The Perfect Health Care Storm
[Guest post by DRJ]
Why are Democrats jumping off the cliff for health care? Kimberly A. Strassel explained yesterday in the WSJ:
“So why the stubborn insistence on passing health reform? Think big. The liberal wing of the party—the Barney Franks, the David Obeys—are focused beyond November 2010, to the long-term political prize. They want a health-care program that inevitably leads to a value-added tax and a permanent welfare state. Big government then becomes fact, and another Ronald Reagan becomes impossible. See Continental Europe.
The entitlement crazes of the 1930s and 1960s also caused a backlash, but liberal Democrats know the programs of those periods survived. They are more than happy to sacrifice a few Blue Dogs, a Blanche Lincoln, a Michael Bennet, if they can expand government so that in the long run it benefits the party of government.”
Similarly, Prof. William Jacobson at Le-gal In-sur-rec-tion looks at what led to this Perfect Storm and at the rocky Road Ahead. I agree with Jacobson that it’s bad and also that we can’t give up. As Jacobson says, “this is the political fight of our lives for the future of the country.”
— DRJ