Last night, in his speech, John McCain said, "My health care plan will make it easier for more Americans to find and keep good health care insurance. His plan will force small businesses to cut jobs, reduce wages, and force families into a government run health care system where a bureaucrat stands between you and your doctor." I should say, of course, that not only isn't this true, but it's nonsensical. Where exactly is the bureaucrat supposed to stand? In the waiting room? Outside your car? Obama's health care plan is basically a way to subsidize private insurance. There's a regulator involved, but he has nothing to do with you or your doctor. Instead, he stands behind your insurer, tapping his foot, and warning against denying you coverage on grounds of ill health or bad luck. That said, here's the question I'd love to see John McCain asked: "Senator McCain, can you describe how Senator Obama's health care plan works?" And if he gets it wrong, I'd like to see the moderator correct him and ask what he thinks of the actual plan. McCain certainly talks Obama's plan down plenty, and fair enough. But I'd bet good money, and a fair amount of it, that there's no way he could describe it. And I wouldn't mind seeing the same question put to Obama. The two of them should be forced to display some rudimentary understanding of what this debate is actually about, and if either can't, that should say a lot about the salvos that have been unleashed thus far.
