Responding to Alexandra's excellent post, Matt Yglesias says:
One frustrating aspect of the health care debate is that the President keeps getting accused of wanting to do things that he's not actually doing but that would actually be good ideas. For example, as he explained last night the public option he's designed stands no chance whatsoever of driving private insurance companies all out of business. But driving private health insurance companies out of business with public-private competition would be a good idea! Similarly, contrary to Rep Wilson, the bills under consideration really won't give health insurance to undocumented immigrants. But like Alexandra Gutierrez this seems regrettable to me—undocumented immigrants are people, too!
Another example of this is the issue of abortion funding. As a political matter, it's important to make clear (as Ruth Marcus did recently) that Republican claims that health-care reform will result in a large increase in federally funded abortions is absurd. On the other hand, I worry about losing sight of the fact that the Hyde Amendment is atrocious -- not to mention constitutionally dubious -- public policy. One only wishes, at least on the merits, that a health reform bill would in fact treat abortion like any other medical procedure, as a regime in which affluent have access to safe abortions but poor women do not is particularly indefensible. And if we're allegedly adopting the principle that taxpayer funds can't be used for things that any group of citizens considers immoral, when do I get a refund for my share of Iraq War expenses?
--Scott Lemieux
