Howard Dean nails it twice

by

by David Safier
Howard Dean has one of those very short interviews they run every week in the front pages of the NY Times Sunday Magazine. He makes two comments that are among the most thoughtful I've heard lately on the subject of health care legislation.

The first:

I believe that if we don’t pass the health care plan with the public option, it won’t be health care reform, and we’ll lose a tremendous number of seats in 2010.

I wish Democrats in tough districts, like Arizona's Giffords, Mitchell and Kirkpatrick, would understand that their political fortunes rise and fall with Obama's. If in November, 2010, people think Obama is a strong, effective president, Dems will be able to ride the wave to reelection. But if Obama looks like an ineffectual president who can't get his agenda passed, people in the middle will become disillusioned with his abilities and begin leaning toward the idea of "balance," which will mean getting rid of a few Democrats in Congress.

No one needs a strong health care bill, for their own political survival, as much as Dems in Republican districts.

I can't vouch for Dean's history in this quote, but if he's got it right, it's a very interesting take on why we have to settle for a public option even though single payer is preferable.

You’ve got to start from where you are, not from where you wish you were. The Europeans have much more comprehensive and cheaper health care plans than we have, but they got there because their health care systems were essentially destroyed during World War II. We grew our private health care system around World War II — the only way that American employers could give their employees a raise was to enhance health-insurance benefits — so to change it to a totally public plan is crazy.

Sometimes it's easier to build exactly what you want from nothing than when you're remodeling a system that's already in place.

Discover more from Blog for Arizona

Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.