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Hillary and Health Care -- A Single-Payer Supporter's Perspective
A quick thought, to acknowledge the semi-justified pounding Obama is getting from Krugman on healthcare...
For the purposes of health care, it seems to me as though it is more
useful to have Hillary in the Senate. President Obama can urge its passage,
but the legislative branch actually crafts and passes legislation
(duh). In that regard, its more important that we have someone not
willing to compromise on universal health care in the Senate than in
the White House. Not that that is by itself an argument for Obama. But
I do understand why someone who has been a supporter of single payer
would not support individual mandates along the Massachusetts model:
you need a more comprehensive system in place before you can devolve
responsibility for health care onto the individual. John Edwards
compared health care mandates to Social Security; I think a better
analogy might be to Clinton-style welfare reform, blaming the victim
and not providing the necessary support.
Comments (1)
Big question is which candidate can bring in a larger Congressional majority? If we end up with a hint of Hillary distrust causing voters to hedge by sending conservative Reps or Senators to DC, we lose out, I think. We need some serious legislative progress, both to undo damage, and to establish new principles, such as Health Care.
February 5, 2008 9:10 PM | Reply | Permalink
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