Health Care

In declaring that every American should have Health Care by the end of the next Presidential administration, thus far light on specifics, Barack Obama has, once again, converged paths with John Edwards — who made the statement that the next president (or Democratic presidential candidate, I don’t remember) will need to take the issue of Health Care full bore, full coverage, no nibbling around the edges, no incrementalist talk along the lines of what the gun-shy Democratic Party states and restates on the issue, particularly since Hillary Clinton’s efforts in 1993 and 1994.

I wonder something about Barack Obama’s statements, though.  He is a Senator.  He is a Senator with a large national following who carries a great deal of influence.  He is also in the Majority party.  Could he, maybe, flesh out his pronouncements on health care and formulate his ideas into a cohesive unit, called a Bill, and then pursue that bill on to what I guess would be, at best, President Bush’s veto pen?

Hillary Clinton, for her part, is pursuing a “listening tour”, and wants to gather your, and by your I mean your, ideas of what might work to improve our health care.  She, of course, is retiscent to move beyond that and suggest anything too massive — lest the ghost of 1993 – 1994 come back to bite her — and she also has an interest in replicating the much – mocked but ultimately politically successful “listing tour” aspect of her first Senate campaign.  I wounder if she might want to co-sponsor Senator Obama’s Health Care bill.

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