E.J. Dionne on universal healthcare
Buried inside Dionne's examination of Gephardt's healthcare proposal, one finds a glimmer of support for Howard Dean's alternative.
Dionne calls it accurately that Dean was an active advocate for healthcare reform much earlier than Gephardt. This contrast also serves to point out that the very existence Gephardt's plan makes it more difficult to paint Dean as a raving loony lefty* as his plan is the more practical of the two.
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* This link, by the way, should infuriate all of us. It's dripping with contempt and thinly veiled homophobia. As such, of course, it plays perfectly to the GOP base.
...the plan would be expensive. Gephardt's own numbers peg its costs in 2007 at $247 billion. Yes, it further subsidizes Americans who are already insured. Dean, a physician who has been saying sensible things about health care for months, wants new money spent primarily on expanding help to the uninsured. And Gephardt's plan won't satisfy those who think the country needs to move away from employer-based health insurance.
Dionne calls it accurately that Dean was an active advocate for healthcare reform much earlier than Gephardt. This contrast also serves to point out that the very existence Gephardt's plan makes it more difficult to paint Dean as a raving loony lefty* as his plan is the more practical of the two.
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* This link, by the way, should infuriate all of us. It's dripping with contempt and thinly veiled homophobia. As such, of course, it plays perfectly to the GOP base.
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