×
BREDESEN ON HEALTH CARE. Tennessee Governor Phil Bredesen, during a semi-unobjectionable post on health care, writes:
Cover Tennessee passed in both chambers of the General Assembly with broad bipartisan support. Health care is not a Democratic issue or a Republican issue, it is an American issue.That's great, Phil. Tell it to the millions of children who can't sign up for S-CHIP because the President is blocking reauthorization on grounds that federal health insurance for uninsured children is, in fact, a Democratic issue, and thus antithetical to Republican interests.Bredesen goes on to say that "It comes back to personal responsibility - we don’t have it in our power to promise everyone free health insurance without limits. But we do have it in our power to offer them access to affordable and portable health insurance, and then the choice is theirs."That paragraph isn't just indistinguishable from Republican rhetoric on health care. If you gave it to me blind, I'd tell you, with 100 percent certainty, that it is Republican rhetoric on health care. That Bredesen manages to write hundreds of words on the subject but can't bring himself to invoke any values beyond "personal responsibility" is, I think, telling. Oh, and it all goes down on the DLC's web site.--Ezra Klein
