Time for the GOP to Grow a Pair on Healthcare
It seems like a lifetime ago, mostly because it was, when I was a health policy analyst at a conservative think tank. During my interview for the job, my future boss said something true then, and it still rings true today: On the issue of health care, Democrats are evil and Republicans are stupid.
While Republicans are, generally, stupid on health care, it doesn’t have to be that way. Republican Members of Congress view health care as a “Democrat issue,” much the way Democrats view national defense as a Republican one. It’s not like they can’t understand the issues involved, it’s that they’re afraid to – they’re afraid to get out over their skis. They have the mental capacity, but more content in the back of their underpants than the front to really engage with it.
Having briefed Republicans on the issue, I can tell you that (at least 20 years ago, though I see no reason to think things have changed) they only wanted enough knowledge to talk about it from a 30,000-foot level and for just long enough to say they did and get away.
I get it, in a way, it’s a very complex issue and rife with ways to come off like a fool or uncaring, neither of which does an elected official any good. But looking indifferent or like a coward is probably worse.
If you can’t talk about one of the most important issues to voters beyond a couple of talking points and buzzwords, maybe you deserve to lose.
Democrats truly are evil – all they offer is “subsidies” to cost-shift the failures of Obamacare from the pockets of beneficiaries to taxpayers. Insurance companies are dumb and greedy enough to take the money, rather than publicly make the case that a big part of the reason their product costs so much is all the government mandates and regulations. Sooner or later, those prices will reach the point that no one will be willing or able to pay them and their market will collapse, as planned by Democrats, leading them to argue that the only thing left is for the........





















Toi Staff
Sabine Sterk
Gideon Levy
Mark Travers Ph.d
Waka Ikeda
Tarik Cyril Amar
Grant Arthur Gochin