In the friendly confines of the Oval Office, congratulations are about to be exchanged. On those dithering heights, victory is about to be proclaimed. A great change is about to take place in Americans’ health care and how to pay for it, and the administration sounds triumphant.
It is only out here in the country, where the people are, that a growing disquiet can be sensed under the usual thrust and parry of American politics.
The country is about to pass "a critical milestone,” the president assures us, though whether America is headed forward or backward remains unclear. Not to mention how American the country will remain as everything from the economy to foreign policy is Europeanized.
Despite growing doubts about where the country is headed, surely the direction is the right one. We know because Nancy Pelosi says so. But even to mention her name is to sow doubt; the speaker of the House may be the least trusted politician in the country.
"We are about to deliver on the promise of making affordable, quality health care available for all Americans,” says Speaker Pelosi. Do you believe her? Do you believe setting up a public health insurance plan won’t entrench what is already becoming a two-tier system of medical care in this country — one for those patients with private insurance and the other for the growing millions with Medicaid-style policies?
Do you believe that expanding Medicaid, cutting Medicare and generally extending health coverage to some 36 million of the now uninsured will make insurance more affordable? And, what’s more, that it will all be done without raising taxes? Can even Pelosi believe that?
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