Laying Blame: Conservative anguish over the Health Care plan.

author | 1-8-04 | Robert Wolf

[aynfan]

There is a flaw in the American psyche that inclines us to perceive presidents as, if not saviors, kings. It may be man’s inchoate longing for a strong ruler or for immediate gratification, but whatever the reason it is a flaw, and a tendency one should curb.

For too long, too many have looked to a new President to solve every perceived problem. With every new administration there is the great expectation of revolutionary change, which within a year or two transforms itself into the disappointing realization that nothing much has changed.

Executive Orders not withstanding, a president is not very powerful. The bureaucracy marches on no matter who is in power and the country changes very little from one administration to another. Even when the president’s party controls both houses of Congress, truly monumental measures are often thwarted because the checks and balances built into the system prevent smooth sailing. Not many presidents accomplish great things, and if one does, he is wildly unpopular during his lifetime. Only in hindsight is his greatness recognized or credited.

That said, there is a lot of talk in Republican circles that George Bush is not ideologically pure because he spends too much money on social issues. But, did he have a choice in the matter of health care? I don’t think so. He could not have been elected or reelected without action on Prescription drugs. It was an issue, as pundits say, whose time had come.

Democratic droning on the issue for years produced Medicare, a plan supposedly devised for the elderly, but which lacks coverage for hearing aids, glasses, or false teeth, the three things old people need the most. That foray into socialized medicine emboldened the left to try again resulting this year in an augmented plan with prescription drug coverage (but still no provision for eyes, ears or teeth). One wonders if it was truly designed for the elderly.

Public interest engendered in favor of the plan was overwhelmingly more enthusiastic than interest in feeble Conservative arguments against it. It is as if, when Medicare passed in 1965, they threw up the hands and surrendered. So, if anyone should be castigated it is Conservative pundits who are unable to convince the public that socialized medicine is a bad idea. They lost the battle against socialized health care, not Bush.

Yes, the Medicare bill is a large one, but Bush deserves credit for introducing the Trojan horse that affords us the opportunity to return the program to fiscal sanity or even reverse course when competition from the private sector kicks in. If personal investment accounts become part of Social (in)Security, as Bush has promised in his second term the beginning of the end of the nanny state could be in sight. History will let us know.

As for ideological purity, how many conservatives, on principle, forego government handouts for which they qualify? Conservatives should be less shrill. Only the virtuous should demand virtue of others. ©Robert (Davison) Wolf. All Rights Reserved.