-care reform] plan has slightly increased. There was a ten-point gap against the [Obama] health-care reform, and it is now a two-point gap – and it coincides with the two weeks that the president was on vacation and said nothing.

On Iran cutting an oil deal with Chavez and declaring the nuclear issue non-negotiable:

Well, I think this marks the complete collapse of Obama’s Iran policy. Let’s remember the premise was you be nice to our adversaries, you extend a hand, and you go around the world on an apology tour.
And the administration said behind the scenes, you can’t see the results now, but in time the fruits will be there. Well, let’s look at the harvest.
You get Obama saying he wants to meet unconditionally with the Iranians. He holds his tongue when demonstrators are being shot in the street as a way to keep open channels with the regime, even though it sullies America’s reputation of supporting democrats, especially oppressed democrats, around the world.
He apologizes in the Cairo speech for what Eisenhower had done almost 50 years ago, which, incidentally had been a condition the Iranians had put on resuming negotiations with us.
He does all of that, and what is his reward? The president of Iran announces oh, yes, I will speak with Obama, but it has to be in front of the world media, and it will be a debate. And incidentally, the nuclear issue is closed. It is not an issue.
So what does Obama get for that sweet handshake and exchange of books with Chavez at the summit? Chavez arrives in Iran, he makes an alliance, and he promises to supply gasoline. Why is that important? Because the one area where Iran is really weak is in refined petroleum. It has got a lot of crude.
But that’s where we would be applying our sanctions if they don’t stop their nuclear program. So what Chavez is doing is undermining in advance the only remaining economic sanction.
All of this for what the Obama administration calls “smart power.” It’s dumb diplomacy.