David Frum: Twentieth Century Conservative
David Frum’s latest post at the New Majority is one of the most moronic posts I’ve read, recently or otherwise. He asked what would happen if Republicans defeated the Democrats’ latest attempt to install universal care:
What would it mean to “win” the healthcare fight?
For some, the answer is obvious: beat back the president’s proposals, defeat the House bill, stand back and wait for 1994 to repeat itself.
The problem is that if we do that… we’ll still have the present healthcare system. Meaning that we’ll have (1) flat-lining wages, (2) exploding Medicaid and Medicare costs and thus immense pressure for future tax increases, (3) small businesses and self-employed individuals priced out of the insurance market, and (4) a lot of uninsured or underinsured people imposing costs on hospitals and local governments.
We’ll have entrenched and perpetuated some of the most irrational features of a hugely costly and under-performing system, at the expense of entrepreneurs and risk-takers, exactly the people the Republican party exists to champion.
What it would mean is that we will have saved the American medical system. Winston Churchill famously once said that “Democracy is the worst form of government except for all those others that have been tried.” The American health care system has significant flaws that need addressing but it’s still producing miracle cures for diseases that once were considered fatal. In fact, with certain types of cancer, we’re still light years ahead of other industrialized nations.
What Mr. Frum is fretting about is actually producing solutions. That shouldn’t be what he’s thinking about. I suspect that he thinks that health care, like education, isn’t a “Republican issue.” That’s outdated thinking that doesn’t have a place in today’s GOP. Today’s GOP should look forward to unleashing the power of an army of Davids.
Even worse will be the way this fight is won: basically by convincing older Americans already covered by a government health program, Medicare, that Obama’s reform plans will reduce their coverage.
What’s wrong with telling seniors the truth? It’s fact that ObamaCare will dramatically cut Medicare funding. There’s no denying that. Whether we like it or not, senior citizens still rely on Medicare.
The solution to Frum’s imaginary dilemma is to actually figure out a way to reform Medicare while reforming the health care system. Eliminating the lion’s share of federal and state mandates should help us immensely. High on the list of regulations that need elimination is the one that doesn’t allow individuals to by health insurance across state lines. That alone will spur lots of competition, which we know will drive down costs.
In short, it’s time that David Frum stopped being a twentieth century conservative. It’s time that he started thinking in terms of providing market-oriented solutions that help families. This doesn’t mean following President Bush’s path. Instead, it means we should embrace Reagan’s principles in reforming health care.
Technorati Tags: David Frum, Health Care, Reforms, Medicare, ObamaCare, Twentieth Century, Solutions, Conservatism
Cross-posted at LetFreedomRingBlog
August 9th, 2009 at 9:59 am
So, let me get this clear. Frum says that because we have a problem with the present healthcare system, we should fall in line with throwing the baby out with the bathwater, destroy what we’ve already got, get in line with the jackasses and forget about tinkering with our present system?
Golly, Sarge, that makes sense to me!
What a maroon.