Last week had to be a bit awkward for Democrats. They labored to pass a health care bill that, among other things, establishes a government advisory panel to curb health care costs with its industrywide medical recommendations. And at just the wrong moment, precisely such a government advisory panel provoked outrage by recommending that women stop getting so many breast cancer screenings.

Even amid that controversy, the Democrats pressed on with their 2,000-page bill, going so far as to hold a rare Saturday night vote on whether to proceed to debate. There’s a good reason they are in such a rush to pass their health care bill. It isn’t because this bill will cut health care costs — it will actually increase them, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. It isn’t because the bill will improve Americans’ quality of care, or because it will quickly benefit the uninsured. Most provisions of the bill don’t even kick in until 2014. (Its tax increases start immediately.)