Monday, July 30, 2007
Incoherent Centrism
"The Dean" of the press corps David Broder takes on health care today. His column is just as big a mess as the health care crisis.
Better late than never, President Bush has provoked what could be a serious debate on the future of health care by threatening to veto an extension of one of the most popular and successful government programs in that field. The fight he has started over the State Children's Health Insurance Program, or SCHIP, as it is known, is -- in the words of Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt -- "a surrogate for the larger philosophical debate on the role of government in health care."
Had Bush joined that debate before his time in office had dwindled to 18 months and his approval scores slumped to Nixonian levels, the chances of something positive emerging would have been much greater.
Now, as Leavitt conceded in an interview, "it may take another election" to bring the country face to face with the larger issues Bush has raised: how big a role the federal government should take in providing medical services and how that role should be financed.
I just give up on Broder. Seriously. Is there any point to even rebutting the man, pointing out how ludicrous his alleged centrism is when put into practice? Yes. Bush brings up a very important issue for debate.
Should we not allow people to see a fucking doctor. It's a crying fucking pity that his numbers are Nixonian (which Broder is admitting for the first time), or he could have used the power of the Presidency to say shots are for wimps.
Retire already.
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